Just add senses and stir!

Does anyone else get interference with their senses, like when two senses are being stimulated, one lessens the other, or cancels it out entirely?

For example, I've noticed that my sense of smell is much stronger in the dark. I can enter a dark room that smells like smoke and be overwhelmed by the smell, but as soon as I turn the light on, the smell of smoke becomes so faint I can hardly detect it. (and this also happens when I turn the light on in a matter of seconds, so I know it's not that I'm adjusting to the smell over a period of time.)

Also, sounds can interfere with my sense of taste. If I'm eating something, for example, and then a loud, continuous sound starts up (like music, a lawn mower in the next yard, etc), I can barely taste my food. Somewhat related is the way that loud music eliminates physical pain for me (including headaches, oddly enough). I can't feel pain over the music. And the second the noise stops, the pain returns.

Is this even synesthesia related, or is it not as uncommon as I imagine? Does it happen to anyone else here?

A couple months ago, a friend and I ended up on a discussion about sound -> taste synaesthesia, and a question occurred to us: "Do you ever feel full after listening to music?"

I guess the idea would be to be so full on the tastes after a long list of music, you couldn't stand to eat anything after the medley you just experienced. It sounds silly, but I could imagine feeling a little nauseous after experiencing the flavors of a playlist, then poking around the kitchen for something to eat.
I could definitely be wrong on the whole music to taste thing, but it sounds interesting. So far I've only seen people having words to taste, or sounds to colors and shapes, but the music to taste experience sounds conceivable (Or it could be just a daydream :P).
If you experience any sound to taste, or even word/letter to taste, do you have a favorite tasting song, or word/letter? Perhaps just a favorite sound or even color to taste sensation?

I know this all seems very fangirly, but the whole anything -> taste sounds pretty cool.

I had a debate one day with my best friends about what their names would taste like. I just sort of think about it for a moment, and it comes to me. I think the name Haley would taste cool and clear like a glass of purified water, but can have a color that switches between magenta to steel-gray-blue color.I guess I don't really have the taste sensation, but when I think of a name, a food comes to mind, not based on the person. It's mostly just food to name thoughts, but some names have a personality which leads to color. Not exactly a personality, but they are always unique in their own way, which leads them to have a specific color for the name. Some of the names call in my head a little louder when it comes to relating them to foods. It's probably just my imagination, since it doesn't usually pop up, unless I think about the name specifically.
Vanessa, I imagine, tastes like semi-salted butter, while the name Larry tastes a little dusty.
Heh. I'm sort of silly like that.

So I'm sitting at my desk, switching between listening to music on headphones and through speakers. So I pose a question for all of you music-see'ers! When you associate/see music or sound, do you 'see' it @ the source of sound?

When I listen to music through my headphones, I 'see' (and feel) the sound cluster directly in my head (between both ears). I'm a strong associater, but I "feel" the textures and and sensations of music so much more when through headphones. I also cannot process many other thoughts and I go all glossy-eyed and visually absent when I'm really feelin' a tune through headphones.

Relate and share your experiences!

Also, I should point out that I don't taste shapes at all, I just liked it as a handle. I'd like to experience shape tasting, though.

Greetings to all.

The following question is semi-synesthesia related: Do any of you who see colored numbers reverse them, say, when you're copying them or calculating them, a disproportional amount of the time. For instance, when you think of or see the number 48, do you copy it is 84?

If so, is this common among synesthetes? Or, is this a separate condition entirely? Is there a name for it?

Thanks.

 I've heard of people seeing colors for pitch or for musical insturments but i have something kind of different. I see colors and shapes for songs. each song has a different visual picture and it always stays the same. i dont see colors or shapes for single notes or any of that. occasionally when two songs sound very similar (like how under pressure and ice ice baby have the same background music) the shapes and colors will be almost the same. ive been researching synaesthesia for a while and i haven't found anyone else who sees pictures and shapes for songs. have any of yall heard of this type before? is it really synesthesia or is it something else?

Public Release: 6-Aug-2008
Current Biology
Caltech neurobiologists discover individuals who 'hear' movement
Individuals with synesthesia, or cross-activated senses, perceive the world differently from others, with some perceiving numbers or letters as having colors or days of the week as possessing personalities. Now, researchers at Caltech have discovered a type of synesthesia in which individuals hear sounds when they see things move or flash. The scientists say auditory synesthesia, which had never been identified, may represent an enhanced form of how the brain normally processes visual information.
Mind Science Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Mathers Foundation, NIH/National Institute of Mental Health
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-08/ciot-cnd080608.php

I always look out for any synaesthesia related articles in magazines, found this one today in newscientist:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14459-screensaver-reveals-new-test-for-synaesthesia.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news9_head_dn14459


I don't hear anything :( But sometimes if i listen to certain music i see sounds moving around me, and feel them coming towards me, but i've never had that the other way around.


I was just wondering how many of you synaesthetes experience the movement-sound? and if you do, do you experience a similar sound-movement? (assuming it is possible to create the sound/movement like in the screensaver shown in the article??).

I recently realized, when trying to describe why I thought someone was crazy, that I actually have two synesthetic things going on that relate to personality.

The first one can appear when I'm thinking about anyone's personality. I get a sense of colors that tells me the same sort of stuff that Myers-Briggs tells you (I think this was affected when I learned about Myers-Briggs theory at 14, so that now the colors are similar to my colors for the letters that the theory uses).

The second one only shows up when I'm thinking about how someone is crazy, and it's a tactile texture thing. I've learned to associate some of these things with labels: "Oh, that person's personality feels plasticky and kind of slimy. They must be borderline." But I don't have words for most of them.

I'm not sure this is very useful, but I think it's kind of neat.

Does anyone else here experience something synesthetic related to people's craziness?

I've always been ecstatic knowing that I could see colors, shapes, and sounds in ways my friends could not. Of course the only downfall was when I confided ina few of my closer friends only to recieve negative remarks. While I found this puzzling at first I grew out of it and accepted everything that I was. For me, all letters have a number so it can be difficult when it comes to reading but now it is natural in every way. Another thing, is that most if not all sounds create various shapes and colors as well. Recently I took up a summer job at a kids camp with two of my other friends who gladly joined me. However, one night in the mess hall my synesthesia began acting up. Colors and patterns starting twisting in ways that made me feel sick and after only a few minutes I fainted. This hasn't been the only occassion in which this has happened. Anything now that has to do with it seems to hit me in waves that are almost painful. I'm not sure what is happening....

i posted a while back about when i was doing a *cough* certain thing, the colors of the room started to change.  i believe now that this was new because, now that i think back, i cannot recall it ever being light in the room before, therefore i would not have noticed the colors changing around me.  

and this other thing, which i have always known about but thought was very strange to be part of synethesia due to it's feel-feel thing.  when i feel a rough texture, my front teeth get a really strange sensation and i need to chew something to make it go away.  this, on top of the taste (often bad) did not seem significant until i found someone else with this type of synethesia. 

It's 9:30 PM on a Friday night and it feels rather dull.  I notice when this happens I crave fun, which in times like this I define as synesthetic color.

"Fun" in this sense can be food, drink, or action, although food tends to be the first one to come to mind (as it is so associated with socializing with friends, etc).  

The reason this strikes me as interesting is because I previously have not noticed a synesthetic association of color to taste.  Taste generally has shape or facial texture, but I haven't noticed it having color before.

The foods I begin to crave are colorful.  I generally prefer ethnic food, because there seems to be more taste and color in them.  Thai food is packed with flavor and is lovely green and pink.  I don't know that I particularly identify junk food in general as colorful, but "Health food" generally lacks color.

I was realizing color assocations with activities, as well.  We're debating right now as my partner wants to go peewee golfing, and I prefer bowling.  Golfing is 7 (mellow green).  Maybe 14 (white-blue), if minigolf.  Bowling, is 545.  (red and blue and red).  The red inherently qualifies bowling as "more fun".

There is probably a tie here too with 'more stimulation', since bowling alleys have music playing while out on the golf course you don't have that.

It's occurring to me that I really just need to get out of this house, though, and if it's stimulation and color I'm looking for, I may be just as happy to drive around listening to music as I would be bowling.

Sorry if this isn't organized well, with my dampered mood, but it's the first time these associations have really come into consciousness.

 Please tell me if this is synesthesia, i coudn't find a decent test!I don't think i'm actually special but i read someone's story that resembles mine so i thought to do some research. I see months on a 3d circle with january towards me and years on a vertical line with my living years on a curve towards right. I guess that's that...I have tinnitus too but that doesn't help me:-j Some sounds give me chills or make my tympanon vibrate agressively though there are smooth sounds.Some objects have sort of personalities...my lamp is a sothysticated lady, my monitor scares me and i feel anxios for no reason when i move, throw a specific object or feel they stare at me, protect me and i often feel i'm not quite alone.Hope that scared you.

I've got spatial-sound synaesthesia, so when I listen to music or sounds, they have a location. I can picture where each note and sound is in a song. And sometimes, sounds will have a shape and color to me, though not as often as a location. When I watched August Rush the other day, and the way the music was portrayed... it created a really strong... synaesthetic experience for me. I saw lots of colors and shapes, more than I've ever seen from any other song. And it was all at once! It really brought another level to the movie. :) I can imagine that for others with strong sound-synaesthesia, this movie would create strong reactions—am I right?

Can anyone think of any other movies like this? August Rush was the first one that really made a strong reaction for me. And, for those who have seen August Rush, what did you think of the way the sound was portrayed?

Synaesthesias I Have Experienced

(* Indicates varieties I am not certain of)
(I am certain I have experienced more varieties than this, but for the moment no more examples come to mind.)

Touch > Sight [When I close my eyes, I can see the shape of my body like light reflecting off polished glass, occasionally including bones or certain muscles (e.g. jaw, hands); on psychedelics, it is usually bright blue. This is the only variety of which I am mostly certain is permanent; other types I experience under the effects of various psychedelics.]

Sound > Grapheme [I have experienced letters manifest in my mind the same way your brain recognizes them when you read them off a page or sign, associated in real-time with sounds I hear. Sometimes, my mind tries to match them to actual words in my lexicon; this results in very strange letterchains like "smarmalyellow" (which I believe popped into my mind once while listening to the wind blow through the trees). This variety of synaesthesia actually caused me a fair bit of distress until I figured out what it was.]

Touch > Grapheme* [It's hard to qualify this one because if I do experience it, I typically experience it synchronously with Sound > Grapheme. There have been a couple times when I felt strongly that the letters I was "seeing" were keyed to something I was feeling as opposed to something I was hearing.]

Sound > Sight [This type could be permanent, but I'm not sure yet. More data is required. Sounds, especially music, appear as patterns of various shapes; djembe drum beats look almost like Tetris bricks, while sounds like synth or strings appear as ribbons that intertwine with each other. I can't even describe what glitch looks like, but it's beautiful and amazing and wonderful. This type also interacts with the Touch > Sight; when I can see both the shapes of the music and the outline of my body (eyes closed), I can visually co-ordinate one to the other while dancing.]

Sound > Touch* [Certain sounds just 'pull' and 'tug' at me, and sometimes kind of itch in a strange sort of way until I move something in the shape of the sound. Sometimes I will get really antsy while listening to people speak, or when exposed to the sound of traffic or wind blowing through trees, and have to move something in order to stay centred; hand-dancing helps massively with this, although sometimes I have to do full-body stretches. Loud sounds, like large dogs barking or hammering nails hit me with an impact as strong as the sound is loud. The sound of a table saw cutting wood has completely scrambled me before.]

Sound > Taste [This is a really weird one. I have actually fully tasted certain flavours when interacting with people; specifically, hearing them speak. The voice of an intelligently sarcastic friend of mine tasted like balsamic vinegar; my grassroots hitchhiker friend with dreadlocks like some sort of lettuce; others have tasted like mustard, fried onions, tomato, etc.]

Monkey Wrenches

Tinnitus [A high-pitched ringing in the ears. Growing up, my mother told me it was probably caused by the presence of electronics; since then, I've learned that it is a neurological(?) condition with many causes, one of which being those Ventolin inhalers I've been taking my entire life. This makes it difficult to pinpoint x > Sound varieties, since I'm always hearing sound come from inside my head anyway.]

Visual Snow [Little motes or eddies of clear nothingness that have no apparent mass, but are visible nonetheless. They float and dance about much in the way that smoke does (excet that they are points, whereas smoke is a stream). Most easily seen in mild daylight, such as early morning, or looking out a window.]

Psychedelic Static [This isn't an actual condition as far as I know, but it is a curiosity; the multi-coloured fractal patterning that is superimposed on top of vision while on hallucinogens just decided not to go away one day. It is extremely faint and mostly unobtrustive, but there nonetheless. The strangest thing about it is that, while it is clearly visual, it doesn't have anything to do with my eyes; it is visible under any sort of light conditions and seems as if coming from behind my eyeballs. It makes it difficult to qualify x > Sight varieties as the patterns I see appear on the same behind-the-eyes plane of existance, and the two sort of mesh together. Between the Touch > Sight, Sound > Sight, and Static, the back of my eyelids are a very busy place indeed.]

---

Any comments, questions, discussions, realizations, critisicms, or just neat things to add are very welcome.

 Hi, I am a musician who creates what is known as sacred sound meditation music, essentially healing music for people. I do not have the ability that you all have so I can only trust that through my intention, intuition and my sense of tone that I am actually creating what I intend. 

When I go about this work, I spend time in meditation and prayer so as to become a vessel through which the highest healing energy can come through. Sometimes I start with note-to-chakra correspondences to get started. (Chakras are the wheels of energy inflow and outflow in the subtle bodies). But I can only use my feeling of the music as a gauge. 
 
So, finally, I want to ask, would anyone be willing to listen to some of my music and tell of any colors, shapes, tastes or anything else that comes to you? This would give me more insight into what I have created and help me in my work.

If interested, please email to zenoman at cox.net

Thank you.

Craig Howell

now, things in my head are pretty jumbled, i have one sense that doesn't exist, one that is amplified (hearing), and taste and feel intertwined.  but i never thought that i would start seeing feeling as well.  

it happened once and hasn't reoccured, so i think it was nothing.  here's the story:  i won't say what i was doing, just that the feeling was very pleasurable.  i had a sweet-ish taste in the back of my mouth, and then my vision sort of went blue, to green, to pink, back to blue...  has this happened to anyone else?  they suddenly get a weird sensory cross that doesn't happen again? 

maybe just my eyes were screwy and it wasn't even crossed senses... 

A friend sent me a link to a Radio4 program & i thought some of you might be interested in it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/allinthemind_20080617.shtml

It mainly discusses time & space, but to quote:
.....most of us will know six or seven people with synaesthesia. It runs in families. Some see it as a disorder, others see it as a gift. The subject will be a familiar one for regular AITM listeners, but now new research has shown that synaesthesia exists in even more forms than we used to think. Claudia went to Sussex University to meet Dr Jamie Ward, who’s the author of The Frog Who Croaked Blue, and to try out some of his ground-breaking work for herself.




I knew that i had colour/word syn before i even knew that the way i perceived time was different too. I still find it difficult to understand how anyone can know what day it is, or what time of year it is, without knowing where they are in relation to the time circle!?


Also have any of you read The Frog Who Croaked Blue ? just wondering if it was worth checking out?
^^

I have sound > visual synaesthesia. When I hear sound, I see (in my mind's eye) colored forms of light in very distinct shapes against a black background. Here's an interesting experience I had the other day.

I was in the car and we were driving through a woodsy area. The sun was bright and as we drove past clusters of forest the sun would quickly flicker through the gaps between the trees. I was listening to my iPod and decided to take off my glasses and close my eyes.

The sun continued to flicker right through my eyelids: when it hit my eyes, I saw bright yellow-orange, and when it was blocked by a tree, I saw blue-green. The flashing occurred incredibly fast. To my amazement, I began to see the song that I was listening to not only in my mind's eye but directly in front of me.

Usually, I can tune out my visions of sound, but this time they were so strong that I couldn't get rid of them. And I didn't want to. It was an incredibly exhilarating experience that made my heart pound. The visuals that I typically saw only in my mind's eye against a black background were suddenly popping out at me, seemingly in real life, against a backdrop of exploding rainbow colors.

I guess I'll never have to try LSD. This is a rush that I simply must experience again.

 hi, i'm sandi and i have no sense of smell.  i also have a weird thing about texture.  it corresponds to taste.  rough is bitter, wetness is kind of sweet, things like that.  i was wondering if the two might be related.  

is anyone else like this?  does anyone know why those things would be related?

I had an interesting experience last night. I am not synesthetic when it comes to music (though I am with letters, words, and numbers in various ways), but I tried playing the video game "Rock Band" for the first time and I had a lot of trouble. The game uses colored blocks on a fretboard-like grid to indicate what buttons to hit. The blocks are always in the same spots, from left to right: green, red, yellow, blue, orange. The buttons on the controller go in this same order, so my index finger is on green and my pinky is on blue (I used an easier setting so I didn't get the orange one). I kept making mistakes because in my head yellow corresponded to two, red to four, etc. so I'd use my second finger for yellow, fourth for red... My sisters, who were watching me play, thought I was just making mistakes because of the game's difficulty, and I didn't bother to tell them the real problem because I'm sure they would not understand. (They have a history of being skeptics when it comes to neurological and psychological phenomena.)

Anyone else have an experience like this? It's frustrating and funny at the same time for me. Until a month or so ago I didn't even know what synesthesia was - I thought that the letter "C" was intrinsically yellow and that everyone saw numbers having a fixed location in their minds, and things like that. Now that I know what this is, I'm relieved - there have been times when I thought I was just going crazy!