Personally the strongest, most recognizable kind of synesthesia I've experienced is associating colors with music and songs. It's pretty much an involuntary thing, but I'll get to that soon.
So there's projective and associative synesthesia - people who project will see actual colors, forms, or shapes basically when they think about something and/or when one of their senses (sight, hearing, etc) is stimulated; associators will feel a very strong and involuntary connection between the stimulus and the sense that it triggers.
I am pretty sure I've experienced these both, sometimes at the same time, as well as with a variety of stimuli, even letters, numbers and days of the week with colors - which are some of the most common. Sometimes I'll even associate a song with a movie I've seen for seemingly absolutely no reason.
People with synesthesia have reported some similarities between some things (e.g. a lot of us see A as red apparently), but I'm pretty sure it varies across every individual.
I discovered I had it my first year in college in a psychology class. I guess we were discussing different neurological phenomenons and came across synesthesia. After she described what it was she asked how many of us had it, and expecting most of the class to do the same I raised my hand. But I was the only one.
I've had it since I could remember pretty much and never paid it much mind. I thought it came installed in every human being like a beating heart or a fear of heights.
I think my youngest childhood years were an important time to develop this. I'm talking about growing up during the late 90's/early 2000's aesthetic: The Barney stages; the dancing-to-Spice-Girls-in-my-cousins'-blue-and-purple-lit-bedroom; the ultra crazy and colorful fashion sense with hair beads and bands and accessories seen in shows and music videos (think Lizzie McGuire or Thats so Raven, and TLC, Britney Spears, and Destiny's Child).
Okay so for perhaps a clearer perspective:
"Synesthetes - or people who have synesthesia - may see sounds, taste words or feel a sensation on their skin when they smell certain scents" (x).
A few little random things that are personal to me:
- A is a (dark) red
- B, blue
- C is yellow
- J is orange
- Q is purple
- 3 is yellow
- 81 is purple
- Tuesday is yellow
- Sunday is a turquoise-ish blue
Some things have stronger colours than others, and some things are like a faint colour. And some things have no colour at all. Like not all numbers give me strong colours, and some numbers none at all. And there are also some genres of music that give me little or no colour.
I do question though, if some things have been engrained in my brain to associate certain things with (especially from my childhood years). I'm sure this is the case...but, is that how synesthesia works? Or has this actually messed with the colors I see? I know that sounds confusing so let me explain.
For example, when we're learning the alphabet there is the possibility that in classrooms or in educational videos the colors that they give these letters are repeated...Kind of something like this:
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| Like I said, for me, A is red, B is blue and C is yellow |
So did I start associating these colors with certain letters from this? Also when I was in primary school we color-coordinated our books so Math was red, Science was orange, English was blue, etc., and those colors to this day haven't really left me. It also makes me question (due to this) if I saw the subjects differently, like Blue is a supposedly calming colour vs Red invoking feelings of danger and intensity, could that be part of why I found English to be such a breeze compared to Math?
I also actually avoid music videos because they do mess with the colors I associate with a song. For example if I listen to a song and see purples and greens but the music video has red and grey tones I will probably start seeing red and grey from then on..which is a bummer.
Most of the time the colors I see are like seeing the northern/southern lights
And sometimes it could look something like this:
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| Artwork commissoned by David Coalburn/Tumblr |
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| Artwork by Jack Coulter |
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| Image taken from http://bigthink.com/think-tank/seeing-sound-tasting-color-synesthesia |
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| Artwork by Melissa Mccracken |
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| Image credit to: Binarycoco |
And it varies completely.
I might listen to a song and the whole song is one or two colours.
I might listen to something and the artist's voice is one color and the music itself is a variety of colours.
Or sometimes it's like..a backdrop colour, with a range of colours just interchanging.
And sometimes it's every aspect of a song has different colors - like the beat/drums is one colour, the guitar is a different colour, the vocals are a different color, the subliminal instruments in the background are a different colour.
And sometimes it's not just like the northern lights, sometimes it has textures, shapes, lines...
A few mentionable artists that come to mind are:
Coldplay:
Their music is like a synesthesia drug. The colours that I see when I listen to their music is absolutely incredible and I am wholly convinced that Chris or one of the band members has synesthesia as well. In general, I see interchanging sunset-like colours when with most of their music but their latest album, 'A Head Full of Dreams' has taken me on a rainbow rollercoaster. They never let me down.
The Weeknd/Hozier:
I've put these two guys together because they have a different but similar vibe...I do tend to see the same sombre colors of purples and blues hues when I listen to their music. With the Weeknd I feel it's more of the music that gives me these colours, and with Hozier I feel like a lot of it comes from his voice (but his music as well, definitely).
Bjork:
This incredible..talented, creatively risk-taking woman has set my brain on fire. I don't even know how to describe it. All of her songs are completely different and I pretty much never get the same colours from them, and never get a single colour, texture, shapes...everything.
I continue living with and learning about this wonderful thing everyday, and especially learning how rare of a gift it is I appreciate it even more. As I continue to learn about it I will try to update/create new writings, to spread awareness and just to let people know about this magic.
Peace and love from a synesthete xx
Peace and love from a synesthete xx
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