Synesthete.org is a website that has a series of online tests where you can test yourself for synaesthesia – the condition where senses are crossed so, for example, you might be able to taste shapes or see colours associated with specific numbers.
The site is run by the Eagleman Lab at the Baylor College of Medicine who study links between perception and action, as well as the curious world of synaesthesia.
If you’re a researcher, you can also use the site to test and collect results on your own participants, and the same tests are also available as downloadable software for the Matlab package.
It’s now known that synaesthesia is partly inherited, so if you find that you or one of your family members seems to have the condition, others in the family may also have similar abilities.
Link to synesthete.org.
111 Comments
I’d so like to know how it feels to be synaesthetic!
Unfortunately I never will.
Haha It Actually Is Just A Colorful World For Everyone Who Has Synesthesia! Like Me, And I Don’t Know Anyone Else That Does. I Have The Color Type Synesthesia, Where You See, Hear, Taste, And Smell In Colors! I Don’t Know How It Feels To Be An Un-Synesthetic!
it must be awesome to have synesthesia!
I used to have synesthesia with letters, numbers, music and colors BUT now I have multiple sclerosis and I no longer have synesthesia. It’s cool. I don’t care. I’d rather have MS than synesthesia. Colors are like so totally lame!
How does it feel to have it? o.o what colors do you see, for example, on a TV or a rose? (Normally they’re a deep red)
Is it fun? I have synthesthesia, but I taste voices and feel noises… its pretty cool but I wish my world was more colourful
it’s the most amazing thing! it can be annoying at times,(like in math), but i couldn’t live without it. i wish everyone could experience it!!
Yup! I hav it but for some reason it doesnt affect math or reading. I guess mine is very mild
Same here. I love reading, and I’m one of the best in my class at math. Apparently synesthesia can occur in your minds eye and that’s where mine is
What’s your type?
people do experience it. its called dropping acid
In fact I’m synesthetic my self it feels perfectly normal to. I think your comment of a yellow and the number 7 very eegering emotions intertwined.
My son (who at 14 can play most musical instruments) has just admitted that he sees the notes as different colours – i’m sure this has helped his amazing talent!
You perceive it as normal. I’m 26 and I just found out about synaesthesia yesterday. I am synaesthetic and right now, I can’t thinking about the number 5, which causes me to see all yellow in my mind’s eye and I can’t get rid of the taste of battery in my mouth.
If you experience synaesthesia, based in the uk and want to participate in some research to understand more about the condition, the UCL lab is a great place. You can contact them here
http://www.psychol.ucl.ac.uk/jamie.ward/synaesthesia.htm
Yes, a delicious article. Also worth getting a taste of:
“Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens: How Synesthetes Color Their Worlds”
by Patricia Lynne Duffy (Henry Holt & Co 2001)
http://www.bluecats.info
The synesthesia battery is a quite usefull tool. But I’d like to announce that there is a new kind of synaesthesia-tests. This tests are much more shorter and you can test your different synaesthesia seperately. Researchers can also create their own testing tools.
Have a look on it, on http://www.synaesthesia.com
Greetings Synnie83
(P.S: Se encuentra tambien los tests de sinestesia en castellano.)
i went to that website and it said that i had django settings debug=true and it said it needs to be false. i dont know how to do that. do you have any solutions?
i only taste in color….i don’t smell or hear it …..is that odd?
No, the extent of your sensory perception varies. Some sounds remind me of colors and some smells remind me of things that I have touched, but it doesn’t happen all the time.
Yeah i have synesthesia and it seems very strange i am only 12 but i am quite inteligent, i am in the top groups for all subjects.The way i found out i had synesthesia is one day in primary school i was in discussion club and i put my hand up to ask the teacher that somtimes i see numbers certain colours and he said that it was synethisia sooo…i hav synesthisia!!! i will tell you all what colours i see the numbers…
0-Black
1-White
2-Blue
3-Green
4-Red
5-Yellow
6-Orange
7-Brown/Purple
8-Brown/Purple
9-Pink
and then it goes back to that sequence!!!
Jemma x
cool! I’m 12 too! what state are you in?
i think i have a very mild form of synaesthesia. i see colors when i listen to music if my eyes are closed. facing toward light, i usually see orange and yellow and red and pink. when it’s dark or my eyes are covered, i see greens blues whites and purples. i usually see emerging circles of those colors too. normally those colors emerge or appear out of blackness.
when i look at a light colored solid wall, i can see what looks like “staticky raindrops”. the wall also seems to wave like the ocean.
i don’t see letters and numbers as colors. my friend does though. today in math i wrote the number 20 on the board in black marker and she said it was yellow.
it’s all sort of confusing. can someone explain what’s happening to me here?
That’s exactly the same with me! I thought it was normal..is it not?
No worries! It all has to do with the way your brain is wired. Like, the connections in your brain. For example, we feel good when we touch dirt because our brain makes the connection that growing crops feeds us, and our body wants to be fed, so touching soil gives us a positive feeling. For whatever reason, your brain associates a color with a letter. It could go back to an early childhood memory that you’re unaware of.
I think it’s a positive thing:) Everyone is a little different, and it doesn’t effect you negatively at all; I have it. And I know TONS of other people who are synesthetes. Up until now…I don’t know there were people who couldn’t do that…
I just figured out about synesthesia this week! I was talking to my brother and somehow we got on the topic of music, so I started talking about how when I hear music, I see colors. He thinks I’m making it up, but I’m not. The colors just happen, and for as long as I can remember (I’m 15) I thought this was completely normal, and that everyone knew what colors certain songs were. I thought I was going crazy, but then I told my cousin about this and she told me I probably had synesthesia…so here I am! My favorite is Hey, Soul Sister by Train…it’s the most fantastic spring green and makes me so happy. And when the bell rings at school, it’s steely grey.
Also, I’ve always known that directions have personalities…left and down are sweet and feminine and nice, but right and up are big, burly and mean. I know there’s synesthesia where letters have personalities (for me, only some do…A, K, M and a few others) but has anyone ever heard of directions?
This is so weird, but I’m so glad I’m not really going crazy!!
Oh my god, yes! Xylophones are a silvery-grey to me! And it’s weird, but Bono’s (lead singer of U2) voice usually appears in different shades of blue…like “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” is a magnificent bold teal.
One of the funniest experiences i had was what my mother started playing some old Stevie Wonder disc and I walked out of my room, because the song made me smell chocolate chip cookies! My mom couldn’t stop laughing!
I don’t have Synesthesia, but I think it waould be cool to see what it’s like to have a word of color. The way I found out about Synesthesia is from this book A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass. I’m about half way done with it and I think it’s an amazing book. I highly recomend it.
I have synesthesia, and its epic! I can’t imagine a world with out it! Color is such a part of my life!
For me…
0 = greyish red … if thats a color!
1 = yellow
2 = green
3 = pink
4 = orange
5 = light blue
6 = dark green
7 = yellow
8 = royal blue
9 = red
My name is red w/yellow swirled in.
and I looove that book by Wendy Mass!
i agree, best book EVER… it’s a mango shaped space, i learned about synesthesia from it!
do i have synesthesia if i feel colours? like sometimes white is fear, green is calm and happy, orange is energetic and blue is reserved and thoughtful. is that a type of synesthesia?
Yes, that is a form of synesthesia.
I have some weird types of synaesthesia. I don’t see the words as different specific colours, but I do see colourful tracings around the words. And it’s not one colour, it’s like a spectrum. I’ve had it as long as I can remember, but I found out this isn’t normal just recently! I have no idea what it’s classified as, though.
I also see colours in my mind when I hear different musical instruments (chromaphonia). Like a tuba shows brown, cello purple, vioin light indigo, trumpet yellow-green. And I sort of have colours for every month, like I just KNOW September is ultramarine! It’s called chromachronia, I think. Here, I’ll list them out:
Jan- burgundy
Feb- reddish-purple
March- bright blue
April- light green
May- dark green
June- pale yellow
July- red
Aug- light bluish mint green
Sept- ultramarine
Oct- powder pink
Nov- gold
Dec- dark turquoise
Just thinking of the concept of a month makes the colour pop up in my head!
I’ve always had it…I just didn’t know it was considered uncommon. :/
Oh and @Kreyah: Yeah! It’s called chromesthesia, when you feel emotions as you see colours. If you’re not sure, you can always go on this site: http://www.mixsig.net/about/list.php
I just found out what the name for all of this was some time last year. For as long as I can remember, everything has had a color. Numbers, letters, months, people, days of the week, feelings…everything. Of course I thought it was normal while I was a kid but, as I got older, I realized that no one else I knew had these associations. So I finally decided to google it and found out that there’s actually a name for it! I’m not sure if anyone else feels overprotective of their colors though. For example, I see 3 as pink and 5 as blue but when other people name their color associations, I label them as “wrong” in my head even though I know they’re not. Does anyone else do this?
You’re way off! 3 is golden yellow, 5 is very pale silver! The blue numbers are 2 & 9.
Everyone has different colors though. For me, 2 is black and 9 is forest green. 6 is also green but it’s much lighter, like a grass green.
It’s aight.it doesntsuck it doesn’t rock. I guessitsnormal for me? Like I can’t imagine numbers and words without colors. 6 is hot pink and 8 is a watery purple, 7 is burnt orange, 4 is brick red, 9 is like egg yolk etc. And I have this weird thing with the calendar and days of the week where they are this huge picture..hard to explain. Ya mango shaped space is the best kids book ever..
living my whole life with synaesthesia, I thought it was just normal to see colors when you hear a sound. I get some funny looks when i tell someone what color their voice is, but it is ,overall, uninhibiting, except in math and english
why does it seem that everyone who has synaesthesia is 12, even though I am as well and at the top of my class.
I see months in colors like:
Jan:orange
Feb:navy
March:yellow
April:brown
May: pink
June:blue
July:red
August:black
September:deep red
October:purple
November:green
December:dark green
And numbers too. It’s annoying sometimes like in math.
And i feel colors sometimes.
I thought it was normal…
I don’t have synesthesia but for some months i associate a color, April is light pink and December is light blue.
Agh! June is blue for me too! AND DECEMBER. DECEMBER IS LIKE ALMOST DARKER THAN FOREST BLACKGTYIJHKJ
I thought it was normal too. xfghjkl; cx
Is this a type of Synaethsia? I sometimes can feel the colors around me. Orange is energenic, blue is calm and peacful, Red and fiesty, green is joyful, and purple is smooth. I dont actually see numbers and colors and months and days in a color. But when I see it, a color pops in my head like. November is brown, Feburary is orange. The number 2 is red. Letter E is brown. Is the synesthia?
I have “Number Form Synesthesia”. The days of the week, the months of the year, the years within a century, etc… are all laid out in my mind in the form of individual maps. They are all like road maps. If I’m counting numbers, I can see the numbers and where they are located within the straight lines, turns, and zig zags that make up my number map. BUT, if I’m thinking about someone’s age? AGES have their own map. Although ages ARE numbers, I don’t see ages on my regular number map.
The months of the year are all laid out in a sort of oval/circle pattern, and I can view them as if I’m standing in the middle of this circle, turning as needed to look at a particular month. But I can also view the months from outside the circle. I guess I see these maps in 3D, and I can place myself in any position within any area of my map.
I have experienced this my whole life, and just assumed everyone else did too. Just recently, my daughter was having problems studying for a history test. She couldn’t remember the dates. I attempted to explain how my “pattern” of dates look…and proceded to ask her how her patterne is laid out. She looked at me like I was nuts, and now totally believes I’m weird and crazy! I’m in my 40′s and have just found out that I am different. So upon researching this, I see color is a huge part of Synesthesia. For me, I don’t see a color for each letter or number. But I do see the 1950′s as RED, the 1960′s as BLUE, and the 1970′s as YELLOW.
Hi Christine,
I have the exact same thing with months! I usually start out facing June and July and have to turn around in order to see the later months of the year. My birthday, September 7, is always to my right, so you could say the oval (it’s usually an oval for me) goes clockwise.
What do weeks look like to you?
i totally see numbers as a “map” as well. mine is made up of straight lines. that don’t intersect. dates are the same as numbers for me. for the month i think of a square and depending what time of year it is, is where i am in the square, looking at the other months. i can move around it too, if i want to.
i don’t think of things in color, but i do assign genders to everything.. numbers, letters, utensils, etc. always have.
I really think having it is quite a pest… I cant focus on school work because if my whatever its called whenever Im in bed I always see pink when its hot.. when it gets cold my room suddenly goes a bluish tint dude it is so annoying !!!
Um… I was wondering if I have synaesthesia. It’s sort of the way I see words and sentences, particularly in books for some reason. It’s like they have texture and are like a jigsaw – so when the sentences have the right words they are smooth, but when some of the words are wrong the whole thing is messed up and is all jumbled and bumpy. When someone gives me something to read that is had written, like my friend, for example, I view it as something akin to a strange sort of jigsaw, This is why I have a problem reading what I call ‘bad writing’ because I find it highly annoying that the sentences and the words don’t feel right. So because of this, my story writing particularly (and my other writing as well) is very…um..well, it’s cross examined by me, which makes the writing ‘smooth’ and not ‘bumpy’, in my eyes.
I have had synaesthesia my whole life, but only discovered that it had a name about a year ago. My mom knew about it, and when I started dating my husband I told him about it, and he was fascinated by it. He likes to bring it up at dinner parties to see people’s reactions to it. I not only see letters, words and numbers in color, but people also represent a color to me as well. Letters and numbers also have personalities to me. For instance, A is red, a female, attractive and slightly snobbish. Y is yellow, male, and fun.I have never met another person with this condition, but since my husband has helped me to open up about it, I find that so many people are fascinated by it, and jealous that they don’t have it. And a lot of people now come up to me and ask me “So, what color am I?” I do feel more special than the average person. My memory is crazy good, and I have recently found out that this is part of synaesthesia as well.Some people obviously think you’re a wacko or making it up, but who cares about them, anyway? I know who I am, and I know now that there is a name for it.
I would LOVE to have Synesthesia I have been reasearching it and found that not many people have sound/taste and sound/smell and have been told that color/letters,numbers,months,weeks,etc
are the most common! It is a VERY VERY VERY COOL THING
My grand mother, and I have this condition
when I was in first grade at school was very difficult, I was always afraid some one will find out and embarrassed me. If I accidentally hurt myself my pain color is Brown, the sound of the bell at church taste like Pineapple, any sensation I see like jelly beans in color floating in the air, moving slow in one direction, there is a liquorish flavor when I see certain people in the head or the hair. I can smell when a person lie. I can play many musical Instruments, very good with numbers, I am an inventor, I always have this dream or vision of a place that I am from, not from this Earth.
Today, through a friend, I found out about this. I always thought it was normal to “go trough a tunnel of spinning colors” while listening to music. I mentioned this to many friends and the reaction I got was embarrassing. They would look at me like I had 10 heads! “Doesn’t this happen to everyone?”, I thought. Turns out , it’s not normal to give numbers personalities and make them have colors and names and such. It’s also not normal to see words on a screen in my mind as people talk to me. But, although it’s weird, I’m glad that I found out about it
My Creative Writing teacher mentioned it today… I was like wtf does that mean? And saomeone said it was where you mix up your senses kind of… he gave an example of it and said “Now few of my students have this. There are usually one or two people in each of my class. Like you may assing (in your mind) certain colors to certain letters. Or you might assign a certain sex/gender to a number and I instantly started shaking my head. He asked me if I had done it before and I said yes sir. He gave the example like 21 and I instantly said boy. So I have a form of synesthesia. And honeetly thought everybody did that. And that it was normal. I talked to my mom about it just recently and my Grandmother. And they said no its not normal… But its also not bad either.. Just different.
I am so amazed i am not the only one with syneasthesia. Im 13 but i realized i had syneasthesia(sorry cant spell) 2 years ago when i really embarressed myself infront of my friends when i started talking about colours of letters numbers names moods rooms etc… And everyone was staring at me. Ahhhh!!!!! Now everyones used to it although it still creeps my mum out when i tell her the colour of a resturant or song!!!!!
I have synesthesia. When I hear anything I smell something different. My mums name smells like wine and my dads name smells like cupcakes. Or music has a certain smell. I wonder what in it like to be un-synesthesic?
I have synaesthesia and I think its an amazing things to have. I wouldn’t trade it for all the tea in china! I didn’t realize I was different until I started talking to my friends about it and embarrassed myself. I love watching music, however and I think its had its effect of my musical talent.
To grace that sounds really cool. I never really have it with smell
i had this accident with my eyes awhile back and it caused damage to my brain so now i have it too. When i read, i see colors but mainly only gold and red, but its not only with certain letter, the colors follow along as i read which makes it harder for me. I also see colors when i close my eyes and hear music. Some are bright and some are dark depending on the genre. I guess i can say my imagination is different than a lot of others too. It all starts out with color combinations for me in my mind which is why i consider myself good at art..However sometimes ill just be walking and all of a sudden, i see black and purple “tingly lines” and it can be hard to see which makes me wonder if its a gift or not?
Hi! I have synesthesia where letters will stand for colors, for example: A= a bright crisp orange with fizzy bursts of lemon. I also have it where certain noises will overwhelm me. For example: When I scrape a fork on a plate, sharp dark green thunderbolts strike me like falling piano keys! It is so weird. I also have it related to smell & taste. For example: when I drink milk, I see white, blurry, fuzzy clouds,and it smells like burnt toast. It is so cool to have, and I am so thankful. I also see sharp and rough triangles, squares, and diamonds of a rainbow spectrum in my head when I close my eyes. When I read, it is so overpowering I have to take a break because all the colors and shapes build up, and are tingling my head,and sometimes I wanna scream. People who don’t have it, what color is this text? BTW: If you tell me your name, I can tell you what I see. My name is Faith. It is a hot pink with sharp needle-like flecks of gold with an orange burst at the end. How do you see Faith? (people with synesthesia of course). Thanks!
The text is black.Boring right? I wish i had synesthesia… it sounds like the world is so much more- idk- open? By the way, my name is NataliA, with an a at the end
, not Natalie. 
Ur name to me is a pastel orange with light pink flecks. Wats my name? (Alexa)
I see Faith light baby blue with a hint of purplish pink.
What is my name? Abigail. I think it is a hot purplish pinkish with an outline of lemon fizz. I have lots of different kinds of symptoms. If I am at a train station or something loud I get overwhelmed by the noise. One time with my brother he kept calling me names. All I heard was clinging bells at a high pitch, and I saw red floating. I started screamed.. ( which, by the way, is red/green) I think it makes me unique, but i don’t ever go around saying I have it. That I keep to myself. I also have colors for the days of the week. i taste in color and smell in taste. Good luck, synesthetic!!!
do i have synesthesia? words, numbers, some sounds, and names all make a color pop in my head.
btw i wanted to add that, natalia, your name is yellowey orange to me. haha.
i always have the sense of smell! sometime i smell something that other wouldn’t smell it! i don’t know what it is. i can smell people from just seeing them. sometime i almost event have orgasm with those smell! but sometime those smell i smell, just warn me how terrible that person would be! sometime it just make me feel sick! english is my third language, i don’t understand what is exactly you guys talking about, but people around me always said that i think by myself, and being like a dog. till i heard about this things by accident search on the internet
I wish i had it with smell and taste! I wondered wat it would b like… I hav it- letters numbers names and sounds hav colors
I don’t know if I have the gift/condition. I have a reaction to music that involves panoramic views of “landscape”. This landscape is more of a kaleidescope effect but with purpose. Instead of shapes and colours cascading in sequence, I see it as a complex “EQ”. Instead of bars going up and down for bass and treble, the “bars” are colours for intensity and emotion.
I have found myself overwhelmed at times to the point that if I am driving, I become so …. caught up with it, that I have pulled the car over to the side of the road until it passes.
Music is the strongest, I tend to find that I feel it “impairs” my senses, however, I thought it a quirk on how I associated days of the week, months, letters, etc with different tastes or colours.
This….sensation…. I don’t know how others without it cope. It’s as if most are born numb, but those that can Sysnesth have found out how to truly….’FEEL’
Last paragraph- DEFINATLEY!!!!!!!! Perfect wording:) like, i cant imagine a world with out this condition
i wanted to give you guys all something to look forward to. what i like to do, (for all of you guys that see shapes/numbers in color in the air or behind your eyes)is run a hot bath with bubbles, turn all the lights off, and play classical music. its amazing!!!!! everything is just, oh, its just wonderful! have fun!
I would love to have Synesthesia; as an aspiring artist having the world in more color would be helpful to me. I would like to know more though, like when a color or feeling arrives, does it gently fade in, or does it hit you hard? Or does it depend on what you’re experiencing? Sorry, just very curious!
I would help but i cant sorry! I have it but bery mild. Like how most people with it have trouble with math and/or reading. I dont at all though… Its weird. But when someone says, lets say, the letter A. I think of the color red. For me, its like i picture the letter in my mind in the color it is for me. Its like that for alot of things, like numbers and names. For names, they even hav textures to them. So i guess it all depends on what kind the person has or how strong it is. You should keep researching, its a very interesting topic. Try reading A Mango Shaped Space, too
Is this synaesthesia: I can feel some sounds like a scratching noise will make me feel like there is sand paper in my mouth. Beeping noises make me have a swishing feeling
I also hear sounds in specific locations near me. Softer sounds are to the left in front of me. Thunder is directly to my right. When I hear music the sounds bounce in different places near me
Okay; Well black I hate black mostly because when I see blacks OR grey I smell and taste digusting ciggarettes. My mum thought I was crazy one time, A loud gunshot sounded outside he house I suddenly saw a purple line with a C-Shape going thorugh it. I taste marshmellows when I hear clapping. And when Im walking I see squiggly transparent lines each time I take a step.
I never knew this was a condition until today ;p
I dunno, for me, only certain things get associated with color. Like when I think of a number or letter, i just get the feeling of what color it is. I don’t actually SEE the colors, but I KNOW that 7 is green. Or R is dark purple. More often than not, it’s a sort of color combination, like W fluctuates from shades of gray to pale stormy-blue or to white. Quite pretty.
Sometimes it’s an entire word, like how the word “darling” is a pale yellowy-gold color.
I always just assumed it was normal. Like, doesn’t everyone do this to some extent? lol
I have synesthesia to. It’s fun matching up colours and letters/numbers in my mind. Like, since most guys haves O’s in their names and O’s are black so that gives many names a black tinge, but the name Phillip is a purplish-pink. I only have coloured letters and numbers but sometimes, if I close my eyes music has a colour too. I know many people with synesthesia have trouble in math but I’ve figured out a way to match up coloured numbers in my mind. Like, the sandy-orange of 2 matches with the dark purple of 7 to make a dark green 9. Is that normal? FYI: To those who have read A Mango-Shaped Space (awesome book) you really need to read the Secret Series as well.
Omg i thought everyone saw letters numbers sounds and names with the the color that i do and i didnt no not even evryone didnt see colors for those stuff… Untill i read that book!
My daughter seems to have synaethesia. Pls forward some info for me if possible. Kind regards Lisa
I love having syesthesia! I’ve had it my whole life, and I’ve never even been aware of it most of the time…it’s like, when you’re explaining a memory to someone, and you can see certain details so clearly, that you leave them out in your explanation because they seem like such a given. That’s what it feels like. There’s nothing bad or different about it-if anything, it explains my freakishly good memory. I’m able to use it to create songs and writing, because certain colors just go together. It’s a very colorful world:) It also effects who I gravitate towards, I love colorful people.
I didnt think it was a disorder, I just thought everyone had it! Its pretty cool, make me feel like a superhero, but sometimes pretty annoying.
I see colours when I listen to music, mostly greens, yellows, whites and blacks…also if I hear/read the name of someone im close too, I see the colour red, and if its someine im not close too, I see blue. Also days of the week are coloured and numbered…the only negative aspect is that when I see/hear/feel something that worries me, I Have the most collosal headaches at a single point at the back of my head… I still cant beleive that not everyome jas it, it feels so normal!
Oh fun fact, at the cinemas or concerts I thoght the ligjts went down so you could see the colours better xD
I have it. And last year in school, during reading, we came across a page where the author describes the music litterally flashing colors that correspond with the sound(it was a fantasy book). So she did something with the class. She took songs and asked wat color they think it is. She and everyone else thought of all the happy ones yellow, girly ones pink, and sad ones blue. And im just sitting there like “…..” Because they were trying to match colors up when they dont really see them in there head. They just guessed. And i had complete different answers. I was just like,”wow.”
I have synesthesia and i cant imagine not having it! I can oftefeel sound, not the vibrations. If you drop a book in the other room i feel a tap on my back. When i play the violin I get a weird feeling in my fingers. Also some words have colors for me. The words/names Welsh, Shawn, Robyn, Erika, Ellie, Book, all have colors. Many other words have colors also. Some ,usic also has shapes. One song is circular and another is wavy. Thunder is a wavy circle. I have others forms of synesthesia but i cant always remeber them. It feels natural to me. I am not sire if this is a result of synesthesia but when i watch movies i get a huge headache. Is that related to my synesthesia?
I can also see color with music. The colors dance around the room and when a not is perfectly in tune it rings in my ear. I also see time not in colors, but in a grid. I also see days as a color.
Colors of the week:
Sunday-yellow
Monday-red
Tuseday-green
Wednesday-Orange
Thursday-Purple
Friday-blue
Saturday-black
I have hearing,thinking-colors, music- colors, instrument-colors. I have no problem reading.(people often say I’m obsessed… I am) And I’m awesome at math (I just hate it). I love my synthesia, but I hate it to. There just is no “off” switch. I hate that. I was on my school’s classical music team (Music and Memory) I hated it classical music just gives me a headache from sensory over lode. I’m 11 and learned about my synthesia through Wendy Mass’s “A Mango Shaped Space”. The only person that I’ve told about it is my Mom and she thought I was crazy.
I have Taste-touch and touch-taste synesthesia. So things like the necklace around my neck at the moment tastes like chocolate and headaches tastes like copper and so on.
But at the same time, things like eating pizza feels like running my hands over a rough brick surface and eating ice-cream feels like dipping my hands in cold water and so on.
And I don’t consider it a disorder or a condition because to me the words just seem so negative! I see them as an a part of me that I just can’t imagine life without it! I’ve grown up with it and it makes the world so much more interesting!
I don’t see colors, when looking at numbers, but I hear sounds when looking at colors. I know that may sound odd, but it’s been going on as far back as I can remember. Mostly it’s just tones – different pitches – high or low depending on the color. dark tones seem to have lower tones, while warmer colors tend to have higher tones, and bright colors have irritating grating tones.
Classical art is usually okay for me to view – those colors are usually muted into soft browns and the like, nothing bright, so the tones are kind of low and normal like. But Modern Art – those museums I stay away from, usually can’t go in at all. When I view Modern Art it’s just unbearable on my senses. The color/sound combinations overwhelm me in a cacophony of colorful off-key tones.
This synthesia has limited my life in many ways. The interior of my home is decorated in muted tones of brown, tans, and dark blues. Those color combinations tend to affect me the least. For rugs I use your so-call oriental carpets – again they’re mostly muted maroon, blue, tans, and the like. Lower type soothing colors/tones are everywhere in my home. Nothing bright, nothing jarring.
The outside, I do love gardening, and I do want to plant flowers because others like them so much. Here again I try to keep to tones that affect me the least – blue and purple flowers, lots of greenery; nothing bright like red or yellow or orange – their colors tend to bring forth high irritating tones in my head.
I’m in my mid-fifties now, been living with this a long time. Most of my family and friends still don’t know about it (they’d think I was crazy – am I?), but they do know that I don’t like fiery colors, bright colors, and they know what colors I like.
Do I mind this? Sometimes – Someday I would like to go into an Art Museum and not be assaulted by all this noise inside my head; I’d rather it be quiet so I can contemplate the great works of art in front of me, in person.
I’ve never seen color, I’ve never heard it, but I can taste it. For example I taste the word unusual, hamburgers, yum! And light tastes like red beets, gross, but I will tell you one thing, your not missing much. The condition I have is like an ever lasting cold, with no cure.
I’m doing a big research project on synesthesia. I dont have it but i think it’s really cool:) I need a casual interview and I was wondering if someone would be interested?
I have synesthesia and I’m a teen
I see 4 as green and 8 as purple and 3,5, & 7 make me think of red, yellow, and blue, but not as powerful as 4 and 8
About every time i close my eyes or spent too much tine in the dark i see random colors mostly red, yellow, orange, pink, violet
the colors mostly take random shapes like splashes and circles and the colors transform and move randomly(a red circle to pink splash moving in the dark, a yellow splash get divided)
and i have certain colors and shapes and personalities associated to a few numbers (0, 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) do i have synaesthesia
This may or may not be a form of synaesthesia, but certain number patterns, word sounds and names, colours, letters, and shapes have genuine personalities. For example, I did a thing when I was younger where I’d gather up small pieces (game pieces, buttons, marbles, glass stones, ect.) and have them live in a fully rounded ecosystem and ‘play God’, and I’d know who each one was and their past and personality and everything even with only minor details being different among the same types of items. This has also met me up when I meet people who have names that trigger this: while watching Doctor Who, it seemed intrinsically /wrong/ that Melody could also be River – River is strong, confrontational, with many sides and a complex history and future, and it’s hard to blur the line between the two, but a Melody is reclusive, inventive, quiet, and utterly genius. It seemed impossible to me for her to be both.
This is a really bad summary of what I experience, but is it possible that I have some form of synaesthesia, or does anyone else experience this or something like this?
Hi guys
I’m currently writing a story about a man who has this, and I’m doing a little research. Sooooo I have a question: have you ever asked anyone, professional or otherwise, for a diagnosis on this and gotten an answer other than synesthesia? like an actual diagnosis? any answers would be greatly appreciated 
P.s. this sounds like it would be sooooo cool to have
it is a cool thing to have. hello, mak! i have synesthesia, although i believe that there is no cure. i am no doctor, so i just want to say that in my synesthetic world, your name is a robins egg blue with little brown dots.
I beleive I have synaesthesia- especially as a child and even today, I’ve associated colors with individual letters, numbers, and whole words. The thing is, is that I was born with a visual impairment and at times it is difficult for me ti discern colors (especially color contrasts). So its at times very hard to articulate the exact color that I perceive. Sometimes…it’s a confusing blend between a color and a emotion or mood…the same way music note gives of a unique ‘feel’. I would describe it as “warm” and “cold”, “bright/light”, or “dark/dull”, “pleasant/dissonant.” Maybe this has to do with the way I think a word “feels” by its sound? For some reason, i’ve always felt bad for the number 9… He just sounds so stressed…even if he’s a bright orange color~
I sometimes wonder if these perceptions I’ve always had affect the way I feel at given times, or if the information I learn about a subject affects the way I perceive the word’s color and feel. “Wednesday” is a light grey-blue color that is soft and appealing to me even though its the middle of the week. Same thing with “February”- it is ivory-green and attractive also (even feminine) despite it being in the dead of a Minnesota winter. Friedrich (grass-green) Nietzsche (bold, dark orange) however is a guy I first heard of in college and he’s also a guy I don’t like, so his last name especially feels ‘heavy’.
I think the emotional part is just feelings we personally attach to words (symbols, essentially) as we learn them).
I have synesthesia and I try to explain to my friends about how they have colors and the smells I hear but they think im crazy and want me to talk to a counselor. It’s really annoying to me because I want them to be able to have the experience I have but try wont listen
Yeah, I think mine is pretty rare, and I only found out about it very recently. I’m 20. I get physical sensations when I listen to certain parts of certain songs. A lot of trance music to me seems wet and cold. ‘Cloudlight’ is sticky, and I love it because it’s the only sticky song I’ve heard. Now that I know this isn’t normal, I understand why people wouldn’t understand what I meant when I talked about music, like I’d say things like ‘that song sounds like an ice cube’ and people just wouldn’t get what I was on about at all. :/ Often people just thought I was being metaphorical, which is why no one really commented, I guess?
Hi i was wondering if I have synaesthesia. I see colored shapes float around sometimes and I can control where they go and sometimes their size, but I don’t think It’s when I like hear things or anything. I have a REALLY good memory and I’m in top groups in all school classes. I can do math mentally but can’t explain how I do it. some numbers have colors at times. 7 is yellow and HATES other numbers. I can’t even do simple adding and stuff with it sometimes! My name is also yellow.i see color when looking at light and when I look at things a see like “static” on it. if I look hard at things a colored outline appears. Please tell me if that is synaesthesia or not someone! Thx for reading this long boring comment
Definitely! I wish I had that type of synesthesia, where it’s actually useful and memorable and helps to do math!
i think i MIGHT have synesthesia…
if i see some tipe of food, scent, sound online, i will be able to hear, smell, or taste it… same goes for reading
also, when i’m eating, every food seems to taste like a color, for instance, melatonin tastes purple, and barbiqued chicken tastes red and purple…. are these normal syndromes?
Yeah liliana, that’s definitely synesthesia. I see colors when I hear music(We Are Young by Fun is a deep red). Once I heard a song by Greenday and it was dark grey. 2nd time I heard it, it was still dark grey, but 3rd and 4th time it was black. Is that normal synesthesia? Letters and numbers have color (3=yellow)but the first time I tried imagining colors for #’s to see if i had grapheme synesthesia, I had to think before i thought of the colors. Before, the colors were never really there unless I thought about it, unlike songs on the radio, which had colors when I was in preschool. Does this mean I have mild number/letter synesthesia?
if you have to think about the colors then no… that is not synesthesia. i had to do the same thing with numbers. to see if i had it or not with numbers, i wrote down the colors one day that i saw with numbers. the next day i did the same thing. they did not match up correctly. so i know i do not have synesthesia with numbers\colors. although numbers do have genders and attitudes for me.
1-girl
2-girl, nice laidback
3-girl
4-guy
I have synesthesia also. I thought I was just crazy until I red the book “A Mango Shaped Space”. I have colors for every day of the week except Thursday. It tastes like chocolate (wierd enough)
Monday- yellow
Tuesday- teal
Wednesday- mucky green
Thursday- taste/chocolate
Friday-baby blue
Saturday- navy
Sunday- pink
A lot of people tell me “I bet your making it up” or “your just kidding. That doesn’t exist!” But obviously it does.is it normal for two numbers/letters to be the same color? I think of 3 red, and 9 red. I think of A yellow. B blue. C green. They seem to match my weekdays. Is that normal? Except D doesn’t taste like chocolate. It looks like pinkish purplish color. Good luck all you synesthetics!!!
No. It’s completely normal. (At least from my point of view.) For me, x and z almost the same shade of a goldish, yellowish, orangish colour.
I just found out my 10 year old daughter has this. She started telling me that people were colors. She also experiences numbers,letters and music in color. I have been doing a lot of research on it and read the “auras” associated with people were less common. I wanted to find out if anyone out there has this form of synesthesia?
I have the same sort of aoura thing as well, although I’ve seen that for me it gets stronger after getting to know what a person is truly like and it’s usually quite weak for strangers. I believe it’s probably a personality -> colour variation of synesthesisia for me. I’m interested to here more on your daughter’s type.
My daughter has made a list of people in her life that she connects a color to. I noticed that some she does not care for has a light color and a dark color. She says when I get mad my color gets very dark. She has also said when people walk they actually have a footprint in that color.
Wow! That’s a bit different from mine (the colours never change, and the footstep thing isn’t something I share, though that’s absolutely incredible!), but it’s still cool to know that I’m not the only one with something like that.
Thanks for your response. She feels better knowing someone out there shares the same experience. I know this is nothing new to her but it is to me. I find synesthesia very interesting and I can tell she enjoys what some people consider a gift.
I havea question: does everyone see colors when they see light/brightness or is it just my synaesthesia???
it very much could be related to your synesthesia. i have the same thing go on. do you enjoy your synesthesia? i wouldn’t give it up for all the money in the world! it makes me unique.
Oh and Joma, what kind do u have and do u have any idea what I have?