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NewTime
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10 Apr 2017, 4:40 pm

I "see" sounds as colors and shapes when I hear them.



lostonearth35
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10 Apr 2017, 9:09 pm

Uh, no. If I did I'd be very concerned about what they're putting in our tap water. :lol:

But I can "feel" certain sounds. I can feel sound waves traveling through the air. Going through walls and furniture and my own body. It can really stress me out.



SentientPotato
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10 Apr 2017, 10:14 pm

What you're describing is synesthesia. It comes in many forms, but the overall concept remains the same in that when one sensory or cognitive pathway is triggered it then triggers another, ergo sounds being seen, dates/numbers feeling like they occupy physical space, letters are seen with specific colors, etc.


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naturalplastic
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11 Apr 2017, 5:14 am

Do you mean "literally" "seeing" this? Or do you mean just "seeing it" in your mind's eye?

Back in the Sixties folks who took LSD reported literally "seeing" sounds as ribbons of color (flowing out of speaker I suppose).

There are rare folks with extreme synesthesia who also literally see geometric patterns when they hear music (one person reported seeing the mega bass sounds in hip-hop as big black pulsating squares that caused head aches to see).

Less extreme synesthesia is more common (the type in which you see numbers as having color, but only in your minds eye, not literally 'see'). I dont know about sounds in general but some amount sound synesthesia for music must exist in most people. Thats why we have nicknames of singers like "Smokey" Robinson ( using a visual phenom as a metaphor for the sound of his voice). The jazz singer Mel Torme was called "the velvet fog" (visual, and tactile).



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11 Apr 2017, 6:34 am

I have heard about this. People who have absolute pitch hearing 'see' each tone as a different color. Seeing or feeling a sound texture as a color is more common.


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NewTime
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11 Apr 2017, 7:15 am

naturalplastic wrote:
Do you mean "literally" "seeing" this? Or do you mean just "seeing it" in your mind's eye?


I mean "seeing it" in my mind's eye.



248RPA
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11 Apr 2017, 7:23 am

Yes, in my mind's eye. But not in ribbons. It's closer to fireworks for me.

Sometimes, I confuse songs because their colors and shapes are so similar.


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lostonearth35
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11 Apr 2017, 8:17 am

I just read about synesthesia on WikiHow a few minutes ago, and now I feel kind of bad about making that joke about something in the water earlier. :(



SentientPotato
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11 Apr 2017, 8:46 am

lostonearth35 wrote:
I just read about synesthesia on WikiHow a few minutes ago, and now I feel kind of bad about making that joke about something in the water earlier. :(

Don't fret, I doubt anyone took it to heart, and there's no way you could've known about it.


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Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 91 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 107 of 200
You seem to have both neurodiverse and neurotypical traits