Synesthesia: A film by Jonathan Fowler

[Xagoroth]

when i listen to music, i "hear" beautiful landscapes.

[Jeffieboi]

I can't even fathom how much life would suck if I woke up one day and didn't have Synesthesia. I would probably kill myself because it would be such a huge loss.

[Scottvison]

I Suffer from this and i have a obsession with dulux color charts which with all the colors can create a really pleasurable feeling if you know what i mean. However i also see colors on people or numbers and how to interact with them. Its Amazing

[sessehomaru99]

@Scottvison Why would you say "I suffer from this"? I have synaesthesia myself but I think rather than something you suffer from it should be something you enjoy :)

[klutzygirl31]

Actually synesthesia may not be nearly as rare as believed. There are just very few documented cases (most likely because so little is known about this and people overlook the sensory associations they possess) For example, I know that I have grapheme to personality synesthesia. I've always had it. I personify numbers, its why math is and has always been my worst subject. I'm sure that if anyone puts serious thought into this, they'll find some form of synesthesia in their subconcious

[FanOfAwesomeness]

I thought everyone did that. I always though Monday was red, Tuesday was yellow, 3 is pink, 8 is red, 9 is brown-green. But I don't think I'm a synesthete. Its not instantaneous.

[divinati0n]

suddenly everyone on the internet has synesthesia

[cookiecrumble748]

i have synesthesia :)

[watcherofzideozeszz]

i with mine was stronger ...over a couple days i can actually make it stronger....sometimes its alot mor that other days and someone times i have to tell people to be quiet to i can see and there like wtf cuz sometimes it seeps into my normal vision

or watching something soundless and im like "omg that makes a really annoying noise!" and people are like ummm wut?

its funny

[animallover994]

holy shiz i thought  i was a nut, and no, seagerash, you are awesome . people make fun of me for it.

[sTapleEVA]

i see sound in my head, but not in real life, like when i'm listining to music, random colors change and morph in my head. i love painting what i see, and mixing it with my emotions that come from the music. then again, i am a god damb nut :D

[sTapleEVA]

for me, 8 has always been green :)

[deaseda]

I thought everyone was like this. Apparently not.

[brittonwilkens]

@BatterySphere...that's funny. Mine is the same with both letters and numbers, and it was always a big joke to my family because I was so clear on it after just learning them. In my mind it's always been the same...just the clarity changes. The interesting point is I'm just a regular english only boy and of course had no clue of the male/female Latin world at toddler/preschool age.

[JCole131]

i have this and i link numbers letters and colors, and see sound. Its like bieng on drugs

[ScottieR74]

I taste certian colors , also see colors ,moving patterns while listing to music .Certian sounds and vibrations also show me color : )

[lucasmedina12]

I have it too but it's a little different, for example:

6 is a naive young child (he is 7 and 8's son)

7 is 6's mother, she is strict and protective.

8 Is 6's father and 7's husband. He is quiet and intelligent.

9 is 8's brother, and he is evil.

[1ForzaItalia]

I met David Eagleman!! Such a cool guy!

[1ForzaItalia]

@katnissblue99

When you say you have SPD do you mean Schizoid Personality Disorder? I'm a synethsete though it's not very pronounced, just numbers, letters, and countries with colors and sometimes letters with personalities. If you meant Schizoid PD, we're similar!

[AliceValium]

One of my friend has synesthesia. Apparently, my voice is red.

[kingklabe]

@xXeoingTapaarXM265Xx Not at all. It actually gives my reality a touch of natural artistic flair. It doesn't get in the way of things.

For me it's visual. There are some people who experience it in a more physical way where they taste words and smell colours. That would definitely bother me.

You should look online for the documentary called "Derek Tastes Like Earwax"

The title says it all.

[Moocow515]

@kingklabe

I smell and feel colors. The kicker is that I'm colorblind. Makes things interesting

[kingklabe]

@Moocow515 Interesting. Does that mean you don't smell red and green?

And I'm curious to know, when you see something red or green do you know what color it is? I mean can you at least tell the difference between the two?

[Moocow515]

@kingklabe I'm not completely colorblind just red and blue, so most reds/blues look the same to me. I'm best at seeing colors in contrast. When looking at blending colors (For instance red to green and all shades in between) I can only pick out a few shades throughout it. I smell the color green for instances of smoke, I have yet to smell red.

For instance, teal I am told is apart of the blue shades, but I see no blue in it at all. I see only green. It's quite interesting, despite theinability

[Moocow515]

@Moocow515 to see some colors, I still feel pain as yellow (sharp pains) or red (excruciating). I remember as a boy I got cut above the eyebrow all the way to my skull by the edge of a table. I went to the ER extremely calm, I felt no pain. When they asked what was going on I was just going on about how I don't like my head feeling red. The worst smell for me is black.

[kingklabe]

@Moocow515 Cool! Thanks!

[SammieAndFriends]

A year or two ago my boyfriend was talking about how certain numbers have certain colors. I had no idea what he was talking about. Then today I heard about Synesthesia and realized that's what he has! :P I'm googling like crazy cause this is one of the most interesting things I've ever heard of.

[asilhouettex]

Read Mango Shaped Space!! it's about a girl who has that. fiction though

[mrdistraction]

I was at the dentist, and when my dentist was giving me a shot, everything turned red. is that sorta like synesthesia??

[JustSmokeAndMirrors]

@mrdistraction There are lots of different forms of synesthesia, pain causing you to see a colour is one of them - it sounds like you're a synesthete too.

[songbird3rmj]

I have it too! Or at least I think I do... every number and letter (sound) is associated with a certain color... and it has been this way every since I was little. I don't memorize phone numbers with the actual numbers... but with a string of colors lined up. For example, if it were the number "3472"--- "it would be magenta-light orange-purple-sea green".... it also helps me remember names....

[vamountiger]

would it be confusing for them if the number one is printed in red? LOL i like the obama example!

[thesonski93]

@katnissblue99 So what happens... you look at a letter for instance and physically you see the colour of that letter? or do you imagine the colour or do you have close your eyes and then see the colour?

[dasisteinBINGO]

@thesonski93 Most grapheme-color synesthetes simply visualize a color after seeing/hearing/thinking a number/letter/word/etc. For a minority of these synesthetes, though, the color that a number/letter/word produces is actually projected in the outside world.

[katnissblue99]

People ask me, how do you know what color my name is? Do you have a chart or something that tells you? They don't get that it just comes....

[Y7FFVGcQ]

@katnissblue99 Can you tell me the color of my name? It's Simone :)

[katnissblue99]

@Y7FFVGcQ The S is yellow, the M and E are pink, and the N is orange, so overall I would say your name is yellow and pink (like lemonade)!

[Y7FFVGcQ]

@katnissblue99 I'm surprised, thank you!

[jimena31]

@Y7FFVGcQ For me, S is dark blue, I is yellow, M is purple, O blue, N is green, and E is brown but if you put them all together I see Simone BROWN

[katnissblue99]

When he showed the Barack Obama picture, I didn't think 'Obama', I thought, 'blue tie, blue background, I like this picture'. That doesn't usually happen...strange.

[katnissblue99]

I have synesthesia, and SPD so sometimes the numbers relax me, and make me happy, but sometimes they overwhelm me and drive me crazy.

[dessacorn]

I love this! I have

1. Letters/some numbers--color

2. SOME Letters--personality

3. Music--Color (It's a combination of notes and instruments...one instrument playing 2 different notes will be different shades, sometimes different colors altogether, and 2 instruments playing the same note will be different...this is probably my strongest form of synesthesia.

[Jeffieboi]

@dessacorn

I have a similar type

1) Letters and numbers ALL have very distinctive colors for me

2) I can't say any of them have personalities

3) Songs have a color for me as well, however, a lot of the time....the color of the song is determined by the letters in the title

[Buggy793]

I've got 7 forms of this and some concept->color.

touch->sound

sound->touch (2 forms of this)

numbers->colors

mathematical concepts and shapes->colors

seeing motion->sound

numbers->personalities

Fireworks are absolutely amazing with these! :D

[kant442]

OMG I LOVE HAVING THIS!!! OMG XD, i just get known how this is called like

[zaros21]

Is it synesthesia if i feel warm and cool according to certain numbers/letters/ days/months, etc?

[imranbug81]

2:21 to 2:56 what video is that... plz tell me the name... i love these types of old videos :D

[reflection26]

I have this. Four forms....

1) Emotions to Colors

2) Letters/numbers/words to personalities

3) Objects to personalities

4) Sight to touch.

When I found out it was not normal, I wanted to be normal. But now, I can't imagine life any other way. I like having it. It makes life more interesting :)

[gilletteTBAMCG]

Love this video! Synesthesia is NOT a disease, it's just how we perceive reality. It's like some people who never know they're colour blind until they do one of those dot tests and can't see the number amidst the dots. The brain is a fascinating thing.

[ArtistryofDebauchery]

I might have a little bit of this. Numbers, words and colors all seem to have easily identifiable personalities for me. Number seven is cool and laid back while five is mean. But two is a complete brat hahaha. Although I also can correlate people's singing voices with tastes. I know some people's voices that would taste like bananas while others can taste like vanilla!

[gilletteTBAMCG]

@ArtistryofDebauchery omg me too!! I found out a couple of years ago and participated in a study about it. My strongest sense is with numbers and personality, my 7 is the same as yours but my five is a portly, good-hearted business man. My favourite number is 24 because both two and four as so loving and friendly that they just get along so well. They remind me of Greek goddesses in a way. My sister has it too, but it's awesome to hear other people experience the same thing!

[cabouaf]

How does that one cross eyed lady see at all, let alone in colors.

[usbandgeeksrule]

I have synesthesia, and I always pronounced it sin-es-THES-ee-ya

[choloperuanaso]

You guys have a gift and i would please ask you to use it for the good of mankind. God bless you all! i wish i got synaesthesia. :-(

[BatterySphere]

I do a similar thing, but instead of colors, I associate everything with being masculine or feminine....

[jLantxa]

@BatterySphere That happens to me as well. But I don't think it is synesthesia in my case. It happens when I think in Spanish (my mother language) because every word has a masculeine or feminine gender (sometimes even neutral). For example, "coche" (car) is masculine and I perceive it as masculine while "nube" (cloud) is feminine and I feel it as something feminine.

When I think in English though, it is not as strong

[BatterySphere]

@jLantxa

This actually may be very related because I grew up in Texas, and most things were in spanish as well as english, and in elementary school they made us learn Spanish.

[kilzter1]

I think I may have it... For me 1 is white 2 brown 3 light brown 4 green 5 orange 6 black 7 purple 8 yellow 9 red 10 gray

[gilletteTBAMCG]

@kilzter1 Yep, definitely. Effortless associations that have always been with you is one of the key indicators of synesthesia.

[MakeupTester]

I just realized, that the word "Monday" for me is yellow.. but when I hear the German word for Monday "Montag" then it's red.. it depends on the language

[enigma2505]

i have Synesthesia too and i love it :)

[Seagerash]

Is it wrong to say that I want synesthesia? 

[bonoboperson]

@Seagerash synesthesia sounds like a pretty cool thing to have

[PigWithAWig]

@bonoboperson

Sometimes it's a pain, trust me ;) Like I can only dress black as it's the only silent color and it has no emotions. When I see someone dressen deep blue i fear them couse that color "hurts me" (blue is pain) However I love it. It's like my world is so special. I can feel like grass is whispering to me through it's green color ;)

[Natovr10]

@Seagerash It would certainly be very interesting to have it for a while.

[silkyz1337]

@Seagerash take LSD :P

[sparkleshine728]

@Seagerash it's absolutely not wrong. i have it and it's wonderful. i love it. my friends are all very jealous! they think i have a superpower!

[glam52queen]

@Seagerash me too!



[tinyballedidiotta]

@Seagerash try acid!

[SimplyUnexplainable]

I have Synesthesia. Mine has to do with music. It's always been pretty magical for me. It's always been like my own personal firework show or lazer light show. I've met someone else with it and our colors never match up, it's pretty funny.

[audacieuselache]

This was great, thank you. very cool :)

[jamesbitesback]

Press 9. SCARY...! *-*

[sallydboy]

i am a multi-instrumentalist and when i listen or play music i can see it as a line that will change based on the scale ("mood") of the song like A Minor is a light blue which i associate with sadness and E Phrygian is a yellow-ish color that has no real mood association but it does make me feel badass lol and that line is almost always present when music is playing it kind of goes up and down only as if it were on a piece of paper and if i hum a tune ive been told baisically my head follows it

[Lionzlove]

Letters:

A- yellow/ green

B- Blue/White

C- Yellow

Numbers:

1- white/blue

2- yellow

4- pink

I match colors with people, memories, days of the week, places, thoughts, smells, touch, taste, words/numbers, and music. :)

I'm 15 and I only realized I had like 2-3 years ago...

[r33na1]

damn! i wish i had this!

[skullie6349]

@r33na1 XD Me too.

[iamismehellyeah]

everyone percieves reality in a different way...

[Boonchocks]

That David Eagleman PhD guy was very smart and cool!

[nyxong24]

I am not sure what I would have, I do taste colors or words but not every time, only sometimes does this happen, very odd indeed.

[PetRocky6723]

Luckies.Most of you are Synesthesia projectors,which mean you see the colours infront of you,am I right?Im a synesthesia associator which means the colours appear in my mind's eye.Letters and words have colours for me.I think I might also have the kinetic-sound typr of synesthesia.You guys can check out tons or stories about synesthesia on 'The Experience Project'.Hav fun & gd luck!

[mrmartinmartin]

I have synaesthesia as well. For me I see music, and hear what I see. I also see time, days, months. I've composed a lot of music about Synaesthesia and posted some on my profile [seriously].

As a child I thought it was normal and everyone lived in the same world, when I grew and would talk about it with friends and realised it was abnormal, I started to feel something was wrong with me.

Now I accept it as a gift and would hate to live in a "normal" world.

[0180917]

It's kind of aggravating when nobody understands what synesthesia is like.

[aSianLuvv]

i think i have a slight form of this too haha.

i imagine personalities for all numbers from 0-10. and then those personalities are associated with colors.

it doesn't affect my life in any way at all, but i guess it's just something that i'll always think about.

[taraisthelaw]

@aSianLuvv dream on asian luvv...me and most people i know are that way too...

[Brashar1]

I do not have synesthesia but I think this is very simple. Synesthesia is just the relationships between certain things in the mind, like a letter and a color (exactly the way it's described in this video.) Now the part I don't agree on is that there is something in the brain different than normal. It's just the building of relationships with you're mind and they happen to have stayed with you. Reply or send me a message if you think otherwise, Please and thank you!

[Chocolatmenthe]

@Brashar1 : The fact is, that when you associate some food or word with a color or a smell or whatever, it either is a logical association or a random association that will vary.

Whereas synesthete will experience always the same association, without it having any particular logical association and most of them aren't aware of those association, it just is like that.

In contrary, a non-synesthete will associate for instance electronic sound with blue because it is "cold", and this blue will vary

[nafeNafen]

Synesthesia is a lot more common than people think, a lot of people just think it's completely normal. the first time I found something odd about perceiving music, numbers, months, days, names as colors was when i was around 7 or 8. it wasn't until a month (i'm 17 now) ago while i was reading into hallucinogens that i realized i had this condition. it's like blinking and breathing; there's nothing to it. but it's really awesome how it works!

[1xDRCx]

this is the reason for perfect pitch. so, people who have perfect pitch actualy have synesthesia and hear colors, they can tell what a note is by memorizing the color and the octave it's in by the shade of that color.

[courtenaybg]

@1xDRCx i beg to differ. im sure there is a strong correlation, and it would make perfect sense. but being part of an orchestra i personally know people with incredible senses of perfect pitch, but without any form of synesthesia whatsoever.

[sgtmcwallace]

this is great work

[kuramaisminestayaway]

I have sound-color myself, so this interested me. The keys of my laptop are white flashes, my boyfriend's voice is royal blue, and one of my friend's is grass green. Anthony Rapp is lavender, while Gerard Way is dark purple

[alyrae7]

this sounds fun...

how do you see music? i don't get it....

so you don't hear it?

[SubsistenceSC]

@alyrae7 I hear music, it just takes on a certain form for me. For example: the song "Bigger Than My Body" by John Mayer to me is blue and white. Like, it "sounds" white and blue to me. I feel it. I don't know.

Certain words feel prickly to me, or leave a sour or sweet taste in my mouth. Some words taste like cherries or pretzels. A pinch feels orange.

Trying to explain synesthesia to a a person without it is like trying to explain life to a person who has been blind since birth.

[djazr]

I ate jellybeans the other day and I sort of experienced this. Except I didn't associate say green with mint. It was like a memory of a colour or something I had eaten when I was younger.

[alphaanimator]

I have a rare kind I see emotion and can feel it from others it causes a trance in me I feel inference from images in otherwords, I feel visual stimuli. I feel color, and animation. I am a master hypnotist and I believe my ability as ana animator and fine artist has linked it's self to all these skills. I believe I always had it.

[Find04beat]

wow that what that is? i have it too. but is it weird that i am a Synesthete when looking and touching people?

[usecori]

I'm not synaesthetic, but once under nitrous oxide at the dentist, it happened to me.. I could "see" music. It was an unbelievable experience.

[ChangeThePicture]

It like a super hero power!

[TheEirica]

interesting...i want to watch the movie synesthasia ^^ looks interesting.i think i have semi-syensthasia though...

[xxcrazyhatgirlxx]

I wish I had this! the book "a mango shaped space" (You should read it it's so good!) the girl has synesthesia

[Konig619]

I wish I had this. It would a very interesting thing to experience. Very informational video :)

[REDBULLHEADiphone]

You've spelt synaesthesia wrong

[jofowlermt]

Both spellings are correct. 'Synaesthesia' tends to be found more in British-based literature/research, while "Synesthesia" is more common in American English.

[Anon1696]

Very nice film. :)

[kingklabe]

I have Synaesthesia!

I see days and months as colours.

Numbers are pictures.

Music makes very abstract robotic animation in my minds eye.

=)

[neerduh]

@kingklabe what do you mean you see abstract robotic animation? i'm curious because i kinda do the same thing but i wasnt sure if it was connected to synaesthesia. is there a category for it?

[kingklabe]

@neerduh Well I am pretty sure most peoples minds create odd pictures when they hear sounds.

I guess I am just more conscious of it.

But repetitive music, especially techno has much more of an effect.

[neerduh]

@kingklabe awesome. sounds like it works out for you since you are into mixing music.

i see pulses of color/light as well as choreography that i doubt i could ever do. haha

rhythm and beats are my friend,

edc 2010 here i come :)

[sergantmine]

Cool, I have it as well! I hear colours :D

[elephantsailor]

@kingklabe lucky

[masterprogram]

@kingklabe hey it sounds kinda fun ... whats every day life like , goin to the shops?

driving a car ?? eating ??? lol

like do you hear the stuff you see

[kingklabe]

@masterprogram There are many forms of the condition. For some people, it can be overwhelming especially if they have their sense of smell and taste are affected but personally, everything feels pretty normal. My synaesthesia is mainly a mind's eye thing.

=)

[crakmeister]

it would make sense that syn is responsible for some creativity etc, but it could also be the root of other things. imagine being deluged by cross-contaminated sense responses, it might seem like a freaky circus carnival and be difficult to process continuously.

[crakmeister]

lordy lordy, this is something that needs to be told to schoolteachers. seriously. i cannot stress this enough.

[kitkat424]

I was really tired once and I opened a fizzy bottle and I saw whiteish-grey. It was so cool!

[XANDERXXZ]

Its weird, i was walking along and i saw these two large pink circles with smaller darker pink circles in the middle of them, then i realised i was staring through the window of your mums bedroom, OH YEH.

[koojean]

i sometimes saw yellow spots, but i thought it was only the sun

and today i was walking towards a staircase and when i looked up i immediately saw green and red lines in the direction i was heading, and creeped out so i covered my eyes and my friend freaked out too, and it's dumb because i related the colors with christmas the second i saw them

then i talked about this with a friend because she likes and knows about this kind of stuff, so she told me to look synesthesia up; it's interesting

[Bonecollector84]

Synesthesia would also be the answer for metaphors. Most of the ppl that have synesthesia are poets, musicians, painters etc, so this could be the answer to creativity since we never had a scientifical definition for metaphors. Again, if you like this wach V.S. Ramachandran's talks...there are just awsome + he has a kick ass accent :)

[Bonecollector84]

Look up on youtube for V.S. Ramachandran's work on this subject. There are some awsome experiments done in the field by him. Most of the talks that he's giving are about synesthesia.

[tacojohn69]

I wish I had this. There was a conversation I had about people's aura's and I believe now that they are really just misinterpreting that for synesthesia .

But I covet this ability so much!

[ruzan10]

I have a friend that associates people with different colors. She says I'm blue and that she is red and my boyfriend is green, would that be synesthesia?

[supernigger2000]

probably not. she has to 'see' colours, not just 'feel' them.

you and me can just as easily associate colours with moods, 'red is anger etc', and then be able to describe people in terms of colour.

[penguinwaddle14]

yes it would. i have that. only she has to "see" it somehow. i see it in my mind. its called "associatory synesthesia"

[kitkat424]

that might be syn, as long as it is involuntary and consistent then it it syn

[felipefrog]

Sorry your info on Behaviorism is wrong! You need to at least read B. F. Skinner's classic "Science and Human Behavior".

[squanto2]

I don't believe one can really appreciate music without "seeing" the colors and textures built-in to the sounds.

[DoomHippie]

Same Here!

I can't imagine music without it!

[supernigger2000]

well, can't music just as well be a jagged and horrifying experience?

it's great though that you're able to apprechiate nuances we can't.