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My Synesthesias
Sep. 17th, 2009 14:32I was eighteen when I first realized I had synesthesia. (I didn't know the name for it, back then.) I was listening to a jazz record, and was asked if I could see music. I thought about it a moment, and realized that I could.
(There were a lot of things I didn't realize about myself, but that's another story.)
Several years later, someone asked if I saw music when I was high. (This was during the 1960s, when synesthesia was well-known -- but only as a drug effect.) I answered truthfully, "No, only when I'm not high." This weirded him out.
These days, my synesthetic experience of sound is texture rather than color. And it's more kinesthetic and tactile than visual. I'm much more in touch with my body than I used to be, and that's probably the reason for the change.
I've also learned to use kinesthetic/tactile diagrams in my thinking. I believe this started in the 1980s, when I learned to use macros on a CPT word processor.
I also have "ticker tape." When I hear speech, or when I think in words, I see the words written down. Not in front of me, but out of the corners of my eyes. I usually don't pay attention to it.
It's never in the same typeface twice. I was startled when I realized this.
Jump back to when I was around twelve. I saw blind kids walking around, and they were sensing obstacles. I asked one of them. He said that it was as if he felt the obstacles.
I tried it, and after a while I could do it. And it came across as touch.
Some time later, I found out how it works. It's called echolocation. Bats are much better at it than humans, but many humans can do it. Get a clicker toy (they cost 50ยข in the Twin Cities), and try it.
(There were a lot of things I didn't realize about myself, but that's another story.)
Several years later, someone asked if I saw music when I was high. (This was during the 1960s, when synesthesia was well-known -- but only as a drug effect.) I answered truthfully, "No, only when I'm not high." This weirded him out.
These days, my synesthetic experience of sound is texture rather than color. And it's more kinesthetic and tactile than visual. I'm much more in touch with my body than I used to be, and that's probably the reason for the change.
I've also learned to use kinesthetic/tactile diagrams in my thinking. I believe this started in the 1980s, when I learned to use macros on a CPT word processor.
I also have "ticker tape." When I hear speech, or when I think in words, I see the words written down. Not in front of me, but out of the corners of my eyes. I usually don't pay attention to it.
It's never in the same typeface twice. I was startled when I realized this.
Jump back to when I was around twelve. I saw blind kids walking around, and they were sensing obstacles. I asked one of them. He said that it was as if he felt the obstacles.
I tried it, and after a while I could do it. And it came across as touch.
Some time later, I found out how it works. It's called echolocation. Bats are much better at it than humans, but many humans can do it. Get a clicker toy (they cost 50ยข in the Twin Cities), and try it.