British Expatriate Network

OK, so I have just been watching "Primetime" on the box and part of the programme covered spatial-sequence synesthesia. I get that! I never knew there was a description or that other people didn't see the days of the week, order of numbers or years the same way as I do!

Here's a snippet from a website...

Spatial placement of numbers, months of the year, and/or days of the week is another form called spatial-sequence synesthesia. "For most of us, February and Wednesday don't have any particular locations in space. But certain types of synesthetes experience precise locations in relation to their bodies for numbers or time units. They can point to the spot where the number 32 is. Or where December is floating. Or where the year 1997 lies," Eagleman says. To study this, he has developed Virtual Reality software to allow his research subjects to physically place their time units exactly where they "see" them.

Does anyone else here have this or is it just me?

Link to website

Debs x :shock:

Wow, I never knew there was a term for it, I just thought I was strange. I'll have to check out that link. I've never even tried to explain it to anyone else because I figured they'd have no idea what I was talking about.

I have heard of this phenomenon but didn't know it had a name. It's quite fascinating.

I have long believed that people do not think in the same way, and had that confirmed recently when I remarked that there were certain things I cannot read for a second time because I cannot read, write, think or listen without creating images in my head. Some things create such awful visions that I do not want to revisit them again.

My question is.... how do you know that that what I perceive as the colour 'blue' is the same as another person's perception?

I have often wondered that question too, KG. Do we see color the same way, or anything else for that matter.

And yes, I know that some people see things differently. I only have to look at my own children. And I think some of it has to do with whether you have a natural imagination and can you visualize things vividly. Andrew, my youngest, is like this where he has the most incredible imagination and sees things very differently to the rest of us. We think he gets it from my FIL.

I have heard of this but never actually knew anyone that had it.

I suppose everyone agrees on the colour blue. For example you can say to anyone, hand me the blue pencil and unless they are colourblind, they will always go for the blue pencil.

I assumed that most people created images in their head, prime example being reading a book and then watching the movie. I never thought that Renee Zellweger looks like the real Bridget Jones for example after having read the book.

So Deb, what do you actually see? What does Wednesday 17th March look like, smell like or what colour is it?

Hmmm, well say that January appears on a clock face in front of you at maybe 5 o'clock...but the clock face is morphed and elongated a bit so it's not exactly round but ovalish that stretches out ahead of you, then March would have to be around 3 which makes Wednesday March 17th to be about 2.30....but it hangs in mid-air...and it's no particular colour (not even green as it's St Patrick's Day!! wink ).

I was telling a friend of mine about this and she said she gets it too but her days and numbers etc are set out differently to mine. My days of the week go like if you were to hold a hula hoop in front of you, the bit next to your body would be the weekend and Monday to Friday would loop around clockwise.

My perception of the years is from 1900 it comes towards me in a straight line but to the right of me, then comes across right to left from 1960, towards me again from 1970, then makes a curve as we come through the 90's right to left and is now going away from me to the left.

I know it sounds weird but that's how I've always seen it!

Debs x smile

This is incredibly interesting. I see colors for certain things. I remember things by color and they're often prompted by the oddest smells or few notes of music. I can locate a time and place and event just by hearing the right bit of music, a few notes, or seeing the right shade of a color. Or is that how everyone does it?
I don't get a color or feel for days of the week or anything, until it's gone, then some weeks will be very clear blue. I have a lot of shades of blue in my life.

Amazing what the adversary is up to these days.

Ephesians 1:21
21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

For me it's time, days and months. The hours in a day start below me and move up, with noon being pretty much right in front of me, and continue up with midnight above me. Days and months of a year are in a straight line, starting to my left and ending to my right. I was never sure if no one, or everyone "saw" time like that.

Yes, I have it -- for me, sounds or physical sensations produce colours (and shapes). I first heard about it on a Radio4 program. They were talking about really weird stuff, like people tasting pickles when they heard the word "traffic" and stuff -- I thought that was weird and facinating.

Then they started talking about people who see colours when they hear sounds, and I was like, "Well, yeah, everyone's like that..." And then they said that most people who are like that don't realise that most other people aren't, and my face went shock.

So when I got home, I asked my husband if he saw colours when he heard sounds, and he said no. And I said, "Come on, when you hear a song on the radio, you can't see the colours?" And he said no. And I just couldn't believe it. I almost always see colours -- more with classical music, and more strongly if I'm sitting in the dark. I was just gobsmacked that he didn't! It was like him telling me that when he bit into a sandwich he couldn't taste anything!

But my synesthesia is very mild. I can push the colours aside so they aren't in my way (kind of the way you can ignore background noise). And I don't get the same colours consistantly for the same noise (some people see exactly the same thing everytime they hear the same noise, but what I see is more freeform and changes). Also, I see colours when I get a strong touch sensation -- when I burn myself, or slam my hand in the door, or step on something. Fortunately, I see colours for the good touch sensations as well wink, and those can be startlingly beautiful and inspiring.

You might find these website interesting too
American Synesthesia Association -- http//synesthesia.info/
UK Synaesthesia Association -- http//www.uksynaesthesia.com/
And there's some interesting information on the wikipedia site -- http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

Now that I know not everyone has this, I take the time to enjoy the colours more. I've also found I can "use" them in various ways as well. It's cool.

Very interesting. The men in the white coats will be there soon lol

I think that KG was asking if we all saw the same colour say blue for instance. It may be that one person sees red but knows that it is called blue, while somebody else sees blue and knows that it is blue, both because they learned that that is blue.

I think that we see the same colour, because it is a frequency of light stimulates the sensors. I was going to say, "as we all hear sounds the same", but I can't be sure of that although that is reasonably clear because the lower frequencies cause things to vibrate.

Questions for people with this gift, is it a gift? does it help with math or with puzzles?
I know some card counters use this type of spatial thinking but I thought it was a type of trained memory for them.

I'm sorry but could you explain this a little more. I'm thinking your meaning is , oh, different therefore evil, I'm thinking this is an offensive remark.

I don't thing I have this gift, but I know thinking interferes so I think it's not learned. I can play various patience card games which I do by instinct, it looks right, I would think that thinking about it would interfere. :o

But you thought about the patience games at first, when you were learning them, I suspect that you are now recognising patterns, subconsciously.

This makes fascinating reading. I'd like to be able to see things like that - perhaps the person who wrote "I can sing a rainbow" saw the colours in sounds as in "listen with your eyes and sing everything you see". That would explain a lot!