Seeing sounds

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Ever since I can remember, I have always associated most sounds with a sort of picture in my head. It's really hard to explain. I don't think I could describe what the pictures look like or even draw them, but I get a sort of image in my head when I hear sounds like a telephone ringing, thunder, musical instruments, etc. I'm just curious to see if anybody else has this too.

Yes, same thing. I wouldn't be able to draw them, not even explain them, but sounds produce images in my mind. Colors, patterns and movement. All different for each sounds, always the same for the same sound.

I've been thinking for 5 minutes trying to find some kind of explanation, and i did think about it many times in the past, but no, i am not able to explain what i see, i just see it.

I've never been able to put on paper what i see in my head anyway....

me too - and tastes - for example, we had someone call in who lived on pepperwood and it made that taste come into my mouth just like I'd eaten a baked potato covered in pepper (which is the best way to eat them, of course) . . .

You made me think i forgot to say that i also see taste, see odours, see texture that i touch, and see my emotions

One thing I do is to associate sounds with colors.

As a kid, I can remember hearing the buzzing noise our TV antenna rotor controller made.

For me, that sound had a "green" color associated with it.

Hi!

What you have is called synesthesia!

Read the book The Man Whe Tasted Shapes by R. Cytowic.

What you have is a gift every 1,000,000 person has!

Peace

Good, so it's not just me then.

I may have to check that book out sometime.

Is it a problem for you ? For me it is a problem because i only have "one eye" inside my brain. When i look on my "inside screen", i don't look outside. So when i receive too much input at the same time, i see so much things inside that i can no longer pay attention to whats happening outside.

Nah it's never really been a problem. I think my sensory issues are a little less severe than most other aspies. I can be made to feel strange or faint or sick by certain sights or sounds, but I can usually tolerate them if I really have to and it's not for too long a period of time. Although, I do kind of experience what you're saying coyote - sometimes if there's a bunch of movement, lights, and/or sound around me, I start to feel "out of it" like I'm dreaming or something, and I can lose awareness of what's around me.

Recognize some of this, but it's always vague, sometimes more of an impression of movement than a visual impression. It's fascinating, though.

Fiction books about synesthesia:

A Mango-Shaped Space, Wendy Mass
The Memory Artists, Jeffrey Moore
Mondays Are Red, Nicola Morgan
Astonishing Splashes of Colour, Clare Morrall

Just an observation on something I noticed last night, I was trying to fall asleep around 4am when I heard a door slam, the noise of the door slamming produced a flash of light in my vision.

Is this kinda of what this is?

Yes. I personally don't really see light, just images of sorts, but what you're describing Scoots is certainly what we're talking about here. Seems as though a lot of AS people have this.

I love Winamp's visualization plugins because they're so much like what I experience when I listen to music with my eyes closed.

I also frequently interpret speech through mental subtitling-- yes, as in, I'll see the words people are saying floating there in the air. A number of Aspies I've talked to experience the same thing.

I am familiar with this. It is hard to explain, like a half formed image in my head for different sounds. It would be hard to draw.

I have mental subtitling. Abstract things like numbers often have colours for me, and every decade of the twentieth century has its own colour-

"Even though I was born in the early (purple)'s, I still like alot of music from the (light green)'s and (gold)'s"

Not exectly how I'd think it, but pretty close.

Sometimes there's subtitling, sometimes understanding what another person says requires instantaneous mental repetition of their words. Both cause trouble when people speak quickly. It's as if spoken words won't go directly into the mind.

I'm familiar with half-formed images too; and - for lack of a better word - movements. They're there and then they're gone. I suspect they have a certain usefulness; sometimes it's as if someone is giving you a quick symbol of "this is such-and-such a situation; this sort of thing is happening". Some of these things can be converted into metaphor-like pictures which can then be used to explain the idea to other people; but somehow the impression underlying the picture is more significant to me.

Perhaps that's more spatial thinking than synesthesia, though.