A couple of months ago I pointed out some interesting facts about a-newly-discovered-condition-for-me, “synesthesia”. I had learnt about it reading one of the most informative blogs around, Instapundit. Today, I find this from the BBC:
Synaesthesia itself is a rare and unusual condition thought to affect less than 1% of the population.
It can takes [sic] many different forms – some people may “see sounds”, in that certain sounds trigger them to see particular colours. Others might experience colours while reading those words in simple black text.
But according to Charles Spence, a professor of experimental psychology at Oxford University, we are all “synaesthetes” up to a point.
In many ways, I wish I could experience color after listening to music or reading (I only experience emotion…and I cannot put a color to it.) . But, after reading this article, I wonder… Maybe my life is too busy to realize that in some small measure I may be a minuscule “synaesthete”.
All my life, since I was less than three years old, I have been able to both see and feel music. I tried to tell my mother, but she laughed. I took piano lessons, and told another of the students because he played so beautifully that I assumed he must also experience music the way I did. He looked at me as if I was crazy.
So I kept this to myself.
I told my therapist about a month ago. I knew she would not tell me I was crazy. Then I told a couple other people who I felt confident would accept what I said. Everyone was accepting, but no one had ever heard of anything like it before.
Then, tonight, I was watching an episode of “Heroes” and a new character was on the show – one who can see music. My heart stopped in my chest… I thought, could someone invent that having never experienced it? Whoever wrote that must know what I know, experience what I experience.
So I googled “seeing music” and I am now in a total state of shock. There is a name for what I experience, and an explanation, and
I am not alone.