Saturday, September 23, 2006

Synesthesia

So what i want to know is who read the article yet, I know its a no homework weekend but really I think it is very interesting. What I also want to know is if others experience this phenomenon and yet did not know what it was. As I have discovered I am this way, I always wondered about the colors and the feelings I experience. The way that simple experiences for me can feel so vidid; or hurt me when it wasn't even me. Now how does the way we perceive the world feel? Pretty scary huh? Now I am curious to see how others experience sensations because I thought I was the same as everyone but as I have found out...I'm not!
Check out this site, it gives good information about different kinds of synethesia: http://home.comcast.net/~sean.day/html/types.htm

7 comments:

Vvyynn said...

I haven't read the article yet. But I'll take a stab and assume that synesthesia is relating experiences to colors, smells, etc. I'm not sure. I might be a little bit, due to the fact that I come from an artistic family, however I don't think it's very big. I think I'm just more oppinionated on colors than others.

Vvyynn said...

Wow! I just read the article and...WOW! That is super-cool! I really wish I had Synethesia now. Wow. So, no, no I don't have it. I see moving pictures. Is that cool? I.e: When I read a book, I see the movie in my head.

Anyhoo, Can I ask you a quick question, Elizabeth? What color is my name? "Vvinni". Sorry to dwell on this, but as I've regurgitated over and over again...WOW!

A. Koss said...

I can see colors with music and sound. A lot of the time I experience it without even noticing it or I just block it out, but sometimes it's useful.
I didn't think it was synesthesia; I'd heard of it before but I thought it was people experiencing physical sensations like geometric shapes pressing into their hands when they tasted things.
I thought everyone associated colors with music until I tried to talk to a friend the other day about the gorgeous gold washes in Barber's Adagio for Strings, and how it was so cool because violins are usually a light sort of silver. They didn't understand at all and I was kind of confused.
I don't think it's scary at all. I think it's really neat that people can experience things different ways. It gives a whole new layer to music and color, because the colors I see with music aren't just colors, and the music I hear isn't just noise.
Synesthesia, if that's what it is, is harmless at its worst. It can't cause me to believe a lie, or hurt other people. I don't understand why differences in perception are bad, as seems to be often implied in ToK.
Wow, that was a long comment.

Vvyynn said...

I've seen longer. Now come on! I WANT TO KNOW WHAT COLOR I AM! WHY IS EVERYONE SYNESTHETIC EXCEPT FOR ME?? Whine Whine Whine. I'm cold, it's hot. Fix it.

ELanciotti said...

Sorry Vinni, I kind of ignored the blog for a few days, to be honest you to me are a greenish yellow color kind of hard to describe, but thats what I see when I hear your name! And A. Koss I agree with you I don't consider it harmful at all, I think its rather cool to think about the way that other people may see things that now I found that I don't and vice versa. I find it rather interesting in fact.

Vvyynn said...

Yes, I too am in agreement. I see no reason that synesthesia can be harmful. It's a different way of seeing the world. "But, Vigni", you say, "Being different means your a terrorist". To that, I say we're all terrorists then. We all have our own little quirks about us. I for one can say that if everyone was like me, the world would be a terrible terrible place. So...where am I going with this? To jam off of Elizabeth's idea, I've also been trying to figure out what the world would be like with synesthisia. It's hard for me to fathom, but then again the idea that not everybody has webbed feet was another hard idea for me to fathom (I have webbed feet, by the way). Thus, the article was fascinating, and anyone who thinks synesthesia is harmful is simply not wanting to go through change.

Adrienne said...

It's always interesting to see how people percieve the world almost solely on the basis of their own perception. Things that I'm good at, I just assume everyone else has the same skill set. In matters of decoration and interior design, I just assume that everyone has the same style as me. There's no real validity to this- as seen with the synesthesia thing, people can percieve the world in so many different ways that this is rather flagrantly not true. But I think we believe that it is- that everyone kind of sees the world in the same light as us, because it's convenient.