Synesthesia

[count tiszula]

Helter, I think last time this came up I actually dared to ask what sensations you get from"sneeze" and other words that we like, but I can't remember the answers.

And pig, I think that I get the same thing with the days of the week, though obviously I couldn't use numbers for it. I see calendars as an endless landscape of hills and valleys receding into the distance; and yes, they are sort of grey colums of stone of different heights, with the weekends the highest, and sometimes they seem to move forward in terrifying waves; probably my psychological take on the passage of time...

[March Hare]

Does it count if I give numbers and letters personalities? I always thought of the letter A being hyper and athletic, 7 would be friendly and reliable, and P would be really lazy. Stuff like that.

I totally used to do that when I was a child! I always pictured five and three sitting together at a table, facing each other like this --> 5 - 3 five would look like a grinning hustler or a jovial fat mafioso, Danny DeVito style, and 3 all sweet and naive and cheery like Steve Buscemi. (Except of course back then I didn't know who those guys were. XD)

[Jorm]

This isn't really synesthesia, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway as it does have some similarities. When I listen to music I often choose what I'm going to listen to based purely on what I can only describe as what part of my brain it vibrates.

[blush]

I know it probably doesn't count because it's straightforward, makes almost obvious sense, and isn't directly related to the five senses, but I feel words so intensely.

That's not synesthesia (I think) since hearing the words isn't stimulating another one of your senses (taste, smell, vision, whatever). It's just that some words have very strong emotional connotations to some people.

I know it's not technically synesthesia, or at least the definition that exists right now, and I know a lot of people have really emotional reactions with words (like moist for a lot of people, I hear) but I don't really feel like it's an emotional thing for me. I figure it has to by psychologically based, because it usually relates to meaning, and I know most people react innately to words. That's why reading is so interesting. I guess it was threadjack-ish, but I wanted to see if others felt this. It really feels like physical sensations in my body. I know most synesthesia is visual or auditory or olfactory, but it feels like a sense in it's own way. Dunno.

And pig, I think that I get the same thing with the days of the week, though obviously I couldn't use numbers for it. I see calendars as an endless landscape of hills and valleys receding into the distance; and yes, they are sort of grey colums of stone of different heights, with the weekends the highest, and sometimes they seem to move forward in terrifying waves; probably my psychological take on the passage of time...

That's really cool! Where would you say you "see" it? When you think of next weekend compared to today, for example, do you involuntarily think of it in that way or is it only when you are deliberately conceptualizing time? And does it have to be very specific?

This isn't really synesthesia, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway as it does have some similarities. When I listen to music I often choose what I'm going to listen to based purely on what I can only describe as what part of my brain it vibrates.

I like the idea of this one too. Do you think it's related to the frequency or tempo or pitch or rhythm or more like the mood? If you can really feel the sensations in specific places in your mind, have you ever researched exactly what areas they are for which songs, etc?

[Vendetta]

i always wondered whether i was the only person or not to have this..lol..for me numbers have colors; like one is a yellow-white, two is a light blue, three is yellow, four is dark green, five is pinkish, six is kind of orange, seven is purple, eight is a reddish pink, and nine is a bright yellow orange..from there the numbers can be mixed colors for me.

also words for me have tastes, not every single one of them though...such as 'blue' tastes like jelly, 'sky' tastes like frosting, 'black' tastes like liquorice, and 'crystal' tastes like that rock candy on a stick stuff..yeah lots of words taste sweet to me...

[Jorm]

This isn't really synesthesia, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway as it does have some similarities. When I listen to music I often choose what I'm going to listen to based purely on what I can only describe as what part of my brain it vibrates.

I like the idea of this one too. Do you think it's related to the frequency or tempo or pitch or rhythm or more like the mood? If you can really feel the sensations in specific places in your mind, have you ever researched exactly what areas they are for which songs, etc?

It's mostly based on frequency, but I think tempo has some involvement too. And I describe it as my brain that it vibrates, but that's probably really not at all accurate. It would probably be more accurate to say it vibrates my skull. If it's my brain at all it's only the very outer cortex. Picture a series of roughly inch wide bands or stripes going side to side across a persons head, different frequencies or tones and tempo combinations vibrate different bands. For instance, high frequency but slow tempo music vibrates the band that's right above my forehead, where the hairline starts. High frequency, fast tempo music vibrates the very base in the back right above the neck. Low frequency things like bass beats vibrate the band that goes right across the very top of the head (Like if you drew a line connecting a persons ears over the top of their head.) if they're fast tempo and the one just behind that (where the head starts to curve down in the back) if they're slow tempo.

So if you took the stripes in order from front of the head to back it would be;

1: High frequency, slow tempo

2: Low frequency, fast tempo

3: Low Frequency, slow tempo

4: High frequency, fast tempo

[Jessie]

Wow, for being a rare condition this is amazing prevalent here. I wonder if there's something weird wired in all of our brains that makes us more prone to synesthesia and fetishes?

Anyway, my own isn't strong, but I have a sort that allows me to associate colors/shapes with music--mainly different kinds of instruments. Piano tends to be cool and smooth, blues and purples, violins and strings are oranges and thin and sharp, brass is yellow or green and blobby, drums are black and orange and sort of vary, etc. It's not a very strong association, meaning it's not unignorable, but if I sort of concentrate on it I can bring it out (and smoking pot, which I did in college, made it unignorable...it was like having an itunes visualiser built into my head). Anyway, it helped me have a perfect pitch and a good sense of/love of harmony (because the sound of harmonizing voices just sort of glows so beautifully) despite never really formally doing anything with music.

There's a website you can test your synesthesia on, catered to specific types (the most prevalent) if you wanna test yourself.

[Jorm]

Wow, for being a rare condition this is amazing prevalent here. I wonder if there's something weird wired in all of our brains that makes us more prone to synesthesia and fetishes?

Actually, this wouldn't be very surprising given that fetishes and synesthesia are both connected to "abnormal" cross wiring in a person's brain. Though the theory that that is the basis of fetishes is far less certain and documented than it is in synethesia. But it's not unlikely that the two may be very similar in origin. A fetish is after all an unusual psycho-physical connected between some normally unrelated object/bodily function/etc and sexual arousal, which is not so far from synesthesia being an unusual connection between for you for instance sound and colour. It wouldn't surprise me at all if people who have one kind of cross wiring or cross psycho-physical association are more likely to also have other kinds.

There's a website you can test your synesthesia on, catered to specific types (the most prevalent) if you wanna test yourself.

Any chance you have the address for this website? That sounds really interesting!

[haeeshoo]

Good grief this is absolutely fascinating. I hadn't realised it was so prevalent.

I also sometimes just have to walk away from a conversation if the words get too smelly.

I also fear using some "stinking" words in public.

Do the words have to be said to be smelly or would typing them out here cause the same thing? If it wouldn't be too distressing, can you tell us some of the words that smell bad? Is it common that you have to walk away from a conversation or is that something that only happens occasionally? It sounds quite inconvenient.

Actually the words have most effect when they are written down, and I *imagine* saying them aloud.

Sound-to-smell is perhaps more me subconsciously imagining how the word is spelled, which then causes the sensation.

The worst ones are french words that contain letter combinations "ouche" and "iche", or "chou" or "chi"

(probably not a coincidence that this also sounds "sneezy"). Those words smell like "dried pee" or "ammonia" - it's awful

I keep on using the archaic word "stortbad" because i simply cannot use the other word in public. Unless i'm "in the mood",

in which case using such words can be very "stimulating" *ahem*.

Perhaps another little anecdote:

In my native language the most popular word for "shower" is "douche" (not the same meaning as in english ) -

the latest weeks there's been a tv commercial for shower gel, in which they stress several times it

makes you experience a "douchefris" feeling (literally: shower freshness) - by making that impossible combination of words:

the ammonia word "douche" and the neutral word "fris" they ensured i will never EVER come near that stuff

I simply cannot understand anyone would come up with a word like that to describe something that smells good, and then

use it on national tv hoping to gain customers But I know it's just me

Typing all this explanation felt remarkably awkward

[count tiszula]

Blush, my picture of the calendar just pops into my head when I think about such matters; in fact if I am only fleetingly considering it it just flashes momentarily somewhere "at the back of my mind". It's not something that takes over and blocks out everything else, as presumably happens with the major synaesthesic reactions other people are describing.

[Jessie]

Wow, for being a rare condition this is amazing prevalent here. I wonder if there's something weird wired in all of our brains that makes us more prone to synesthesia and fetishes?

Actually, this wouldn't be very surprising given that fetishes and synesthesia are both connected to "abnormal" cross wiring in a person's brain. Though the theory that that is the basis of fetishes is far less certain and documented than it is in synethesia. But it's not unlikely that the two may be very similar in origin. A fetish is after all an unusual psycho-physical connected between some normally unrelated object/bodily function/etc and sexual arousal, which is not so far from synesthesia being an unusual connection between for you for instance sound and colour. It wouldn't surprise me at all if people who have one kind of cross wiring or cross psycho-physical association are more likely to also have other kinds.

Huh. I don't know much about neuroscience, but your explanation seems to make sense. I often feel like someone ought to study us.

There's a website you can test your synesthesia on, catered to specific types (the most prevalent) if you wanna test yourself.

Any chance you have the address for this website? That sounds really interesting!

http://synesthete.org/

I'm pretty sure that was the one I was thinking of--it's been several years since I tried this out.

[Septaero]

I have this! letters and numbers have colors. So do people. So does flavor. So does smells. Some people, and smells also have perceived texture. Music has temperature and color and texture.

[Introvertedme]

I have synesthesia too! Letters and numbers have colors, months have a certain places in my head as well as years. And smells have colors/shapes. It's nice to know other people on the forum experience this as well! I've heard 1 in 1000 people have it. Has anyone else read a book called a mango shaped space? It's about a girl with synesthesia. I absolutely love it!

[Honkytonklagoon]

I think this is so interesting. I don't have these experiences, so I'd love to learn more about what it's like.

[_Daisy_]

I've always thought this was the absolute coolest thing. Nabokov, the author of Lolita, has this. I feel like people with this condition would just be naturally poetical. So jealous of all of you that do.

[Kramfors]

interestingly I'm listening to a music group called synethesia right now.

[Purple]

The fact that so many of you here on the forum have synesthesia too makes me want to dance to the sound of all the colours. YAY! <3