‘Synesthesia (also spelled synæsthesia or synaesthesia, plural synesthesiae or synaesthesiae), from the ancient Greek σύν (syn), “together,” and αἴσθησις (aisthēsis), “sensation,” is a neurologically based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.[1][2][3][4] People who report such experiences are known as synesthetes.’
so who’s got it, and what?
for me the main one is taste. words and sounds have all kinds of flavors of varying intensity, oftentimes difficult to pin down exactly. the word ‘question’ tastes like an anonymous rice-based (i think?) breakfast cereal; certain percussion instruments like claves taste strongly of different kinds of soup; certain words like ‘smell’ are so distasteful i find myself literally unable to say them aloud (even typing that was a challenge…)
i also hear colors when i listen to music, but trying to describe how the arrangements work is complicated beyond my descriptive abilities. bands and albums tend to adhere to unified color schemes - sonic youth tends to be green, for example (especially daydream nation), mercury rev is a lot of purple (disney-style purple and white for deserter’s songs), and on and on.
and before anyone tries to mention it, i’ve been experiencing these sensations since long before drugs ever entered the picture. does anyone else have associations like this?
“and before anyone tries to mention it, i’ve been experiencing these sensations since long before drugs ever entered the picture. does anyone else have associations like this?”
So, um, are you saying that drugs HAVE entered the picture here?
Dunno. Days of the week have strong associations with colours, for me - and I used to think that was synaesthesia, but it might just be simple association.
My strongest type of synesthesia is having colors for letters/numbers. I actually physically see- well, it’s hard to explain. I know that I’m typing in black, and I see that the letters are black, but at the same time they’re different shades of black. (You could say I’m seeing colors that don’t exist, maybe).
I also hear most songs in color (or at least in dark and light).
I have colors, shapes, and directions for a lot of concepts- common stimuli like units of time, and less common things like meals and Biblical figures.
I have occasional colors for smell, taste, and touch (especially pain). It’s not really frequent, though.
As I’ve mentioned in a couple of threads, I think colors, letters, numbers, months, and (to a lesser extent) days of the week and states and countries all have gender. I don’t make a conscious association, it’s just one of many characteristics the thing has – like August is the month in which I was born, it’s in the second half of the year, it’s male, and it begins with the letter A. The number 8 is even, it’s twice four, and it’s female. In my head, all of these things are equally true and equally obvious.
The associations have gotten somewhat more vague over the years (esp. the days of the week and, for some reason, the number two) but they haven’t changed.
You never answered; are you on drugs now? Have they, in fact, entered the picture? I only ask because you say you experienced sythesthesia symptoms BEFORE drugs entered the picture. So whatcha takin?
Anyway, I also taste words. For example, the word angry tastes like sausage patties. Don’t know why - it just does. Certain sounds also have personalities. Like the castanets in flamenco music - they’re giant fuzzy black spiders.
Out of curiosity, do you happen to have any neurological conditions? I have a seizure disorder - apparently synesthesia is fairly common in individuals who have epilepsy or other neurological conditions.
In fact, I think you’ll find that quite a lot more people have synesthesia than you realize, it’s just more pronounced in some people than in others. Can’t remember where I saw it, but there have been a few studies on synesthesia that seemed to indicate that most people (something like 60%) have synesthesia to some degree.
I have done some kinds of drugs before. I don’t think anything else really need be said, because that’s not what I was trying to ask about. I mentioned it because people skeptical of the sensations I describe often try to attribute it to psychedelics, which at any rate I’ve never done.
As for neurological conditions, I’ve been told that I “show signs” of things, like OCD, but not anything to a point where I’ve been diagnosed or prescribed. I definitely have a family history of things like bipolar disorder and also a lot of creative types, all of which I think line up decently. The OCD connection makes sense to me, I think, because of that bit about words I find myself literally physically unable to say, but that’s sort of faint and speculative.
The male/female thing really interests me. Is there a way “male” or “female” manifests itself in a sensory way that’s different than a simple understanding of the word? For some reason, the number 14 to me is extremely feminine - that is, it recalls a whole host of difficult-to-define visual, sonic, and tactile sensory memories that represent femininity in my mind. I wish I was better with words so that I could describe them.
People who are too “special” to use the shift key tend to be pretentious and self-absorbed. And they tend to think they’re exhibiting some kind of individuality. Wrong.
Yes, I have synesthesia, but I’ve said everything I have to say on the subject, in previous threads.
Hey loser, when you listen to Sonic Youth, do you not hear them? Do you interpret the sensory input exclusively or primarily in those greens? Or do you just get a sense of green along with the sounds?
Uh, personal attack there, panache? Besides, it’s hard not to see a greater sense of entitlement from someone who attempts to judge another by his typing habits…
As for spark, I definitely hear the sound and color together, and I can separate them in my mind just as someone might try to separate the instruments in a song to hear one part better. I think it’s the timbre of the music that affects the colors I see more than the music itself, because listening to a poorly sequenced mixtape often feels like looking at a bad painting.
To hijack further, I’ll admit to judging people for not using the shift key. I’ve been here 10 years - and I’ve seen a lot of posters come and go who try to be different, usually eschewing things like capital letters and traditional punctuation. They’ve developed a pretty strong pattern, and panache pretty much nailed it with his description of that pattern. Not everyone fits that, but each time I see it I brace myself to be annoyed. Glad to see you found your shift key, though - synesthesia is a cool topic.
I’m having this same argument in two different threads I’ve posted now… I give up. I don’t give a shit about a shift key, and I never did. Judge me if you are so inclined, but for Christ’s sake, can we all just grow up and discuss this stupid topic?
Agreed.