I have always seen colors everywhere.......i didn't know this wasn't normal until i was in my late childhood......i didn't know there was a name for it until a couple of years ago when i read an article on the phenomenon in an issue of smithsonian magazine.
Basically a synesthete has two senses that combine in an unusual way.
some synesthetes see shapes when they hear music play.
others smell a certain smell when they see a certain color.
some hear a certain sound when they see a certain shape.
there are a lot of different combinations other than those as well.
but in my research on the subject i have found that seeing colors is the most common by far.
to be a synesthete the things you experience in that way have to happen the same way every time you have that experience with it......it does not have to be the same as another person who is also a synesthete.....but for example..... every time I see the letter E by itself it is ALWAYS brown......no exception. But someone else who is a synesthete may see the letter E as red or yellow or some other color. ....or may hear the letter E as a sound.
these are the things that i see.
Letters of the alphabet. (lower case letters often have their own distinct color but are often muted and hard to distinguish for me.)
D- brown
E- lighter brown
F- apple green
G- dark brown
H- light brown slightly darker than the shade for E.
I- blue or purple
J- purple
K- yellow
O black.....and through research i've read that a LOT of people see the letter O in black.
R- red
T- another brown
V- green
X black
Y yellow
Z black
all words come out in color for me....... Fallyn....is a weird combination of green and black.....
but words that have a special meaning for me....such as the word Fallyn.....also come up in patterns......Fallyn is an iridescent green......color shifting. and the black is shiny and smooth....but barely there in my perception. .....almost like a dark peacock. :P
anyway....this is how all words are to me...and the more a word has meaning....like....love, beauty, heaven, hatred, etc.
the more distinct the pattern.
this also holds true for names of people i love....or hate.
People......
i see people in separate colors from their names. this can get confusing....especially when first meeting someone....i have to remember i'm probably seeing the colors in their name before i get a feel for the colors in them as a person.
but....certain people have a tendancy to be a certain color. and to me those colors have a meaning......and my guess is that the personality traits a person has demonstrated they have actually show up in color to me. but i'm not sure on that...i just know that i do see people in color.
these are some of the traits i've noticed.
red, pure unbridled rage. most people have a small amount of red when i get to know them.....nearly everyone has it.....it's just the amount that differs from person to person. i've only met one person who was almost all red......i never talked to them again.
yellow- this person tends to be completely selfless, with no hidden agenda.....and a healer of other people. i have only met two true yellows in my life.
green, i know a LOT of green people....they are full of life.....rarely depressed, being around them is like a breath of fresh air.
blue. artistic souls are generally blue. the creativity just leaks out of them.
purple. a very envious person. someone who looks at other people and their first thought is "how come their life is perfect and mine isn't"
black. hurt. full of far reaching pain. pain that may come out in very unhealthy ways. not always depressed......but too much and it is scary indeed.
white. logic pure and simple. everything must be fair. life is lived as though you are always following a set of rules that must not be broken. most people have some kind of white ...but it tends to be a very small amount.......some peoples colors are muted by white and appear pastel to me.....anything other than a very very small amount of white i have not found to be a good thing.
brown- people like this have a thirst for knowledge and a general intelligence about them....they find learning easy and fun and tend to soak up information on topics they are interested in like sponges.
silver- this i see in about one of every 10 people.....but.......it's one of those things i'm rather skeptical about.
it seems to be some kind of sixth sense connection to the world around them. they feel the magic in the world where no one else does....these people tend to not be mundane in the slightest. i've never seen anyone who was all silver......my guess is that they'd be in a psych ward somewhere believing they were napoleon or something.
there are other colors i have seen in people....but i have not figured out what they mean......
my mother for one is the brightest shade of fuschia and i have no idea what it means.
i met someone once that was turquoise.....and not a clue what it means.
most people are a combination of colors. people i get to know really well i see with patterns as well.
my ex.... is a light tan.....brown with lots of white.....and has white spots floating in it. he has a line of red stretching across the bottom part of what i see.....and little black flecks throughout the pattern.
sometimes i see images. i've known people who were midnight blue (blue with a tinge of black throughout) that had a silver star shape in them. i've seen other shapes too....like a glass crystal in blue.....or just different things.
i'm not claiming my perceptions are completely correct. i wouldn't advise using them to base relationships or freindships off of. i'm not claiming it's like an aura or anything like that.
it's just what i see......and when i see the same exact pattern or colors every time i talk to or see a person....it must mean something.
so...this is what it is like to be a synesthete.....and not all of us see things the same way.
even when seeing colors in people....someone else may see the colors...but be seeing different ones than me.....so yellow may mean an artist.....or blue may mean anger.....i really don't know....again..just saying what i have learned and experienced.
not trying to claim i can see into a persons soul.
Fallyn posted on Nov 03, 2007
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Comments
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Twylarants said on Nov 03, 2007....
I'm so glad you posted this, it's very interesting.
I tagged it "perceptions", am I right in thinking these are perceptions and not what you actually see, not something visual?
Days of the week have always been colors to me...sunday is orange, monday is brown, tuesday is yellow, wednesday is blue, thursday is green, friday is purple and saturday isn't a color, it's just shiny and round.
Numbers are big and bold, always. I'm terrible at pencil and paper math, did poorly or failed maths all through school, but the answers were always there, big and bold. A bold, block-type number floats forward, ahead of the lesser numbers involved in the calculation. 1/4 or 862, like that, but not that font.
I simply couldn't go thru the steps on paper. I suck at anything sequential. Tell me to do this, then that, then a third thing, and I'm lost. I can't follow driving directions to save my life, but I can "feel" which way to go.
Even Soulcast, "feels" a certain way to me. I know of course how computers work, you click on a word and a page appears. But the feeling I have is that some pages are to the left and some to the right. My page, for instance is to the left, not in the middle. It's not comfortable to go there, not emotionally...nothing like that, just ...I don't know, physically.
People don't have colors to me, but the way I feel about some people is colorful.
That's too hard to explain.
Okay now...I'm stopping this before someone certifies me.
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evil_twin said on Nov 03, 2007....
This is very interesting! I hope Infernal reads this because I know she has the same experiences. She's posted about it before. I'd never heard of synesthesia until I met her, actually. I don't see things in terms of color myself, but I find it fascinating.
-evil_twin LA
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Fallyn said on Nov 03, 2007....
i see it....but in my minds eye.
it's very vivid.....but not actually in front of me.
days of the week......tuesday is brown...but i'm pretty sure that's cause it starts with T. and thursday is brown for the same reason......so i don't think i get colors for the days of the week...the the words.
i'm pretty sure i know what you mean......i don't do numbers that way.....but it makes sense to me.
right now you are brown....most likely because of your name....but as i get to know you another set will start to emerge. it's always an exciting process.
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Fallyn said on Nov 03, 2007....
evil...i can't remember what it is...but there are statistics somewhere about what percentage of the population is like this.
it goes back well into plato's time if not before....but it's only been recently that it's been studied and confirmed with empirical evidence.
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Fallyn said on Nov 03, 2007....
reports of it go back that far i meant. -
Twylarants said on Nov 03, 2007....
Fln (see why?*'s post) - I was going to mention that I was brown (to me) in my comment, but I was starting to sound crazy even to me so I didn't. As far as I can tell, I'm the only person who feels like a color to me. -
Fallyn said on Nov 03, 2007....
i'm blue and green swirled....like tie dye....with shades of brown and black overshadowing it .and a big column of silver through the middle.. -
Twylarants said on Nov 03, 2007....
Well girl you are certainly pretty! I'm kind of muddy brown. -
Fallyn said on Nov 03, 2007....
*grin* .....i'm only ever bored when i quit looking inside myself for entertainment. :P -
Twylarants said on Nov 03, 2007....
Quick ..go put that on Destiny's post...that's a good motto. -
Battycat said on Nov 03, 2007....
This is really interesting, glad you posted it. I haven't heard of it before :-) -
beyondtheveil said on Nov 03, 2007....
This is so interesting. I love to learn about things like this. I'm curious to know if you are glad you are a synesthete. Has it ever bothered you or do accept it as one of the better parts of your being?
I too am glad you posted this.
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the_infernal_optimist said on Nov 03, 2007....
Cool! :-D As e_t already alerted you, I am also synesthetic. :) Although I "disagree" with a lot of your colors for letters and what people-colors mean ("E" is green, gosh darnit! ;-)), it's always so darned nice to run across someone who gets it! YAY!
beyond, I doubt it's bothersome to any syn, really - since it's the only way you've ever really perceived the world, you know? The shocker for me was finding out that not everyone has colored...everything.
~Infernal
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Fallyn said on Nov 03, 2007....
*laughing* okay....i will.....*laughing* i gues it is a good motto.
batty cat...you should have seen my reaction when i read about it in smithsonian!!
for awhile i'd thought i was just seeing things!
beyond...no...it' never affected me badly at all. i love it it makes things so much more interesting! the only people with it that i've heard of that really have a problem with it are people that hear sounds for different things....i've heard that can get actually painful depending on the sound.
infernal...i've heard a lot of people that "disagree" on the colors....it does make it rather difficult....*laughing* my first experience with that was when i was tiny and all the colored letters on the alphabet blocks were all wrong.
and i'm with you...it was a shock to learn that very very few people see the world that way. i was about 8 when i first started realizing that.
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silverwhisper said on Nov 03, 2007....
i only know you and infernal to be synesthetes, fallyn. i think that it's cool as hell. i wonder if your differing color palettes suggest that the color associations are ultimately individually-derived rather than conforming to some external standard or set of associations.
once you've gotten to know a few more people, i think it would be interesting if you do a blog entry such as infernal once did in which you describe what colors you associate with various soulcasters you've encountered. :>
ed -
Twylarants said on Nov 03, 2007....
And I'm surprised to find out it has a name and other people live with it besides me. I never thought about it being strange, it just was what it was. But I was sure I was the only person who felt it. Of course I could never ask someone, "What color is it today?" But the colors helped if I couldn't remember what day it was. Thursday, green, was my favorite feeling, maybe because I knew the next day was payday.
The math thing was a good parlor trick when I was younger. One of my brothers can do a percentage thing like I can. We use to love to drive my husband and sister-in-law crazy, showing our "gift" off, but if they asked how we did it, we'd just look at each other stupidly, because we didn't know. I can't do it as well anymore, maybe I'm too old now.
Infernal - you knew you were synesthetic? Why have I never heard of this before?
I've gotta ask my kids about this, see if they have this thing.
How about feelings? That's something I can't explain. Feelings aren't exactly colored, more like outlined. Oh man, this explains so many things I've wondered about, so many confusing things.
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the_infernal_optimist said on Nov 03, 2007....
Twyla: I feel and think in color. And I didn't know I was synesthetic until I was 19 and my now-DH took exception to my calling something "'M' blue." There had been signs when I was younger that something was weird about me that way, but I never had a name for it until the summer after my freshman year of college.
Richard E. Cytowic has done wonders for bringing the scientific study of synesthesia into the public eye in the past few years. I had the pleasure of corresponding with him a bit when I first discovered what I "had" and was.
Fallyn, you might consider joining The Synesthesia List if you haven't already.
Also, if you haven't read The Man Who Tasted Shapes or Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens, both of these books were fascinating to me and might be of some interest to you.
Here are my entries on it (thus far): intro, people, more about people. I always meant (as you can see from that post at the bottom) to explain more about synesthesia, but like a lot of other topics I've contemplated, I never got around to doing that. Oops!
~Infernal
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tbs230 said on Nov 03, 2007....
Fallyn, I completely get what you're saying, although I don't perceive people that way. I just get vibes, which isn't very extraordinary, must people can get vibes from others. Lately, it's been bad, but I used to be great at figuring someone out just by being in the same room as them.
I don't know whether that's a good thing or not. My mood swings get really crazy sometimes...I can literally walk into a room and sense (only word I could think of) what the current mood is and switch mine accordingly. Sucked when someone was sad or angry, because I would become that way too. It barely happened when someone was happy...it seems that happiness is a submissive emotion...
Oh well, being forced to live with different people every year (I'm currently in college), I think I may have gone into overload. Can't handle so many differing emotions.
I wish I could sense a person by color...
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lampshade said on Nov 03, 2007....
Thats really amazing. I've read about synesthesia for a while but never knew anyone who had it. Its really a gift. -
Fallyn said on Nov 03, 2007....
silver....my ex and i shared the same views on what colors meant what for people...but i'm not entirely sure he was a synesthete.......he didn't see anything but for people. i think he was just going along with me....i don't know.....hard to say.
some of the emotions i have colors for.
envy or jealousy....it is not gtreen...it is purple.
love is red.....
care is yellow
i don't have a color for sex......but sex and love together is a really dark purply red. yes, i know purply isn't a word.
this may be completely unrelated...but often when i orgasm i'll see a lot of white imagery.......like hospitals...and nurses. ......sooooo wierd.
heaven....is pink and yellow and peach pastel....and it sparkles. .......shimmers......
and i really don't even believe in heaven.
i'm gonna completely go off on a tangent here. *laughing* once i get started the colors take a long time to stop being in the forefront of my vision.
*laughing* like just there....i type forefront....and it's green.....and vision is lavender......
laughing is an odd mix of purple and tan
tangent is brown.
SEEEE?!?!?!? .......
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silverwhisper said on Nov 03, 2007....
OK, that's really weird about white. hm...that has to mean something, i would think.
[lightbulb]
do you perhaps view sex as a form of healing?
ed -
the_infernal_optimist said on Nov 03, 2007....
Oooh, that's interesting!
~Infernal
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Fallyn said on Nov 03, 2007....
i really don't know......it happens a LOT though.
orgasms give me images of nurses and hospitals. ....very very white ...the walls, the floors, the lighting, the uniforms.....all white.....and it's there for a split second....and then vanishes.
soooooo weird.
i doubt if it's healing.......cause that's happened with all three guys i've ever been with......the one in the middle only one time even.....
and some of the times with my ex it was very very very near to rape. ......i orgasm rather easily.
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silverwhisper said on Nov 03, 2007....
OK, i really don't know what to make of that, fallyn. :<
ed -
Fallyn said on Nov 03, 2007....
yeah...me neither...it's just STRANGE.
i think what it might be.....is that the color really has nothing to do with anything......it's just that the feeling is that color....and when it happens...it's such a STRONG sensation that all the images i associate with that color come popping into my head.
cause i've gotten blue orgasms....and purple ones...
oh god....one time.....it was LITERALLY like FIREWORKS........now THAT was COOL. i want another one of those.
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the_infernal_optimist said on Nov 03, 2007....
Hmm...maybe it's more to do with a flash of insight re: life and death and interconnectedness there instead?
((hugs)) to you, Fallyn. DH has pushed it on me a couple times, but he's not a twisted scumbag. You, my dear, are one tough cookie.
Oooh, fireworks? Cool! :-D
~Infernal
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Twylarants said on Nov 03, 2007....
Fl - do you feel color for times of the day? I mean morning, afternoon, evening?
Mornings are yellow, afternoons are autumn colors, night is gray.
I've never felt colors for words, the day itself feels a certain way, a colorful way.
Emotions don't feel colored to me, it's more the mood at the moment. When my husband wears his brown leather coat, the leather smells blue to me. Some moods are aluminum, tinny feeling. Well, that's weird!
Calendars give me a problem, because days and months don't go across and down in my mind, they are in small groups going left to right, the future growing smaller because it's farther away. Sunday and Monday don't belong next to each other. I haven't thought about these things in years, and I think it's lessening as I get older.
Anyway, it's nice to know I'm not nuts.
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Fallyn said on Nov 04, 2007....
no....but i've found i can generally tell the time within 15 minutes by the sun.......and ours isn't even normal.....i'm so far north.
that's cool....it's another synesthetic trait....they are all felt and seen differently.
you aren't nuts.
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Fallyn said on Nov 04, 2007....
oh...and fireworks......just....W O W -
wombat said on Nov 04, 2007....
I find this whole thing fascinating! Wish I could "see" colors, too! I had heard about it, maybe seen things on tv--especially people who see colors with musical notes. Very special! -
quietone said on Nov 04, 2007....
I have never heard of this before and also find it fascinating. Your reading must be very colorful~ doesn't it hurt your eyes? -
justxinxtime said on Nov 04, 2007....
Very interesting indeed! I knew life was not black and white or is it? while we all see in color or most of us see in color. I see stars when I close my eyes like a map in motion, if i look. The other day riding down the road with my eyes shut the light was shining through the trees and as I went from the light to the shadows it was incredible like star bursts of color like incredible fireworks inside my mind and i found it very interesting and quite entertaining. Then there have been other times when I got a distinct mental image of a sattelite map for a brief instant like an up-link. Not all the times but there has been instances of incredible coincident or spiritual guidance where i just showed up some where that the chances of finding in the dark were so incredible that it is really beyond coincident and more magic or extremely high tech. -
lfbno7 said on Nov 04, 2007....
That sounds so interesting about you. It made me take a look at myself to try to find something equally interesting about me. Nope, nuthin. -
MissMimi said on Nov 04, 2007....
This is so neat. I love color, I love thinking about and working with color and combinations. But I don't think I see people or things in colors.It's a very cool gift imo. -
Fallyn said on Nov 04, 2007....
quietone....it really just kinda fades into the background....if i'm reading fast there's just a basic greyish brownish color......cause all of it blurs together....it's pretty rare that something just really jumps out at me.......when that does happen....then i look....then the colors are all around me......and it takes awhile for them to fade to the background again. ....it's just an impression of color......it's REALLY hard to explain.
jux......i'm not sure that's what we're talking about here....i've had that.....i think...but it's not the same.
lfbno......hmmmm there's gotta be something interesting about you......people that aren't like that aren't any less interesting.!!
miss mimi...*giggling* you should have seen me while i was working in a fabric store........i almost went into overload.
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destinydiva said on Nov 06, 2007....
wow interesting stuff, I never heard of it before, I didnt know infernal had it either.... hey infernal and fallyn you should both do a fresh soulcasters post, as ed suggested, it would be interesting to see if they are similar in any way..
I defo gonna google it and learn more... it must be linked to auras in some kind of way dont ya think?? :-) xx