Synaesthesia (Colored letters and numbers)

[madisonthegreat710]

my synesthesia has brought me to have something against the color orange...but blue and green is the best combination of colors to me.

[LittleMsLaughsALot]

I have Synaestesia, and it WAS really annoying to see the colors that didn't match up to mine!

I actually didn't realize that I had Synaestesia until just a little while ago when I made a comment to my piano teacher saying "Yeah, I see #C as a golden yellow color, what do you see it as?" and she just looked at me like I was insane! I just thought that everybody saw things in colors. People think it's really weird when I tell them about it, but I can't imagine life with out it, really.

[FunkyShoe]

Wow your colors are so different from mine! It's so interesting though, I love seeing other people's alphabets.

[SydMonster334]

You're right, this did piss me off, lol.

[chakazul]

Hi, I am not a synnie (person with synesthesia), but i study it as a scientific researcher. Surprised that you also have it!

I wonder that some special mental conditions, like autism, synesthesia, and "highly sensitive person" (like me), are somehow related. Not exactly similar, but all are about a higher sensibility to the environment and a different sensory system from "normal" people.

You have black 0 and O, white 1, I and L, which is quite common among synnies!

[gi0vi]

We agree in the B,C,M and S, specially this one, it's just like you match the exact color of mine.

[mestesso00]

WTF i'm synesthetic for numbers and this is driving me crazy! 2 is red not yellow! 3 is yellow! It's really annoying, i'm sorry i can't watch this video

[Randommelon]

You were right about it being irritating for synesthetes! My alphabet and numbers were completely different to your's - they closest ones to mine would probably be your V and M, but even they were pretty far off!

[christina274]

2 is red, duh.

Sorry. But it is :)

[erinfaceface]

ahaha, I think it's great that you have documented your synaesthesia like this. Well done to you!!

However, my grapheme/colour/number perception is completely different to yours. I think my only similarity to you was the number 3 - bright chili red!

Although I couldn't watch the whole movie because it was just too irritating (like you warned)

I also experience smells, personalities and textures. And some sounds.

How fascinating!

[JamieWhite1096]

Statistically, synestheists are more prone to attention problems such as ADHD and dyslexia than normal people.

[musicaabimopectore]

My 3 is also red and my 4 also blue. My A has some blue in it too; my K is also blue, but darker than yours; my N has some orange in it also; the rest is different.

[stigandr]

haha i couldn't watch the whole thing cos it just didn't fit! i don't think i have a 100% conscious thing about every number, but to me 4 is clearly the reddest digit i can think of, while 3 is green and 5 is blue. i think you got 2 and 6 "right"...

[dantheman163]

most of your colors are wrong!!!!!

[CakadaOokamiko]

Not wrong, just differently perceived...

[trenttim]

The credit list - 'Colours by Amanda's brain' reminded me of Dan Eldon, a photojournalist, who asked a painter in remote Africa what he used to mix his colours (meaning what materials). The man responded - 'with my brains of course'.

We are often unaware that the meaning of what we say is always entirely specific to us, even when the other knows the words we are using.

[auroranebulosa]

I am visually impaired and the numbers of my grapheme-color synesthesia are strikingly identical to yours! The color which you gave your "3" matched mine so precisely that it was scary. :-) It indeed seems that synesthesia occurs more often among the disability community as a whole and is not limited to a particular disability. Grapheme-color is certainly common among people with low vision.

[laughinoutloud24]

hahah! i see them totally different colors.. everyone sees them different

[splicegraph]

what's the music? sounds like the Lounge Lizards.

[PolekatBooks]

Very thoughtfull and very cool.

[drovetv]

I have just posted a video about my synaesthesia related to numbers and while watching this video I was thinking "No way! Zero is absolutely white!!" Lol!

[viewer12376]

Would you mind saying, which colors would you associate with those Russian letters: Ж Ш Щ Ц К Л Д Ч Ф Г Ь? What color is Ы?

And do you need to know how the letter is pronounced in order to know its color?

[silentmiaow]

Right now, I would associate colors with them based mostly on similarity to the shape of Roman letters. As I got to know the language, I would begin to associate colors to them based on the phonetics of them (the associations become complex if the sound is not one that exists in English). I ought to post my colors for the Arabic alphabet sometime to show what I mean.

[silentmiaow]

Right now, I would associate colors with them based mostly on similarity to the shape of Roman letters. As I got to know the language, I would begin to associate colors to them based on the phonetics of them (the associations become complex if the sound is not one that exists in English). I ought to post my colors for the Arabic alphabet sometime to show what I mean.

[silentmiaow]

Okay, there's now a post on my blog about this, it's basically, take the address to my blog (my blog can be found in my profile) and add ?p=499

[astorastilbe]

What is the music? I really like it. It sounds familiar to me.

p.s. I think you're really cool!

[ninjanight321]

yes it was very irritaing sorry heh

[Feistyrh]

This is nifty! My sister doesn't (to my knowledge) have the color/letter thing, but she can tell you what any word tastes like. :)

[Vampiiire]

What happens if you see something like an L and another L, both written in different Ink. Does it just appear as your color, and you can't see the others, or what?

[PrEtTySnAiL]

Did u always know if this was abnormal or not

cuz i was in high school before i knew that other people didn't do this

[saturnineinch]

Weird! That is so wrong! I mean... I keep having to tell myself there's no such thing as a "right color"... but... 4 is so not blue! =]

[licho69]

i feel the same way - i know that every synesthesia is diffrent but all the time wtching this i was like "nooo! WRONG! it's red/blue/whatever godamnt it!!!" XD aww. so diffrent fom how i percieve numbers...

[luvsfromCMS]

I agree with you on the 4, 5, f, h, m, and n. The rest is just colourful. You don't have any dark blues or greens though. I was impressed. I didn't think that many people had it. I only know of two people (me and my cousin; it runs in families) and now lots of people have it. It's a gift :-)

[cannabL1sS]

It's actually quite easy to experience this if you don't have it

You just need access to plenty of LSD.

[silentmiaow]

Depending on your neurology, I guess.

But as far as I know, LSD and other drugs only cause (temporary) perceptual synaesthesia. Not conceptual synaesthesia. I have both sorts -- perceptual is where a perception from one sense directly turns into some other sense, and conceptual is where something like a letter or number (more abstract) turns into a certain color or something else.

[katringa]

Yellow 2??! Impossible!! Just kidding hahaha. I love hearing from other synaesthetes! Just thought I'd mention, my 0 is clear (kind of like water) and my 1 is white (more like milk), while my O and I are both milky white. I think it's really interesting that those seem to be fairly constant among synaesthetes, the whole thing is so fascinating. Also, my "A" is a warm yellow.

[rockerchickengurl]

i've heard from other synnies that I, O, 0, and 1 normally don't have a colour or they're white because they're "natural shapes" that we know from birth. oddly enough my O is red, I is light teal, circles are yellowish, and ovals are maroon.

[panbri]

yeah that is weird!!!

my O's and 0's are white, and my 1's and i's are black!

it was kinda weird how amanda reversed it.

and YES. this was really very annoying.

[emilydied]

My 1 and 0 are rather vague colours, but they're not the only ones. 1 is black and white and orange at the same time without overlapping, which is not something that most people can imagine; 0 is white and orange. As for O, all of my vowels except for A (which is yellow) are what I call "vowel colour" - light yellow mixed with light blue, but not at all green. Depending on their surroundings they can be more of one or the other.

[LuliAngel]

hi silentmiaow, i appreciate so much your video, i am going to write my thesis (for graduation) on synaesthesia, and navigating on internet i found many videos on that phenomena, including yours.

I'd like to know: the synesthete that gave you this description (Amanda?) when reading composed numbers, for each number sees its color, or instead she sees a mixed color that derives from all the single colors of each number?It's important for me to know this!

[luvsfromCMS]

Words and numbers have different colours. I few words have colour. I'd be glad to help if you need it!

[KSRothwell]

What is that amazing song?! Who is the artist? Please let me know, I would really like to hear more from them.

[silentmiaow]

Artist is Suerte, song is "Take Off".

[KSRothwell]

Thank you so much.

[chikotube]

like the show Sesame Street, only WAY more educational. complex to me, but I appreciate it more, thanks!

[saartje01]

Really great video. I always love hearing from other synaesthetes.

I see colours and shapes to sound, genderise inanimate objects, and I can see pain and strong emotion.

[TheIbanezGuy]

Im slowly becoming more entranced with synesthesia. wowy. i kind of wish i could experience this =(

[mixedpixel]

I added your video to our SYNAESTHESIA group here on YouTube - feel free to join or at least check out the other videos if you like!

Check out youtube(dot)com(ffdslash)group­(ffdslash)synaesthesia

all the best!

Regina

[mixedpixel]

This knocked me off my feet! How could i overlook this video since i am a subscriber of yours since you posted 'In my language'?!Digits 1-5 are THE SAME like mine!!

[EL34]

interesting that 0 and 1 are merely black and white. kind of reflects binary maybe? the whole on off thing?

[silentmiaow]

Yeah, and those are a very common set of colors for 0 and 1 (as well as O and I). Just as "A" is normally red (mine's blue though).

[BlissInIgnorance]

The first 4 numbers were exactly the same as mine so I was like WTF?? It was pretty scary but when it got to 5 I carmed down. lol! It's cool to see somebody elses experience. The funny thing is I only found out I has synaesthesia last year: before then I never took notice of it in my life it just, "was" there. It's just like breathing, it's there but you don't notice it's happening.

[silentmiaow]

0 and 1 are very commonly black and white.

[mixedpixel]

1-5 were mine EXACTLY, which scared me as well. I know hundreds of synaesthetes by now and the only one with nearly the same colors so far was my mother :)

[redmoonriver]

Interesting. I think we quasi-overlap on maybe... 4 characters? M, N, R and 4 were kinda in the same ballpark. Otherwise it was virtually night and day. *hehe*

[jasonkraley]

Fascinating. A friend of mine has this syndrome with only letters and numbers, which I've always found fascinating to try and understand... and this certainly helps... though I am curious how he'd react to watching this considering his letter/color associations may assumably be different than yours.

[veerleke]

oh my god you are a synaesthete as well?! I am getting seriously jealous @ you. Intersting that you have L as transparent, that corresponds very well with the eurythmic movement of "l" in the anthroposophical art of eurythmie.

[patrick95350]

I wonder how would it be to read text that was already properly color coded? That had been printed that way?

I don't get definate colors for letters or numbers, but a vauge sense. I do get definate colors for mood, my own and other people's, and for weather, and tempurature. I also get smells for some ideas and places.

[silentmiaow]

Someone made a banner for me on Second Life on my birthday that had all my colors correct. I did not notice for a bit that it was colored at all. Normally I notice that letters are colored because of the jarring contrast between their printed colors and their "real" ones.

[Dannilion]

I liked the Sesame Street reference at the end. And 7 is purple! Yay! My favourite number and colour combined!

[momof2boyswithautism]

Interesting- there is a name to this. My 9 year old with ASD is taking piano lessons- does really well with them-told me he sees the notes in colors. I am going to show him this, see what he thinks.

[star4kaeylarae]

hee hee

excellent

it wasn't that irritating to see your different colors than mine, especially when I decided to stop comparing them and just watch you.

thanks

pretty pink Q

[destinlecornu]

About 2 years ago, I did some digging and found out I have Synaesthesia. Mine is kind of weird, though. I associate sounds with shapes and pitches with colors. When I hear music, I see strange geometrical 2D colored shapes.

[9Shadowfax9]

wow! that's amazing! :D

[KittiesRock46]

I feel so honored that somebody has video-responed to me. no i', just kiddin. but thanks fore the response. great explanation of your synesthesia. i've only started researching synesthesia. it's going to be my next special interest. it's fun to show off what you see with numbers and letters. i've always been fascinated by colors.

[KittiesRock46]

oh, and i just approved the response. i didn't know i had to do that to get it up on my video (and yours).

[thechaosfairy]

Yours are almost all different from mine -- but you have roughly the same "mnop" sequence! I think that's kinda trippy.

[souljaEXVOTO]

i dig that crazy jazzy groovy music. thanks.

[pixl8edkat]

"L" is transparent?! wow, now *that* i find very intriguing.. hehe nice - i like the video "sponsor", blue's my favorite color lol... very informative, though. loved the vid

[orbit1010]

Very odd... Do you associate other shapes with colors?

[phalaeo]

I have what might be a stupid question. If one synaesthete sees the letter A as blue, and the other sees it as red, how can one get annoyed by the other's colours? Wouldn't the one who sees the red A see it as red no matter what colour the font is?

[silentmiaow]

No, we can actually see the color of the font *and* the synaesthetic color separately, even those who see the synaesthetic color projected outside them. Not sure how that works but look up synesthesia on Wikipedia and it's even described (I was surprised too, I thought I was just weird).

[AlthaeaSoaps]

that was fun, and the music is great. i have synaesthesia between colors, odors and tastes. they work back and forth, so that if it's a color i'm seeing, i will experience a smell and a taste, or if i smell something, i taste it and see a color, etc. since i am a soapmaker and perfumer, i get to "play" with this a lot in my work, it's very fun. i have to restrain myself from naming all of my fragrance creations after colors, though.

[9Shadowfax9]

ahhhhhhhhhh! annoying! annoying! annoying!

my colors are totally different!

and most of my letters and numbers have personalities genders, too. But I never knew such a condition existed! O_o

I hate my #6.

[KittiesRock46]

i love the number 6! it gives me a bright pink shade. however, i'm starting to like 7 and 4 better. even though the colors are far different from mine, i'm not really getting that annoyed by it. but i totally get annoyed when even numbers are masculine and odd numbers are feminine, because that reverses my perception.

[silentmiaow]

I'm not big on 6, it's kind of a blah shade of orange. I like 7 and 8 though.

[9Shadowfax9]

my 6 is a dull bog green/brown, very icky. :D

[9Shadowfax9]

yes, for me even numbers are almost always feminine, and odds are masculine too! ;P

[earth2k8]

What font are you using?

[silentmiaow]

Truesdell, my favorite font.

[earth2k8]

It's lovely.

[aware4autism]

Great vid! I have always associated colors with numbers. Funny how I always assumed that everyone else did this too...

I have also felt that words have "texture", when I was younger I used to keep lists of words, sorted by textures.

[melookingatyou]

Groovy! I would like to ask your brain: is there a reason for the L to be transparant? I guess "I" is not transparant but white. If my brain would work "synaesthesiasticaly" i would like "i" to be transparant. But anyhow, thanks for your video.

[silentmiaow]

Heh. That's how I react to everyone *else's* synaesthesia videos.

[aries77pm]

I really enjoyed your video. It's interesting to know that synaesthesia is stable over time, I know I had something similar but I lost it after childhood. I remember I also gave moral qualities to colors (blue being good, red being evil, etc.), and I think I was too young to be culturally influenced. Maybe it's something common, I don't know.

[Inkjet2]

Very Interesting, however I can't help but feel as if Burt or Ernie should be making a cameo appearance.

[silentmiaow]

Yeah, hence the wisecrack at the end. ;-)

[nicanicamad]

beautiful--great music.

[binsk]

Interesting Amanda. I see things a lot in pictures, but I think I mostly an audio type. I think that's why I talk to myself so much and how I can remember all the words to every song I have heard in the past after just a few listens. :)

[silentmiaow]

Synaesthesia actually doesn't usually involve pictures, as much as, if colors are involved at all (not all involve color), blobs of color or lines or other basic forms. (It's an involuntary response rather than an imaginative one.)

[ShineOnThrough]

Thanks for sharing...I had never heard of that sort of condition. It'll be interesting to learn more about it later. I wonder if people that have musical perfect pitch are experiencing something like this...being able to associate a specific color to a pitch to identify it.

[silentmiaow]

I also have perfect pitch, but I'm not sure whether the two are related or not. I was in a study on perfect pitch awhile back, but they never asked or said anything about synaesthesia.