BS: Any synesthetes. out there?

Subject: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 02:08 PM

Heard a very interesting article on the radio tonight about Synesthesia. For those who don't know - read the article:-) Basicaly, using senses in a way not usualy associated. Eg - Seeing music or feeling colours etc.

I was thrilled to bits. For all my life I have been able to associate things oddly. Music, I can often see as threads weaving and warping. I can listen to someone telling a tale and see the peaks and troughs as waves. Even more oddly I can feel logic (as in computer stuff, not wishy-washy philosophy :-) ) as water flowing through pipes and being diverted wehere it is needed. I was worried that everyone else in the world was 'special' in some way. Dylexic, dyspraxic, dypeptic - and now I find that I am just as special - and more inclined to be artistic!

It does have it's downside of course. I often read thread here and can smell bullshit but we had better no go there...

Seriously though. I do find having a visual representation of the music I sing and play (I don't sight read btw) is helpful to my interpretation. I don't think I could have learned to play so many instrumnets (all badly - honest!) without it but, unfortunately, my attention span is that of a goldfish and before I can catch the thread I was following another crosses my path. Hence why I can get a tune out of many things but play none of them:-(

Anyway - enough of me. Anyone else got similar attributes?

Cheers

DeG

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: Alice
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 02:28 PM

I know there is an old thread discussion about synesthesia, but I can't find it.

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 02:28 PM

I experience it a little bit. For example, when I'm playing piano and accidentally make a truly ugly sound, my body reacts as if it had smelled a really bad smell.

I used to have an apartment on a busy street. One night, as i was going to sleep, a driver outside slammed on his brakes and produced a long, high-pitched squeal. The whole time that sound occurred, I saw a candle flame in front of my closed eyes, as if projected like a movie on my eyelids. When the screaming of the brakes stopped, the candle disappeared immediately.

I know what you mean about computers and pipes.

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: bobad
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 02:41 PM

One previous discussion: http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=19884

And another: http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=84572

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 02:57 PM

You might want to look into Gardner`s work on multiple intelligences (in the plural).

I have never met David but if I may be so bold as to hazard a guess, I would expect you were a handful in school, often in trouble with teachers, etc. That`s not meant to be insulting.

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 05:35 PM

I've always seen letters and numbers as colours - I was amazed when I discovered that there are people who don't. And I can taste some harmonies and voices - some taste of suet (Max Bygraves), or gooseberries; some taste of vomit (BeeGees).

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 05:43 PM

The multiple intelligences

1.1 Spatial
1.2 Linguistic
1.3 Logical-mathematical
1.4 Bodily-kinesthetic
1.5 Musical
1.6 Interpersonal
1.7 Intrapersonal
1.8 Naturalistic
1.9 Existential

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 05:44 PM

Funnily enough 999, no! (And I can see no insult was meant. Or maybe feel it? :-) ) I used to get in trouble occasionaly as all kids do - But it was more an ADD thing like I described earlier. From when I can remember though, in both school and work, I have always been in lumber for not 'looking as if I am doing enough'! My work used to get done, I often had top marks but the lament was, most often, 'could do better'. I gave up when I got the same comment on a 98% exam mark :-S I think the problem was that I figured things out too quickly , then got bored. Caught up with me at 16 though when I failed 5 of my 7 exams:-(

I can't remember if I always looked at things 'oddly' - My memory isn't good either. Probably because I see no reason to remember trivia. Apart from REAL nonsense trivia which sticks like glue! I know it has been part of my life for at least 20 years though - I am 58 now so it may have come on in my 20s or 30s.

Glad I have a fellow 'computer plumber' as well, Leeneia.

D.

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 06:19 PM

Thanks, David. I was similar, although I have no gifts such as you leeneia and topsie. My youngest daughter fits in with you all very well.
I appreciate your response David. Many thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: Amos
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 10:02 PM

One of Bruce's special gifts is self-effacement!! :D He's as gifted as any of us. I had a similar history in school--chronic under-performing and over-understanding. Just wasn't interested in the center of the Bell Curve, me. As for synesthesia, I think these are abilities, born from the ability to see things interact at wave-lengths or levels of abstraction beyond the purely sesory. You could call it a knack for translation...

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 02:55 AM

Similar as Amos - also at age 40 diagnosed as having minor micro-motor control disabilities, but an IQ od SD +5 (3 in 100,000) - funnily enough I can't pass the Mensa exam itself to get in, but got in thru the IQ test! And that's not uncommon too, so Mensans say ... :-)

When looking at computer or TV screens, if I talk, or hear music, depending on the scan frequency of the display device, I often get 'jitter' of the viewed screen.

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: freda underhill
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 03:02 AM

You can count me in too Dave. As an artist I've been influenced by artists like Kandinsky who seek to represent music in images. My artwork is influenced by music, and I see music in colours as well.

freda

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: C-flat
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 03:09 AM

I have always seen music as colours and shapes. It wasn't something I ever thought about, I can't really explain why it didn't occur to me as in any way odd, until I heard an interview with Mark Knopfler in which he described the same thing exactly.

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: InOBU
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 03:10 AM

Funny with the ADD conection. I have been trying to help a tallented friend find out about ADHD... and in discussing the symptoms, I spoke to her about seeing music in shades of color and light - I don't sight read, and neither does she... and here is another reference to this as a symptom of ADHD... hmmmmmm...

Thanks folks
Lorcan

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: freda underhill
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 03:34 AM

Here's an interesting article about music and colour -
Playing with Colour - music, light and colour

and another about synesthesia . This article describes many examples of the different perceptions and links with colour that some people experience.

Another colour link I've experienced is in feeling a sensory change (deja vu) as a colour (green).

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: Stu
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 04:42 AM

I'm sure we've talked about this somewhere before. I have synesthesia and love it. I didn't have a clue until one night at band practice I mentioned to my mates I use colour to identify the key we play in at sessions (I play bouzouki and was the sole accompanist).

It seems quite common, and the expression of the condition varies wildly between folk. I also see weeks and years as shapes and colours.

Deja vu as green? It's wonderful!

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 05:01 AM

As I read the last words of a book I have enjoyed/admired, and sometimes as the end credits come up on a really good film, I feel an odd sort of blip, something like a mini-orgasm, in the sides of my ribcage. Anyone else get that?

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 06:28 AM

Something like that Michael, for me it's the feeling I get after a really delicious well cooked meal, feeling comfortable and satisfied but not wanting it to end. A rich red kind of feeling.

I do see months of the year in colours, when I customise a calendar for the year I automatically choose a particular colour for each different month. As far as people go I can see characteristics of animals when describing a person rather than shapes or colours.

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: freda underhill
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 06:51 AM

I had a friend once (he died 23 years ago) who wore a different colour every day. And he always wore a particular colour for a particular day, based on the early gods and goddesses and which one ruled the day. So for example he'd always wear yellow on Sunday (for the Sun)white on a Monday (for the Moon), etc. And he saw each days as having particulalr qualities based on what he saw as the ruling energies of the day. He was a very talented (and eccentric) man.

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 07:15 AM

Freda, I assume your friend was not a synaesthete, or the gods' colours would have been in conflict with HIS colours for the days.
There would be no point in someone telling me the colour for Monday is white, because I know perfectly well that it is pale blue, as is the letter M.

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: freda underhill
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 07:31 AM

:-) yes, I guess that means he wasn't, topsie because it wasn't a reflection of his perception of the day, but of him reflecting what some ancient culture thought the day was.

Interesting isn't it, as if for most people their colour receptors are limited to a particular range, and for some people they hear, sense and feel colour and its gradations as well as see it.

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: C-flat
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 11:06 AM

Certain, but not all, words have a "colour" to me.

Days of the week, for instance. Wednesday is a vibrant yellow, whilst Friday is burnt orange.

"Seeing" shapes and colours when I'm playing music is often helpful in working songs out. I kind of see where pattern of shapes is going.

Hmm. That just sounds like gobbledegook. I need to think how to describe this...

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 03:24 PM

I see tinitus as a thin red horizontal line on a black background. Always have.

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 04:21 PM

Some very interesting stuff here - Thanks one and all. I am sure you are far more talented than I, Bruce, although I have never had the pleasure! I deny any talent whatsoever apart from that I can get a basic tune out of most things (Usualy Oh Suzanah or, for some odd reason, "The Road to Mandolin" - Go figure) But that is as far as I get. I do believe I am reasonably artistic however and the two exams that I did pass at 16 were, oddly enough, Maths and Art - An 'A' in both! I can turn my hand to most things I am glad to say and am a typical 'Jack of all trades, Master of none' although nowadays it is primarily a management or supervisory thing!

Bruce - can you expand on what you mean by 'The Multiple Intelligences'?

Cheers

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 05:54 PM

The road to Mandeley?

I wish I were synesthetic. It sounds like a ton of fun, once you realize you aren't crazy!

Mutliple intelligences is the idea that there is no "general" intelligence ("g"), but rather, various aspects of the human mind work better or worse for different people. Someone who ranks high on all the intelligences is smart, but so are people who rank high only one some aspects. They are smart there and can be not so smart elsewhere.

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 12:17 PM

Here's something I wonder about.

In synesthesia, a part of the brain which usually does one task gets involved in another. For example, color is supposed to be handled by one set of nerves, music by another. Yet to me, the song "The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music" is maroon in color - dark and somber. The color and sound nerves are intermingled.

Now. Let's take the case of schizophrenics who hear 'voices' when no one is speaking. The voices are in their own heads. Are their brains taking non-speech stimuli and turning them into voices? Does a squealing brake, a noisy fan, a flickering light or a strong smell turn into a voice for them? If so, can we weaken the voices by giving the schizophrenic a more peaceful environment?

Can they learn to discount the voices once they learn where the voices come from? Can they say, "You're nothing but the buzzing of the refrigerator!" and so gain some peace of mind?

I have no idea how to research this, but I think it's a good question.

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 12:31 PM

Apparently there are plenty of people who hear voices but who are not schizophrenic. You could be right about the voices, but there remains the problem of the paranoia.

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 02:16 PM

No - definetley 'the road to mandolin' - Well, that is what I believe the tune to be called. The same one that Peter Bellamy put 'Mandalay' to.

Leeneia - funny you should mention the buzzing of the fridge. I often hear a buzzing (of anything) and it automaticaly sets me off on various journeys and tangents that I have never figured out the connection to!

Modern technology has a lot to answer for!

Cheers

D.

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 02:37 PM

I was first introduced to the phemomena 35 years ago when a cochlear enhancement invention of mine would cause synthesia confusion of sound into other sensations.

Prior to that I had heard of people who could tacticly feel color.

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: Amos
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 03:26 PM

"Hearing" voices may be derangement, as is usually asserted, or it may be simply tuning into the "noosphere" with a particular sensitivity, or the "Akashic records", whatever they actually are. Such things are, of course, dismissed by the hard-core materialists among us, but not by those who actually experience them in various degrees of clarity and consistency.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 04:36 PM

I suppose I have a mild mode of this. Any music I hear, if I wish to do this, I can easily see a whole music video for it unfolding, usually as animation. Now if I could just DRAW....

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 07:27 PM

It is, however, considered normal to hear voices when falling asleep or waking up. Those are transition times.

Donuel, I have read that some blind people sense color, but we don't know how. I just read of a blind teenager whose favorite color was navy blue. His mother said people snickered when she'd say that, but it was true.

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: Stu
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 03:55 AM

Was he blind from birth? if so, he couldn't comprehend what navy blue was - it's just a name after all and doesn't describe the colour at all. In fact, we all perceive colour slightly differently due to the fact we're individuals and certain variables mean it's impossible for us all to see exactly the same colour. In my years of working as a graphic designer I've had so many conversations about the subject:

Customer: "I'd like my business cards printed pillar box red"

Me: "Did you have any particular pillar box in mind sir?

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: Penny S.
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 02:34 PM

Sugarfoot Jack, you raise an issue I've had arguments about a number of times, with no sensible conclusion. While we are all trapped with trying to use words to describe an infinite gradation of colours, and cannot be sure exactly what we each mean, nor can we be sure that we are not seeing the same.
I've known most disagreements about colours on the borders of blue and green, and I'm nearly sure that most of them are due to what people have learned. Are turquoise, petrol, teal or peacock blues or greens? I've often thought it would be a good experiment to get a full solar spectrum and ask people to mark where they considered the divisions to be.
I say nearly, because I do know that blue-greens have not been seen exactly the same by each of my eyes at some times. Seem the same at the moment, though.
The nearest I get to synaesthesia is directly translating an accent into the sensation of the shape of mouth and throat needed to produce it. I hear and feel simultaneously. Don't know if that counts, though.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Any synesthetes. out there?
From: Charmion
Date: 14 Feb 11 - 02:55 PM

Years ago, I met a blind woman -- the widow of a Canadian Forces sergeant, she lived in a trailer park in Petawawa, Ontario -- who perceived colour by touch. She was blind from birth. She felt the colour as a layer on top of the "actual" texture of any particular item. There were limitations to this talent, however; she could tell you the colour of a painted wall or the upholstery on a chair, but not the colour of the ink on a printed page. It was quite a parlour trick, and I even saw it demonstrated: she correctly identified the colour of my jacket, although she was meeting me for the first time and had no warning we were coming, let alone what I was wearing.

I'm another one who hears colour in music and feels shapes in logic.