I have synesthesia AMA

[ShinyWorthKeeping]

I have synesthesia.

The way I experience it is, when I see a person I see them as colours, usually blocks of colours sometimes with lines running through. Only twice have I seen 'swirly' colours.

I also can see names, these aren't blocks of colours, these tend to be 'things' very rarely I can smell a name too!

I understand lots of people won't want to out themselves with photos and names but I'm happy to do celebs or if anyone wants to name change etc I'll read your colours or names/baby names or answer any questions.

I'm pregnant and feeling rough and have my 7 month old here with me but I'll be back and forth here today.

AMA

This is so cool! I also have aphantasia and no inner voice so my mind is blown!

I have a big family but would you mind doing
Ian
Sarah
Molly
Noah
Rory
Ewan

Hannah is a red and Black flag
Travis is a dark green tractor on a gravelly path.
Will is small delicate white flower.
Fiona is freckles, lots and lots of freckles, this also gives me a PVA glue smell.

Ian is a waxy cheese.
Sarah is a tall thin candle in baby blue.
Molly is a hula hoop (the kind you spin round your waist, not the crisps!)
Noah is a chunky gold hoop earring.
Rory is a tall iron fence.
Ewan is toenails clippings! (I am so sorry Ewan!)

😂😂😂😂 My poor Ewan!!

Thank you

I'm so sorry! 😂 asked DP if I should lie and say something nicer - the images mean nothing, and I think Ewan is a nice name, it just looks like toe nails, I am so sorry!

When you were little, did you assume everyone could do this? What changed that and how do you feel about this ability now - a blessing or a mistake? Would you keep it if you could choose? Do the colours ever wear you out or do you wish you could change them? Are they allocated randomly or can you see why your brain chose them?

I'm psychic and likely ND. I was talking to a friend who is autistic and it turns out that we're both psychic in a similar way. The point I am trying to make is that just as people think there is a link between ND and synaesthesia, I think there's a link been being ND and able to read energies - I.e. psychic. In fact I class psychic as just another form of neurodiversity, although I also feel it's true that anybody can learn to read energies.
When I am in psychic mode I can see auras. It just made me wonder if synaesthesia is born of reading the energy of a person or thing. It makes sense to me that different people with synaesthesia wouldn't necessity see the same colours for the same person or thing - if it's because you're reading energies, it's because it's not actually the colour of the energy you're picking up on, but your brain trying to understand the energy by translating it into the nearest analogue it can find. Does that make any sense?

Sometimes I can read animal's thoughts. I usually hear them in English as words. I don't think the animal's are thinking in English, I think that's my brain translating the energy into a form I can understand.

Ooh, I like that, @ShinyWorthKeeping ! How about Nic?

That;s interesting @ThatAgileGoldMoose . I did not say it before on the thread though I was wondering if there is a connection but I also see auras and also thought everyone could until I was talking about it when my grandmother died and turns out my paternal aunts can all see auras too, but everyone else was confused. They are always silver or gold and once i saw a black one that freaked me out. I 'tune out' of seeing them all the time otherwise it's a bit distracting but can tune in just as quickly. I was wondering if that might be a form of synesthesia while reading the thread. I've always just said you are simply seeing a person's energy field, so it's not woo as such, just a sensitivity.

It would be fascinating to be able to read animal thoughts though... perhaps I'm not sure I'd want to know though sometimes!

I just... "think" them? It's hard to explain! I definitely don't think in words at all, let alone "hearing" them.
I do have thoughts, I promise 😅

This is so fascinating! Would you mind doing my family’s names?

Grace
Adam
Ted
Harry
Beatrix

thank you so much!

It's as natural as breathing to me. It's just something you 'know' without having to think about it.

Just I like know how toast smells because that's what toast smells like, or that knowing water is wet because its water. It takes no additional brain space for me to know that February is Orange and Sunday is yellow. They just are.

I have similar.

Mine is sequences or lists such as numbers, days of the week, months, the alphabet etc.

It's also often monotone so it's a question of going from lightness to darkness and back. The alphabet is very colourful but it varies so that the letter e, for example, could be blue one day and gold the next day but it will always be "bathed" in a bright light.

I also "see" music in light and shade as opposed to colour.

This is so fascinating- never heard of this before.
would you mind letting me know what you see for Evelyn, Joshua and Catherine? X

ShinyWorthKeeping Thank you, that sounds lovely.x

What does this sentence taste like?

This is known as Spatial-Sequence synaesthesia - I see numbers & dates laid out in different forms.
The year is like a flat circle and I'm always 'at' the current month

I have it too. To me, most words and people have colours associated to them. Sometimes I become quite agitated if I can’t relate their colour to-the colour of their birthday month etc. only found out 2 years ago that this had a special name and that most people don’t do it!

Me too. My circle moves round with winter months at the bottom, so September is the top of the "slide" into winter. I tried to explain this to dp with the link to it and he thought I was odd.

I read a book about this a few weeks ago it was brilliant

What’s the title pls? I have it and it’s wearing off as I get older which is a shame

Ah I find this interesting! My dc says that numbers are colours to them. Get ls very cross when 6 is coloured in red as it's obviously beige.

Would you mind telling me what Felix, Iris, Samuel and Natalie are?

It was a novel:
In a thousand different ways by peculiar ahern

Felix is a hard boiled egg with the shell completely in tact in a blue and white stripey egg cup.

Samuel is a slightly murky pond.

Natalie is a large chocolate Swiss roll with a red glacé cherry on the top.

Iris is an absolutely beautiful turquoise glass ornament type thing with a big pink flower on it.

(By the way 6 is definitely green! )

No, felix is the action of scraping sugary gritty yellow cake batter around.

Samuel is arm pits

Nataloe, chocolatey, textured, knotty yule log here