[lvngkndnss]

Do you find it a blessing or a burden? How does it manifest for you? I've always been fascinated by the topic, and I wonder what it must be like for numbers to have a color, or sounds to have a smell, and so on.

[BlueCrustacean]

For me, numbers, letters and music have colors associated with them. I don't literally see colors where they aren't, but I imagine the associations in my head instantly when it comes up. There's a specific color for every note on the piano, and certain musical chords have certain colors associated with them.

[IrisBloom]

Generally it is cool. I see colorful patterns associated with music or sounds. Also with events or places or people or voices. Days of the week have colors. I've never heard of negative experiences with it.

[-jimi-]

I only have mild synesthesia. I don't see colors of things but non colored things indeed have color. For me it's mostly annoying. On IRC someone told me he designed all chatters to have their own colors on his end, and that I was green. Even if I couldn't see it it irked me since I am NOT a green type of person!

Also I have this "piano" app where all keys had different colors, the wrong colors of course...

For a while I rented (before smartphones) a disability friendly PDA. It had a color for every weekday. The WRONG colors of course.

I have a hard time with other people's ideas of colors. Daniel Tammet is "Born on a blue day". I think his was Thursday. That would be a brown day for me, I have two shades of blue in my week, but certainly not his day! Also, for me it's like a normal thing Tuesday is yellow (with a touch of lime), I can't for my life imagine it being different for someone else! LOL.

[YMIHere]

Originally Posted by lvngkndnss

Do you find it a blessing or a burden? How does it manifest for you? I've always been fascinated by the topic, and I wonder what it must be like for numbers to have a color, or sounds to have a smell, and so on.

I find it fascinating too though I never considered if it could be a pain in the neck as it seems to be for jimi. I always imagined my experiences would be like the other two.

When I was YOUNG - middle school I think - there was a book called "Go Ask Alice." It was supposedly the published diary of a girl who got involved with drugs but was later classified as a work of fiction....

Anyway, in the book the girl talks about doing LSD. When she did it, one of the ways she described her experience was that she could "hear colors and see sounds." This of course made it so that I HAD to try this even though the Epilogue of the book has her dead. The first time I ever experimented with drugs it was most definitely a hallucinogen. Turned out to be mescaline but I did do acid later. I couldn't describe my experience that way, but I CAN say that while I was listening to songs I heard things I never heard before. It was like my brain was either slowing down the music or picking apart the layers so that I heard every note from every instrument. It would be like listening to an orchestra and then all of a sudden you just kept hearing the TRIANGLE in all that sound. I definitely liked the experience and often wished I was a synesthete.

[lvngkndnss]

Originally Posted by YMIHere

I find it fascinating too though I never considered if it could be a pain in the neck as it seems to be for jimi. I always imagined my experiences would be like the other two.

When I was YOUNG - middle school I think - there was a book called "Go Ask Alice." It was supposedly the published diary of a girl who got involved with drugs but was later classified as a work of fiction....

Anyway, in the book the girl talks about doing LSD. When she did it, one of the ways she described her experience was that she could "hear colors and see sounds." This of course made it so that I HAD to try this even though the Epilogue of the book has her dead. The first time I ever experimented with drugs it was most definitely a hallucinogen. Turned out to be mescaline but I did do acid later. I couldn't describe my experience that way, but I CAN say that while I was listening to songs I heard things I never heard before. It was like my brain was either slowing down the music or picking apart the layers so that I heard every note from every instrument. It would be like listening to an orchestra and then all of a sudden you just kept hearing the TRIANGLE in all that sound. I definitely liked the experience and often wished I was a synesthete.

I used to love mescaline way too much in the 80s, so I can definitely understand what you're talking about with the music.

[PandorasAquarium]

When I was very little everything had a color or sound associated with it. I actually thought it was that way for everyone. Like the sound of my mother's name will always be yellow, but the word Mom was sky blue. I could see it all around her at times. My brother is black (not in a negative sense) and dark red, occasionally forest green. My mother used to play the piano at night and the sounds were all colored too, but moved fast like flowing water of all colors. Hard to explain.

Sometimes when I let myself not think about a specific person, but they're on my mind, I still see the colors for them and their names. I still sometimes see them with harmonies. I just can't actually try. Usually it catches me by surprise. Again, hard to describe.

It was shocking to find out I was a weirdo for seeing things like that, so I suppressed it. Maybe my mind just grew past it; you know, I became too self aware, too self-conscious, something. Now I over think everything.

I don't know if that is synesthesia or not. Just memories. I miss it.

[LiteraryLark]

I am not sure what synesthesia is...can someone please explain? From what users have says it sounds very interesting!

[IrisBloom]

Lark, synesthesia is when a person experiences senses in a different way.

syn·es·the·sia also syn·aes·the·sia (sĭn′ĭs-thē′zhə)
n.
1. A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a color.
2. A sensation felt in one part of the body as a result of stimulus applied to another, as in referred pain.
3. The description of one kind of sense impression by using words that normally describe another.

Synesthesia - definition of synesthesia by The Free Dictionary

[(JD)]

I have never studied it for myself as to whether a certain sound comes with a certain color... just know that it does occur for me... and other things with associated alter sensations..

I don't find it a flaw at all, but closer to the way we were created originally... I imagine how wonderful it will be to once again be more like God is... and these are attributes to enjoy the vastness of the creation.