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Can You Teach Yourself Synesthesia?

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Re: Can You Teach Yourself Synesthesia?

#21

Post by danabramov »

naiquevin wrote: post #15
namelesstrash01 wrote: post #2

I have synesthesia in real life. For me, I have one of the "most common" forms, between words and colors. Specifically, I have a color-word synesthesia ("association" is not the right word here) between days of the week and colors. For example, Friday for me is a "medium green", Tuesday is a "light blue" and Wednesday is a sort of "soft red"... Every day has its own color, though I must mention that Saturday and Sund…

Whoa! I think I may be having a weaker version of the same type of synesthesia that you have described. I tend to "imagine" colours when I think of certain letters, numbers, days or months. I don't feel this way for each one of them though.. for eg. 2 = red, 4 = green, 5 = pink, 6 = blue, 7 = purple whereas nothing for 0, 1, 3, 8 and 9 (may be black?). Similarly, E = yellow, F = pink, saturday = green, march = yellow…

Yup, I have this as well. 1 is black, 2 is yellow, 3 is green, 4 is orange, and so on. It has a side-effect: it's easier to remember phone numbers because I visualize sequences of colors (239 is yellow-green-brown, etc).

Re: Can You Teach Yourself Synesthesia?

#22

Post by emcl »

namelesstrash01 wrote: post #17
alberich wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you experience this while reading foreing languages, once you know the meaning of the words?

Yes, I know Swedish and German, and this is the case for those words, as well. The "input" is irrelevant as long as it ends up with my thinking of the concept of "Friday" or whatever. In the case of foreign languages, foreign word goes in, "Friday" idea/color comes to mind. It's also the same if I look at a date on a calendar and see that a certain date is on a Friday, but not with the specific word "Friday". Of cour…

You used the words 'mindset' and 'undercurrent' to describe these sensations. Do the sensations occur visually taking space and having orientations? If you think of trigger concepts sequentially do the colors align to form a spacial sequence. Is there any way a normal person can understand what you 'see'? Anyone here who can add something on this because its a fascinating aspect of our consciousness.

Re: Can You Teach Yourself Synesthesia?

#23

Post by emmfr »

tren wrote: post #11

Does anyone know if a comparative study has been done comparing the word/colours that people with synesthesia see to determine if there is any pattern? I'm wondering the same thing for auditory/colour patterns, it could have interesting applications for lighting at live music shows.

> … recent research has shown that there are underlying similarities that can be observed when large numbers of synesthetes are examined together.[1]

For example, “A” is frequently red. But I don't think that is to the point where it could have practical applications. When I read associations that other people have (as in sibling threads), my spontaneous (stupid) reaction is often: “Oh no, they have it all wrong”.

Many people have used synæsthesia in art, but it should be considered a source of inspiration at best, and not a “secret key” to universal æsthetics (compare with the golden ratio fallacy[2]). From my own experience, non-synæsthetes can easily become fascinated with synæsthesia, while actually, it's not that big a deal.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia#Definitional_crite...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

Re: Can You Teach Yourself Synesthesia?

#24

Post by naiquevin »

namelesstrash01 wrote: post #19
naiquevin wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoa! I think I may be having a weaker version of the same type of synesthesia that you have described. I tend to "imagine" colours when I think of certain letters, numbers, days or months. I don't feel this way for each one of them though.. for eg. 2 = red, 4 = green, 5 = pink, 6 = blue, 7 = purple whereas nothing for 0, 1, 3, 8 and 9 (may be black?). Similarly, E = yellow, F = pink, saturday = green, march = yellow…

Yes, that's exactly it! Some letters are not there (actually most letters), and I know that some numbers are "weaker" than others. I also know that some of these color synesthetics have changed over time. For example, I know that the number 2 for me didn't always trigger darkish pink, but I can't remember what it used to be. Also, I have lost synesthesia for G, H, and J, which used to be yellowish, yellowish, and gre…

Yes, it's different from the money-green association. I wonder what made me think it was normal and everyone else thought this way too!

Re: Can You Teach Yourself Synesthesia?

#25

Post by vanderZwan »

lobster_johnson wrote: post #18
vanderZwan wrote: post #12

You could argue everyone who is literate has synesthesia - I can not look at symbols representing the alphabet and not hear the associated phonemes in my head. Makes me wonder what you see if you scan the brains of people who are born-deaf when reading, actually - which parts of the brain light up? Oh, and when reading logographic alphabets like Chinese of course.

Subvocalization [1] -- "hearing the words" -- actually varies between people. Anecdotally: I myself don't "hear" anything while reading. There is apparently some evidence that all, or almost all, people subvocalize, but that for many people it happens subconsciously and involuntarily, and that you can detect it only by monitoring the vocal chords. There was an HN thread discussing it recently [2]. [1] http://en.wikip…

I never heard of subvocalizatin before, fascinating! Any (non-historical) reasons it is considered separate from synesthesia?

Re: Can You Teach Yourself Synesthesia?

#26

Post by lobster_johnson »

vanderZwan wrote: post #25
lobster_johnson wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Subvocalization [1] -- "hearing the words" -- actually varies between people. Anecdotally: I myself don't "hear" anything while reading. There is apparently some evidence that all, or almost all, people subvocalize, but that for many people it happens subconsciously and involuntarily, and that you can detect it only by monitoring the vocal chords. There was an HN thread discussing it recently [2]. [1] http://en.wikip…

I never heard of subvocalizatin before, fascinating! Any (non-historical) reasons it is considered separate from synesthesia?

Because it's a separate phenomenon? Synesthesia is explicitly about different senses crossing paths, and does not apply only to reading. For example, synesthetes might see colours in conjunction with smells.

Re: Can You Teach Yourself Synesthesia?

#28

Post by namelesstrash01 »

danabramov wrote: post #21
naiquevin wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoa! I think I may be having a weaker version of the same type of synesthesia that you have described. I tend to "imagine" colours when I think of certain letters, numbers, days or months. I don't feel this way for each one of them though.. for eg. 2 = red, 4 = green, 5 = pink, 6 = blue, 7 = purple whereas nothing for 0, 1, 3, 8 and 9 (may be black?). Similarly, E = yellow, F = pink, saturday = green, march = yellow…

Yup, I have this as well. 1 is black, 2 is yellow, 3 is green, 4 is orange, and so on. It has a side-effect: it's easier to remember phone numbers because I visualize sequences of colors (239 is yellow-green-brown, etc).

I can understand something like a phone number, where each digit is singular and stands apart from the others. If you're saying that about composite numbers (like 'two hundred and thirty nine'), you're the first person I've met claiming that word/number-color synesthesia helps them remember composites/sums.

Re: Can You Teach Yourself Synesthesia?

#29

Post by namelesstrash02 »

emcl wrote: post #22
namelesstrash01 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I know Swedish and German, and this is the case for those words, as well. The "input" is irrelevant as long as it ends up with my thinking of the concept of "Friday" or whatever. In the case of foreign languages, foreign word goes in, "Friday" idea/color comes to mind. It's also the same if I look at a date on a calendar and see that a certain date is on a Friday, but not with the specific word "Friday". Of cour…

You used the words 'mindset' and 'undercurrent' to describe these sensations. Do the sensations occur visually taking space and having orientations? If you think of trigger concepts sequentially do the colors align to form a spacial sequence. Is there any way a normal person can understand what you 'see'? Anyone here who can add something on this because its a fascinating aspect of our consciousness.

I'll try my best. Okay, imagine a bicycle. Question: 'Where' in your mind did that happen? How was it 'oriented'?

Next, imagine a bicycle. Now imagine an orange. Now imagine a vest. Now imagine a bicycle. Question: Was there any sort of "spatial sequence" or alignment thereupon? Try that sequence again, but imagine them along some "orientation" or "position".

Now, imagine a bicycle three meters behind you.

See what I mean? This is exactly how synesthesia happens for me. Most of the time, the "sensation" is just there. Formless, positionless, orientationless, in the "cyberspace" of my consciousness. It's possible to give the synesthesia "orientation" or "position", but most of the time it occurs to me wherever its synesthetic counterpart occurs, usually with the same "position" in my internal operating "cyberspace". This is what I meant earlier when I said something like "when it's there, it's just there, but if it were on my left hand, it would be on my left hand"...

I hope this makes sense for you. If it does not, feel free to ask me whatever will help you understand, or give me directions for how to explain it like I did.

Re: Can You Teach Yourself Synesthesia?

#30

Post by vanderZwan »

lobster_johnson wrote: post #26
vanderZwan wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never heard of subvocalizatin before, fascinating! Any (non-historical) reasons it is considered separate from synesthesia?

Because it's a separate phenomenon? Synesthesia is explicitly about different senses crossing paths, and does not apply only to reading. For example, synesthetes might see colours in conjunction with smells.

So how is "hearing a visual pattern" not two senses crossing paths?
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