Synesthesia

This comes from the "something awful" forums, and is a reply in a post pertaining to sexual myths.

"Children conceived while listening to Pink Floyd are born with synesthesia."

Looney Runes on YouTube...

Given the link between synaesthesia and the psychedelic experience, I must say I can't wait for the upcoming feature film(s) about Timothy Leary . There are a couple of studios racing to do this picture at the moment. Leonardo DiCaprio is slated to play Leary in one of them. Hmm...

don't shoot-i am a man

http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2007/07/synaesthesia_in_one_.html

peace,
--mj
arkiver

is not necessarily caused by drugs, though In my experience psychedelics can certainly induce the sensation. In the late 80s techno pioneers Chris and Cosey supposedly experimented with designer drugs made to enhance such experiences. They even have a song entitled "synaesthesia".

don't shoot-i am a man

I think that reading and writing are forms of synesthesia. Were sounds are converted to meaningful messages or symbols (letters). And we can convert them back to sound again.

"I have dozens of friends and the fun never ends...."

from Styx "Too Much Time on My Hands"

The Rat Chef in "Ratatouille" experiences synesthesia. The animators do a wonderful job of displaying the rat's flavor synesthesia but they do not explain to the audience what you see. What they show you is very similar to my music synesthesia where I expereince color, shape and movement because of music. I had a "That's it!" moment in the movie.

And the movie is very good. I recommend it.

"I have dozens of friends and the fun never ends...."

from Styx "Too Much Time on My Hands"

Discover magazine has a short article on synesthesia and the ability to match visual animation to music. Click on the link and you'll be there on a wink

http://www.discover.com/issues/dec-06/rd/synesthesia-appears-ubiquitous/

I'v never had those stuff because I never did drugs, can you achive those without drugs? (like achiving lucid dreams?)

No one flies around the sun;

Every number between 1 and 10 -- and the rest, obviously, as combinations of those -- are the same colors every time. It's actually quite neat.

1 = light yellow
2 = orange
3 = mint green
4 = dark violet
5 = blue
6 = black
7 = dark yellow
8 = forest green
9 = red-orange
10 = red

10 is actually an exception, being red in and of itself, however, for example, the number 100 is not red and white, but light yellow and white, seen as 1 and two 0's.

This is likely also why I tend to think of number combinations as a string of single digits, i.e. 687-5309 as, well, six eight seven five three zero nine, rather than six-hundred, eighty-seven, five-thousand, three-hundred and nine. OK maybe that was a bad example...^^;;

I guess I could use it artistically, although I never really have as of yet.

Thank you again, for your wonderful compliments regarding my synchs -- have you still not seen them? At this point, I can only hope they meet your great expectations. ^_^;

When I first experienced synesthesia, I did not even know it was happening to me. The music made me see black lines and fuzzy balls of color. I thought I was expereincing the emotion of the music.

I now think it was polyrythmic music that sent me down synesthesia road. My left brain picked out one rythym and then assigned what I thought was harmony to the right side of my brain. Not being accustomed to polyrythm, my brain had assigned the second rythm (not the harmony)to the right side which really does not process rythm. So the right side made the rythm into color representations.

Confused, the left side then converted its rythm coverage to represent lines. Because all I knew was monorythm. It wanted one rythm. Polyrythm was an impossible concept to my brain.

After I became accoustomed to the music, I experienced synesthesia less and less. So it was not the classical synesthesia where the same thing happens every time.

Well, I figured it was time to try a post to this thread. I have to say, from the outset, it's difficult to talk about the experiences of altered states of consciousness with people who have never had them. I mean, I can remember when I was in high school thinking I would never be one to try them, and I can remember what it was like to believe that, and how "bad" they must be. But I find it hard to relate to now... having had them.

It's like trying to describe the world outside if you'd spent your whole life living indoors. Or if you were born blind, suddenly being able to see, and then trying to explain the concept of "green" (for example) to someone who is still blind.

Since my first experience in that arena, I've done a lot of research, partly to answer my own questions about what the heck happened to me, and partly to see how my own experiences matched against others. Thereotically speaking, the human consciousness system seems to be primarily a filter, screening out the billions upon billions of sense impressions that bombard us at every second. Altering your chemical makeup, in turn, alters the filter. It's like looking at things from a different point of view... the more points of view, the more accurate the picture becomes.

Take the old riddle about the various blind men, standing around an elephant, each holding part of it. The one at the end says it's thin like a snake, the one touching the middle, no it's huge like a boulder, the one holding a leg it's like a giant tree, etc. Each has only a piece of the picture... put them together and you can form a more complete picture of the proverbial elephant.

Synching also owes a lot to the counterculture of the 60s, which was steeped in that consciousness modifiction movement. That's not to say that you have to be into drugs to get into synching... but it might help.

Although, one last thing... having had those experiences, I do advise learning about it before doing. I lucked out a little myself, but not all of what is said about the various drugs by the anti-drug group is untrue... and not all of what is said by the hippies and trippers, etc. is true either. But the more you KNOW, the better.

peace,
--mj
arkiver

The Magic Theatre
for madmen only
Price of admittance your mind
Not for everybody.

I can't say that I've experienced anything like that Karl. Ever since I can remember, hearing certain styles of music always seemed to draw an image in my mind. I think that guides me more than colors or music notes. It's great to be back!

For as long as I can remember, I've associated certain colors with certain numbers. I've never done drugs and I never will -- except of course, my legal anti-depressant pills.

I don't think this has come into any of the synchs that I've done; those have had more to do with my sense of coordination, movement with the certain tone of a sung word or a crescendo of music, etc.