tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077773.post2588622147204954120..comments2024-03-26T15:22:25.095-06:00Comments on The Earliad: How I Experience MusicEarl J. Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07963936256606285358noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077773.post-81615262805056096172012-12-20T22:53:52.378-07:002012-12-20T22:53:52.378-07:00Synaesthesia = correct spelling. Us normies somet...Synaesthesia = correct spelling. Us normies sometimes struggle with our typing. <br /><br />A quick research indicates around 60 different synaesthetic forms. Audio-proprioceptic synaesthesia that L describes is rare, but found among music professionals for fairly obvious reasons. Also among autistics, for whom the sensation must seem like an assault. I don't want to even imagine it. <br /><br />Here's what I sense when I listen to Kate Bush. I hear the music. An internal voice tells me to change the dial, because I really don't like her stuff, but that's personality and not aesthetics. That's about it. "Jeffrothers (a)"noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077773.post-75911115774347548212012-12-20T22:51:46.020-07:002012-12-20T22:51:46.020-07:00Al on Google Plus also pointed to synesthesia, so ...Al on Google Plus also pointed to synesthesia, so I looked it up and the description fits so perfectly that it rocked me back in my chair. I don't point at sounds like L - my experiences are more internal than external - but the music is definitely directional in addition to colourful. <br /><br />This discovery isn't at all what I expected when I composed this post; it's a little thrilling and frightening at the same time. Clearly I need to investigate further. Earl J. Woodshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07963936256606285358noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077773.post-34971763071768338152012-12-20T22:41:07.980-07:002012-12-20T22:41:07.980-07:00You're a synaesthete!!! Holy smoke!!! All this...You're a synaesthete!!! Holy smoke!!! All this time, I've known you, and I've never known that.<br /><br />Synaethesia is rare. Simply put, your senses are cross-wired. The most common form seems to be what you have, mixing sounds with colours and shapes. You should draw them in Photoshop! Other people will link smells with colours, or even numbers and letters with colours and sounds, i.e. 3's are yellow triangles that sound like distant trumpets. One theory is that your sensory nerves are cross-talking as information is being collected by the brain. There may be small neurotransmitter leaks that create your sensation. <br /><br />Synaethesia is linked to autism, although it can occur for other reasons as well, usually benign. Us normies don't have any clue as to how any of this works, and most synaesthetes don't realize that their own perceptions are special. For example, I don't have any of the conditions that you or the above poster describe, and I am in the statistical majority of the aesthetic population. From what I know, synaesthetes have a wide variety of differences of perception within your population. One may know Kate Bush as green, another might describe her as northwest. Usually, the synaesthete can discriminate with language their sensations, but sometimes it's so intrinsic that it becomes a very private, personal code. Think of A Beautiful Mind, and you get the idea. Usually at that point, there's severeal other brain processes that could be involved in abnormal ways. <br /><br />Maybe it's a curse, maybe you're lucky, maybe it's a genetic marker used by our unseen alien overlords. Make of it what you will, it's not normal, but it's not un-human either. <br /><br />It's too bad you don't drink; I sure would like to know what your perceptions would be after a bottle of tequila. "Jeffrothers"noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077773.post-40035675690020267322012-12-20T21:42:43.781-07:002012-12-20T21:42:43.781-07:00Hey Earl,
Music is very spatial for me. I will po...Hey Earl,<br /><br />Music is very spatial for me. I will point at sounds and ask others whether they can hear "that" -- whatever I'm gesturing at, and it's always in a specific direction that I can see clearly. So others do have something similar to your experience. Especially with Kate Bush! :)<br /><br />LAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com