To be surprised not everyone sees smells as shapes

[Tahdahdah]

I am 53 years old and made a passing comment to DH that I've didn't like his new aftershave because it smelt too oval. He looked at me like I was insane. It turns out he doesn't see shapes as smells!

Anyone else see smells? I feel like I may have some weird super power but can't for the life of me work out how to save lives with it or makes myself rich from it. 🤣
Anyone else have any strange superpowers they have just discovered?

Synaesthesia.

You're not the only one who has it, but it's not common!

I don’t but it’s called synestasia (not sure if that’s spelt right) and it’s when your senses are mixed almost. It’s seen a lot in autistic people. My mind doesn’t work that way unfortunately but my husband does!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

Sounds like synaesthesia. Really interesting! Mine is the opposite of a superpower: I can't visualise. I always assumed people meant it metaphorically when they talked about mental images etc.

Synesthesia

Synesthesia - Wikipedia

It's quite rare - you are very special!!

Oh I love this! I have no superpower but I love hearing about them from those who do.

I am imagining oval is woody? And something spicy or tangy has lots of corners!

I know someone who sees the days of the week as different colours and textures.

A smell as a shape? I cannot fathom how this would work!

Well I can’t say I see smells at all. I mostly just… smell them!

How curious!

I see days of the week/months/years as shapes in my head. I also see colours as certain shapes too.

I'm intrigued to know if everyone who has this connects the same shapes-to-smells as each other, or if it's individual.

I see the days of the weeks as different colours and either vertical or horizontal. Tuesdays and Thursdays horizontal obvs . I told DH once in conversation & I just didn't know how he didn't know what I was talking about.

Synaesthesia! I have it too, although not in the same way. Letters and numbers all feel like particular colours to me. I did read once about someone who could hear music notes as colours too.

Well as a test case eg I see Tuesday as yellow and horizontal , Thursday red and horizontal. Not idea who have the day of the week colour thing have some same colours. I suspect it is individual

Pharrell Williams apparently sees music in colour

Taste and smell as colours. Smell also has texture.

When I say eww, my oatmeal tastes red, people look at me like I'm nuts so I learned not to say things like that.

Of course you know this. You are just feeling in the need for some attention.

In my mind every person has a colour and so do days of the week and smells.

Smell has a texture. Pain has a sound. Music has a shape (but isn't that what dancing is based on?).

I see days of the week as colours.

My brothers found my 1977 diary and forever took the piss when as a 7 year old I’d written a diary entry ‘Wednesday is a green sort of day’!

It was only years later that we realised there was a name for this!

I have time/space synesthesia. I see (well feel as much as see, as I can feel myself moving through the points in the diagram) as points in time in diagrams . So years are round and we are currently moving in to the top of the fourth section of the circle. Weeks are thin straighr lines and months are also straight lines but divided up in to four different columns.

They also have colours. Aigust is a sort of yellowiy orange.

These are really interesting! I attach colour to lots of places, not all though. My daughter does too and we tried to work out whether we had the same colours for the same places and we did, apart from the city in which we live! E.g. Mexico yellow, Vietnam green, Copenhagen blue, but I think some of these are probably images we’ve unconsciously associated with a place.

I have the more common grapheme-colour synaesthesia. The colours of numbers and letters have remained consistent.

I have it- was part of a post grad study on it a few years back- got to have an mri of my brain. Had to undergo extensive testing online before I was called in .
I see numbers, months, days, years etc as colours. I have a dislike for certain of these just because I don’t like the colour. 2025 is pink, 2024 was dark blue and 2026 with be a burgundy colour. Sunday is golden- Monday will be red.

Yea- the study I was part of was looking at the link between it and autism