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2:08pm May 24, 2014

Synesthesia weirdness

feliscorvus:

I don’t think I have “typical” synesthesia, if such a thing exists. Mine is only really consistent in a few specific cases (e.g., the letter A is always red, Wednesday is always red, C notes in music are yellow, etc.). The rest of the time it’s…kind of random.

My *primary* experience of synesthesia involves hearing music and getting strong visual impressions of patterns, color, and texture. Maybe on some level it’s connected to particular notes and instruments, but it’s not anything I can really distill down and quantify. As in, some songs are intertwining purple ribbons amidst blue billowing clouds, while others are streams of golden coins glittering in yellow sunlight, but I couldn’t tell you WHY. 

That’s why I didn’t put my musical synesthesia into that testing thing.  I didn’t want to deal with their ideas of how it should work – like that specific notes and chords have specific colors.  It’s way more complex than that for me, and much harder to quantify.  Plus the impressions are so fleeting that they go away quickly and I can’t convey them to anyone.

Most of my actual synesthesia is sensory in nature, not conceptual, but my sensory synesthesia doesn’t seem to match the way a lot of people describe it working.  And a lot of it is so subtle that I don’t always notice it.  (I’ve talked to other synesthetes who say that last thing can happen, even if Cytowic believes that all synesthesia must be memorable.)

Notes:
  1. slepaulica reblogged this from transponderer and added:
    me too. the entire thing is in motion and there are colours and swirling and shapes when there is music. when it’s just...
  2. minimumsymmetry reblogged this from withasmoothroundstone and added:
    The experience of music described here is something I identify with very intensely, actually. For example, this song is...
  3. transponderer reblogged this from withasmoothroundstone and added:
    I think my experience with music is pretty similar. In that test thing, when they play just a single note or a chord,...
  4. voidfirelord reblogged this from soilrockslove and added:
    Ooh yes, my music synesthesia is a lot more complex as well, and similar to how you guys experience it! Especially...
  5. soilrockslove reblogged this from withasmoothroundstone and added:
    With music, my synetesthesia and what colors I see isn’t really based on individual notes (although lower sounds are...
  6. averyroundbird reblogged this from withasmoothroundstone and added:
    It’s not just me with hearing/colour synaesthesia who doesn’t adhere to notes/chords -> colour, mine seems to adhere to...
  7. withasmoothroundstone reblogged this from feliscorvus and added:
    That’s why I didn’t put my musical synesthesia into that testing thing. I didn’t want to deal with their ideas of how it...
  8. feliscorvus posted this