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

livescience.com — When Ingrid Carey says she feels colors, she does not mean she sees red, or feels blue, or is green with envy. She really does feel them. She can also taste them, and hear them, and smell them.

Who dugg this? Made popular May 2, 2007

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  • mmalone, on 10/12/2007, -5/+103Take some LSD and you can hear what orange smells like too. Welcome to 1960.
  • cwshea, on 10/12/2007, -29/+114Finally, a story that doesn't have anything to do with 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0.
  • PhantomBantam, on 10/12/2007, -10/+38Can they taste hex?
  • tehbored, on 10/12/2007, -6/+33I wonder what would happen if she took some acid. Maybe it would have the reverse effect and make everything normal... or maybe it would just do irreparable damage to her brain.
  • trump48257, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22@scottious

    Yea it's not really that rare. We talked about it briefly in Med School. I know at least 3 people with varying degrees of Synesthesia. Interestingly enough I broke the news to a girl that came to a youth vocation camp that I worked at one year. She had it and didn't even realize it. We were doing an exercise on how certain words made you feel...her answers were "blue" and "white" among others. It was so interesting...she just assumed everyone else experienced the world like her...in fact she was a little sad to find out that others didn't experience that. And then a friend of mine's dad has is related to music. He sees color in pitches--it's kinda crazy. Yea...he has perfect pitch too (probably attributable to being able to see the pitches)--makes me jealous :)
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -8/+25This is getting out of ***** control almost every story on the home page is people trying to be cool about the whole HD-DVD thing.
  • TheWorm, on 10/12/2007, -7/+23Thank you for a story not involving hd-dvd.
  • Loonacy, on 10/12/2007, -12/+24Did anyone else read this article and try to find some hidden hex characters?
  • Klarth, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13I am a synaesthete in that I experience sounds as colours... None of my other senses are cross-wired like that, though.
  • nightchrome, on 10/12/2007, -7/+18Yes, finally, a non-hex posting. I have absolutely no interest in this story, but will digg it just on principle.
  • mattmcm, on 10/12/2007, -6/+16Nothing. Get over it.
  • mrbeagle, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Blindfold her, then give her a wax crayon and ask her to determine the color by touch. She'll get it wrong.
  • TGMD, on 10/12/2007, -5/+13Very cool stuff, I'd imagine it is a lot like taking a lot of drugs...

    oh and on a side note it's good to see a real story on digg....Damn spammers
  • mattski2191, on 04/09/2009, -1/+8Could someone tell me what the hell happend. I checked digg 3 hours ago and I come back and there is a massive revolt now.
  • gislib, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"Many synesthetes fear ridicule for their unusual abilities. They can feel isolated and alone in their experiences."

    So they feel royal-blue and aqua?
  • cyrix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6That's because it's gone beyond overboard now.

    I agree with the sentiments felt by many users here, but come on, this is absurd now. I would like to see at least one non related story on the front page within my lifetime.
  • TGMD, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8The 12 year olds that have apparently overrun digg seem to have gotten upset...


    Wait a day they will forget and everything will be as it was...
  • cryptomystic, on 10/12/2007, -10/+15DUGGGGGGGGG , ***** that stupid Hex code, get a life people!
  • dmsean, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4RE: tehbored

    what the US government calls damage we call evolution.
  • lp66, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I am too, although it only occurs on occasion. I'm a musician, and some pieces have definite color associations for me. It especially happens when I'm going to sleep or waking up, though. At that time, if I hear sounds, I'll see oranges, purples, and blues especially (so that covers most of the spectrum-sorry). Actually, my sister and I just realized about a month ago that that happens to both of us. And I, too, have perfect pitch.
  • crashingstar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I have number form; I see numbers or sequences (like the calendar) in spatial locations. It's kind of hard to describe and I don't quite understand how it involves my senses (not as cut and dry as say grapheme-color), but it is apparently synesthesia.

    I've just graduated from art school and found it pretty common around there. I think 1 in 23 in the population are synesthetic and those who are tend to be creatively inclined which is why it was so common in art school. And it's genetic, which explains a few comments regarding other family members experiencing synesthesia.
  • danamania, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I don't have synaesthesia normally, but post-migraine it comes out as a link between scents and colours. After the visual effects that precede a migraine, apart from getting confused in general, scents are colours. As someone who doesn't experience it most of the time, it's pretty intense, and makes the confusion all the worse. Last migraine I had was a week ago, and blueberry muffins in the oven at the time smelled crimson - while I was laying down in bed, I was surrounded by it - I smelled black in the air too, but don't know if that was part of the muffin scent, or something else scented around me.

    I didn't notice the synaesthesia until I found a fix for the migraines either - before that, all I remember is the pain. If I down a strong coffee (for the caffeine) with aspirin and sugar all at the same time before the visual effects go and the pain would normally start, I miss the pain part - which just leaves me out of it for an hour or so, and a nice euphoria for a few hours once the weirdness has all subsided. Without that fix, I'm in pain for a couple of days.
  • iknoritesrsly, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5this is really old news...

    anyways, i dated a girl who had this thing and she was a complete ***** psychopath. i'm sure it doesn't apply to everyone, but goddamn. couldn't listen to the music i wanted without putting on headphones, because it made her see ugly colors. couldn't say certain things because it made her see more ugly colors. she was manically depressive, because of whatever tint the world was when she woke up each day.

    never again.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -9/+13Dugg for not being about a ***** hex code.
  • wiihippie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4reading about this really made me question reality. i mean if they see (taste, feel, hear, smell) these things it doesnt mean its not real. it just shows me that we all have our own reality and i feel like their the lucky ones.
  • wounded625, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4if you could, could you try to explain that more? it'd be kind of cool to understand what that is like.
  • androothebear, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6I was gonna say... these people arent special.. they're just constantly tripping...
  • DaffyDuck, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I wonder how taupe feels.
  • realdcurtis, on 06/03/2009, -0/+3When my mother was awoken from a week-long drug-induced coma, everything she ate tasted "so blue it hurts." Then, for the next few months, every time she ate steak she would complain of the blue taste.

    I think synaesthesia has much more far-reaching implications than many people are realizing. These connections between sensory information are things you can see, feel, or experience, but maybe this phenomenon is how the brain works as a whole? Think about metaphor, about abstraction, about all of those interesting qualities that make language work-- the translation of an idea into words and sentences.

    Indeed, think about language itself. When you say "big" or "huge" or something like that, your face gets big, your mouth is large; they are genuinely 'large'-sounding words mimicking the underlying idea. So I think thought, language, metaphor, and memory are all very intricate forms of the process we see with synaesthesia. When it affects the senses, it just becomes more apparent.




  • flyinghigh91, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3i believe that this article really does show the power of the brain. imagine what we could do if we expanded our minds. think of all the new technology we could make.
  • raithetarkon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4It's easy to prove. They check for consistency with colours and certain pitches and timbres of sounds.

    Either someone is a synesthete, or they are a genius. It's easy to tell which with other tests.
  • smartsingh24, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3i'm confused as to if i am a syesthate. I think of tunes in colors (e.g., dark tune for me, brings up reds, blacks and shades of green in my head), but the article on wikipedia was talking about notes and tones in colors, something I really don't think of normally in colors. Either way, i'm messed in the head :D.
  • Rheikon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2white is all color black is none. i imagine it really just has to do with what senses are crossed. if you have color associated with sound or taste then maybe. would be intersting if it all was the same between all people. and its not that just brings a whole new level of complexity.
  • scottious, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5I know lots of people with Synesthesia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia
  • Doompuppet, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5this story ruined it.
  • jtn191, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Duke Ellington and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (of Flight of the Bumble Bee fame) are a couple famous "Synesthesics", if that's what you'd call them. Rimsky-Korsakov saw the keys of a piece as different colors.
  • Sabakunoneji, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I have synesthesia too. It's weird because I always thought tasting letters and seeing music happened to everyone, and I was always so disappointed when people answered my question "What are YOUR colors?" with "Huh?" Only recently have I found that some of my closest friends have varying degrees of synesthesia. It's always fun to compare our perceptions with each other.
  • xstarsprinklesx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Interesting note: the Simon Baron-Cohen quoted in the sidebar in the article is Sasca Baron-Cohen's cousin.
  • asdfasdf, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Listen. Read the list of effects and then scroll down and go to 'experiences' and read those.

    http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd.shtml

    Here's something interesting. Baba Ram Dass was with his guru, who spotted his little pouch of LSD hits. He literally snagged the hits and downed all of them. Baba Ram Dass was in shock, being a very experienced psychonaut (LSD is the reason he became very spiritual and changed his name from Dr.Richard Alpert to Baba Ram Dass), he has never seen anyone take that many hits, and was certain his guru would freak out. His guru remained calm throughout the entire experience, keeping himself in control, but occasionally giggling and laughing.

    Anyway, the key to maintaining the state of mind LSD gives you is meditation. LSD is a great motivator, and a life changing substance that every human should experience. Not doing so is equivalent to missing out on falling in love, or any other profound experience.
  • luet, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3A lot of people are synesthetes... e.g., me. Honestly I never even knew it was abnormal to think and sense in colours and taste and whatnot until very recently. It suprised me greatly.
  • sjqchill, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Amen!
  • milo3600, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Aphex Twin claims to have synesthesia. "Selected Ambient Works" is allegedly a direct synesthesic interpretation of a series of photographs into musical pieces. This is such a cool idea that I don't care if it's *****.
  • jandeloo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3This isn't new, though to be fair I only knew there was a name for it 5 or so years ago... around the time I figured out that most other people didn't "think" like me.

    I wouldn't call it rare though.
  • OrangeyTang, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I have a friend with synaesthesia which means that most things are represented with colour. He has perfect musical pitch because the notes are all specific colours so when he say hears the note C played he'll see the colour orange. He also sees letetrs and numbers as different colours.

    He has a site here:-
    http://www.next17.com/
    this details his problem and also what colours certain things are.
  • ohthedaysofyore, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3And my friends always laughed at me when I said the Blue M&Ms tasted better than the rest.
  • jammerml, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is not exactly what it's like. It's more like in your head, when you hear it, it is just percieved as a color. I do it, I know a C chord is yellow, and an arpegiated run is several quick bursts of color. It can be very disorienting, yet motivating when playing.
  • imeddy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2No no, NOT digging the code is the new Cool !
  • peterlocke123, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There are actually two different types of synesthesia. Visual/Projected and Associated. People with the V/P type actually SEE the colors. People, like me, who have the Associated type just associate/percieve the numbers or letters to have color.
  • Dvs.Ctns.Hvrms, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3You can see colors that don't exist on DMT.
  • famousdave, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1test
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