This seems random, but bear with me. Do you hear something in your ears when another body part itches? For instance a sound like wind blowing in a microphone. There is a reason behind asking and that's why I'm making a poll. I'll explain later. Edit: Also, do you have any other senses that seem "crossed" (i.e. do you "see" music or see certain letters as different colors). Again, I know it sounds strange, but it's a legit question.
I don't hear itching, but I do see numbers, letters and even days of the week as different colours. 1 - yellow 2 - pink 3 - green 4 -blue 5 -orange 6 - red 7 - green 8 - blue 9 - black 10 - yellow A - red B - white C - yellow D - yellow E - blue F - green G - green H - brown Monday - pink Tuesday - yellow Wednesday - blue Thursday - yellow Friday - green Saturday - orange Sunday - yellow
Exactly. I found out a couple years ago that I experience it. I always thought that everyone saw images and colors when they heard music. I had no idea it wasn't normal. Later I found out that hearing noises when you see moving images (like screen savers) isn't normal either. Recently I realized that people don't seem to hear a noise when they itch. I always thought that was normal too. I'm curious to see how many people experience that since I'm not sure if that is synethesia or not. If you see colored numbers or anything like that, you have it too. It's not a bad thing though (it is to some people, but it's very rare). Most people with it have great memories and cognitive skills. A lot of people (I'm one of these) can pick out music notes just by hearing them because each note has a different color. It happens when the sensory areas of your brain are linked.
Sometimes if I've got an itch in a very specific place on my body like the top of my back, scratching it activates the nerves in a different place, such as on my forearm or something... and it feels like I'm scratching there instead. Anyone else get that? Pretty sure it's not just in my mind.
Like when the roof of your mouth itches and when you itch it the inside of your ears start to itch? Or the opposite of that, when the inside of your ears start to itch you fix it by scratching the roof of your mouth.
I don't have synaesthesia, and I am kind of jealous of people who do. As a writer and artist, I have senses that are a lot more acute and stronger than most people, but I think that has more to do with the way my brain process information and sensory detail. So I tend to notice things that other people don't, and in greater detail, but I don't get any issues with crossed signals. I have some issues with allergies and the itching that comes from it...so sometimes, I feel like there are bugs crawling on my skin- not necessarily an itch, but a crawling, creepy feeling. My mom (who is 48) has this weird thing that occurs every once in awhile, where she smells smoke or a burning scent, but there is no clear source (and no one else smells it either).
There are quite a few people who have some form of synesthesia. Number-colour is probably the most common that I've heard about. I think I've probably got a mild form of it: I "see" sound. Not visually, just in my head it tends to have a kind of pattern. Not a waveform -- I'm all too familiar with that. More like a symmetrical geometric pattern, kind of like a kaleidoscopic music visualizer, only it's dull and isn't really any specific colour. It's more like ripples on water than anything. I can also sometimes discern musical patterns in non-musical visual or sounds -- but that's probably more a function of my being a musician than a synesthetic response. It's kind of a fascinating condition. The brain has somehow wired one stimulus to another. I always wonder if either creative individuals tend to have it, or if it tends to induce creativity.
This reminds me of something i've always wondered about-- when I close my eyes at any time, or when it is dark and I'm trying to sleep, I never see pure, pitch-black "darkness". I see lots of vague shapes and colors that move and shift, almost like there is more than just "black" in the dark, but all of these other chromatic colors. It isn't very vivid, just a kind of "background noise". Closing my eyes hardly ever gives me "no noise"-- there's always these shapes and colors and lines. Does anyone else get this?
