- #31
Anomy
- 4
- 0
I have synesthesia. Sounds translate to colored shapes with texture and movement. The shapes seem really random to others, but I've had this condition my entire life. It seems totally normal to me. Sometimes (rarely) my other senses will cause similar colored shapes, but this only happens when I am being mentally impaired by something like a hallucinogenic sleeping pill.
I'm female, I'm ambidextrous, I have a horrible sense of direction, I am fantastic at maths... All traits of synesthesia except for the maths bit. I'm only good at that because I'm similar to the aforementioned savant, Daniel, though I'm not nearly so gifted. I see numbers as shapes that move. They have colors like metals, with the traits of elemental metals. They stretch, melt, bend, change color (sometimes not like metals), change texture, etc when I do maths. They often pinch off into pieces, much like an organism dividing cells. All numbers are made of their greatest prime factors morphed into something resembling a strange molecule. The molecular bonds that hold one number together are multiplication. For some reason, I never use any prime factor greater than 7. Numbers made up of prime factors greater than 7, like 26, sort of confuse me. I could try to dream up some shape for 13, but I can't do that any more than you can dream up a color that doesn't exist. 26 looks like 25 + 1 to me. The + 1 is attached by an addition bond, which just means that the 1 shape sort of hovers to the side of the 25. Some numbers just look strange to me, so I don't like them.
People seem to think that synesthesia is the best thing ever. In many ways, it is. I have perfect pitch, and can memorize things I hear very easily, especially if I say them myself. My own voice is preferred because if I need to repeat something, I can do it in the exact same pitch so that I see the same thing. One way that synesthesia isn't awesome? If something is repeated in many different ways, I will get confused. Additionally, many sounds which normally do not annoy people drive me mad. For instance, most sounds made by cardboard and styrofoam make me feel absolutely horrible. I have to go clear them out of my mind by hitting two pieces of metal together. Making glass or crystal resonate is particularly effective, but I think carrying around crystal stemware would seem even more insane than cringing or shuddering when someone opens a box the wrong way.