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Rare but Real: People Who Feel, Taste and Hear Color

livescience.com — Long dismissed as a product of overactive imaginations or a sign of mental illness, synesthesia has grudgingly come to be accepted by scientists in recent years as an actual phenomenon with a real neurological basis. Some researchers now believe it may yield valuable clues to how the brain is organized and how perception works.

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  • shadowmoose, on 05/04/2008, -4/+30My English teacher is into this stuff. Most people can associate something to a color like Tuesday is black or birds chirping is yellow, we just don't go through what Ingrid does.
    • thomash, on 05/04/2008, -1/+4 * CEREBRAL CROSSWIRING - "I'm a synaesthetic, which means the sensory receptors in my brain are cross-wired so that I feel sounds, smell tastes and hear sensations etc. Many people experience this to some minor degree (you feel that Wednesdays are purple, for example) but I'm a medically-certified sufferer. It was most extreme when I was a kid, and it allowed me more than a few secret pleasures. Listening to ABC's "The Look of Love" generated a powerful sensation of chocolate in my mouth, while eating actual chocolate altered my vision in much the same way as LSD. If I ran my hand over the cat, I'd hear birdsong. It was fun experimenting. The best experience of those times was my brief relationship with Deborah de Angelo. The phonetics of her name brought whisky to my tongue; her blonde hair made me hear cellos; her green cardigan caused a raging boner, and the sensation of her busy mouth upon my swollen helmet made me taste a full English breakfast. Those days are over. With medication, my only pleasure these days is retiring to bed with a cowbell, mint humbugs and Toni Braxton's "Unbreak My Heart" - all of which in combination, conspire to bring about the sensation of a hamster up my anus."
      (frankspencer)
      • addicted68098, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1From the B3TA news letter, I was going to post this myself
    • moomeep, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1here's a bbc hozizon on the subject. 'derek tastes of earwax' http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3062813916 ...
    • Heggy, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1A friend of mine has this, he's a musician, and it helped him develop perfect pitch. I wish I had it.
  • Androfire, on 05/04/2008, -10/+8Hollywood will be all over this in no time.
    • leffunov, on 05/04/2008, -1/+6Only if there's already a project in the works. Then there will be several terrible clones.
    • Louis11, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1Uh . . . Rain man? Didn't any of you watch the documentary on Kim Peek on Discovery?
    • Fooord, on 05/05/2008, -0/+1Daredevil? Is that you?
  • TremorX, on 05/04/2008, -3/+206I thought I could taste a rainbow once, but it turned out I was just eating Skittles.
    • fermcg, on 05/04/2008, -18/+6sure you were not smoking skittles?
    • cowsgonemadd3, on 05/04/2008, -7/+2I would sue skittles then...it says taste the rainbow!
      • ufee, on 05/05/2008, -1/+2YOU DID EVEN READ COMMENT? HE SAID IT DID TASTE OF THE RAINBOW. LEARN ENGLISH NOW!
    • erimepie, on 05/04/2008, -1/+2Same thing happened to me too, only it turned out I was eating blotter acid.
  • magixx2, on 05/04/2008, -6/+113LSD
  • nico623, on 05/04/2008, -13/+8LSD helps with all of those...
  • fermcg, on 05/04/2008, -7/+1So some people got their brain synthesizing lysergic stuff?
    • Thinker10, on 05/04/2008, -1/+3No, that's not how it works. It's more like the effects of LSD (temporarily) mimic what these people naturally have in their brains.
      • ngmcs8203, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1Temporarily? I have a coworker who is permanently affected like this by LSD. Maybe it's a one-off but it sure isn't temporary.
  • eminiguy, on 05/04/2008, -13/+33This is old news. has been known for many years. Nothing new here.
    • Garlik, on 05/04/2008, -0/+5I actually wrote a book report on a book about this back in third grade... that was a while ago
    • tresorArt, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1yeah seriously. More like the past few decades.
    • Vuredel, on 05/04/2008, -0/+4I'm pretty sure the article never claimed to be groundbreaking.
  • rinote, on 05/04/2008, -19/+1I get "vibes" from people. When I meet someone I can almost hear what they're feeling. It's kind of like listening to a radio turned down really low.
    • nociva, on 06/30/2008, -7/+1It might be a form of empathy.
      • l33tspam, on 05/04/2008, -2/+2Probably not...Humans can't experience that, silly.
    • maliath, on 05/04/2008, -2/+5Wanna come listen to new-age music while we make dreamcatchers together?
      • rinote, on 05/04/2008, -2/+1I know you're being sarcastic and this makes Rainbow Moonchild weep.
  • atact88, on 05/04/2008, -1/+11I wonder if having synesthesia would be a gift or a curse?
    • fracai, on 05/04/2008, -0/+10or both! o_O
    • gllopc, on 05/04/2008, -1/+9It depends on the severity. I've had a mild version of it my entire life, but I had no idea that I "had" something. It enabled me to create relationships between things that others didn't see, allowing me to learn faster; and so to that degree its useful. If these shapes and colors were overwhelming, though, I'd consider it a burden.
    • Khevenhuller, on 05/04/2008, -0/+5Synesthesia is connected to memory, so people who have this tend to learn better and remember more. It is typically considered a great advantage and synesthetes are generally extremely bright. Concert pianist Helene Grimaud has synesthesia, look her up. She's crazy smart.
    • BlanceBlackula, on 05/04/2008, -0/+4Depends on the senses being connected, too. I saw a special on this and this one musician could "see" the colors in sounds and they claimed it helped them compose new music. However, there was this other guy who could "smell" words, and he had to dump a great girlfriend, because her name smelled like rotten eggs.
    • AndrewDB, on 05/04/2008, -1/+1It makes listening to music unique. That's all I'll tell you. :)
    • jammerml, on 05/04/2008, -0/+5I've done this my entire life.....I think it let's me "cheat at fact memorization, and at other things....I associate letters, numbers, and musical tones with colors. I am a musician, but the biggest problem I have is that some of the letter colors don't correspond with the musical note.

      It's ok though...my only drawback that I've found is remembering certain important dates, for example, April 28th, and August 26th bare the same color to me.....that's fine except one's my daughter's birthday, and one's my anniversary......I can't for the life of me consistently distinguish between the two.
      • Seifey, on 05/05/2008, -0/+4Heres a tip, one is in April and the other is in August.
  • flogistan, on 05/04/2008, -3/+50I have this with musical keys. I thought everyone did until I started trying to explain it to people.
    • biggiantmat, on 05/04/2008, -3/+24I don't know why you're being dugg down. I have this to a certain extent as well. Some chords feel like a certain colour to me when I'm playing guitar, it's nothing too extreme just a sort of feeling. Digg me down too if you want, i don't need your approval.
      • flogistan, on 05/04/2008, -1/+4Right. I get colors for songs that are in a certain key too. A is red, E is black, C is yellow. It's not very clear cut with jazz chords or minor chords. That confuses it for me. It works with major scales for me best. It's just sortof there.
      • renegadeafk, on 05/04/2008, -1/+7Too much guitar hero?
    • parfait, on 05/04/2008, -1/+9You're hardly alone in that. There have been alot of people with music->colour synesthesia.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_with_s ...
    • flogistan, on 05/04/2008, -1/+2I know. I always hate those lists because most of those people are brilliant. I wish mine made me great at something, but it seems to benefit me in no certain way.
    • rinote, on 05/04/2008, -2/+26Lol I have this after playing too much guitar hero.
      • Scynet, on 05/04/2008, -0/+4Hah, this might actually be interesting to study further. If you associate a color to a tone for hours after hours in the early life, could you kind of "invoke" synesthesia?
        • Lith25, on 05/04/2008, -0/+2On another note, could you in effect teach 'perfect-pitch'. Imagine hearing a tone and relating it to a color, then by knowing what color it is you can distinguish the note. Adding the extra step may make it easier than trying to go straight from a tone to a note. Just an idea.
    • bluesdealer, on 05/04/2008, -0/+4Music is often the most cited example. I don't really hear different keys in colors, but I do for intervals or scale degrees. I guess that's why I'm really good with harmonies and relative pitch, but don't have even a trace of perfect pitch.
    • ultrafez, on 05/04/2008, -0/+4I have absolute pitch, which a lot of people ask me if it is like colour synesthesia, i.e. do I see colours when I hear musical notes. The only real way I can explain it to people is by saying that you know what a colour is when you see it; it's just the same with me, except I know what a musical note is when I hear it. It actually freaks out quite a lot of people!
      • ngmcs8203, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1I'd hate to have absolute pitch and have to teach high school choir groups. That'd be aggravating as hell.
        • ultrafez, on 05/07/2008, -0/+1It's actually incredibly annoying when you hear a song on the radio/TV and they have transposed it up or down a few pitches, because it immediately stands out to me and just sounds plain *wrong*, yet nobody else seems to be bothered by it.
          Also all of those little kiddy toy music keyboard things are set to the wrong pitch, so middle-C comes out as b-flat, it's absolute hell, I tell you... not that I play little kiddy toy music keyboards.
  • Lythium, on 05/04/2008, -1/+4Neurologist Oliver Sacks describes several analogous cases in his books.... "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" definitely had a similar case, and I think so did "An Anthropologist on Mars." Absolutely fascinating reading.
    • flogistan, on 05/04/2008, -2/+1Didn't the wife for a hat guy have brain damage? I don't think this is the same kindof thing.
      • Lythium, on 05/04/2008, -0/+3I haven't read it in a few years, so I don't remember exactly.... I wasn't actually referring to that specific case, but really, whether the cognitive problems come from trauma or from abnormal development, you can still draw parallels between the symptoms and their possible causes.
    • TeagueSterling, on 05/04/2008, -0/+3That was a good book, I also don't remember if it was a case of brain damage which caused that or not. He was a music professor or something, wasn't he? Another one which is more along the lines of synesthesia is "The Man Who Tasted Shapes" by Richard E.. Cytowic. The idea of one identifying different tastes with geometric shapes, and using that as a basis for what he cooked is just mind boggling.
    • ngmcs8203, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1Great author. He recently wrote, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain.

      Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain examines the extreme effects of music on the human brain and how lives can be utterly transformed by the simplest of harmonies. With clinical studies covering the tragic (individuals afflicted by an inability to connect with any melody) and triumphant (Alzheimer's patients who find order and comfort through music), Sacks provides an erudite look at the notion that humans are truly a "musical species."
  • pegothejerk, on 05/04/2008, -1/+10Daniel Tammet is one of the most interesting persons with this ability. He is also a math and languages savant, able to learn languages in days and rattle off pi to 22,500 decimal places. He can do math by seeing the shapes, textures, sounds, and colors of the numbers.
    • mooseontheloose, on 05/04/2008, -11/+2hes also a gay
      • Anomaly100, on 05/04/2008, -0/+2I think thou does protest too much....
    • fermcg, on 05/04/2008, -2/+1Seems like those films where the hacker interacts with the computer like it was some sort of video game
    • Spaceomega, on 05/04/2008, -0/+4http://tinyurl.com/34yaox
      There's a documentary on him, for those interested.
    • cotaskmemalloc, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1I saw a special on him on TV a few weeks ago. Watching him rattle off pi to 22,500 decimal places was absolutely mindblowing. I think he also learned Icelandic in something like 5 days, too, and it was apparently flawless.
    • Weejay, on 05/05/2008, -0/+2Yeah, unlike that girl in the article who's basically useless, he's a goddamn genius.
  • KFantasy017, on 05/04/2008, -1/+8I just can't fathom someone's breath smelling like dark blue.
  • elizabethb221, on 05/04/2008, -2/+46Did everything just taste purple there for a second?
  • sovereign3, on 05/04/2008, -14/+4Am I the only one skeptical about this? Or am I just a close-minded clod?
    • flogistan, on 05/04/2008, -1/+3It's real. I have it. You don't even notice it. It's no big deal like they make it seem in describing it. It seems natural to you. I don't know why it's there, or if they're right about what it is, but it's real.
    • fermcg, on 05/04/2008, -0/+3the article says it's RARE but real... although kind of 2 or 3 people popped out 'having' this in this very same thread :) I'd still bet on flashbacks, LSD and stuff for 99% of the reports.
      • flogistan, on 05/04/2008, -0/+5You're on digg. Think about how many people see this and don't vote or post. The article will attract the people interested in this article. You're not getting a random sample here. You're getting people all over the world who were interested in this article when they saw it come up. The article itself draws the higher concentration of people with the condition.
      • bluesdealer, on 05/04/2008, -0/+3The extreme cases are rare, but I remember seeing someone from TED Talks who said that everyone has it to some degree... it's just part of how the brain works and associates. He proved it by drawing two shapes (which he called Martian letters) on a whiteboard, gave two pronounciations, then asked the audience to assign a pronunciation to a letter. Everyone guess correctly based on associating tones with shapes.
        • flogistan, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1I love that guy. That Indian guy. Who the hell is he? He is just the most interesting guy to listen to ramble on about the ***** he knows. I wish I could get a torrent of that guys class lectures.
    • sovereign3, on 05/04/2008, -1/+6I get dugg down for asking a serious and legitimate question.

      I only ask because like the above poster mentioned, at least half of the commenters to this story claim to have this rare ability.
      • fracai, on 05/04/2008, -0/+4It's a real condition.

        The majority of posters here probably don't really have it (though who knows, Digg isn't exactly a controlled random sample) but can relate or maybe associate colors with certain experiences. This association doesn't mean they have synesthesia. We link all kinds of different features of events as cues to remember the event. It doesn't mean that you actually experienced that synesthetic feature during the actual event. It was most likely applied afterwards.
        • cotaskmemalloc, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1One of the biggest indications that someone 'has it' is consistency. Just because you associate colors with something, like fracai said, doesn't mean you have synesthesia. But if you can consitently report that something is a certain color over a very long period of time, then it's far more likely you 'have it'. For example, if the letter 'G' is orange for someone one month, then several months later, is black, then it's probably just an association your brain makes because of some experience you had. But if years later 'G' is still orange for you, then its the synesthesia. Ask me any time, any day, any month, any year to rattle off the colors of the alphabet, and I can - consistenly, without them every changing. Most people who think they have it cannot do that.
      • cotaskmemalloc, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1Yeah, I don't know why you're being dugg down. It's perfectly fine to be skeptical about it - like I sad in another comment, it does sound crazy. But it is real. And I do think it's a bit funny that so many people commenting on this story 'have it'. But I've read studies that indicate it's not that rare; I dispute the article on that point.
      • gllopc, on 05/04/2008, -0/+2You weren't wrong for asking the question. Although I have synesthesia (to a minor degree), I didn't think anything wrong with your question, and so I dugg you up.

        There's a psychology to diggs, and I think you're just a victim of people who believe that you are saying that it doesn't exist. It really all comes down to the way you asked the question. If you rephrased the question as, "I've never heard of this. Does anyone have any examples?", it keeps the sensitive people from feeling like you're calling them liars for believing that they have synesthesia.
      • N256, on 05/04/2008, -0/+5You'd probably be more likely to comment if an article mentions a rare disorder that you happen to have. I'm also pretty sure there are plenty of people who genuinely think they have it when they don't.
    • parfait, on 05/04/2008, -0/+4The girl in the article is a bit of an anomaly; most synesthetes only have one pairing. I associate colour with letters which is known as grapheme->colour synesthesia. I just figured that I had spent too much time playing with fridge magnets when I was a kid...

      The article makes it seem like a super power but it's more like word association.
      • flogistan, on 05/04/2008, -0/+2True. She is like the rain man of synesthesia.
    • cotaskmemalloc, on 05/04/2008, -0/+2I have it. Almost as pronounced as the woman in the article. And I do not in any way blame you for being skeptical - I can see how it would sound absolutely crazy to someone without it.
    • RAEP, on 05/04/2008, -0/+2Richard D. James (Aphex Twin) claims to have synesthesia.
    • BillOReilly08, on 05/04/2008, -1/+2you're a closed-minded clod.
    • Infidelcastr0, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1Nothing wrong with questioning something you don't have first hand experience with, but yes it is real, I experience mild conceptual synesthesia, as I have a feeling many right-brain types probably do to some extent.
    • Alimack, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1PIcs, sounds or smells or it didn't happen.
  • wastedpanda, on 05/04/2008, -9/+14I have this. The word synesthesia smells like *****, to me.
    j/k
    • ithejosh, on 05/04/2008, -1/+6shouldn't have put the JK. would have been funnier.
  • SwedishNinja, on 05/04/2008, -2/+62The schnozzberries taste like schnozzberries!
    • cotaskmemalloc, on 05/04/2008, -1/+7Hahaha, best comment ever. If I could digg you up repeatedly for this, I would.
    • rkd1312, on 05/04/2008, -4/+0hahaha willy wonka
    • Tyrghast, on 05/04/2008, -2/+1CANDY BAR
  • finnmaccool, on 05/04/2008, -2/+2We all know that the senses of smell and taste and closely meshed - its not too much of a stretch to imagine the same for sight and the other senses. Seems to me synesthetics have a gift - they're making the most use of all five senses.
  • Sabakunoneji, on 05/04/2008, -3/+10Yup I have this. I see colors with letters and numbers. I thought everyone did until I realized that no one knew what I was talking about.
    • prgmctan, on 05/04/2008, -0/+2I do it too:

      Right/Left
      Days of the Week
      Music notes

      I thought it was pretty common too.
    • logandurand, on 05/04/2008, -0/+2Same here - I've always had this kind of association (1 = white, 2 = dark blue, etc). I thought it was the same for everyone until I talked to a friend about it and got that "wtf is wrong with you" look.
  • Hillsfar, on 05/04/2008, -2/+18I have a musician friend who has synesthesia. Her ability to feel music is enhanced by color because sounds had a visual component. She associated my speech with the color blue.

    She said sex can be mindblowing - orgasms are accompanied by rainbows! Makes me jealous just thinking about that.
    • jammerml, on 05/04/2008, -0/+2maybe true...but I can't imagine how that would cross over.....I have it in Grapheme, and numeral versions, including timbre and pitch....
    • lmf49, on 05/04/2008, -0/+3Can I meet your friend?
      • Hillsfar, on 05/05/2008, -0/+1She's engaged and getting married this year.
  • Slackdragon, on 05/04/2008, -2/+4What color is an orgasm?
    • fermcg, on 05/04/2008, -1/+15imagine the oposite... the person sees the color and feels an orgasm
    • RAEP, on 05/04/2008, -14/+5Anal orgasm is brown, vaginal orgasm is pink.
    • Hillsfar, on 05/04/2008, -0/+2From what I understand, it is subjecive, so it would depend on the person.
  • alliallialli, on 05/04/2008, -5/+8I have this. Numbers and letters each come with their own colors and personalities. For instance, the number seven is sort of a purplish red, and is really posh and well-educated. Sometimes, though, the associations fluctuate for me depending on the handwriting of the person, but they usually stay within the same sort of region.
    • Vuredel, on 05/04/2008, -0/+4You just made me laugh with the "posh and well-educated" number seven. XD Reminds me of Sesame Street or something.
  • Greyscale88, on 05/04/2008, -1/+7I agree with this article. Confusion is Orange.
  • CaviMike, on 05/04/2008, -3/+26So she's tripping 24/7? I'm jealous.

    I'm not kidding either.
  • Syphon8, on 05/04/2008, -1/+4I have the most common type, color -> grapheme. And some music also gives me a visual sensation.
  • fermcg, on 05/04/2008, -6/+55Is it just me or this RARE condition is being reported by kind of 10% of people commenting here?
    • BillOReilly08, on 05/04/2008, -3/+7Please don't start calling everybody liars. More people need to be aware that they are unaware of most things.
    • lonehunter01, on 05/04/2008, -4/+4Welcome to Digg
    • tresorArt, on 05/04/2008, -2/+27more like those 'rare' individuals are more inclined to respond when they see an article that's about them. It's not like every digger ever replies to every article. Of course the ones you are most interested in you are going to comment on.
      • Protoss, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1I don't think this guy understands how huge the Digg community has gotten over the years. It's entirely believable for 10 or so percent of the people commenting have synesthesia.
    • ashfish, on 05/04/2008, -1/+7The digg community is also quite big so it wouldn't surprise me to have a few people pop up in the same thread when the article is about something they have.
    • aetherboy, on 05/04/2008, -1/+5It might have to do with the fact that the story gets around and Digg has a pretty big audience, so it makes sense that this story would draw those who have this to comment.
  • BrokenCircle, on 05/04/2008, -1/+8I think everyone to an extent at some point or another has bouts of synesthesia.
  • cotaskmemalloc, on 05/04/2008, -2/+16I've known about this for awhile, I have almost all of the symptoms they describe the woman in the article having. Granted, the colors I experience are different for me (although N is orange for me, too). But it's still cool to see an article like this pop up.

    It's funny, like the article says, I really would feel like I was deprived of a sense if I no longer had this. It's pretty damn useful when programming. I can see nice color coded visualizations of designs in my head, it helps me keep track of things. It's also a godsend when it comes to music; I play guitar, bass and drums, and I can see each note in color, for me, I can 'translate' music to and from 'color'. I have no control over it. It just happens. It really must sound crazy to someone without synesthesia. When they find out I have it people always ask me what color something is.
    • Louis11, on 05/04/2008, -0/+5"It's pretty damn useful when programming. I can see nice color coded visualizations of designs in my head"

      You sure your not just looking at syntax highlighting in some IDE? :-P
      • Lazydriver, on 05/04/2008, -0/+3Syntax highlighting is a godsend though, so he's right.
      • cotaskmemalloc, on 05/05/2008, -0/+2Haha :-)
        As soon as I posted that I knew someone was going to come back with syntax highlighting.

        It's not really like that. It's hard to explain... It's more like UML.
  • SpeedyG, on 05/04/2008, -2/+1I'm sorry, but the first thing I thought of when I read the headline was Frank Caliendo's impression of Bill Walton (go to 6:25): http://youtube.com/watch?v=AEJG06qEwLA#
  • swimmingsolid, on 05/04/2008, -6/+0yeah when i work with numbers i usually think of them as people of a certain age and what they look like. same with letters. like for example and a 5 is a kind of overweight 40 year old woman, would most likely make friends with B.
  • packman86, on 05/04/2008, -2/+35with great color comes great responsotastety
  • lordsteve, on 05/04/2008, -3/+38Lamest superpower ever.
    • boomernet, on 05/04/2008, -7/+1not so, what about meg's incredibly amazing ability to grow her fingernails (Family Guy rocks)
  • withani, on 05/04/2008, -7/+2i've got this too.
  • airwalke, on 05/04/2008, -1/+10I feel that this is probably a perceived condition by a number of people here, including me. Most words, though I don't see them in color, "feel" like a certain color. I brought this up with a psych professor once, and he thought it might have something to do with the way we learn when we're young. Many kindergarten classrooms have the alphabet listed across the top of the room above the chalkboard, with all the letters represented in a myriad of colors. He said it's possible that if those letters were colored, we learned to associate that color with that letter. Just food for thought.
    • Cerebron, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1Most reasonable theory here so far.
    • Tarsmus, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1I have also heard that theory. I have the Grapheme form, and grew up associating colors with letters. One problem with that, however, was that I distinctly remember wondering in kindergarten why the colors on the letters on the alphabet we had in the room were wrong, because a lot of the letters are different. Also, the pattern of my colors wouldn't be likely to be made into a printed design, due to repeating colors (M and N are almost exactly the same, which someone creating a poster probably wouldn't do).
    • Jashobeam5, on 05/06/2008, -0/+1Interesting take on the subject. I've never met anyone with this ability, and part of me doubts most who claim to have it. It might be associated with OCD. As a child, to me, numbers were either good, bad or neutral, for no apparent reason. I think this was mild OCD which many children show signs of. I have problems with colors, though. I have a very hard time remembering colors. I usually have to make a mental note to remember the color of a person's hair or eyes if I want to remember it. I guess I usually remember things in greyscale.
  • roanne, on 05/04/2008, -0/+10I know what orange tastes like.
  • Inverno, on 05/04/2008, -0/+11Dr House tells me this is a symptom.
    • logandurand, on 05/04/2008, -1/+10of lupus.
    • Lith25, on 05/04/2008, -0/+7IT'S NEVER LUPUS!

      --*****, replied to the wrong comment
      • Inverno, on 05/04/2008, -0/+4Except that one time, then it was totally lupus. (Season 4, one of the newer ones)
    • raintheory, on 05/04/2008, -1/+3he also took LSD for migraine... Season 2, Episode 12 :)
  • dreamchaser04, on 05/04/2008, -0/+4I've known about synesthesia for a while, but I have the "conceptual" type that deals with abstract concepts: the way they described the months of the year as a ribbon is pretty much exactly how I see it. Math forms a sort of upside down pyramid with the point being number 1 and the higher numbers forming longer and longer rows above it. I don't, however, have any color association that I'm consciously aware of.
    • garywilliams, on 05/05/2008, -0/+1I can't help but visualize calendar years as being on a vertical ribbon, with later years being higher than earlier years, with an S-curve in it near the year 2000. Sometimes I see it from the "back" side, other times from other perspectives. I just assumed everyone imagined it similarly.
      • Jashobeam5, on 05/06/2008, -0/+1I see time as a ribbon in a circle, have since I was a child. No one else seemed to understand this concept. I'm OK at math, also.
  • MissChance, on 05/04/2008, -2/+14My sister has synesthesia. When we were young I thought she was just trying to get attention whenever she referred to the color of words. It wasn't until we were adults that we found out what she had, it was an incredible relief to her because she had learned to suppress speaking about it because of peoples strange reactions. It has in fact become a huge asset to her. For example she has always been a top student because she's had an extra sense associated with memorization. When she hears information she not only hears the words but has colors tagged to the information that are always constant. I have to admit that I'm very jealous. She says that listening to music is pleasurable for the sound but she also sees colors within the sound. Listening to birds singing is a wonderful experience, each bird has its own color in its song. You have to admit that sounds pretty amazing.
    • pault107, on 05/04/2008, -1/+1Yeah, it does sound amazing. I wonder how far this phenomena goes back - is it evolution and in a couple of million years we'll all have it? If humans are still living in a couple of million years, that is.
    • EricSancho, on 05/04/2008, -0/+5Thank you for sharing this! I feel the same between music and numbers. When I was little I felt awkward when people didn't understand what I was talking about. I learned to suppress it just like your sister. Reading what you're saying brought tears to my eyes, it's hard for me to explain, but even if I don't like math class, it's incredably beatifull, and listening music makes me feel great. Thank you for commenting.
  • kavitak, on 05/04/2008, -2/+1Amazing...
  • ppvanzella, on 05/04/2008, -1/+14Damn! I can hardly SEE color.
    • maelnum, on 05/05/2008, -0/+1Agreed. Colorblind here. So there is much envy in this one.
  • m2tek, on 05/04/2008, -0/+4I heard that after taking LSD, you could have similar effects for a while. Interesting thing, although haven't tried it yet. Have anybody?
    • YellowSnowDemon, on 05/04/2008, -0/+6This is Digg. Everybody is on drugs.
    • pault107, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1A friend of mine said he could hear things he touched whilst on LSD. Different textures made different sounds in his brain when he moved his had across them. Freaky.
    • Vuredel, on 05/04/2008, -0/+5What would happen if somebody with synesthesia took LSD? :p
    • raintheory, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1synaesthesia has been known to occur with LSD and other hallucinogens... You'd have to get some pretty potent stuff I'd imagine, and it would be more difficult to comprehend the synaesthesia because you are 1. on drugs, and 2. not used to it. Most likely you'd just say you were tripping instead of "hey I have synaesthesia!"
      • Protoss, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1I'm sure you'd be able to comprehend the fact that your senses are crossed.
  • PnkRckMiguel, on 05/04/2008, -0/+4This is so interesting. I actually did my midterm for my psychology class on Synesthesia.
  • NervousEnergy, on 05/04/2008, -2/+2I have this too..I have grapheme->colour synesthesia, plus sound->emotion/colour synesthesia. I see letters, numbers, words, and phrases as certain groups of colours. Has saved me in spelling tests numerous times. Certains sounds can produce intense feelings inside me; either despair, happyness, or whatever. When I was a kid I had no idea that no one else in my school had the same thing as me.
  • rootsm3, on 05/04/2008, -5/+1the color of this article is puke green....i think everybody has this to a point. whats the big deal??
    • Hillsfar, on 05/04/2008, -0/+2You are just jealous.
      • rootsm3, on 05/05/2008, -1/+0im not jealous cause i'm saying everybody does this to a point....uh mood rings helllo??? (jk)
  • MrSidnet, on 05/04/2008, -0/+2"They can feel isolated and alone in their experiences." I can't help but wonder what colour that is...
  • solid12345, on 05/04/2008, -0/+6Purple is a fruit...
  • JJCDAD, on 05/04/2008, -1/+2Pictures in a box at home
    Yellowing and green with mold
    So I can barely see your face
    Wonder how that color tastes
    -Alice In Chains
  • nunia, on 05/04/2008, -4/+2I'm a synæsthete, and I don't feel so damned special because of it.

    But my hypnopompic/hypnagogic hallucinations -- let me show you them.
  • jkremer3, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1Video on the topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvwTSEwVBfc
  • Xihix, on 05/04/2008, -0/+3"Oh thats nothing, my dad can hear pudding."
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