A Synesthetic Realization
In the eighth grade, for an art culminating assignment, I had to choose a song, paint a picture to go along with the song, and have a short write up explaining my picture.
Using Metallica’s song, One, I splashed dark blues on a black background with yellow streaks while listening to Metallica’s One.
In class on the due date, all the other students had paintings of people, places and things associated with the lyrics of their chosen song.
Understandably, that’s what they visioned when they listened to their song.
I however, visioned colours in my head, and always did.
I had no idea that this was not the case for everyone.
I presented my artwork to a confused teacher and explained that these are the colours I saw in my head and sat down.
A few years later in highschool, I saw a commercial for a TV series on people with Synesthesia. These people could taste words and see music.
I started a lot of research into the strange matter of seeing music, which I thought was the norm, and discovered some very interesting things about myself.
In simple terms, synesthesia is a fusion of the senses taking place in the brain.
There are many forms of synesthesia, as there are different senses as well as conceptual senses of time, symbols and space. Each sense has a particular location in the brain.
Those with one form of synesthesia often have multiple.
After realizing that I was a synesthete with the involuntary ability to see music, I also realized I see time as well, and have an usual sense of numbers.
I See Sound
When I hear music or a very distinct sound, I see shapes and colours in my head.
These visualizations take place in my mind’s eye and they are involuntary.
I don’t see any shapes and colours coming out of speakers or in my literal visual field. Only in my head.
The visualizations are very similar to those on media players on your computer.
They pan left to right, depending on the speed of the song and how often the music is changing.
Each song looks the same, even years after hearing it. The visualizations only change if I notice a new part of the song, like an interesting bassline which I didn’t pay attention to earlier.
So if on the third listen of a song, I notice a cool bassline, I’ll start to see it taking shape in my head along with the other sounds.
For this reason, it takes a few listens of a song for my mind to really develop a strong, detailed visual. Some of my favourite albums have very intricate patterns now after hearing them so many times.
The visuals are also very easily influenced by any associated colours I see that go along with the song, such as a music video, album art or lightshow at a live concert. Maybe that’s why I painted dark blues on a black background for Metallica’s One. The music video is shot in a blue colour scheme.
For this reason, I try to avoid looking at any artwork or music videos before listening to new music. It lets my mind create its own visual naturally.
One of my greatest experiences was watching Tool perform Forty Six and 2 live in Toronto. The green light show and video display matched my natural visuals so closely. It was absolutely amazing.
Very distinct sounds like a fire alarm or loud screech also take certain shapes and colours in my head as well.
I wrote earlier about a magic mushroom trip which enhanced my synesthesia greatly. The colours, shapes and patterns took on a certain inviting personality as I found myself within a vortex of shapes and colours.
A symptom of psychedelics such as psilocybin or LSD is synthesia. Not everyone experience it while tripping, but many do. The post about this particular trip can be found here.
All this introspection led me to discover that not only do I see sound, I also see time in an unusual way.
I See Time
With this form of synesthesia, my sense of space is fused with my sense of time in my brain.
Each hour, day, week, month, year and decade has a location in space.
For example, when I think of Friday, my attention goes above my left shoulder. I don’t actually look there, but I am aware that Friday is there.
I visualize the days of the week layed out before me, in my mind’s eye like this:
Keep in mind that this is not left to right, it is right to left. I can’t explain why I visualize time progressing from right to left. I don’t know any languages which are written right to left.
It is involuntary, like the visuals of sound.
The weekend is offset for some reason.
It does help me to organize my schedule for the week.
The months of the year look like this:
Once again, I can’t explain why time progresses from right to left.
When in a particular month, it seems to look like a giant calendar. Its very hard for me to grasp in order to demonstrate with a picture.
Years look like this:
Because there are so many, they wrap around my body and become smaller as they go further into the past.
When I think of 1920, my attention is at my waist, on my right side.
2012 and 2013 are not closed off by a complete rectangle as they are still on going.
My Number Line
I visualize numbers in an unusual way. I only discovered this after looking into the time and space forms of synesthesia. I found a third form of synesthesia, which caused me to look further into the way I have been thinking my whole life.
Typically, from what I have heard, number lines usually progress left to right, in one’s head.
This is how my number line looks:
The whole pattern repeats at the 100 mark and so on, becoming more and more complex. So complex that I can’t grasp them as easily after 1000, 10,000, and so on.
Numbers too have a location in space for me.
When I think of 35, my attention goes up and to the left.
It is unknown how many people are synesthetes because many may not know that they have synesthesia themselves.
Perhaps you are a synesthete as well. Take some time to look into how you perceive the world, and maybe you will discover some interesting things about yourself.
