Could this be a form of synaesthesia?

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Kythe
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12 Jun 2017, 12:04 am

Not sure if this is the best place to post this, but I'm sure it will be moved if it's not.

Many years ago I started experiencing tingling sensations like an electrical current when holding rocks, crystals, or gemstones. I wouldn't get it with every single one, but I would with most of them. I'd often call the ones that didn't make me tingle duds. I also sometimes get this with glass and certain metals. This is a very pleasurable sensation for me, and actually led to me blowing a ton of money on crystals and gemstones because I wanted to see what they all felt like(some are more intense than others) I no longer trust myself to go into rock shops anymore unsupervised.

For a very long time I just assumed that this was some sort of a metaphysical or extra-sensory ability, especially since this trait wasn't activated until I sat down and meditated while holding a crystal a couple of times. Now I'm wondering if it's possible that it's just a form of synaesthesia? If it is, I think I might almost want to trade it for the ability to taste music, because I'd probably snack much less that way. :lol:



1Biggles1
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12 Jun 2017, 12:34 am

HA, was just reading some articles on said phenomenon... It seems i may also experience something similar. There was someone that came over one day talking about such a thing. I explained i experienced something similar but when someone noticed me twitch slightly and ask if i was ok, i would just smile and say someone just walked over my grave. But seems the ''grave'' analogue is of a negative experienced when i looked it up after said conversation... So it seems i may do...
For me it is a wave that starts in my head like millions of tiny tingly bubbles that flow through as a wave through my entire body down through to my legs and fizzles out in my legs for a few seconds... I experience it many times each day and when it happens, for someone observing it looks like i just had a cold shiver... But the experience is actually rather nice. Kinda dont want to admit but is like a micro orgasm! haha...
I havent found anything specific that triggers it as i can often manifest it through thougt also, but seems some music or a feel good video triggers such a reaction...
I also feel others pain. One example was a young lad had someone run over his finger with a skateboard. Even though i was trained as a paramedic, i had to remove myself from the situation for a moment by going to my van to get the first aid kit as an excuse... I could literally feel the pain in my finger....

I can also taste foods if i think about them. When going round the supermarket i am imagining different recipes and literally tasting them, not too sure how else to explain that one...

From research they have done thus far seems connected with extra neuron wiring and possibly connected with the audio side of the brain. Again still early understanding of said phenomenon.

Also some foods when i eat gives me a tickly feeling on the upper part of my mouth but it is not skin deep, feels much deeper.

I dont see images/shapes or colours like some other synaesthetics do. But i quit like the tingling feeling :D



Kythe
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12 Jun 2017, 12:46 am

That sounds really neat and I think I have experienced something similar to that, but not quite the same. I usually associate it with some sort of emotion.

As for feeling other's pain and being able to taste foods just by thinking about them, I'm not sure if that really fits the definition of synaesthesia, at least from what I've read, but it's certainly very interesting. I can't do the food tasting thing, but I can do it with music. If I know a piece of music well, when it gets stuck in my head I can hear it very clearly and it can feel almost as real as actually listening to it. If it's a piece of music that's really intense, it can make it difficult to fall asleep. Sometimes I'll complain that the music in my head is too loud if it makes it hard for me to focus on what others are saying.



1Biggles1
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12 Jun 2017, 1:01 am

Apparently they are connected. I kinda thought similar a little while ago, i only knew the connection with seeing colours when hearing sounds as that was all that was portrayed in any media i had seen. Seems there are quit a number of different areas associated with such a thing... Apparently they have found as many as 80 different type sets of this phenomenon if wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesiahas ) is anything to go by! ( Dont really like using wiki as a source, but seems to break it down some what)
and from memory what you experience falls into that bracket also.

https://www.wired.com/2011/05/hearing-t ... nesthesia/

Those were the tabs i had open when i noticed your post... There are much better sources out there i have read from past.



Kythe
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12 Jun 2017, 1:48 pm

Thanks for the links. Maybe I'll take a look at them later when I'm feeling better.



1Biggles1
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13 Jun 2017, 2:53 am

Kythe wrote:
Thanks for the links. Maybe I'll take a look at them later when I'm feeling better.


All good, plenty of info out there now :) Yup, another one of those moments you things everyone else experiences only to find thats not the case. Ha