While studying for my Biological Psychology course this evening I discovered that I have Synesthesia. Page 219 of Kalat's "Biological Psychology 1oth ed." reads,"Synesthesia is the experience of one sense in response to stimulation of a different sense. In the words of one person, 'To me, the taste of beef is dark blue. The smell of almonds is pale orange . . . '"
I have always known in my heart of hearts that the feel of velvet fabric is a deep rich purple.
How about you? Do you have Synesthesia?
BTW This condition is actually visible (diagnosable) on a brain scan.
7 comments:
that is fascinating.
I have a color-related issue, for which I don't know if synesthesia is the diagnosis - maybe you can tell me.
When I hear the names of numbers (or when I see them written and try to copy them), I see colors. So, for example, if you say your phone number is 358-9024, I see something like yellow-red-green - grey - zero - blue - four. Sometimes different number combinations come out to different colors, so sometimes the number 4 is a bluish grey, but not when preceeded by 2. This has posed great challenges for me in the past with secretarial/ receptionist type jobs, where I have to take down someone's phone number over the phone. I can almost never, ever, write the number correctly the first (or second, or third) time, and usually break out into a cold rainbow-colored sweat instead.
It also causes problems in the bulk food section at Whole Foods where I transpose numbers or forget numbers or just write "red yellow" on the twisty tag. This normally shouldn't be a problem, because the cashier can always just look up the right number, right? HOWEVER, given my propensity to shop for the lowest price and at the same time 'stick it to the man' (double bonus), I have been known to accidentally write the PLU number of a cheaper ghetto-mix of granola on my fancy-ass mountain-trail-mama-energy granola mix to save a few bucks. The cashier, reading my tag which may read "902R" (where R stands for red, of course), then asks "what kind of granola is this?", and I have to pull the name of a cheaper granola out of my guilty ass...while sweating rainbows.
Um, first of all you are stealing from Whole Foods. Which, really, if you think about it, kind of defeats the whole purpose of shopping at Whole Paycheck (a company that supports the local scene, man).
As for Synesthesia: this is totally what you have!!!
Your description of the whole color/number relation is exactly what is mentioned in my textbook. Seriously, when I first started to read your post I assumed you were just messing with me.
So as long as you're not a liar (along with stealing from the man) congratulations, you have synesthesia!
get out! that is damn funny. I'm totally not lying.
as for WF, I am cutting costs creatively, to support my granola habit. Also I donated three dollars to their mirco-loan program last week - and always donate my $0.10 bring-yo-own-bag refund to the local highschool. That's a karma-wash. See, you went and made me feel guilty.
not sure if I have synethesia or not ... does it make you itch? if so - then yes I do.
This all puts me in the mind of Nan who would always describe the taste left in your mouth by a sore throat or some illnesses as a "dark brown" taste. (No, D-Unit, don't. Take your hands off the keyboard.) And what about feeling blue - or singing the blues? Does that count? Is it possible to feel blue while going green - or being in the red?
oddly enough I've heard of a condition where words, numbers, etc, do create a taste in one's mouth...
similarly I think that genius mathmetician who can recite pi out 10,000,000 places or something - like a real life rainman actually sees numbers as colorful pictures - helping him to remember them.
sometimes I smell in sound..........and on occassion I have felt like a number......
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