Synaesthesia

[ILikeYourLittleHat]

I have a condition called synaesthesia - it can be where two senses 'join' so people associate sounds with colours etc. Mine is your average grapheme-colour variety so I perceive (not "see", I don't hallucinate) letters and numbers as having colours. The colour of a word is largely dictated by the colour of the initial letter.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapheme-color_synesthesia is a good link.
It's helpful in some ways - I am an excellent speller (cue Muphry's law) but a hindrance in others e.g. diagrams where letters/colours are linked in a 'key' but to me are the wrong combination.

This is a 100% genuine, fixed, testable (you could ask me what colour letters are at any age and I'd know) recognised condition.

Some people tell me that letters are whatever colour they are printed or displayed in. These letters probably appear purely black to you, because you're not special like me. In fact, I am starting to get quite annoyed when people insist they are black. It denies my experience of perceiving the beautiful colour in the world.

To fix this, people need to perceive the world as I do. I propose to request a law that it will be illegal to print any letter or number in the wrong colour. Writing a shopping list must be done with one of those clicky pens with ONLY the relevant shades of ink and you must select a new shade for each letter. Anything else is miscolouring and may cause a processing issue for me if I see it.

I understand that other synaesthetes also see the world in other colours. They are welcome to their view but need to be re-educated in their choices of colour. E is yellow, it always has been yellow and to suggest otherwise is actually quite offensive to me.

I'm glad I have your support.

Indeed we need to support your condition, how many sufferers are there in the UK? We need to educated the Police and Teachers on this, have you thought about delivering nation-wide training and fundraising for resources of coloured pens?

I'm probably being thick but have absolutely no idea what you're on about.

It's ok! You don't need to understand, as long as you're inclusive. You are inclusive, aren't you?
Now just make sure you never type or write a letter in the wrong colour and you won't be arrested.

tellmewhenthespaceshiplands (cos all of this has got to mean somethiiing.... iiiing)

YABU

'E' is a very pale blue.

I started thinking about it reading this

particularly this bit:
Trans woman: But are not feelings a part of reality? When I feel pain, does that pain not exist? Just because it has an experiential element doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. My feeling of pain is as real to me as anything else in this world. And my feelings about my gender are as real as anything else in this world.

Yes, they’re real to you. Which is not quite the same as ‘anything else in this world’ which is also real to people who are not inside you.

The idea of E being blue genuinely is baffling to me. It's so INTRINSICALLY yellow! A joyous cheeky pale yellow unlike any other letter, that uplifts any word!

When I feel pain, does that pain not exist?

No, not necessarily. Your perception of pain is real to you. Doesn't mean that there is anything actually happening to cause that pain. Think of the phantom pain that amputees have in a limb that no longer exists. I had a compressed nerve in my spine, that caused me to have phantom sensations in a limb. The insects that I was certain were crawling on my skin did not exist. The warm water that I was certain was pouring down my limb did not exist.

Anyway, OP, I support your right to believe that letters have colours. I will not call you offensive names linked to your colour-ideology. But I support my right not to believe what you believe. If you want to add your sign next to mine, that's fine - but I will not bel replacing my sign with yours.

There are extreme synaesthesists who wish to transition cisynaesthesists to synaesthesia by means of induced synaesthesynthesis.

(That's easy for you to say, Ed.)

Mirror touch synaesthesia and other related conditions are of interest to me, especially when combined with other forms of neurological-atypical functioning.

There are extreme synaesthesists who wish to transition cisynaesthesists to synaesthesia by means of induced synaesthesynthesis.

spiking with psychedelics?

You had me for the first couple of paragraphs, well done

Music affects your taste , sweet music , sour or spicy. Nigella Lawson is cross because when restaurant music is too loud it spoils the taste of her food.

Playing the wrong music is literal violence which may lead to starvation if the food tastes wrong.

PM - 06/06/2019 - @bbcradio4
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005mmd

About 17:50 on.

My DD has this! Luckily so does her best friend so she is in good company

The only difficulty with your analogy is that there is good scientific evidence for synaesthesia. Clear neuropsychiatric tests and functional scans. There is even very good evidence some see impossible colours which might be rather akin to gender fluidity - except for the fact there is no good evidence for the existence of gender identity.

So on that basis I would entirely support you. Except you are very wrong about the letter e. It is clearly pink. You are violent to suggest otherwise.

I too have Synaesthesia and take part in academic studies, and YES! E is yellow. The most yellow letter in fact.

I don't exactly have synaesthesia. But I like music and I like quite a few colours, they make me feel emotions, and thats pretty much the same thing.
Move over, bigot.

TIL
And now I see the letter E in yellow. Thank you Op.

I'm also qiuet impressed by your post! well, done!

I have a friend with this. She’s really good at languages because à and á are two completely different colours - and so on. I expect your colours and hers differ. How can any of us truly know the richness and diversity of another person’s lived experience?

I'm on the synaesthetic spectrum which means I identify as synaesthetic on a Monday to Wednesday where E is in fact yellow but on the rest of the week my brain processes things differently so E is colourless but sings the Lords Prayer. I hope you can join in with my hymn singing on the allotted days.

Aw man I get the analogy and game I really do but please don't take the piss out of this condition. I've had it since I was a child and it actually made me pretty miserable (being told I was weird/crazy)

And besides there is scientific evidence as mentioned above and can be identified on brain scans and using neuroscience. It is really and probable, not unlike biological sex

I am not making fun. I know 2 people with this. The other one says the months of the year are different colours, but he and good at languages friend disagree because her months are different colours to his. It makes for some really strange arguments when they are out drinking.

Sorry jellybean
Not intending to mock it at all. I genuinely do have it though didn't even realise most people don't see letters as coloured until my 30s. It isn't weird, it's rare but it's not pathological and it's useful - in my case helps me to spell as I can tell if a word is wrong as the colour is wrong.

There's another way of looking at this.
I long to have synaesthesia. I think I know what it feels like to be a synaesthete. If I try very hard I can see the number 5 as red and 4 as orange. 7 is scratchy and 8 is like Clarrie Grundy. This is how I remember my PIN. But I am somewhat resentful of cis-synaesthetes who move so sensuously and naturally through the world of signifiers.