Synesthesia

305

Nov 26, 2004 at 12:01 PM

Anyone here a synesthetic? If you don't know what that is, it's basically when you involuntarily experience one sense in relation to another. Synesthetic people associate colors with numbers and letters. For me, 1 is black, 2 is green, 3 is pink/purple, 4 is red, 5 is white/black, 6 is maroon, seven is dark purple, 8 dark red, 9 is a vibrant yet dark orange/sandy color. It works with the alphabet for me, as well. 'A' is red, 'b' is purplish blue, etc. For the longest time I thought that everyone associated colors with numbers and letters, until I realized that like....no one does. Words as well get colored. This mostly depends on what colors the letters that compose it are, but not always. I do it with music as well, but that's much harder to explain and not as strong as my color/letter thing. Pretty much, the scale has color, different instruments have different colors, chords get colorized, um other things get colored or feelings associated with them but it's too hard to explain in writing. Anyway, since I only know 2 people in real life that do this like I do, I was wondering if anyone here does this? Also, I'm left handed. Apparently it's more common in left handed people, and one of the two guys I know that does it is also left handed.

Fuzztrek

Nov 26, 2004 at 12:15 PM

I have a weird thing in numbers.. either that or I was extremely bored in grade 1. This is basically what I came up with:

1 & 2 are the infants
3 is the middle child, always neglected but has to take care of the infants
4 is the girl 5 & 6 want
5 is juvenile... he'd be with 4 but 4 & 6 become better numbers (10, 24, etc)
6 is more mature and knows he can beat out 5 for 4
7 & 8 are the pranksters, 7 has a huge attitude, though (7x7 = 49, what's up with that). 8 is much more happy-go-lucky (8x5 = 40, very nice)
9 is the elder, he can't really keep up but is ultimately better than all the rest

something like that, anyway.

This probably has nothing to do with your original post. However, if it's of any comfort, I've heard many composers think about the "emotional" colours for a movie before they write, if they are doing a score for a movie.

110

Nov 26, 2004 at 12:23 PM

It's just numbers for me.

1 is blue, 2 is a tad darker, 3 is a tad darker, 4 is brown/red, 5 is yellow, six is red, 7 is green, 8 is purple or brown, 9 is brown/red - much like 4, 10 is green - but different from 7.

11 is gold, 12 is darker, 13 is blue - but darker than 1-3, 14 is brown/red - but darker than any others, 15 is yellow - but darker still, 16 is red - dark, 17 is green - darker - 18 is dark purple or brown, 19 is a lighter brown.

20-29 is white/blue, with the associated 1-9 beside it.

30-39 is dark blue, with the assiciated 1-9 beside it.

40-49 is brown/red, "

50-59 is yellow/gold, "

60-69 is darker red, "

70-79 is lighter green, "

80=89 is dark purple, "

90-99 is brown/red, "

100-900 are coloured similarily as 1-9 are.

1000-9000 are similar.

If I'm "scanning through" numbers, everything is at a bit of a slant, and they're vertical (well, more so diaganol). The "background" for all of these numbers is black. I can zoom in and zoom out. When I zoom out, I just see every set of numbers (besides the teens and 1-9) as their primary colour. 20's as light blue, 30's as dark blue, and so on.

It's an extensive colouring system, which I've been using since I can remember.

I Like Bread

Nov 26, 2004 at 12:29 PM

Welcome to synaesthesia

Buy it today!

TomX

Nov 26, 2004 at 12:29 PM

Wow, the potential you must posses if you have this ability is extreme.

Unfortunately I cannot do any of these seemingly supernatural abilities, but I am left-handed :)

benryves

526

benryves

Nov 26, 2004 at 12:35 PM

FACT: Ted Hughes had synaesthesia.

110

Nov 26, 2004 at 12:43 PM

FACT: I am right handed.

Beat that, statistics!

Plus, I don't "see" these numbers as much I do visualize them.

Salsa

136

Salsa

Nov 26, 2004 at 1:19 PM

When I read the word "rofl" I pronounce in my head "roll-full". I dub this condition salsatheticism.

Elehisie

Nov 26, 2004 at 1:40 PM

reminds me of resistor color codes :D

0 black
1 brown
2 red
3 orange
4 yellow
5 green
6 blue
7 purple
8 grey
9 white
gold: 5% tolerance
silver: 10% tolerance

deosnt that much sense to me, you see? i jsut got used to that after a while, so i look at the colored bars on resistors and see numbers... like brown-black-red-gold: 1 0 (10^2) (+/-10%) -> 1Kohm :D

my only supernatural ability: Im both-handed :D

I Like Bread

Nov 26, 2004 at 3:17 PM

Left-handed people, like myself, tend to use visualization to understand abstract concepts. Like when they see the problem "2+2=4", they tend to see two boxes being lined up to two other boxes. For me, the boxes are always red. I've always learned in this way. LSD helped later on.

It reminds me of that old trick that you can try on people:

Write the word "CARROT" on a piece of paper and hide it.
Ask a friend what 5+1 is.
Then ask them what 4+2 is.
Then 3+3, 2+4, and 1+5.
Then tell them to say the number "6" as many times as they can in 10 seconds.

Then ask them to name a vegetable.

98% of everyone, when asked, will say "CARROT". Show them the paper. Lots of people are also known to say "CUCUMBER". All research done to figure out why this happens has been inconclusive.

Author

305

Nov 26, 2004 at 3:45 PM

One more thing I forgot to mention, but tamborine-ish noises and a few (very few) other noises make smells. Tamborine noises smell like bread kind of.

Cibressus

120

Cibressus

Nov 26, 2004 at 3:55 PM

1 is white
2 is brown
3 is yellow
4 is red
5 is bright red
6 is green
7 is yellow
8 is purple
9 is deep purple
10 is black
11 is brown
12 is green
13 is yellow.
it's odd, i never come up against blue in all my numbers, but alot of letters are blue.

cloudscapes

Nov 26, 2004 at 4:20 PM

*raises hand*

Auditory-visual synaesthesia. My brain associates tones and notes with splotches of color. I'm also starting to think I may have a link between intense physical pain, and the way I percieve music/sound, and maybe saturation of colors, based on a rather uncomfortable situation a few weeks ago. But I haven't really figured that one out yet.

TMAN

Nov 26, 2004 at 4:23 PM

so is it harder to read certain words/characters on certain backgrounds?

Tron3k

197

Tron3k

Nov 26, 2004 at 4:24 PM

I'm left handed but I don't associate things with colours. I am however really good at visualizing abstract things, like mathematics.

dorix

Nov 26, 2004 at 4:28 PM

Awesome synaesthesia-themed novelette nominated for a 2004 Hugo award:

The Empire Of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford. I enjoyed reading this story very much.

104

Nov 26, 2004 at 4:42 PM

I had a friend that had a link between how she felt about someone and color. She would see color around someone depending on what she thought about the person. I never knew about numbers or anything like that.

Its kinda the same thing. I hear everything I read or think. Its not like a real life sound but I can hear it. I cant read or type faster than actual speach because that would be faster than I can hear it in my head. I thought everyone was that way until I read some article where someone mentioned that some people "Claim" to hear what they read in their head. I can change the voice if I want to. So if I read a book every character can have his/her own unique voice. Its more of a handycap than anything.

Anna

Nov 26, 2004 at 4:43 PM

I am left handed, I also use visualization when I do math. I usually don't understand a concept until I can visualize it. I suck at math though :\ Except maybe geometry type stuff.

I think I used to associate numbers and letters with colours when I was younger but I don't notice it anymore.

Question: do left-handed people actually use their mouse with their left hand? I don't... my left hand is for writing, right hand is my mouse hand.

Flarelocke

Nov 26, 2004 at 5:01 PM

Quote:
Its kinda the same thing. I hear everything I read or think. Its not like a real life sound but I can hear it. I cant read or type faster than actual speach because that would be faster than I can hear it in my head. I thought everyone was that way until I read some article where someone mentioned that some people "Claim" to hear what they read in their head. I can change the voice if I want to. So if I read a book every character can have his/her own unique voice. Its more of a handycap than anything.

You're probably subvocalizing when you read. That is, you're moving your tongue and lips as if you're reading aloud. This usually makes people find reading unpleasant (either because reading causes his or her throat to hurt, or simply because reading is laborious when done this way).

Most people read about 250 words a minute. People normally only talk about 1/3 of that speed. So if you're closer to 80 words per minute than 250, you'll want to do something about the subvocalizing.

On the other hand, most people "hear" what they read (again, at 250 words per minute). I'm not sure if people normally think at 250 words per minute because I don't think in words that often.

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