Lately this phenomenon was scientifically proven to be true, using a cool experiment: a synesthetic subject claimed he sees every number in a certain color. Scientists then presented to him an image that contains a large number of 5’s scattered all around, coloured in white on a black background, and among the 5’s there was one 2. The subject was successful at quickly locating the 2: for him, 5’s appear in green, while 2 is orange!
It’s clearly a rare phenomenon, but I hope there are synesthetic members here who could shed some light on this, or at least someone who knows (not necessarily synesthetic him/herself). Questions are:
1- Does synesthesia happen every time the stimulus is present, or are there some conditions?
2- Does the synesthetic phenomenon occur in dreams (NDs/LDs) ?
3- If it does occur in dreams, is it the same as in waking life? (i.e. if you see numbers in color, in the dream are the numbers in their “normal” colors?)
4- If synesthesia occurs in dreams, but manifests in a “unusual” manner, did someone use it as a reality check?
5- Has a non-synesthetic person ever experienced synesthesia in a dream (ND/LD) ?
i think i am synesthetic, i see 1(white) 2(yellow) 3(blue)
4(red) 5(white) 6(green) 7(yellow) 8(black 9(purple)
10(grey).
i also see some names in colours like my own Simon is like is like a yellowy brown. my sisters Fiona is red and my mums wendy is white. i see days of the week this way too. i could go through the alphabet but thats would take too long.
In answer to the questions above. Ive never seen any numbers/words in my dreams so i wouldn’t know.
Dark Sider, this doesn’t belong in the Laboratory.
C_mon, how are these colours related to the numbers you see them with? Is it like an aura (a sort of mist around the number), or are the numbers themselves that colour? Can you still tell which colour they were written in?
Simon, you’re certainly a synesthetic. Do you see the colors any time you look at the numbers? does it matter if it’s in print or handwriting?
r3m0t: hmm… I’m sorry I thought this should be posted here. I hope this fixes it: The experiement is:
for non-synesthetics: become lucid in a dream and try to associate certain colors with ever number from 0 to 9. The person wanting to try this may decide on a certain color map while awake. (I wonder if the association carries over into waking state)
for synethtetics: a) become lucid in a dream, find a text to read, and see if synesthesia is also present. Notice if the associations are the same (e.g. color maps). b) Try to use synesthesia as a reality check.
The numbers/days/letters are coloured in no mists or anything. But when i see writing i do not see the writing in the colours. If im reading i read the words normally but if i was to slow down abit and look at each word i would see them in my mind as a coloured word.
R3m0t - Mainly red because the R is red and the T is red but the 3 is blue and M is like a dark yellowy. And the 0 is just grey. But i see it as mainly red because the first letter is red so R3m0t is red
Dark Sider - Dark i see as blacky grey and Sider is the same colour as my name.
I’ve heard a lot about synaesthsia recently. There was a really fascinating Horizon documentary on it in the UK a few weeks ago. It doesn’t only manifest itself in seeing things as colours, it can be the crossover between any two senses/concepts, for example there’s a guy who can taste words!
It was also a question on QI on BBC3 last week, so it should be repeated tomorrow (Friday) on BBC2 at 10. Apparently one composer, when he was younger, thought that the reason they dim the lights when the orchestra starts was so that you could see the lights coming off the music better!
There’s tonnes of interesting stuff about synaesthesia. Apparently some people have number lines running across their vision, going from 1 to 10, and then above this 11 to 20 and so on in blocks of 100. A study done on non-synaesthetes showed we might all have this but are just no aware of this however. The experiment involved reacting to numbers with a given hand. With low numbers such as 2 or 3 the participants reacted much faster when using their left hand than when using their right, but with higher numbers like 8 or 9, the reverse was true.
i’m having a very hard time believing this… i just… cannot conceive … perceiving things that way, it must be amazing…
but is it just some normal thing to you, does it have any significance at all?
oh ok… see… the way i’m understanding synestheisa… argh spelling… would be basically … you see it like you are seeing it with your eyes… not in the minds eye, though if you are a good visualizer it might be relatively detailed to the point of almost being real.
Pedro for example can conjur up a minds eye image and place it into the real world… I would suspect if you really practiced seeing the words in certain colors, you could get to the point that it happens automatically and you REALLY see them… something I’ve been meaning to work on while lucid is visualization.
this really makes me wonder about schizophrenia, these guys are perceiving things the “right” way, they just … however so, unfortunately cannot handle it, and it has taken control of them… I would have to imagine synesthetics share a lot in common with schizophrenics…
I had colors for all the days, numbers, etc. when I was a kid. I could imagine shapes and colors in my head when I heard music, too. I can still do that sometimes. But it has faded a lot when I have grown up…it comes up only in dreams now.
When i look at letters words or numbers i do not see them on the page in the colours. I see them in my mind with the colours. But say if i was to remember names such as Siiw in my head i would see it as a yellowy colour. But when i see it written down it does not jump off of the page in yellow.
You talked about pedro being able to imagine things infront of him as if they where real. Could you explain abit more because i have quite a good imagination and i could imagine things happening infront of my and visualise them.
If Pedro imagined a clock was in front of him… it would be in front of him
seeing it with his eyes, basically.
the only example I can think of is in hypnapompic hallucinaitons, you wake up and you see a dream object sitting on your pillow maybe, and it slowly fades away.
he learned to do this through his lucid dreams, and it’s something I’d like to try.
I’ve always matched people’s faces to letters of the alphabet, seen images/colours in sounds and I sometimes think of a sound to describe the taste (sweetness, sharpness, etc.) of food.
hmm… I’m sorry I thought this should be posted here. I hope this fixes it: The experiement is:
sorry, again.