Synesthesia: Seeing Numbers & Letters, and Faces, in Color

[Friends just call me Ross]

 

 

Synesthesia: A condition in which the normal separation between the senses appears to have broken down. In synesthesia, sight may mingle with sound, taste with touch, and so on. Females are more often affected than males. People with synesthesia often report that one or more of their family members also had synesthesia, so it may in some cases be an inherited condition. 

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=98039&page=1&singlePage=true

 

 

My niece has this condition.  She also sees peoples' faces as numbers and colors.

She used to think she was the only one in the world with this unique ability, but it

turns out that 1 person in 300 has it.

 

Some also hear music when they see numbers, or 'taste' shapes.

 

Pretty fascinating stuff. 

 

If any of our dear brothers and sisters are synesthetists, studying the Bible must be 

a particularly COLORFUL experience.  God's Word is filled with numbers and letters.

[Tortuga]

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=98039&page=1&singlePage=true

 

 

My niece has this condition.  She also sees peoples' faces as numbers and colors.

She used to think she was the only one in the world with this unique ability, but it

turns out that 1 person in 300 has it.

 

Some also hear music when they see numbers, or 'taste' shapes.

 

Pretty fascinating stuff. 

 

If any of our dear brothers and sisters are synesthetists, studying the Bible must be 

a particularly COLORFUL experience.  God's Word is filled with numbers and letters.

 

Ohhhhh.....I just have to tell you  

 

Several years ago when we still had Book Study, my wife saw a program about synesthesia and it was fascinating. She was telling one of the sisters at the CBS about how people may see colors instead of numbers and then unknowingly said "...and what color is your number 2?"

 

[Friends just call me Ross]

Ohhhhh.....I just have to tell you  

 

Several years ago when we still had Book Study, my wife saw a program about synesthesia and it was fascinating. She was telling one of the sisters at the CBS about how people may see colors instead of numbers and then unknowingly said "...and what color is your number 2?"

 

 

  That.  Is.  Hysterical!!!!   

[Tortuga]

CRACKUP41.gif   That.  Is.  Hysterical!!!!   

 

She is innocently funny. She says things without realizing it.

 

She isn't allowed to rhyme her words in a car group any more...

[bagwell1987]

I do things similarly. It's not that the face IS the number but it's how the face should look mathematically, or what number they resemble. I see some as 6 or 7. Or 14. I 'feel' numbers more than I see them. Math or numbers flow through my brain. I would prefer if everything had a number rather than a name.

Here's how I see the week, have always seen it this way, and the pitch goes up to a high tempo on Wednesday and back down on Saturday:

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

I've tried to not see it this way but it is me. 

 

Hope I haven't weirded anyone out. It's always been this way with me. Happily I'm very good at teaching my grand girl math now!! She actually thinks a lot like me, so easy to grasp what I'm teaching. Interestingly math is now thought and taught more like my natural way of thinking than when I was in school. 

Edited June 29, 2015 by bagwell1987

[Tortuga]

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

 

 

That is very interesting, I have never thought of it that way. I guess that for you, Wednesday is literally hump day.

 

[bagwell1987]

That is funny!

Not a hump day but a vivid and energized day. Like tempo, it's the top. I don't feel energized but the 'day' is. Oh dear it's hard to explain. 

[Tortuga]

That is funny!

Not a hump day but a vivid and energized day. Like tempo, it's the top. I don't feel energized but the 'day' is. Oh dear it's hard to explain. 

 

We'll put you in charge of renaming the days of the week. The middle day will be known as crescendo!

[Tortuga]

I do things similarly. It's not that the face IS the number but it's how the face should look mathematically, or what number they resemble. I see some as 6 or 7. Or 14. I 'feel' numbers more than I see them. Math or numbers flow through my brain. I would prefer if everything had a number rather than a name.

 

 

I wonder if this is why you can't see the stereograms.

[bagwell1987]

I was thinking that too. I'm glad Ross put this topic up, I never knew others were like me. I've just accepted my ism's and moved on. 

It really is a matter of what I 'see' because of my perception. I perceive many different things when I see someone or something. Again, I'm agonizing over the description of what I see. I guess it's literally what you see but slightly enhanced. Maybe....

[Tortuga]

I was thinking that too. I'm glad Ross put this topic up, I never knew others were like me. I've just accepted my ism's and moved on. 

It really is a matter of what I 'see' because of my perception. I perceive many different things when I see someone or something. Again, I'm agonizing over the description of what I see. I guess it's literally what you see but slightly enhanced. Maybe....

 

Are your other senses affected?

[Friends just call me Ross]

I was thinking that too. I'm glad Ross put this topic up, I never knew others were like me. I've just accepted my ism's and moved on. 

It really is a matter of what I 'see' because of my perception. I perceive many different things when I see someone or something. Again, I'm agonizing over the description of what I see. I guess it's literally what you see but slightly enhanced. Maybe....

 

My Niece has to really struggle to describe what it's like for her, too.  

She has a point, and so do you.

There are no common reference points. We're all blind to what the two of you see.    

How DO you describe an elephant to a blind man?   

[Tortuga]

How DO you describe an elephant to a blind man?   

 

One bite at a time..

 

Oh wait...that's how you eat an elephant.

[bagwell1987]

No. I smell things accurately. But my texture sense is extremely tactile. I need to feel something to 'see' how it is. Like when I helped work on Lew's delimber a few years ago. He let me take parts off and help him make the repairs, now when he's describing something that went wrong that day I can 'see' in color where the part is and 'feel' how he had to take it off or replace it or fix it. I can walk through it in my head. but I'm smelling it too as I think it. And hearing the sound that it makes as it's being loosened or moved. I've always thought I was a very tactile person.  

[Tortuga]

No. I smell things accurately. But my texture sense is extremely tactile. I need to feel something to 'see' how it is. Like when I helped work on Lew's delimber a few years ago. He let me take parts off and help him make the repairs, now when he's describing something that went wrong that day I can 'see' in color where the part is and 'feel' how he had to take it off or replace it or fix it. I can walk through it in my head. but I'm smelling it too as I think it. And hearing the sound that it makes as it's being loosened or moved. I've always thought I was a very tactile person.  

 

That sounds (no pun intended) normal. It sounds like you are very sensitive to sensory input and use all of your senses to recall events.

Are any of the senses mixed up? If you hear a number do you think of a color, taste or smell? Or if you see a color does it make you think of a sound, taste or smell?

[bagwell1987]

Yes, but to describe it without it happening doesn't work. It's so automatic I don't think about it. I will definitely associate color and numbers but not always the same. It includes what's happening. Mostly I have the color first them I will associate it with a number. Everything has to have a number association to make sense. 

[Tortuga]

Yes, but to describe it without it happening doesn't work. It's so automatic I don't think about it. I will definitely associate color and numbers but not always the same. It includes what's happening. Mostly I have the color first them I will associate it with a number. Everything has to have a number association to make sense. 

 

That is fascinating!

Has it ever affect your daily activities?

Such as someone that is color blind may have a hard time driving and seeing a stop light. Do your senses ever confuse you?

[Friends just call me Ross]

Yes, but to describe it without it happening doesn't work. It's so automatic I don't think about it. I will definitely associate color and numbers but not always the same. It includes what's happening. Mostly I have the color first them I will associate it with a number. Everything has to have a number association to make sense. 

 

My Niece, Suzanne, said the exact same things! 

[bagwell1987]

That is fascinating!

Has it ever affect your daily activities?

Such as someone that is color blind may have a hard time driving and seeing a stop light. Do your senses ever confuse you?

I only get confused with orange/yellow or gold/silver. I have to FORCE myself to think about what I mean to say. I see gold but will always call it silver or the same with orange, it is yellow. But not the color. The colors are the colors, I'm good with seeing the correct colors. But they should be called the other names. But then again not really because that doesn't make sense. See what I mean, it's hard to explain.

[Tortuga]

My Niece, Suzanne, said the exact same things! 

 

You guys must be a blast at a restaurant

 

"I'd like a slice of nine cake with some sixty five sauce please"

[Tortuga]

I only get confused with orange/yellow or gold/silver. I have to FORCE myself to think about what I mean to say. I see gold but will always call it silver or the same with orange, it is yellow. But not the color. The colors are the colors, I'm good with seeing the correct colors. But they should be called the other names. But then again not really because that doesn't make sense. See what I mean, it's hard to explain.

 

If colors are numbers then it sounds like you are gold/silver number blind..

 

Just kidding!

[Tortuga]

I only get confused with orange/yellow or gold/silver. I have to FORCE myself to think about what I mean to say. I see gold but will always call it silver or the same with orange, it is yellow. But not the color. The colors are the colors, I'm good with seeing the correct colors. But they should be called the other names. But then again not really because that doesn't make sense. See what I mean, it's hard to explain.

 

I am such a linear thinker that this is hard for me to understand, I apologize for asking so many questions.

[bagwell1987]

You guys must be a blast at a restaurant

 

"I'd like a slice of nine cake with some sixty five sauce please"

You are so funny!! It's not all that specific, more subliminal. Got a good laugh out of that one!!

[bagwell1987]

I am such a linear thinker that this is hard for me to understand, I apologize for asking so many questions.

But I always thought I was a linear thinker. Maybe not so much so.

[bagwell1987]

I actually don't mind the questions. This is the first time it's made any sense to me. I've always been this way and have adapted just fine. It doesn't interfere in my life, it's just the way it is. I've always felt that I can do so many things because I can 'see' what I need to do. My nephew is the same way.

 

OK, here's something: I was at my BFF's house listening to a meeting. I fell asleep and dreamed about how it build a retaining wall around the potatoes so I can pile up soil real high. I was taking PVC pipe, a sheer curtain and sewing rod pockets in it for the PVC to slip into. Do this every 12-15 inches and it would be strong and airy and easy to store. I saw the white curtains, saw the numbers, felt the breeze  and the sun on my face as I 'bam, bam, bam.. hammered in the pipe. 

My dreams are so vivid and loud and detailed and in full color. I dreamed that one in 5 minutes. 

 

I know, weird. But I think I'll take myself up on that idea, it worked great.