synaesthia

I stumbled across this phenomenon by accident.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/synaesthesia1.shtml

Synaesthesia is the neurological mixing of the senses. A synaesthete may 'experience' colours when they hear or read words, while others 'see' sounds or 'hear' colours. There are many different types and they can involve all senses - vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell. The most common form is colour-letter synaesthesia.

I am reasonably sure that I am a synaesthete. I have always perceived the week as an oval and the year as a circle. My week goes counter clockwise and my year goes clockwise with January at 12 and July at 6.

I also can experience physical sensations in colour (with or without patterns/texture), most notably when I am having a massage as well as during sex. I never realized it was a condition that affected so many people. The article says up to 4 percent of the UK population have one form or another.

Any other synaesthetes out there?

That's interesting. I don't have a word/colour thing, but I do have a word/number thing. When I see numbers, I view them as letters and words. I don't mean by the letter they start with or the letter they look like, but just the letter they "feel" like in my head.

Sounds like you're in the club.

I am not remotely like this, but I think it's really cool.  I saw something on TV once about a person who perceived music as colors.  That must make life so much more interesting!

Not me, but my FIL definitely is! He always surprises me with the way he talks about things like bus numbers, etc. He has a very intricate color palette of numbers and I find it fascinating.

I wonder if my 5-year-old has a bit of it, too. Very cool!

The book Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks talks in part about synaesthia.  I don't have it at all, but it's interesting stuff.

The book Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks talks in part about synaesthia.  I don't have it at all, but it's interesting stuff.

I haven't read the book, but is it about a musician/artist? My FIL is a bit of both, and I wondered if there was a connection.

I have it!  Mostly with physical sensations.  Kissing always registers as a color,sex as shapes and I used to try to explain it to my friends, but they never seemed to really get it.

Sounds very similar to the perception that people can be more sensitive to "auras" than others.

Very very cool - and possibly in some circles considered spiritual and hippy! 

I stumbled across this phenomenon by accident.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/synaesthesia1.shtml

I am reasonably sure that I am a synaesthete. I have always perceived the week as an oval and the year as a circle. My week goes counter clockwise and my year goes clockwise with January at 12 and July at 6.

I also can experience physical sensations in colour (with or without patterns/texture), most notably when I am having a massage as well as during sex. I never realized it was a condition that affected so many people. The article says up to 4 percent of the UK population have one form or another.

Any other synaesthetes out there?

Isn't that a symptom of autism sometimes?

I have it a little - it's hard to explain how... sort of linking of colors and patterns and numbers at times. I'm tired. Will have to think about it more and see if I can describe it better.

The book Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks talks in part about synaesthia.  I don't have it at all, but it's interesting stuff.

I haven't read the book, but is it about a musician/artist? My FIL is a bit of both, and I wondered if there was a connection.

It's a bunch of different case studies of people with strange or different abilities regarding music.  The synaesthia bit is one part of it.

Isn't that a symptom of autism sometimes?

I googled it and found this: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Scientists-Find-Genetic-Cause-of-Synaesthesia-103956.shtml

Fairly new research that shows that synaesthia, autism and epilepsy are somewhat related, although still different things.

The book Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks talks in part about synaesthia.  I don't have it at all, but it's interesting stuff.

I've just added that to my Bookmooch list. Thanks!

I have it!  Mostly with physical sensations.  Kissing always registers as a color,sex as shapes and I used to try to explain it to my friends, but they never seemed to really get it.

I get it!  Lucky us!

I have the number thing.  Numbers and letters have personality and a visual thing (complete with varying degrees of light).  It's light at one, gets dark around 6 or 7, and lightens up around ten, and darkens again.

It's linear, and needless to say it made learning non-linear maths very hard for me.  When I was very young, words (not all, but a lot) had visual connections for me that sometimes made sense in context with the word, but sometimes didn't.  It lessened over time, and the loss of the word thing might have had something to do with my learning to read.

I never knew what it was, and I felt a bit ashamed of it after telling a few people, and them taking it really as me being a bit strange.

I had an acquaintance growing up who had the word/name taste thing.  I never connected it to my number/letter thing.  I was considered gifted in everything but maths, and I thought that it was some form of number learning disability growing up.  I was pretty ashamed of it.

And it is hard to explain to others.  The shading is just the easiest for me to explain.  I can't really explain to people why I wouldn't invite 7 to babysit my kids.

Yes, in many ways what LA said. Numbers for me had distinct patterns and shapes. Yet I did terribly in math other than the basics and geometry. Numbers also have rhythm. Or not. For example, I have had 'good' and 'bad' phone numbers. 'Good' ones have pleasing rhythm. 'Bad' ones have bad rhythm and I have a hard time remembering them (i.e. my current cell number is 'bad'). I have a little of the color thing, too. Certain number combinations might be 'seen' in a color but I think that happened more when I was younger.