are you synesthetic ?

[scruffy]

Do you ever see sounds, or hear colors?

Apparently synesthesia is genetic, although I'm told it can also be induced by drugs.

Genetics of synesthesia - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There's one special kind I'm very interested in, it's called time-space synesthesia. It's described pretty well here:

How my time-space synaesthesia affects how I experience and ‘feel’ the new year

For some people, time feels like it has a physical position in relation to their body.

theconversation.com

 

[toobfreak]

Do you ever see sounds, or hear colors?
There's one special kind I'm very interested in, it's called time-space synesthesia.

Yeah, I guess I can relate to that, I can see that happening and think I might have had a few experiences along those lines. I'm rather surprised at your suggestion that periods of time as NOT being associated with positions in space. Both are connected.

 

[BULLDOG]

Do you ever see sounds, or hear colors?

Apparently synesthesia is genetic, although I'm told it can also be induced by drugs.

Genetics of synesthesia - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There's one special kind I'm very interested in, it's called time-space synesthesia. It's described pretty well here:

How my time-space synaesthesia affects how I experience and ‘feel’ the new year

For some people, time feels like it has a physical position in relation to their body.

theconversation.com

Sounds a little bit out there but interesting. Do time/space positions switch abruptly, or slowly transition from one location to the next?

 

[scruffy]

Sounds a little bit out there but interesting. Do time/space positions switch abruptly, or slowly transition from one location to the next?

That's a good question. As I don't have this condition and can't access it, I have to answer "I don't know".

If the description in the blog is accurate it would seem to be smooth. I'm not sure anyone's ever studied it at that level. I'll check around.

 

[scruffy]

Sounds a little bit out there but interesting. Do time/space positions switch abruptly, or slowly transition from one location to the next?

Here is at least part of the answer:

Google Search

Some people see a grid (square or elliptic), and other people just see blobs of shape. Maybe the answer is "both".

 

[toobfreak]

That's a good question. As I don't have this condition and can't access it, I have to answer "I don't know".

Try this explanation on for size:

Just as a vacuum tube develops a space charge within itself, a cloud of electrons suspended in a static field resembling a miniaturization of the acoustic space, the brain forms within its ganglia a modeling of the space and times associated with memories and ideas as well.

The brain attempts to interpret these memories as sensory inputs to various regions of the brain as either sight, sound, taste, touch, or feeling, and these regions are not entirely isolated from one-another and not without their ability to cross-connect and share information.

 

[JGalt]

Do you ever see sounds, or hear colors?

Apparently synesthesia is genetic, although I'm told it can also be induced by drugs.

Genetics of synesthesia - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There's one special kind I'm very interested in, it's called time-space synesthesia. It's described pretty well here:

How my time-space synaesthesia affects how I experience and ‘feel’ the new year

For some people, time feels like it has a physical position in relation to their body.

theconversation.com

I did in the 60's but not any more.

 

[Muhammed]

I've seen sound. I was probably on LSD, but it could have been some other hallucinogen. I tried a lot of stuff. And I did a whole lot of LSD when I was in my teens and 20s.

 

[BULLDOG]

Seeing flashes of light or "stars" as depicted in cartoons upon a blow to the head is a real thing. Perhaps this response to a shock is somehow related to the time/space situation.

 

[JGalt]

I've seen sound. I was probably on LSD, but it could have been some other hallucinogen. I tried a lot of stuff. And I did a whole lot of LSD when I was in my teens and 20s.

What the hell were we thinking?

 

[scruffy]

Try this explanation on for size:

Just as a vacuum tube develops a space charge within itself, a cloud of electrons suspended in a static field resembling a miniaturization of the acoustic space, the brain forms within its ganglia a modeling of the space and times associated with memories and ideas as well.

The brain attempts to interpret these memories as sensory inputs to various regions of the brain as either sight, sound, taste, touch, or feeling, and these regions are not entirely isolated from one-another and not without their ability to cross-connect and share information.

I'm not the expert but this is my understanding, please correct me if I'm wrong. Most people experience time as a "flow" (you've heard the expression "the flow of time"). Time flows "through" us, and more often than not it's from from to back, future is in front and past is in back (like when we say "back then" and point backwards with our thumbs).

So you may be right in what you said in post #3. It would be unusual "not" to associate time and space. However the perceptual element is quite distinct in synesthesia, yes? Because most people don't see a ring of color in front of them when they think about time.

And, the "shape" is different too, yes? The torus is kind of the opposite of a flow (flux) through the torus.

This is a fascinating topic though. I found a guy David Brang at U Mich Ann Arbor, who has a way of inducing a "soft" form of temporary synesthesia in normal subjects.

https://lsa.umich.edu/psych/news-events/all-news/faculty-news/researchers-show-there-is-a-simple-way-to-induce-synesthesia-in-.html

 

[Muhammed]

What the hell were we thinking?

 

[MostBoringManInTheWorld]

 

[sparky]

Most people experience time as a "flow" (you've heard the expression "the flow of time"). Time flows "through" us, and more often than not it's from from to back, future is in front and past is in back (like when we say "back then" and point backwards with our thumbs).

Perhaps our perception of time , in the linear sense, is due to being captive to the physical ?? ~S~

 

[toobfreak]

I'm not the expert but this is my understanding, please correct me if I'm wrong. Most people experience time as a "flow" (you've heard the expression "the flow of time"). Time flows "through" us, and more often than not it's from from to back, future is in front and past is in back (like when we say "back then" and point backwards with our thumbs).

So you may be right in what you said in post #3. It would be unusual "not" to associate time and space. However the perceptual element is quite distinct in synesthesia, yes? Because most people don't see a ring of color in front of them when they think about time.

And, the "shape" is different too, yes? The torus is kind of the opposite of a flow (flux) through the torus.

This is a fascinating topic though. I found a guy David Brang at U Mich Ann Arbor, who has a way of inducing a "soft" form of temporary synesthesia in normal subjects.

I suppose someone might see time as a ring of color, why not? But I tend to see myself less as central and stationary with time passing through me like a river, and more like time being compartmentalized with various periods of my life being different places like rooms in a house and my moving through them.

And instead of time moving forward through me with the future ahead, I see myself as moving upward more vertically through time. The future is another place I am heading upwards towards.

 

[braalian]

unless this is reproducible in a controlled, laboratory environment, I am skeptical it’s a real thing

Show me a study where a blindfolded subject can reliably identify colors by touch or “sound”.

 

[scruffy]

Show me a study where a blindfolded subject can reliably identify colors by touch or “sound”.

lol

Blindfolded people don't see colors duh.

However sound can invoke colors in blind people. Like Stevie Wonder. He sometimes composes in colors.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2023/11/30/hearing-colors-seeing-sounds-a-psychologist-explains-synesthesia/

 

[braalian]

lol

Blindfolded people don't see colors duh.

However sound can invoke colors in blind people. Like Stevie Wonder. He sometimes composes in colors.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2023/11/30/hearing-colors-seeing-sounds-a-psychologist-explains-synesthesia/

That’s just associating certain sounds with certain colors. It’s not “hearing color”. I maintain that that’s impossible

 

[toobfreak]

Blindfolded people don't see colors duh. However sound can invoke colors in blind people. Like Stevie Wonder. He sometimes composes in colors.

That ties back to the thought I had last night: since the brain must have the ability to rewire itself to work around damaged areas, it only stands to reason then that some people might accidentally or inadvertently cross-connect sensory information to other reception areas that they be perceived as an altered sense via unusual circumstance or drug use, etc.

 

[scruffy]

unless this is reproducible in a controlled, laboratory environment, I am skeptical it’s a real thing

Show me a study where a blindfolded subject can reliably identify colors by touch or “sound”.

The "colors" aspect of synesthesia is the best studied.

V4 is the color processing area in the human brain, and we have functional MRI studies that indicate it's wired differently in synesthetes.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of synesthesia: activation of V4/V8 by spoken words - PubMed

In 'colored-hearing' synesthesia, individuals report color experiences when they hear spoken words. If the synesthetic color experience resembles that of normal color perception, one would predict activation of parts of the visual system specialized for such perception, namely the human 'color...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov