Do You Experience Number Forms ?

[Klockan3]

When I was in kindergarten I had colors and patterns for the days of the week, like wednesday was green with bobbles or something like that, but as I realized that those were just arbitrary traits created by my mind I stopped as it was useless.

 

[zoobyshoe]

When I was in kindergarten I had colors and patterns for the days of the week, like wednesday was green with bobbles or something like that, but as I realized that those were just arbitrary traits created by my mind I stopped as it was useless.

How "real" did they seem, though? Was there a three-dimensional, out in the space in front of you quality to it? Or was this just a conceptual association? Meaning: did the thought of Wednesday simply make you think of green, or did the thought of Wednesday cause a green shape with bobbles to appear in space front of you more like a hologram?

 

[fluidistic]

I don't know if I qualify. When I think about the number 6 I do "feel" a yellow color. I don't see the color nor anything special. It's just a feeling. I used to feel lots of colors for words and numbers. Now the effect has attenuated.
Strangely, I do not really like the number 6 and I do not like the color yellow. 3 might be a fair blue and seven a dark color. 4 is orange... oh yeah the sensation comes back when I think about it.

 

[jim mcnamara]

Think of subtracting 256 from 876 and describe how the lights react.

876 is back around behind 500 and near eff. Starting at e on backwards they just get dimmer and fuzzier. When I try to substract -- I can tell the dimming off stops somewhere back there, but it is of no real help. I can't count 'em back to 876 to find a remainder because somebody moves. And they really are hard to see anyway when they are far away.

describe November 1963

Light grayish, no ripples, just back behind a sort of a larger traffic jam pile which is the 1970's. eff is back there somewhere. The rippled ones tend to be special. Nov 63 is not.

eff is ?

Very slow moving, bigger than the others, bright white, and always at the back of one of the lines of lights. He/she/it kinda marks the end, most of the time. For large numbers like 100,000 there is no eff that I can see. Even larger numbers like trillions don't turn on any lights at all. Whenever the lights are there e is always in front, be it dates, time, numbers or whatever.

My parents truly thought I was having hallucinations or whatever they called seeing things that others didn't -- during the 1940's. The one lesson I got from that exercise was: do not talk about them.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I don't know if I qualify. When I think about the number 6 I do "feel" a yellow color. I don't see the color nor anything special. It's just a feeling. I used to feel lots of colors for words and numbers. Now the effect has attenuated.
Strangely, I do not really like the number 6 and I do not like the color yellow. 3 might be a fair blue and seven a dark color. 4 is orange... oh yeah the sensation comes back when I think about it.

If these "feelings" are always consistant, if 6, for instance always, invariably, "feels" a yellow color, then I'd speculate that you have a low grade grapheme -> color form of synesthesia.

From wikipedia:

"Grapheme → color synesthesia

In one of the most common forms of synesthesia, grapheme → color synesthesia, individual letters of the alphabet and numbers (collectively referred to as graphemes), are "shaded" or "tinged" with a color. While different individuals usually do not report the same colors for all letters and numbers, studies with large numbers of synesthetes find some commonalities across letters (e.g., A is likely to be red).

As a child, Pat Duffy told her Dad, "I realized that to make an R all I had to do was first write a P and draw a line down from its loop. And I was so surprised that I could turn a yellow letter into an orange letter just by adding a line." Another grapheme synesthete says, "When I read, about five words around the exact one I'm reading are in color. It's also the only way I can spell. In elementary school I remember knowing how to spell the word 'priority' [with an "i" rather than an "e"] because ... an 'e' was out of place in that word because e's were yellow and didn't fit."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

This is different than a "number form", but obviously related.

 

[fluidistic]

Ok thanks for the info zoobyshoe. Interesting.

 

[zoobyshoe]

876 is back around behind 500 and near eff. Starting at e on backwards they just get dimmer and fuzzier. When I try to substract -- I can tell the dimming off stops somewhere back there, but it is of no real help. I can't count 'em back to 876 to find a remainder because somebody moves. And they really are hard to see anyway when they are far away.

I hope you don't mind my saying this is hilarious. They really are like pets, or a herd of bunnies, or a flock of pigeons.

Somehow, though, what all these things do is reveal something about the way the brain is structured. No one can definitely say what or where that structure is at this point. These things may be spelling out exactly how one part of the brain is wired to another; that sort of information. A lot has been uncovered about what the forms of visual Migraine aura reveal about the visual cortex, so there'll come a day when the anatomy lesson inherent in number forms is better understood.

Light grayish, no ripples, just back behind a sort of a larger traffic jam pile which is the 1970's. eff is back there somewhere. The rippled ones tend to be special. Nov 63 is not.

I picked Nov '63 for obvious reasons, and your answer indicates these things aren't governed by semantics: the "meaningfulness" of a date probably has no bearing on it's quality. A neuro-psychologist could determine if that's true by lengthier, better designed tests. The ones that ripple sound special according to some different criteria, not the historical significance of the date.

Very slow moving, bigger than the others, bright white, and always at the back of one of the lines of lights. He/she/it kinda marks the end, most of the time. For large numbers like 100,000 there is no eff that I can see. Even larger numbers like trillions don't turn on any lights at all. Whenever the lights are there e is always in front, be it dates, time, numbers or whatever.

Really fascinating. Eff sort of functions as a punctuation mark.

My parents truly thought I was having hallucinations or whatever they called seeing things that others didn't -- during the 1940's. The one lesson I got from that exercise was: do not talk about them.

Exactly. The same "lesson" is reported in all the stories of people with synesthesia. As children they assume everyone experiences stuff this way, then they find out no one around them does, and even think they are lying or crazy. They learn not to talk about it. It is really to Cytowic's credit that he proved it was real, and has successfully disseminated information about it so that people who have it know they're not crazy, and not alone.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Ok thanks for the info zoobyshoe. Interesting.

You're welcome.

Just found the wiki has a better, dedicated article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapheme–color_synesthesia

 

[rhody]

Feynman is quoted talking about this also in another book, No Ordinary Genius. He's highly alert to the fact that no two physicists are speaking the same language, and the "linguistic" differences are due to the fact each processes very simple things in different ways. Feynman felt he always had to "translate" himself, and that other physicists were usually not even aware there was a language problem, erroneously assuming that everyone thought the same way they did.

zooby,

Very interesting, maybe that's why of all the physicists in the twentieth century I find Feynman the most interesting, physics aside, he approaches every problem fresh, acquiring the necessary background in a chosen field of study. Then, applying his skills at comprehending it using all of his senses (some of which have characteristics of synesthesia), examples of which have been discussed here. What has been driven home to me in the past few months with the discussion of cold can be hot and hot can be cold, leading to synesthesia and now this thread on number forms is a deeper appreciation of how unique each person we interact with daily is, and to not take for granted when discussing a complex subject, that the other party really "gets it". I have read many threads where discussion of physics simply breaks down because the posters did not choose the correct metaphor, visualization or mathematical construct that truly "connects" with the other. Feynman was a master communicator and could tailor his discussion to any audience at any level with seemingly effortless ease (I am sure it wasn't easy, but he made it look that way).

An http://amasci.com/feynman.html" from his friend Mark Kac:

There are two kinds of geniuses: the 'ordinary' and the 'magicians'. An ordinary genius is a fellow whom you and I would be just as good as, if we were only many times better. There is no mystery as to how his mind works. Once we understand what they've done, we feel certain that we, too, could have done it. It is different with the magicians. Even after we understand what they have done it is completely dark. Richard Feynman is a magician of the highest calibre." - Mark Kac

Rhody...

P.S. zooby you will like this: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/...obbyist/#reader_2884490477"&tag=pfamazon01-20, right tab 26 times to see a few examples, the book was written by his daughter Michele.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Very interesting, maybe that's why of all the physicists in the twentieth century I find Feynman the most interesting, physics aside, he approaches every problem fresh, acquiring the necessary background in a chosen field of study. Then, applying his skills at comprehending it using all of his senses (some of which have characteristics of synesthesia), examples of which have been discussed here. What has been driven home to me in the past few months with the discussion of cold can be hot and hot can be cold, leading to synesthesia and now this thread on number forms is a deeper appreciation of how unique each person we interact with daily is, and to not take for granted when discussing a complex subject, that the other party really "gets it". I have read many threads where discussion of physics simply breaks down because the posters did not choose the correct metaphor, visualization or mathematical construct that truly "connects" with the other. Feynman was a master communicator and could tailor his discussion to any audience at any level with seemingly effortless ease (I am sure it wasn't easy, but he made it look that way).

Agreed on all points.

P.S. zooby you will like this: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/...obbyist/#reader_2884490477"&tag=pfamazon01-20, right tab 26 times to see a few examples, the book was written by his daughter Michele.

YIKES! $915.00!

I guess my problem making money as an artist is that I'm not a famous physicist. That's a pointer they don't teach you in Art School.

 

[206PiruBlood]

Is it normal for one to immediately see an image of what ever it is they are thinking about? And is it normal to be able to manipulate complicated images in your head at will? For example if I think of France, I can see a map of the world with France highlighted. I can zoom in on this map at or morph it into any other image, a dinosaur chasing a sandwich through the jungle perhaps. When I read the descriptions of others, that tends to be what I visualize. If I think number line, I see number line etc.

The difference seems to be that while I visualize at will, number forms occur spontaneously and remain continuously.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Is it normal for one to immediately see an image of what ever it is they are thinking about?

That's a good question. How normal it is depends on what you mean by "see". How vivid is that compared to actually seeing a real object or scene? When you "see" something you're imagining, is it very vivid, like watching a sort of film or video projected into the space in front of you?

When I "see" something, when I imagine it, it is a very low grade, dim, experience compared to seeing something real, and it is obviously "in my mind"; no chance of mistaking it for something real, in the external world. It's nothing like a film.

I can't say what's actually normal because people aren't tested for this and there's always an assumption everyone else thinks the way you do. One thing this thread demonstrates is that people who get clear indications they envision things differently than those around them learn not to talk about it.

The verb "to see" is pretty ambiguous and all purpose, and if you suddenly announced you "see" France as a dinosaur chasing a sandwich through a jungle in a conversation, I would automatically assume this was a sort of editorial metaphor that meant you think the French are way out of date and all they care about is their cuisine. Even if you clarified that this is an image you "see" in reaction to the image of a map of France I would still just assume you meant you'd created a cartoon-like mental image to embody your poor opinion of the French. It would not occur to me that your image was actually just an abstract chain of visual reactions to the shape of the map of France and I would also automatically assume it was as vivid, or I should say, non-vivid, as my own imaginings.

The difference seems to be that while I visualize at will, number forms occur spontaneously and remain continuously.

No, it's more than that. It sounds to me like you may have an exceptionally vivid sensory component to your imagination, and that you aren't aware everyone else is not the same. OR it could be you actually "see" things as dimly as I do, and don't realize how sensorily vivid synesthesia and Number Forms are. I can't really tell which it is.

I can imagine and describe some pretty extravagant surreal images and add any sensory information you want, but my experience of these images is actually very low grade. When Tesla "imagined" one of his inventions, however, it looked so real and three dimensional to him he could not understand why everyone else couldn't see it.

Now, I have had some hallucinations during sleep paralysis, and those were vivid! They seemed absolutely real: they passed every test of every sense for reality. So, I have direct experience of how vivid brain-created images can be. When I "imagine" or "see" something under normal circumstances, it is nothing like that. It is dim, vague, grainy, muted colors, no real spatial depth, and obviously "in my head".

 

[206PiruBlood]

The transition from France to dinosaur sandwiches was just an example of how I can manipulate images consciously; the two aren't necessarily related .

The images I see are difficult to describe in any meaningful way, but I guess all emotions and sensations are difficult to express. The images definitely appear to be in my mind and not projected in front of me. So in that respect it is nothing like a film; however, I do feel I can essentially watch a video in my mind.. How vivid these images are is difficult to convey.

 

[zoobyshoe]

The transition from France to dinosaur sandwiches was just an example of how I can manipulate images consciously; the two aren't necessarily related .

OK. Our French readers can rest easier.

The images I see are difficult to describe is any meaningful way, but I guess all emotions and sensations are difficult to express. The images definitely appear to be in my mind and not projected in front of me. So in that respect it is nothing like a film; however, I do feel I can essentially watch a video in my mind.. How vivid these images are is difficult to convey.

When I'm doing a lot of writing, as I have been lately here on PF, just about all my imaginings are verbal: I am primarily hearing my inner voice modeling sentences to express concepts. When I get away from writing I become more visual. When I go on a music listening binge, my "thinking" consists primarily of interminable fantasias in the style of the composer I've been listening to. (I'm also very prone to "ear worms": having the same song play over and over in my head.) There was a time I was heavily into films and film making, and, of course, then I was seeing "movies" in my head interminably.

Practicing a certain kind of mental modeling will lead to that becoming more vivid, I think.

 

[rhody]

I'm amazed at how well people learn to get by with something so vivid going on that no one else is aware of, and that you can't talk about. When I was having 100 deja vu's a day, I could, at least, tell people because almost everyone had had at least one and knew what I was talking about. Each number form is so personal and idiosyncratic you're guaranteed to never run into someone with the same, exact experience.

When I'm doing a lot of writing, as I have been lately here on PF, just about all my imaginings are verbal: I am primarily hearing my inner voice modeling sentences to express concepts. When I get away from writing I become more visual. When I go on a music listening binge, my "thinking" consists primarily of interminable fantasias in the style of the composer I've been listening to. (I'm also very prone to "ear worms": having the same song play over and over in my head.) There was a time I was heavily into films and film making, and, of course, then I was seeing "movies" in my head interminably.

Practicing a certain kind of mental modeling will lead to that becoming more vivid, I think.

Zooby,

First, deja-vu. I read this in a couple of your posts awhile ago, and wanted to ask about it, you stated most people could relate to the experience. I have a few questions, first, when did it start, what brings on the experience, can you turn it off, and have they (the deja vu moments, up to 100 per day) been part of any real past experiences, or just an imagined ones ? Finally, what is your clinical opinion of this ? I could have researched it beforehand but would rather hear it from you, areas of the brain involved, etc...

Second, what is going on with you in the second paragraph above. You also said when in "listening mode" when listening to music you hear it repeated in your head (ear worms), and describe a similar tendency when you write, shifting modes. How do you practice this to make it more vivid ?

Rhody...

 

[zoobyshoe]

First, deja-vu. I read this in a couple of your posts awhile ago, and wanted to ask about it, you stated most people could relate to the experience. I have a few questions, first, when did it start, what brings on the experience, can you turn it off, and have they (the deja vu moments, up to 100 per day) been part of any real past experiences, or just an imagined ones ? Finally, what is your clinical opinion of this ? I could have researched it beforehand but would rather hear it from you, areas of the brain involved, etc...

I can't talk about deja vu's here or I'll hijack my own thread. I could write a book.

Second, what is going on with you in the second paragraph above. You also said when in "listening mode" when listening to music you hear it repeated in your head (ear worms), and describe a similar tendency when you write, shifting modes. How do you practice this to make it more vivid ?

The point of that paragraph was just to say that whenever I'm preoccupied with concepts my "thinking" (the activity I'm aware of going on in my mind) consists primarily of speech. When I have been listening to a lot of music, it consists of music, when I have been preoccupied with visual images (art, photography, movies) it consists of visual images.

So, when I hear a person say they are primarily a "visual" or an "auditory" person, I think all it means is that the particular sense modality they mention is really just the one they are currently preoccupied with.

An "earworm" is when you get a song "stuck in your head" (i.e. it is not a musical hallucination, or anything synesthetic, if that's what you were wondering).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earworm

I find that if I accidentally hear a song I really like, it may become replayed over and over in my head a lot in the next few days until it becomes an annoyance. It's something you try to get rid of, not make more vivid.

 

[DaveC426913]

If these "feelings" are always consistant, if 6, for instance always, invariably, "feels" a yellow color, then I'd speculate that you have a low grade grapheme -> color form of synesthesia.

When I was young, I thought I had this. I had a strong association between numbers and colours.

As I've grown older, I've come to conclude that it was just a strong association with a my colouring book whose cover had the numbers 1 to 10 in big multi-coloured pie slices.

 

[zoobyshoe]

When I was young, I thought I had this. I had a strong association between numbers and colours.

As I've grown older, I've come to conclude that it was just a strong association with a my colouring book whose cover had the numbers 1 to 10 in big multi-coloured pie slices.

Cytowic always cites the example of Nabokov, who, as a toddler, didn't like the blocks his parents gave him because the colors were "all wrong". If you were synesthetic, therefore, that coloring book ought to have bothered you. The chances of the colors coinciding with someone's syesthetic colors are not high.

edit: Synesthesia is genetic, but parents and their children never share the same color associations. Nabokov married a syesthete, and their son is synesthetic, but all three have different grapheme -> color associations. Cytowic cites a family in which the father and two children were always arguing which associations were "right", while the mother, a non-synesthete, sat quietly bewildered.

 

[croesoswallt]

I was compelled to sign up to your forum just to respond to this thread!

I was searching on google for "what shape do you imagine the days of the week?" and this was pretty much the only thing that came up, I'm glad it was on a physics forum rather than a psychology forum, it seems appropriate.

I experience these forms and was aware that other people did, but thought probably more than 1/10. It does seem surprising that most people don't conceive of things in this manner, it seems like the very nature of abstract concepts demands this sort of personal system.

I often ask people what colour they envision the days of the week to be, I think people without these numberform tendencies can do that pretty easily, or it is a more readily available form to the public mind maybe through culture (blue monday, ruby tuesday etc.!).

I see the weeks flowing from right to left
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY (white)

They are contained within the months somehow like a square though in a perfectly linear fashion. The months are contained in the year as a U shape, with a gap between January and December which is simultaneously huge and negligible, only certain months have colour, though the ones that do not each have their own brand of uncolour.

The years and decades progress directly upwards save a small curve which simultaneously travels in opposite directions, like a fourth dimensional double helix, with another overall trend slightly to the right. The previous years extend to my bottom left twisting and turning in unfathomable ways through the middle ages, the epochs seem to flatten out while expanding infinitely.

The numerical system is very similar to the diagrams early in the thread and some of the descriptions which followed. 1-10 is a gentle slope of about 12 degrees to the right, yet it seems to end at a place more like 70 degrees. 11 and 12 merge with one another then 13-20 curves to an almost perpendicular line. The tens of numbers extend to 100 in a straight line which also has bends. The thirties are green, the forties are blue and green, the 50s are red, 60s green, 70s yellow, 80s blue and red, 90s mucky yellow.

I'm also a professional musician, I teach a bit of music theory and try and encorporate some elements of patterns and forms to harmonic concepts (which of course already have some standardised visual forms) to my teaching method.

 

[Chi Meson]

I have come to wonder about the "1 in 10" figure for these number forms. I brought this topic up in all of my classes this past week, and when describing the phenomenon, I essentially got over 50 blank stares. One person gave a "maybe, kinda" response which might have been a visual association with the "number line" as learned in school. It certainly wasn't the number forms as described earlier with the bends and turns.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I was compelled to sign up to your forum just to respond to this thread!......I'm also a professional musician, I teach a bit of music theory and try and encorporate some elements of patterns and forms to harmonic concepts (which of course already have some standardised visual forms) to my teaching method.

Thanks for joining and posting!

I wonder if you could elucidate the degree of "realness" these things have.

The most information you're going to find is most likely in the book Wednesday is Indigo Blue. Amazon has it. I'm reading it now and the authors pay a good amount of attention to number forms.

 

[Moonbear]

A "number form" is an involuntary chart, of sorts, that pops into some people's minds when they consider things like calendars (months, days), times of day, the alphabet, or even just numbers from 1 to infinity.

These "charts" have their elements grouped rather idiosynchratically from other people's perspective but to the person experiencing the "Number Form" they make absolute sense and seem inevitable. People refer to these charts all the time and visualize them being out in space around them. For some people they're colorless, but for others they are colored and may have some element of motion to them.

"The pattern or 'Form' in which the numerals are seen is by no means the same in different persons, but assumes the most grotesque variety of shapes, which run in all sorts of angles, bends, curves, and zigzags...
...These forms...are stated in all cases to have been in existence, so far as the earlier numbers in the Form are concerned, as long back as the memory extends; they come 'into view quite independently' of the will, and their shape and position...are nearly invariable."
-Galton 1907

These charts are said to be indispensable to the people who experience and use them and they are surprised when they find out everyone doesn't have the same thing going on. In fact, it's estimated only one-in-ten people has them.

I, myself, don't experience this, and I only ever heard about it the first time a couple weeks ago. What's interesting is that, apparently, Feynman had it, and saw colored equations projected into space in front of him.

Any of you have "Number Forms"?

Nope, not I. When I think of something like dates or a calendar, I think of it in the standard calendar grid form.

Though, associating colors with numbers would be a form of synesthesia, which is indeed fairly rare. I found out only recently that a very good childhood friend of mine experiences this...and I always thought he was absolutely brilliant with numbers (he has a Ph.D. in physics). He didn't admit it when he was younger because he didn't realize until much older that this wasn't the way everyone "saw" numbers. No wonder he got me hooked on highlighters in the 8th grade!

 

[zoobyshoe]

I have come to wonder about the "1 in 10" figure for these number forms. I brought this topic up in all of my classes this past week, and when describing the phenomenon, I essentially got over 50 blank stares. One person gave a "maybe, kinda" response which might have been a visual association with the "number line" as learned in school. It certainly wasn't the number forms as described earlier with the bends and turns.

So far, I have to agree. I have to think that if it were as common as 1 in 10 someone I've met in my 55 years would have let something slip in conversation that would have stood out.

This thread's had over 1500 views with only a handful of positive responses. If the stats are correct this could mean that people remain too shy, or, it could mean people who experience number forms tend to veer away from the sciences because of the maths involved: everyone's said they tend to get in the way. Really, though, I suspect the statistics are incorrect.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Nope, not I. When I think of something like dates or a calendar, I think of it in the standard calendar grid form.

Though, associating colors with numbers would be a form of synesthesia, which is indeed fairly rare.

Well, the researchers are saying 1 in 23 people has some form of it! (Synesthesia, I mean.)

Associating colors with numbers and letters (graphemes) is one of the very most common forms.

I found out only recently that a very good childhood friend of mine experiences this...and I always thought he was absolutely brilliant with numbers (he has a Ph.D. in physics). He didn't admit it when he was younger because he didn't realize until much older that this wasn't the way everyone "saw" numbers.

You ought to invite him to post and describe it.

No wonder he got me hooked on highlighters in the 8th grade!

Wow! I just realized highlighters are part of their plot to take over!

 

[rhody]

I was compelled to sign up to your forum just to respond to this thread!

croesoswallt,

Welcome to PF, all forums have a high signal to noise ratio, and are monitored and mentored, which is the reason an educated crowd hangs out here. Maybe this is a first, but I doubt it, I am sure you have found zooby's insight and descriptions funny, thought provoking and one of the reasons this thread still has plenty of life left. Zooby's suggestion that Cytowic's research into synesthesia would be of interest is what tweaked my curiosity to read "The Man Who Tasted Shapes". I don't have synesthesia, however think there is much more to learn regarding the mingling of the senses. People with the different forms allow scientists to study parts of the brain with unparalleled precision. I know more books, possibly lectures on this amazing subject are in store for me.

Rhody...

 

[Chi Meson]

Interesting! Explain about the shapes, which are particularly intriguing because it seems to go both ways.

This one was hard to explain, but I just had an episode last night which I was able to recognize. My son had lost one of the buttons to his watch, and it was on the floor of his room. I am and have always been a good "finder of small things." It was a metallic button (it fell out of a very cheap watch) and it was lying on a taupe carpet among various bits of boy's room detritus. While scanning the floor, I was aware that I was kind of "listening" for it, just as much as looking. As various things came into view, little sounds such as "thud" "zip" "nik" "vum" (not exactly those, but that's a close an approximation as I can get), but In retrospect, I "recognized" the correct sound when I saw it: "bimp," same as a ball bearing from a bicycle hub.

I have always found it very distracting, to the point of great confusion, if I am trying to find something when there is noise around me. Not the best combination with two boys, 5 and 7 years old.

 

[zoobyshoe]

This one was hard to explain, but I just had an episode last night which I was able to recognize. My son had lost one of the buttons to his watch, and it was on the floor of his room. I am and have always been a good "finder of small things." It was a metallic button (it fell out of a very cheap watch) and it was lying on a taupe carpet among various bits of boy's room detritus. While scanning the floor, I was aware that I was kind of "listening" for it, just as much as looking. As various things came into view, little sounds such as "thud" "zip" "nik" "vum" (not exactly those, but that's a close an approximation as I can get), but In retrospect, I "recognized" the correct sound when I saw it: "bimp," same as a ball bearing from a bicycle hub.

I have always found it very distracting, to the point of great confusion, if I am trying to find something when there is noise around me. Not the best combination with two boys, 5 and 7 years old.

This is amazing! It gives me a spooky Tommy feeling, like you could play pinball by sense of smell.

What sound would a pinball make? A deeper, lower pitched "bimp"?

 

[Chi Meson]

It really doesn't seem to work when I look at anything to "find out what sound it makes." I need to be in a state of concentration, and things have to be quiet, and I essentially notice it only after some degree of repetition.

When I try to "hear" things, I'm too conscious about the whole thing, and I'm aware that I might be projecting a sound on a thing rather than experiencing a sound.

It's extremely obvious though, when I play the game "Set." Finding cards with combinations of color, quantity, shading and shapes... it's freaking cacophonous .

Edit: I just realized something, while thinking about the "pinball" question: There is no pitch to these noises. It's all monotone.

 

[rhody]

I need to be in a state of concentration, and things have to be quiet, and I essentially notice it only after some degree of repetition.

Just a quick question, when you say quiet, you mean like quiet with no background noise, or quiet in your state of mind ? You mention repetition, like it doesn't happen at first but only when you relax, and the sensation starts to flow ? Do you notice it more intense when the room is quiet and after you are really tired or have been drinking ? (that is if you do drink ?)

Finally, can you cause it to vanish at will, and if so, what thing or combination of things remove the sensation ?

Rhody...

 

[zoobyshoe]

It really doesn't seem to work when I look at anything to "find out what sound it makes." I need to be in a state of concentration, and things have to be quiet, and I essentially notice it only after some degree of repetition.

When I try to "hear" things, I'm too conscious about the whole thing, and I'm aware that I might be projecting a sound on a thing rather than experiencing a sound.

It's extremely obvious though, when I play the game "Set." Finding cards with combinations of color, quantity, shading and shapes... it's freaking cacophonous .

Truly amazing. You might want to get that book, Wednesday is Indigo Blue. There are a few reports from similar people who "hear" what are essentially visual experiences, with the same disorienting result when there's too many stimuli.