Young Writers Society

Morran brought this up, and I thought it might make for an interesting discussion. I am a synesthete. I have a rare condition called synesthesia, which is in essence 'double jointed' senses. I hear and read in colour, and sometimes in texture. Certain words or word combonations can have specific colour or gender, sometimes a sensation (something I endearingly called prickles when I was younger.) But most intense is the sound-to-colour experience. Honestly, until I was in my sophmore year of highschool, I thought everyone felt an air-raid siren (sand paper! and a grain at the back of my throat) and saw Fur Elise (incredible and impossible to explain). So I wonder, are there any more synesthetes here? Similar experiences, perhaps?

I'm a Synethete as well, only I relate EVERYTHING to color. I made a post about this on Delo's site! People have thier own colors as well. Thier color always stays the same basic tone, but if they are happy it gets brighter, if they are lying it tints olive color, ect. It's so cool that you do that, too!

That's awesome! I, too, am a synesthete. Until Tara brought it up on Delo's site, I had never even heard of it, and I thought everyone saw numbers and letters in color! I love it! I hear color too.. it's very interesting.

Words usually take on the color of the first letter.. but not always. A is a very strong letter for me. It's ALWAYS red. So is 4.

People have colors for me too. I have a feeling it's linked with their favorite colors, or colors they wear a lot.. Tara, you're a dark purple lol. Probably comes from Our Story . The color rarely changes.. although I see it stronger when the person is emitting a strong emotion. And it might have a slight tint with that emotion, like a blue-gray when they're sad, red-orange when they're upset, etc.

Smells! I love smells! I see colors with smells too lol! Pepper is always a reddish-black (like black with streaks of maroon), sugar is always a pastel color, but it depends on what it's used on.. chocolate is a deep red.

And here I thought it was normal to do this..

This is so kule! Lol, Crysi, that sure livened up those late-nigh chats!

synesthesia. at first, i had no idea whatsoever what it was until i was at school one day and my friend hannah grabbed my arm and started telling me to let her look at my arm. so i was like, okay, hannah. then, she told me my color was red. and then, she started doing everyone else and some people even have like purple and stuff. i thought it was weird at first, but now i think its cool.

Tara wrote:This is so kule! Lol, Crysi, that sure livened up those late-nigh chats!

Haha yeah.. And T is green! Get it right! lol

I went around school today trying to tell people about it.. and I couldn't even pronounce it! I keep wanting to say synthesize instead of synesthesia lol!

When listening to music (as I did in band today), I realized that I can't hear every single note as a color. Instead, it's the whole piece for me. Like Overture to Candide is orange, Emperata is a dark gold, etc.

hehe, i can say it, i just can't spell it! i am not really one, but music i do hear in color.

im really weird like i think i kinda have extrasensory persiption. like i can think about something and then itll happen.i once had this dream where my mom was talking about this huge pileup in california.and the next day my mom was talking about that and i said oh u told me about that yesterday.and she goes how can i the pileup happend today.and ive also sang songs for about an hour and then i turn on the radio and its on. i also can sense peoples emotions without talking to them and just sense a certain aura about them.but ive gotten used to it cause happens to me everyday.

lol! That's a talent that could come in handy!

Meshugenah wrote:hehe, i can say it, i just can't spell it! i am not really one, but music i do hear in color.

Actually, that IS a form of synesthesia! (I can spell it, but I can't say it lol!)

Syn is actually the combining of two senses. Check out http://www.mixsig.net for more info.

I found that usually I'm fine if a letter isn't the color it's 'supposed to be', but if it's like on the other end of the spectrum, I literally feel sick. I think it's because my brain can't handle it being so far off.. it's strange.

Marching gurl, that's really cool! I wish I could do that.. The only thing I sometimes do is say exactly what my mom was about to say. We do that back and forth.

And I can imagine myself falling down the stairs, and all my senses react like if I DID fall down the stairs, and it's really freaky. But that's probably paranoia

We're reading a book in my censorship class and it makes me dizzy. Something about this woman's prose style and the way I relate words to colour makes it damn near impossible to read. I tried explaining it to my teacher and she just stared at me like I was crazy. I was complaining about it on the phone with my mother and she didn't understand either. So my Dad and I got to talking (he's synesthetic too) and he understood perfectly! And then we talked about Sondheim for a while and how his music was essentially written for those with synesthesia! Yay for my father!

Just my little anticdote for y'all. But really...I had to cut out a slot in a notecard and read my assignment line by line because the pages as a whole make me want to throw up!

Oooh.. Do you project or associate? I usually don't have a problem with words if they're black on a white background.. But if they're different colors, especially on a color background, I can't look at it very long.

i'm a projector.

i dont think im synaesthetic but when
i hear sounds & read books i can see
whats happenin... um that doesnt really
make sense...

& all my friends have a certain colour
- kirby is dark green, mina is blue &
sam is gen red...

I don't think I'm...whatever it is...either, although everyone I know has a certain color i associate with them. That's about it though.