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Swordfish210
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04 Nov 2013, 5:20 am

I opened a seperate topic for this in roder to get some reactions from people who have synesthesia, or know a lot about it.

Since my diagnosis with Aspergers a few years ago I have been looking into other quirks of mine to see if they may be related in order to understand myself better. One of the things I was wondering about is my seemingly different connection of senses.

I have always had that words and numbers 'feel' thesame as certain colours in my mind. It is not that I actually see them as colours, they just mentally feel the same. Now it only goes to a certain level, if numbers get too high or words too long, they seem to fragment and multiple colours start to mix.

To a lesser degree I associate the mental 'feel' of words as touch in htesame way. Words can feel jagged, wool-knit etc. It is not the meaning of a word that seems so, but the word itself mentally feels as how it mentally feels if you touch something.

I hope this all makes sense, as it is quite difficult to explain. Now I do not have a colour for every number and the intensity of the association varies as well.

I was wondering if this matches someone else's experience of either synesthesia or something else, or if I just watched too much Sesame Street when I was young.


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Raziel
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04 Nov 2013, 11:25 am

Everyone has a bit synesthesia.
We usually associate "red" with warm or hot and "blue" with cold and so on.
The thing is that just when synesthesia is extreme, so that you notice is all the time that's rare.


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Otherside
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04 Nov 2013, 11:35 am

I have it in a way. Each color and word has a feel to it, and each number is either male or female. But then I didn't notice it for many years.



pensieve
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05 Nov 2013, 1:15 am

I have pretty pronounced synesthesia. I'll probably soon smelling my dinner because I'm thinking of making it. Scent memory is pretty strong but I also see colours in letters, words, numbers and music. Or through certain textures. And then those words, letters, numbers have certain textures and emotions associated with them.

I doubt everyone has a bit of synesthesia. All baies are capable of it but then those connections are pruned away or close so senses are experiences through individual functions. Makes sense why so many people with neurological disorders have synesthesia verses the NT world. I think my epilepsy makes synesthesia incredibly strong in me. It can reach such extremes that it's unpleasant. But usually I enjoy it.

It sounds like synesthesia Swordfish. I don't feel colours though, I see them but I don't see them in the external world. I see them in my minds eye. It's more like a migraine aura. Colours dancing above my head as the music plays. I've got to be really careful with psychedelic music or I sort of lose awareness of the world. When it happens at gigs I lose the ability to talk to people. It's like there are two different worlds; the world you see before you and the world of senses, where verbal communication isn't compulsory, or needed.


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Swordfish210
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05 Nov 2013, 2:01 am

Thanks for all your replies. I don't think everyone has a bit of synesthesia. The hot is red, blue is cold associations is something I have too, but it seems to be on a different level, more intelectual if you will. Blue metal can mean it is cold, but to me the word cold is white. The first association puts reason in the mix while the second is more instinctual.

I like your comment about music, pensieve. I have always thought of music as akin to language, because after playing for a while, I have to make the same transition back to language as when I do when switching between languages.


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"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?"

Sherlock Holmes in The Sign Of Four (1890), ch. 6