Thursday, May 10, 2007
Synesthesia
My whole life I've associated particular colors with particular letters and numbers. The letter T is always orange, four is a vibrant green, and U and Y are a mucky yellow (ick). I figured everyone saw numbers and letters like this. Not the case.
I'm a synesthete! About 1 in 23 people have some form of synesthesia; researchers feel it is caused by a cross over between sections in the back of the brain (kind of like when you are on LSD and you suddenly taste sounds).
Some synesthetes smell odors when they read particular words, others see vivid images when they hear pieces of music. And it isn't that you are just reminded of something-- I'm not reminded of the color orange when I see the letter T, I actually see the letter T as orange, every time I see it.
If this sounds like you, you should take the synesthete battery ( www.synesthete.org ) or read about it at wikipedia. Daniel Tammet is a rather famous synesthete you may want to look up.
Note: the alphabet above is all wrong-- not my alphabet in the least!
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2 comments:
I saw a program about the worlds most prolific savant. Whose name Iv'e forgotten.{I am not the savant here} But he saw all numbers in colors. Maybe your savantism hasn't come out yet.
i like your blog. :)
i think my left brain is way too dominant for synesthesia. i've trained my thinking to be too linear. damn. i think i'm missing out on a beautiful aspects of the world that my wiring just doesn't pick up on.
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