Synaesthesia: Which color is A? Part I

[SungJongiesMine]

i have this, but i can't for the life of me say synesthesia. maybe i should look into that too

[nellamanodestra]

Sometimes when I see or hear something I can feel physically its texture or what it feels like, if I concentrate on it it even feels real for a milisecond. It is sometimes uncomfortable, because sometimes I might enter a special mood just by listening a song or hearing the television.

Is that synesthesia?

[whytheturtles]

I guess synesthetes don't use spell check.

[Synnie83]

@whytheturtles Sorry for the spelling mistakes. i did this vid 4 years ago and my Eglish at the time was not as good as today. I speak 7 languages, but none of them perfect.

[Allicana13]

I have 5 types of synesthesia: Texture to smell (different textures have different scents), color to personality (colors have personalities), ticker-tape (I see words being spelled out letter by letter as they're said), month to color (months have colors), and weekday to color (no matter what anyone says, Monday is yellow! Yellow, I tell you!)

[Mizlymiz]

I have synesthesia!

[icosaaa]

Oh, so I'm not the only one with pain-color synesthesia! Headaches are icy blue, period cramps are purple, etc.

[austinpodann]

this video has alot of wrong information. there are hundreds of known types of synesthesia, and thousands of unknown types. if someone is a synesthete then they wont particularly have the same case as another person. the most common types are the perception of numbers/letters as specific colors, or the perception of months, years, days having a precise location in space, as if a specific time was farther away than another.

[Mizlymiz]

OMG!I taste pringles when listing to this wait false alarm I am eating them

[Bitama]

5:23 - we learned with the exact same tools in Hungary! I loved those scewers.

[Mizlymiz]

May you tell me tt what the music is called it calmed me down

[AtomchildMusic]

Wow. I have synaesthesia. Whenever I hear rhythms with a slight swing, I see telephone poles and street signs leaning slightly. When I hear this music I see a brown and silver grid. I enjoy making music for the sound as well as the images it makes for me. All the notes have different colors & all the drums have different shapes. I try to make my music videos resemble what I see when I hear the songs. You might wanna check it out. Peace - Jake

[Myrtone]

@AtomchildMusic Do you ever see "impossible" colours, which are colours formed in the brain that you do not see in the real world, such as octarie (greenish-purpulish yellow)? Do you ever rely soley on colour to make fine pitch distinctions?

[JaySmith91]

I feel it's worth mentioning, the videos include the misinformation that humans have five senses. This information is outdated, like the taste bud areas on the tongue. (Can be proved wrong by any other sensory example, of which there are many i.e. balance, proprioception, internal pain etc.)

[GlorabellaJBrealm]

how would they see colors as? I mean do they see sound as streaks of color or flashes of color?

[eba124izzy]

i love the way you explain things in this video, and i agree it is very hard or impossible to explain exactly what colors you see. and to myself, i can train myself to connect colors to one of the senses, but only if it doesn't already have a color. like if i don't have any color for the music in this video (but i do) i can look at a something and then every time i listen to the music again i think of the thing i was looking at.

[katerinavarda]

i never thought of contextualising this! funny! :)

[Nenadnash]

I definitely have Synesthesia ^^

[thexbunni]

Wow! I have synesthesia and this is spot on! I too see red for A and orange for 5. And I thought I was weird for feeling colors for people. Thanks for making me feel less weird. lol

[rougarte94]

i have always thought having synaesthesia would be great... is it really great?

[katnissblue99]

@rougarte94 It helps me remeber stuff, but makes it hard to learn other languages, play high pitched notes (on violin) and sometimes people look at me like I'm crazy when I say they have a 'nice, blue name' ore something like that.

[rougarte94]

@katnissblue99 woa i had never thought about that....

[imanii027]

this is really an amazing condition, great video :)

[alb04ification]

this is marvellous, much clearer about it now!

Thankyou :)



[alb04ification]

this is marvellous, much clearer about it now!

Thankyou :)

[evphenomenon]

No, no no! S is very soft-spoken, and a gentle pastel yellow... :)

[1LeiaPrincess]

I always create schematic images in my head for the numbers, the days of the week , the years , the seasons and many more. But it absolutely nothing to do with colours. Could it be a form of synesthesia or is it just a normal linkage every person creates in his head? Does anyone else do that also?

[tyniehawk]

the beginning isn't very true, synaethetes don't ALL have colors for numbers and calendar dates

[AgApE010]

Synnie, I remember as a child I perceived 'A' as a red letter (but not the color red as 'A') and then also associated 'red' with '9' very closely, to the point that sometimes I would involuntarily think '9' when I mean 'red,' and vice versa. I don't have the other senses working with these, however. In your experience with having synesthesia, what would you call this?

[mctwisty890]

The way you described a synaesthesic perception of time...I've always done that in my head but I can't ever explain it to anyone and that was the best way of drawing it. Also, my 'A' is always red...sometimes blue, but never anything else.

[narxhin4ever]

i was watching this in school and when it came to 'orgasming helps you see colours the whole class was like 'WHOOOOOOOOO"

[yoshfernando]

very intersting :), when i was little i used to think of a purple sweaty forhead when i thought of the spanish word for love. i dont know why, just did. thought i would say that lol

[Icecloud6006]

wow do you have all the symptoms in this? cause that'd be pretty sever sythesthia.

[beastmuffin14]

i used to think numbers had personalities and months had colors but that is about it

[peaceloveandtofu5]

Haha my "A" is red too! I didn't know it was for most people ... Cool video, thanks for posting(:

[yadishansar]

@peaceloveandtofu5 How do you see numbers, i have a question for you. What if a number looks like two numbers, i means what if i write 1 in a way that it also looks like 7, what color it will have?

[mackboi93]

OH MY FREAKING GOODNESS lol, i related to almost ALL of these descriptions like picturing letters as colors and was especially shocked at the perception of time because i thought i was the only one that pictured it that way.......is there a name for someone like me, i guess a half-synaesthete??

[Emma8887]

I have trouble writing and pronouncing long words especially when there are lots of consonants in it. When I read it, I read the color but if I have to say it or write it down I only remember the color and that way I can think of most of the letters that are in it, but I don't remember in what order.

[BlueWaveOfLight]

luckily amarillo is yellow for me since A is yellow

[FairLady023]

A=yellow to me.

:P

[Jmsn72]

How fascinating! I don't have synaesthesia but the applications of such when it comes to learning and remembering things based on associated sensations are endless. Very insightful video

[sigendymion]

Bright red-orange

[nimrodlev333]

Stop arguing, every one got his own colour.

[Larana87]

I have Asperger's and synaesthesia too. - And feel special! I'm an associator seeing numbers, weekdays, months and letter with colors I have my own weekly, monthly and yearly calendar, chronological and age timelines and I calculate with numbers in a line. Also, I hear music as shapes and touches in specific places "in my head".

[lovechocolatecupcake]

i have synesthesia and asperger syndrome. i feel really special because i am unique. i have a notebook with drawings of music.

[ajk321]

I can hear motion, im guessing thats Synaesthesia? and i mean that i can hear motion when there is no sound from it.

[borborygymi]

ketchup red. Always has been always will

[maddiewaddiemae]

this video is only partly true some people TASTE music some receive textures there soooo many types. theres not like a set way synesthesia is, its all different most of the time

[MermaidLex]

hehe i have a question... do you like this song cus of colors? or do you see colors for this song?

[NotoriousDudeable]

i dont see a color for this song, but i see textures

[MermaidLex]

thats cool. do you have an avatar for your pic? i love that movie!

[NotoriousDudeable]

yeah... its neytiri XD i also love that movie

[MermaidLex]

do you speak Na'vi? because i am having trouble learning it...

[nousernameideasleft]

Ahhh, okay, the representations of the months of the year, time, space, and all those others were scarily similar to how I perceive them. I think I have synesthesia, not only because I see numbers as colored or see sounds and pain, but also because I cannot fully describe to people what the feelings are like. I always tell people, "Okay, let me try to put it into English for you," because I have my own made up vocabulary and such. I also have to tell them I have 2 personalities to simplify it.

[NotoriousDudeable]

LOL hehe

[NotoriousDudeable]

for me "A" is red -.- is that bad?

[PrincipessaEllena]

A is SO RED! :P

[maybelle652]

Nahhhhh its definitely yellow!!

[lovechocolatecupcake]

@maybelle652 no A is red!

[maybelle652]

@lovechocolatecupcake A is always red lmao but to me its yellow

[lovechocolatecupcake]

this is always a problem with people with synesthesia. we always argue about our letters and their colors but i respect everyone alphabets and colors.

[maybelle652]

@lovechocolatecupcake we do argue a lot lol. but i respect em too i mean we cant choose em but we're rpud of em anyway

[maybelle652]

@lovechocolatecupcake proud*

[walkingatnightalonex]

Always been yellow to me too (:

[yadishansar]

@walkingatnightalonex How do you see numbers, i have a question for you. What if a number looks like two numbers, i means what if i write 1 in a way that it also looks like 7, what color it will have?

[peaceloveandtofu5]

@yadishansar Well for me, 1 's are pale yellow and 7 's are bright red. If you just drew the 1 with a longer line across the top, it would probably look red, but a second later I would be aware of the fact that it was a 1 and I would see pale yellow. Hope I answered your question! If you have any more just ask (:

[yadishansar]

@peaceloveandtofu5 Thanks for reply, i just wanted to know that colors are not actually constant, means they are not predefined. they appear in a way you perceive or understand the number.

1. What if you see an animation where one number smoothly transforms into another number?

2. what if you do not directly see a number (the number is on right side and you have not yet seen it directly) will you see a colored character on right?

3. Do you know Daniel Tammet?

[walkingatnightalonex]

@yadishansar

Well, numbers aren`t really boldly coloured for me, it's mainly commonly used letters. But, 7 with the line is dark purple, and 1 normally is white or pale yellow-grey.. so if the number looked alike it'd probably be pale purple or white-grey depending which i assumed it was at first.

[1pound69]

Nice video. I am not synaesthetic person but psychology student and I choose to write an essay on this fascinating and extraordinary condition. People really have to know more about synaesthesia! There are good lectures by V.S Ramachandran on youtube, he's leading cognitive psychologists and explains condition very good. Regards.

[lforlight]

5:20 Not only in Switzerland. Also in Israel. I still remember that 2 was red >.>

[LinkMaster159951]

t like today I had eaten escargo for the first time and I got a very green s when normally when I taste a lot of other s tasting foods like ice cream I get a black s. now what is different about your video is that not only do I get colors in my letters I am seeing russain, chinesse, greek, and american letters which has never happend to me before and all of this coming from the music the brain really is amazing isn't

[LinkMaster159951]

you know what you video confused me in a few different ways however it was not in all the explaining that was spot on however this was one of the only times of my life that this event occured to me

all thoughout my life I have been able to incorperate everything into different letters of the alphebet and sometimes its not just american. however only when I hear, see taste etc. things very very abstract from my normal day to day life I sometimes see different colors in my letters see next commen

[AndrewPJ007]

Does synaesthesia somehow effect spelling and syntax preffering rather to spell the word they way it is spoken over grammatically correctness?

[bluebell4k]

it actually helps with spelling because if a letter is changed, the color of the word will change.

[Scarebear96]

Very nice explaining. It doesn't really make sense when I try to explain it to people...

[yarrboots]

I was thinking childhood environments have to do with this? For instance if I was given a book that listed the letter A in red, and Ben's book had it written in blue, wouldn't our assumed "synaesthesia" just be linked to the different books we were exposed to?

[Scarebear96]

No because Synaethesia is something that happens from birth. It can't really be learned. I've actually experimented with this a lil bit. My A has always been yellow and I tried for like a year to make it blue but it never worked.

[xavierpaquin]

A question: do the same letters / numbers feel the same color to every person with synaesthesia? or do different persons experience the same letters / numbers / etc differently?

[bluebell4k]

differently. the guy in the video said his fives are orange, but mine are blue

[Lilacuno]

this is so cool! Makes me think there is a reason pianos are black and white, as is sheet music.

[xuberfanx]

The best way i've found to describe the colors to people is as an aura. its not really there in 3d. but as an after image. like if i think of the letter J it is green. but if i read a j and its black, i still see a black j. i just feels green.

[thehubmn]

I was wondering what happens to YOUR synaesthetic perceptions after drinking stuff like beer?

[krumbleton]

I don't know about others, but my synaethesia is dulled with alcohol. Haha, I guess just like any other sense actually!

Alcohol aside, it's given me a fantastic memory, but I blame synaesthesia for my horrible math skills; I can't do math without color, I don't know why ... and the more numbers I must deal the more colors to process. The spatial synaesthesia helps, but the colors are just too strong to ignore.

Make sense to ANYbody? lol

[TTLYPerfect]

Hi...I really enjoyed the video, you choose great music...it really tastes like cinnamon to me..really!

[3931Kong]

@TTLYPerfect you're a synesthete? I'm 15 and I'm one too, I have color-grapheme synethesia :D

[Tictionary]

Trying to 'look' at my weak internal synaesthetic associations is like trying to look at an after-image; they just seem to slide and fade away.

[EMaster9]

You know, I would want to be able, maybe just for a day, to experience synaesthesia. It sounds... interesting? I can't think of the right word.

[yarrboots]

It's like smelling the leaves of a christmas tree and visualizing a warm cozy fireplace with blueberry pie, cinnamon flavored gingerbread cookies and a hint of peppermint from the candycanes in the scene.

For me it's like dreaming, in all your senses.

[thehubmn]

umm do u see music visually or in ur mind?

[synartica]

This is very individual at every single synaesthete I think. What helps to understand it is if you make yourself clear that everything YOU see happens in your mind or brain as well. For me as a synaesthete it's just the normal way to experience music by hearing, sseing and feeling it. I just couldn't imagine just to hear music; I assort my playlists by the main colours of the music. It's just another kind of reality, but to me it is as real as every other sensation.

[LuliAngel]

hello, what's the website? i'm interested in.

[Dragonclaws]

I've actually had Tuesday change from a pink to a yellow after the trauma of 9/11. Very interesting rules, though. I've thought of "dominant" and "subordinate" letters, but hadn't considered the first letter and the vowel as the controlling letters.

[LuliAngel]

strong emotions (as, for example, shock, depression, and so on) can modify, or change, synaesthesia perception, and even vanish it for a certain period.

[Captain0BVI0US]

whats the name of the song after the initial music? its the most amazing and inspiring i have ever heard in my life.

[EdwardAlderete]

Thanks! It's a great explanation!

[SaikoFTW]

When I think of some letter, some color sometimes comes to mind, not always though. So I think I don't have synaesthesia, just some thing because of the ABC book with those colorful stuff.

I think A is red, like in the video, kinda a lot peple think so for some reason.

Is it linked to synaesthesia when you listen to music and feel warm/a bit cold the while?

[bowdowntoanette]

I suppose mine is very low, the only one I know for sure is that certain letters have colours, but my memory isn't necessarily better because of it. I actually have quite bad memory.

I don't know what triggers it, but I sometimes see rumbling black and white dots in the back of my head, they can be either large and aggressive, or small and mellow. The large ones scare me.

[Exestenz]

i rekon thats a form of evolution...

[SydMonster334]

It's really embarrassing when you forget the word for zeppoli, and when you remember, your friends ask "why did you originally think it started with an f or p?" And they don't understand that f, p, and z are all different shades of purple to you.

A, by the way, is yellow-green to me.

[coboliten]

Haha, yeah I recognize that! Suggesting names with completely different letters in it just because they have the same color.

Weird, none of my letters or numbers have the color purple! Only wednesday (in swedish though).

[SydMonster334]

Haha, isn't it horrible? My friends thought I was retarded, I swear.

Wednesday is light blue for me... in French it's a marbled green and brown. Sometimes one color will overpower another.

[marsnmonkey]

Hmmm, on the note of colours changing with language, in English, Thursday is a sort of Granny-Smith apple green, but in Arabic, it turns into a more goldenrod tone...

[SydMonster334]

I think the language difference has to do with the difference in letters used. But sometimes for me, words will be a completely different colors than the letters in them.

[SydMonster334]

I've known I had synesthesia, but I didn't know that my time/day/week/year perception was part of it (it's very similar to yours, holy shit)!

I only have it for letters, words, numbers, the above stated, and music. I don't have it for smells, tastes, emotions, etc and I don't apply colors to people, I only apply colors to their names. My letters and numbers do not have textures or personalities. >>

[TheSoccerQueen]

I have time/day/week/year perception also. Mine are very different, but it's very easy to imagine his experiences in his drawings, I can go there if I want to, it seems like. I'll have to upload a video of mine.

[LuliAngel]

I have spatial organization for time-week-days in a month-motnhs in a year-years in a century-centuries-letters

[oxkaseyxo]

Now it makes sense to me why my mum never understood why i liked 8's cos they jump out and glow/shine purple and 4's because they shine pink (as well as the capital letter K). when i tried explaining to her when i was little she got angry and told me that i was silly and that numbers and letters arent colours!! lol

[PeruWolfUK]

Thank you for the information. Sometimes you dont realise your different until someone shows you.

[GhostGuitars]

its quite hard for me to grasp that other people DONT see coloured pictures in their head whilst listening to music - how boring!

[TheDanniShow]

i know, isn't it?

[contrabassoon]

I find it so hard to draw the pictures in my head. When I drew "year" it looked so wrong but in my head it was perfect. I can smell some words and taste words, but when I think too hard on it everything mushes up. So it's really hard for me to explain it to people.

[contrabassoon]

Oops, just realized I was on the wrong account. It's supposed to be addnamehere, o well.

[paran1986]

For me A is red

[venomsmistress]

"A" is light yellow and soft like velvet.

Some people say it's pink like cotton-candy but I don't know where they get that from.

[olakunde]

Man, I like... REALLY wish that I had this. Naturally tho.

[tunkycool]

Thanks for the post. :D

[purplemutantas]

From the video I get the impression that you are no stranger to drugs. From what I have read Amanita Muscaria mushrooms can induce Synesthesia. I wonder what effect it would have on someone who experiences it naturally. Might it enhance it the way you mentioned THC and LSD do?

[mikeyman211]

I imagine it would mess it all up since synaesthesia in everyone is different

[sfbhuiwbyfviw]

I get it with each different hour of the day

[panbri]

aw man!

when i get older i dont want to stay away from coffee because it might decrease my synesthesia!!! GOSH DARN IT!

gr........ and also, is it spelled like that? i thought it was synesthesia!!!

[keitel10]

I´m a synnie too!! Thanks for post this wonderful vid.

[gmodesike]

love the moby music!

[gmodesike]

have you done too much acid?

[Snappayy]

Synesthesia can happen because of drugs, HOWEVER, it is also a natural nurogical (sp?) condition.

[Meragness]

is this a powerpoint? that was so boring

[eamon000]

lol