Any Fellow Synesthetes?

[museofdoom]

Having synesthesia sounds like an interesting experience, not entirely positive, but not really negative either. But it does pose a question that I'd like you to answer if possible.

Does dubstep give a kind of sensory overload (good dubstep, not simple wubs over an already released dong) or is it something different?

Would you be kind enough to oblige a curious person?

To me, dubstep appears as black and white. It's kind of snowy, and there are white swirls and paint splotches. It's strange because most other music appears colorful, but whenever I hear dubstep everything is instantly black and white.

 

[omega 616]

every letter and number appears to be a specific color

I heard about it on QI, the thing I don't get is how it works.

I don't mean like the mental process that makes it so you have this ... gift? I mean like does your normal vision turn like a red hue when you hear or see the corresponding number or letter. What about when you see or hear a sentence, is it like somebody is holding CTRL + I but with more than normal colours and inverted colours.

Does the actual letter or number just look a certain colour, even though it's typed in black (or whatever).

 

[museofdoom]

every letter and number appears to be a specific color

I heard about it on QI, the thing I don't get is how it works.

I don't mean like the mental process that makes it so you have this ... gift? I mean like does your normal vision turn like a red hue when you hear or see the corresponding number or letter. What about when you see or hear a sentence, is it like somebody is holding CTRL + I but with more than normal colours and inverted colours.

Does the actual letter or number just look a certain colour, even though it's typed in black (or whatever).

It's such a tricky thing to describe! Like, if I were to see the letter J which is blue, it would appear written in black, but it would "feel" blue. Like, it's "aura" is blue, and I can kind of faintly see it. All letters and numbers are like that for me. I see sounds as more pronounced though. Especially if I stare at a blank wall, or close my eyes while I listen to music. Then colors are all over the place.

"I see sounds" is such a strange thing to say. haha

 

[Canadamus Prime]

No, in fact I've never heard of this, uh, for lack of a better term, condition before. Although I imagine several major Renascence painters had something like that.

 

[darksuccubus]

I guess I have mild OCD (sometimes I still avoid walking on the spaces between stepping stones). Same goes for doing something on the right side of the body (like scratching your right hand) and then doing the same with the left one. Although this happens rarer and rarer.
I did have Synesthesia when I was a child and unfortunately I remember only one thing (probably because it's the most unpleasant one). You know when you were a small kid your mom would give you a bath because you couldn't bathe properly yourself? You know the unpleasant feeling when water would get into your nose? Everyone have experienced this. Anyway, that feeling (getting water in your nose) felt VIOLET for me. Even now, rarely I would feel "violet" when I get water in my nose. Other than that, everything is normal, I think ^_^

 

[winginson]

Just one very limited one, when I'm sad I actually do see everything as being noticeably bluer.

My main thing is I act very much like Sherlock from the new TV series. Just not to the super extreme genius level he does. Just everything he does, but less.

 

[SextusMaximus]

Don't have it, but I wish I did. That's really, seriously cool. How do font colours affect your ability?

 

[Chemical Alia]

every letter and number appears to be a specific color

I heard about it on QI, the thing I don't get is how it works.

I don't mean like the mental process that makes it so you have this ... gift? I mean like does your normal vision turn like a red hue when you hear or see the corresponding number or letter. What about when you see or hear a sentence, is it like somebody is holding CTRL + I but with more than normal colours and inverted colours.

Does the actual letter or number just look a certain colour, even though it's typed in black (or whatever).

It's such a tricky thing to describe! Like, if I were to see the letter J which is blue, it would appear written in black, but it would "feel" blue. Like, it's "aura" is blue, and I can kind of faintly see it. All letters and numbers are like that for me. I see sounds as more pronounced though. Especially if I stare at a blank wall, or close my eyes while I listen to music. Then colors are all over the place.

"I see sounds" is such a strange thing to say. haha

The best way I can describe it isn't that you actually see blue or red or whatever color with your eyes, but see it in your head the same way your brain recognizes the colors. Can you use the colors of notes to identify them?

 

[JoesshittyOs]

snip

Why is it that people like you. Wight knights that is, always talk about their own feelings as everyone's feelings? "No one cares that you called someone out for... faking a mental defect? No one cares that he may be lying." Is it that you're totally incapable of conceiving that your opinion on the matter isn't absolute? Would that shatter your rationale for jumping to someone's defence?

Honestly it was kind of the "No one cares!" that you shout at the person who's annoying in your home room class. But sure.

Also, I never really understood how being a "White Knight" was an insult. It sounds more like something someone makes up to try and sway away the fact that he's in the wrong. Sure, I'm blinding jumping to the defense of someone I never met who's lying, yet you're the one who's blindly accusing someone of calling bullshit without having any idea of how the particular disorder works.

And yes, I have a very hard time conceiving anyone else's opinion. Everything is absolute to me, you got me. Great call there.

[sub]Sarcasm, just in case you didn't catch that[/sub]

Derealisation.... asking yourself who you are in the morning....

Nope, doesn't look like the same thing to me. If anything it sounds more like depersonalisation. But that's highly doubtful too, considering most people just have the feeling that they're watching their own actions with that.

Ahh, I see we're all just making up random medical facts so we can have the appearances of seeming right. Well I'm more qualified, and I say what's going on inside of his head right now is all of his personalities are fighting in a motel inside of his mind, trying to find out which one is the serial killer.

Spoiler

It's the kid who everyone thought died in the car explosion at the beginning of the movie, but I still found it strange how the housewife personality was the one that prevailed in the males mind.

Typically people with MPD suffer from dissociate amnesia of the times when their alters are in control. There would be no confusion over which personality you were.

And the rest of your comment isn't even worth responding to.

That hurts. I put a lot of time into that comment.

And... cite your source?

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

A friend of mine is a synetheste. Names especially trigger colors in her mind. She's also a very well-paid accountant.

She'd also never heard of the word "synesthesia" until she described the whole thing to me and I told her about it.

 

[rammst13n]

is it actually cool to have synethesia? from my perspective it sounds interesting, but what about the "normal" way of thought? to someone who doesnt have it wouldnt that be cool to have? as someone who has synethesia, do you ever want to know what it would be like to not associate colors with thoughts?

 

[JoesshittyOs]

Being a white knight is an insult because it's obnoxious.

You're obnoxious

You can't be that well qualified if you haven't heard of depersonalisation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depersonalization

Edit: I feel I should expand. You claim it sounds like derealisation, but derealisation is more to do with a persons environment and their place in it than it is to do with their own identity. Depersonalisation is just that, the foggying of their own identity, removing themselves from it and viewing it as if from another's perspective. Most people describe what they can remember as them being almost in the third person. Viewing themselves.

Not them having to ask which personality they are in the morning.

Fair enough moving on

Don't make a ridiculous comment and I won't ignore it.

Ridiculous? I'm gonna cry. You have no soul.

And you cite yours. You have absolutely no room to demand that I cite my sources when you haven't cited any of your own. How arrogant are you that you think you can make rules and then not follow them?

Well you never asked me to. That was my response to your comment, cite your source. Mainly because I couldn't find it anywhere on the wikipedia, Zenu's gift to man. I just assumed you believed everything I said.

Uhh... let me check wikipedia real quick.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder.

It's all there. I think.

I didn't check.

Edit: *Xenu.

 

[Sebass]

As for how the colors appear: Drum beats appear in paint splotches, guitar chords make firework formations, piano chords tend to make water ripples etc. The colors vary, and I can't really pin them down to specific musical notes.

This was a pretty awful explanation, but I hope this helped somehow haha

Any concert you go to must be some kind of amazing audiovisual spectacle to you ?

When you say 'piano chords tend to make water ripples' do you actually see a literal rippling effect occuring in your vision emanating from the piano ? Could your vision actually become 'obstructed' with colours and ripples and twirls etc from other stimuli such as music that it makes it harder for you to 'see' ? (I don't know how to phrase this accurately .. )

is it actually cool to have synethesia? from my perspective it sounds interesting, but what about the "normal" way of thought? to someone who doesnt have it wouldnt that be cool to have? as someone who has synethesia, do you ever want to know what it would be like to not associate colors with thoughts?

Over 7000 Teemo's died while writing this reply.

 

[museofdoom]

As for how the colors appear: Drum beats appear in paint splotches, guitar chords make firework formations, piano chords tend to make water ripples etc. The colors vary, and I can't really pin them down to specific musical notes.

This was a pretty awful explanation, but I hope this helped somehow haha

Any concert you go to must be some kind of amazing audiovisual spectacle to you ?

When you say 'piano chords tend to make water ripples' do you actually see a literal rippling effect occuring in your vision emanating from the piano ? Could your vision actually become 'obstructed' with colours and ripples and twirls etc from other stimuli such as music that it makes it harder for you to 'see' ? (I don't know how to phrase this accurately .. )

is it actually cool to have synethesia? from my perspective it sounds interesting, but what about the "normal" way of thought? to someone who doesnt have it wouldnt that be cool to have? as someone who has synethesia, do you ever want to know what it would be like to not associate colors with thoughts?

Over 7000 Teemo's died while writing this reply.

Yeah, concerts are pretty spectacular sensation-wise. There's a lot of different visuals with all the instruments, the singers voice, the crowds voices, etc so it creates dynamic visuals. When I hear piano chords, it's kind of like seeing colored water rippling in the air. My vision doesn't become impaired really. It can be a bit of a distraction, but I've never been blinded or anything by it. So having synesthesia can be pretty "cool" I suppose, but I don't really know anything different haha

 

[him over there]

Sounds interesting, I often think like this. In my eyes A's are always red, B's blue, C's yellow. D is purple for some reason. I usually visualize immaterial things like sound, so I don't know if I'm a synesthetes or if I just think strangely about specific things as I've never been diagnosed.

 

[The Pinray]

Yeah, concerts are pretty spectacular sensation-wise. There's a lot of different visuals with all the instruments, the singers voice, the crowds voices, etc so it creates dynamic visuals. When I hear piano chords, it's kind of like seeing colored water rippling in the air. My vision doesn't become impaired really. It can be a bit of a distraction, but I've never been blinded or anything by it. So having synesthesia can be pretty "cool" I suppose, but I don't really know anything different haha

Seem to be different than I when it comes to concerts. Too much/loud sound tends to "overload" me, if you will. I've never walked out of a concert without a killer headache. Gotta say, I'm a tad envious.

Now, in my earlier post I mentioned the how each person has their own color. I've grown a bit curious after reading some of your answers to these guy's questions-- Is this the same with you? People having their own color? I've actually never met anyone like me before. Then again, I'm not really open about my "condition". I thought it was normal until junior high when I tried to explain who someone was with their color. Embarrassing, to say the least. Then I thought I was a freak, an oddity.

I've been really sort of set aback to "see" someone else with it. In a good way, though. My old doctor said it was more common than I thought, but I never believed him. Seems I'm wrong.

 

[Yellow Scarf]

Me, my mother and my sister are all synasthetic to various degrees. We have had very long (and quite heated) discussions as to the colour of the days of the week, numbers and letters. There is little agreement between us on any of these, though.
My synesthesia plays mostly on my sense of touch, such as the keys i'm typing with now feeling blue with an orange overglow (The blue only appears when I press the keys, just touching them without actually pressing the key only gets the orange glow).
I do get colours from sounds, but the colours often come with with shapes. Sometimes it's just the shapes, without colour. Deeper notes tend to be circular, higher notes are angular.
Perhaps the "abstract concepts" area of my brain is crossed into my senses? Anyone else get that?

Also, I present for the discussion the first piece of music that I remember firing off my synasthesing, when I was about 4. I suggest listening to it without headphones, it seems to lose something with them.
Oh yes: It's quite long, and if you are quite sound-sensitive it may completely freak you out.


Please share what various bits of this track give you. For example, the initial 11 seconds give me green overlaying blue, egg shapes, point facing away from me. And at about 1 minute, a pulsing two-tone sound appears, and that comes out to me as a seriously vivid blue (yellow highlights), 2d regtangular ovals. (I can't describe that one very well).
This one should be interesting!

 

[museofdoom]

Seem to be different than I when it comes to concerts. Too much/loud sound tends to "overload" me, if you will. I've never walked out of a concert without a killer headache. Gotta say, I'm a tad envious.

Now, in my earlier post I mentioned the how each person has their own color. I've grown a bit curious after reading some of your answers to these guy's questions-- Is this the same with you? People having their own color? I've actually never met anyone like me before. Then again, I'm not really open about my "condition". I thought it was normal until junior high when I tried to explain who someone was with their color. Embarrassing, to say the least. Then I thought I was a freak, an oddity.

I've been really sort of set aback to "see" someone else with it. In a good way, though. My old doctor said it was more common than I thought, but I never believed him. Seems I'm wrong.

People themselves don't really have colors to me, but their voices do. I also see voices with a distinct shape or pattern. So even though people don't have colors, I kind of assign the color of their voice as their color.

More people have it than you would think! I know three other people at my school that have it to varying degrees. I probably have it most intensely though. The way I see it, it's not something freakish to be ashamed about, it's just an odd quirk!

 

[Palademon]

Would you get a seziure if you played Child of Eden?
TONS OF COLOURS WITH MORE TONS OF COLOURS!

I like interesting things about people and this one is definately one of my favourites.

 

[BrotherSurplice]

I have a mental condition (although the word condition has kind of a negative connotation)called Synesthesia. So to me, every letter and number appears to be a specific color, sounds also have colors, and I find that I see people's voices as shapes as well as colors. Also, in my mind, days of the week have very specific personalities. I don't really like calling it a condition because I feel like that makes it a bad thing, when it really isn't. It doesn't affect how I function at all, I just see things in odd ways.

It's a funny thing to have because I wasn't even aware it wasn't normal until like 2nd grade when I was talking to my mom about how I remembered how to spell "create" on a spelling test because the colors of the letters reminded me of a sunset, which obviously didn't make much sense to her..

I don't really know where I was going with this little ramble, I just kind of thought it was an interesting subject. So feel free to post thoughts, or experiences

Wow, I've never heard of that before. Sounds really unusual (not in bad way you understand). How intriguing!