Hear colors and taste sound

This is fascinating.

You called this a “quirk.” This might be a stupid question since evidently you’ve always been this way, but do you think your condition is good, bad or indifferent? Or does it vary? Do you usually not even think about it? Do you think it has shaped or influenced your personality?

What you’ve posted so far sounds so creative and artistic. It must have been hard trying to find Internet colors to describe the alphabet on your web site.

If you’re not totally sick of this, could you tell me how you see my name? (See what you’ve started!) Thanks for sharing this with us -

-sulla

would you do me too, please, tiny cow? I’m sure you’re goingto get fed up of this, but please?

I feel like someone is hitting my chest when I go to concerts (classical piano/loud or modern rock). Um, not bruising hit, but if the music is loud or a certain rhythm, it makes it feel hard to breathe. I thought it just might be sound impacts (like that deal with the kid that got hit in the chest quite lightly but it triggered his heart ot shutdown… can’t remember any details about it though). It’s never occurred to me to mention it to anyone before though!

Fi.

Thank very much. I hope you don’t mind if paraphhrased a bit.

Have you ever compared your colors with others with the same syndrome? A dictionary of words written in their appropriate colors would be interesting.

Ooohh! Do me! DO ME!!

:jumping up and down… waving arms:

Please?

tiny cow, I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but better now than on page three. :slight_smile:

How does “ZenBeam” appear to you?

I have been taking a poll regarding that question since 1985.

and of course, what is my name, lee, like?

Perhaps I’ll inject a change of pace by not asking what douglips looks like.

Instead, I am wondering a bit more about the ‘separateness’ of the sensations that cross over - on your page you mention that looking at, e.g., Derleth you’ll see it as black but on a different screen in your mind you see a rectangular prism with the colors.

First, how do you get anything done? It sounds like tripping all the time - I guess it’s very hard to understand. From my experience I think I’d just go crazy if it happened all the time.

I’ve had a sort of similar experience in a very very mild way - I used to have recurring dreams of seeing the ‘face of evil’ - I’d see the face and know it was evil, but I wasn’t scared. The best I can describe it is the most evil thing ever, but also I’m just looking at a face. It sounds like your two different ‘mental screens’ thing. This was all in dreams, but one day I saw a man with a very similar face. I’d say it was the same face, but I can’t be positive. Anyway, I felt the same internal “this is the most evil thing ever” feeling, but I knew he was just a guy. It was still a bit disconcerting as somewhere in the back of my mind I had an urge to flee or protect myself from the evil. It’s not quite a sensory input, but it sort of was and it was really freaky. If I felt like this all the time I don’t know if I could get used to it.

I’ve also had on about 3 occasions in my life a sensation of cacophony, of a million voices all trying to talk to me at once, coupled with my body feeling like it is shaking rapidly back and forth over about 6 feet or so - it feels like I’m moving back and forth like a crazed metronome, a touch of vertigo, but I also feel like I’m standing still (because I am) and the cacophony of voices is the same experience. I don’t remember what trigged it but I think it was similar to the ‘face of evil’ thing. It lasts about 1 second or so.

I have no idea if this is synesthesia or not, since it is more abstract than seeing a shape when tasting mint or something - it’s more of an emotion not a sensation.

Do people have any similar, more abstract feelings? For example, instead of “eggo looks white and round” do you ever get stuff like “eggo feels like I am about to fall over and have forgotten to study for my History final”?

Oooh! Oooh! Me, too! (If you don’t mind.)
Do you get different impressions if you speak a word aloud rather than just look at it?

Kandinsky was apparently a synesthete - he also saw color when he heard music (and vice-versa). His paintings are musical compositions of color - I’d love to know what they sound like. Until I heard of synesthesia, I always thought Mr. K was being fanciful when he said his paints sang to him.

Okay, heh. Here we go. Because bolding individual letters takes time, I’m just going to capitalize the letters now. Warning: LONG post ahead.

Perderabo:
Most prominent color in yours is green; both the P and the D are green, although they are two different shades. The B on the end is a bright pink that sort of highlights the end of the word. Both E’s are very, very pale blue-whites; the O is sort of just there, and the two R’s are a deep maroon purple that stays in the background. The word makes me see something/someone with attitude, good posture, you know; a sort of sauciness, maybe. I’m thinking that this is because it partially resembles the word “pert.” But it’s a more “sedate” word than “pert” is.

sulla:
Most prominent is the deep crimson in the S. You also have a pale yellow in the U, though, and some purple/maroon in the L’s that I might almost call black. Don’t hit me, but because your name resembles “sullen,” it sort of looks a bit silent and heavy. It’s also very solid and opaque, and if your name suddenly magically walked I could see it plodding along (as opposed to striding or bouncing or something). It makes me think of Bert (the Sesame Street character), a little bit.

fierra:
Despite the fact that your name doesn’t have any oranges or real reds in it or anything, it still looks like a combination of sultry and fierce. The F’s and R’s are both shades of maroon and purple, but they are not identical (the R’s are darker here). They aren’t as quiet as you might think; the effect from them in the context of this word is sorta like a stormy red-maroon-purple sky. The I is a normal yellow that pales a little bit because of the blue-white E sitting next to it. The A on the end is important in the word image but not much so in the color.

sdimbert:
First word that came to mind for image was “turtle.” Small, squat, close to the ground, crawling around. Not YOU, your name, heh. Although the S would normally be a dominant deep red, it’s lowercase here and the D is so bright next to the normally dark red that they’re almost equal in prominence. The I is a basic (if a tiny bit pale) yellow, the M is a pale candy red (not extremely pale, but not real red, either) and the B is a pink (not a screaming bright one). The E is a pale blue-white, while the R, a dark purple-maroon, and the brown-dark orange T darken the word somewhat.

ZenBeam:
The “Zen” part of your name is sort of wide and heavy, a bit like a pyramid, but it looks…dignified? It’s got a pretty dark orange in the Z and a somewhat brighter orange N. The E is mostly white, here, not much blue to be seen. The “Beam” part is like yellow light radiating from open eyes or an open source; it looks pleased with itself. Interestingly enough, there isn’t any yellow in “Beam,” the B is a medium pink, the M a pale candy red (as I described it before), and the E a pale blue with a mostly white A (some minor red undertones).

lee:
Tuesday is a brownish-yellow with some red and green background notes (coming from the S and D).
Your name doesn’t have much in the way of color (L is a dark maroon-purple, and the E’s are almost white with a tiny bit of blue), but it looks like a mouth that’s a bit open (teeth are showing a lot) with a tip of a tongue poking out a little. That’s because of the E’s, which look like they’re grinning. Not actually looks like that; but it has that EFFECT of looking like it.

aseymayo:
Your name looks a little like a lopsided, silly but wide smile. It’s sort of flat and a bit like cream cheese (in texture appearance, not in taste). It’s got mostly similar colors—a pale white-red in the A, a crimson S, pink-salmon Y and the pale candy red M that I’ve noted in other people’s names. But because the first letter is A, the word’s main color is VERY pale white-red. You also have pale blue-white E and another A later in the word.

Perderabo, I thought of something else; your name does look a little bouncy and sort of like someone riding on a horse that’s moving along at a fairly good clip.

I don’t usually see the colors in the letters as intensely as you might think; they’re sort of darkened or dulled by the fact that these are black letters, but I still can know/see what color they would REALLY be. On the other hand, seeing a letter that IS actually printed in its appropriate color intensifies it (and can make me smile, if I notice it).

In response to both douglips and sulla, the only time I ever consider this a negative is when I’ve been thinking about it and focusing on it for too long or become upset because of some discussion or something involving it. Then everything seems to go out of control and I want to go sleep so I can get away from it for a while.

doug, when you mention falling over, do you mean more kinesthetic, bodily sensations? If so, the word “thud” can make me feel like that, a little, but for the most part I’m visually synesthetic.

It HAS shaped my personality pretty significantly, I think, even when I didn’t know about its “existence.” As you might imagine, it affects the way I read and the way I choose to describe things (the words “smile” and “grin” look SO different, for example). When I write, what I’m describing damn well better feel right or I’ll be frustrated. But at the same time, I usually don’t pay much attention to it, because it is always the way things have been. Think about being in a room with a clock that’s ticking—when you pay attention to the clock, it seems to be louder. Otherwise, you don’t notice it much.

As for looking for appropriate computer colors on the page, sulla, it drove me up the wall. I have to cringe when I see that I can’t find an appropriate color for my letters. It’s NOT that shade of green, it’s THIS one!

tinycow, that’s a really neat senational experience you have. It’s like you get an extra layer of sense out of things. Perchance, could you share the sense of ‘Koffing’?

Wow, it’s like an altered state all the time. I’m mildly envious, actually.

tinycow, would you do me too, please?

I’m sorry tiny cow, i didn’t mean to start this phenomenon… you’ll be describing names till the cows come home (no pun intended) if you don’t put your foot down.

one small question, do written colors make you see those colors? (i.e. when i say “blue” do you see blue, or is it somthing else? what shape is blue?)

Return to the Valley of Revenge of Ask the Gay Guy!

Ask the Synesthete!

OK, I have to ask - what do you sense from the word synesthesia?

Just kidding. I imagine all this “What does my name smell like” stuff would get tiresome after the first 18,000 posts.

Thanks for sharing, tiny cow.

Thank you!!!

I always see Tuesday as a school bus yellow. Most people say it is blue.

Ahem, people with schitzophrenia experience synesthesia commonly. I experienced it to back in my PCP/LSD/ Mescaline…et al mucho- days. It’s strange getting sensory signals mixed up…and hard to explain. You can taste music, hear colors, feel sounds…weird stuff.

Koffing:
The prominent color in your name is the periwinkle blue in the letter K. The last three letters of your name—I, N, G—progress like this: yellow, bright orange, pale red. Kind of a cool effect. The two F’s are a dark, dark maroon purple. Because of the O in the first half of your name, it makes it have the effect of an open aperture with a round shape.

mega the roo:
The word “mega” is mostly pink-red because the M is a pale red that has more pink in it than the G does (also a pale red). The E is a pale white-blue, and the A doesn’t have much effect; it is white, though, with red tones. If you’ve ever seen one of those Transformers cartoons or commercials, the word “mega” contains an image that somewhat resembles a bit of one. The word “the” is mostly brownish-orange because the T is brown-orange (more brown) and the H is darker orange. The word “roo”—have you ever seen a pika? It’s this rodent in Siberia, I think, that looks like a cross between a chipmunk and a mouse, or something. Sorta cute. But the colors of “roo” are a dark maroon-purple in the R and then either black/white in the O’s.

No problem, eggo… I realize that the idea seems cool to people when they first confront it. Actually, sometimes I’ll sit with crayons or the Paint program and write or type words in their appropriate colors, just for the fun of it. The only time this is difficult is when I have to try and articulate the images—things that are purely visual concepts.

Hey, if Esprix and I teamed up, we’d have a record-setting thread.
(No, that’s not a suggestion. Stop clicking “New Thread,” all of you…)

And as for the word synesthesia, here’s a bitmap file that I colored as best I could (it should load in Paint):
http://geocities.com/atinycow/syn.bmp
The word image makes me see something resembling an arm playing a violin, and when I say it out loud I think of lightning.

It is unlikely that I will ever find this page again for a reply, but when it comes to comparing colors, they are completely differnt from individual to individual. I was simply amazed that Tiny Cow sees the letter D as green because that is the same color I “see”.
In fact, d is the most prominent color for me. Some letters I am very unsure of as to their color. Clearly I only have a mild form of it. I cannot figure out what the color for “O” is though I am certain it is a very dark color. It might be black. “T” is black to me, but maybe they have the same color.
I don’t literally see the colors when I see the letters. I didn’t actually notice that i had these accosiations until I was playing the piano when I suddenly realized that the key of “D” was green, and that it had always been green. I don’t have perfect pitch so it makes sense that the color was actually associated with the letter “D”.
Strangly, I had been using these associations all of my life. When learning peoples names or a foreign language, I had an amazing talent for remembering the first letter of a word or name but neverthe rest. I have finally come to realize, it is because I remember the color I associate with the name that I remember. Even some Russian characters have their own color. You will notice from my atrocious spelling that I don’t even pay attention to the other letters in a word.
As for whether this condition is an advantage or a disadvantage, I don’t know how it could be much of either. It could only be an indication of how a particular mind works. My guess is that people with this condition have many similar personality traits.

In college, I found that I experienced sound/light crossovers under conditions of extreme fatigue (70+ hours of continuous activity–kids, don’t try this at home!) I found my self looking out a car window at tree shadows and hearing kind of a simple rhythm/melody as the light flickered and changed shades of green–kinda neat. On the other hand, I can’t recommend listening to the Heavy Metal soundtrack in that state. Fascinating stuff, tiny cow. I think I’m just as glad that mine goes away when I get enough sleep–I don’t know that I could cope with it all the time. I’m picky enough about my wording without having to worry about the color scheme! I suppose that with it always on, you’re sufficiently accustomed to it that it doesn’t generally disrupt your activities.