Korean Job Discussion Forums

[flotsam]

[tiger fancini]

Q.14 I see coloured auras around people. Is this synaesthesia?
Possibly. Although some people are attracted to more mystical explanations. The aura might be triggered by the physical properties of the face, but more often than not the colour of the aura seems to relate to the persons mood or character traits (Collins, 1929; Riggs & Karwoski, 1934). There are now several cases in the literature of synaesthetes who only experience colours for the names of people that they personally know well (Ward, in press; Weiss et al, 2001). ^

This used to happen to my friend when she was "intoxicated" on something not strictly legal. Some more interesting synaesthesia stuff here...

http://www.psychol.ucl.ac.uk/jamie.ward/qanda.htm

[Demophobe]

[gang ah jee]

[jajdude]

Nabokov, Franz Liszt, Duke Ellington and Richard Feynman (brilliant scientist):

That's some good company. Seems the synesthesia may have helped the creative process for these illustrious chaps.

[ED209]

My friend is synethesic and so is her sister. But they see different colours for different letters. So they both still argue over what colour A is.

There was a documentary on this a while ago. You can visit the sight and test your vision and hearing.

Derek Tastes Of Earwax

I remember seeing this poor guy who couldn't eat when people were speaking. All the strange tastes were from his childhood. And he had a 'kill me now' look on his face.

[kiwiliz]

I know a lady who tastes shapes.

Very interesting I think...Great thread!

[Ody]

[Big_Bird]

I had it as a young child, but it slowly faded away. I rather miss it.

I didn't realise what it was, until I saw a documentary about it...and realised they were describing exactly what I had experienced.

It used to annoy me when I looked through children's books that used the wrong colours to denote letters and numbers. How could 2 be any colour than red!?!

[Mr. Friday]

I don't have it naturally, though I have gotten a taste of it through, ahem, recreational chemical exploration.

It's also been associated with better memory - better for remembering things that would be perceived with the involved senses.

Muffin - have you found yourself to have better memory for names and numbers than most people?

IIRC there was a russian patient, written up by his neurologist in a book called something like "The Mind of Mnemonist", that had perfect recall and he was also a total synesthete -- all his senses 'crossed'.

I gather explaining the experience is kinda like explaining hearing or sight to the congenitally deaf or blind. Neuro-typicals have trouble understanding how one could function as a synesthete.

[re:cursive]

I've experienced it for periods lasting about 8 hours or so but there's probably a good reason for that.

This is one disorder I think I wouldn't mind having.

Out of curiosity, how many of you who have this focus it into creative pursuits? Constantly experiencing direct connections between the different senses would be amazingly beneficial for making some creative artifacts....like a walking talking multisensory midi device with arms and legs.

[Muffin]

I am ashamed to say I haven't used my synthesia very creatively. On the documentary 'Derek Tastes of Earwax' a woman who painted music was interviewed. My father tells me that as a small child I saw colours when I heard music but that has faded.

The online test I took was linked to the 'Derek' documentary and of course no one needs to take it to know whether they have synthesia but it is on www.bbc.co.uk/scienceandnature if anyone is interested.

My memory used to be excellent but seems to be fading with age and synthesia does not help me with learning foreign languages unfortunately.

The 'Derek' documentary also featured a guy who had colour/hearing synthesia. He was totally blind but when he was brain-scanned the visual cortex lit up when he heard numbers and days.

[JeJuJitsu]

[Muffin]

JeJuJitSu wrote:

[JeJuJitsu]