Your word for today is Synesthesia

So, I received not one, not two, but ELEVEN different emails from friends who were all, “What’s wrong with you that you see people in color? Did your mother drop you on your head when you were a child?” Answers: How much time do you have?, and No, she did not. Or she’s just been lying to me about that scar on the top of my skull and my tendency to veer left when I walk.

Anyhoo, the color thing. It’s called Synesthesia and I discovered through the world of Facebook that my niece has it too! Neat! Genetic anomalies unite! It’s attributed to only a tiny portion of the population, but I think more people have it and just don’t talk about it. Not because we feel like freaks but because it is so normal for us to see things the way that we do that it doesn’t occur to us as being different.

I have three manifestations. The first, that I referred to yesterday, is that I see people in color. Not all people, only some. Those that I come into direct contact with tend to become important to me in some fashion, but in any crowd, I will see several people that have an aura about them. Men tend to exhibit cooler colors and women warmer ones, but it’s not always a hard rule. When I was little, it happened with greater frequency. If I looked out over, say, a restaurant, most people would just be a wash of color. Now, as an adult, I’ll perhaps only see someone in color a few times a week. Does it freak me out? Nope. But if I meet someone and they are letting off a hue, I take note. Like I said yesterday, what will often happen is that by the third time I come into contact with the person, the aura has faded and I can see their features clearly.

The second thing is that I see color along with music. Higher notes are bright colors and lower ones are dark, usually deep reds and purples. Violins and cellos are always gold. The colors just flash across my vision – basically every concert I go to is my own version of a safe acid trip - I totally get Pink Floyd! This is the primary reason that I don’t like loud, screamy music. It stresses me out to no end because it’s overly stimulating in both an auditory and visual way. If the TV and stereo are on simultaneously (and this happened ALL OF THE TIME in college) I have to leave the room as I feel like my head will explode. It’s too much. If ever you need to extract information from me, put on heavy metal and strap me down. I’ll have no defense.

The third thing, and I’m going to borrow from my niece here, is the way I see the calendar – it’s a 3D picture of an oval. December and January have a gap between them and are at the bottom of the oval, while June, July and August are the topmost curve. It’s just how it shows up in my head.

A lot of people who have Synesthesia also have right/left confusion, which I definitely suffer from. If you’re ever in the car with me, for the LOVE OF PETE just point which way I’m supposed to go - if you say “GO LEFT!” I will go right, almost automatically.

So there you go. Ways in which I am weird, #496. But hey, I’ll bet my days are prettier than yours. Suck on THAT.