As a person who experiences synesthesia (also known as a synesthete, synesalthete or synagineer), everyday I’m bombarded with a pleasant tidal wave of sensory images, not unlike watching an episode of The Monkees while listening to a Monkees’ album on your way to a Monkees reunion concert.
Synesthesia (simply put) is a condition where some of the wires in your brain are a little too close. Or something. I’m not entirely sure what causes it, exactly, and I couldn’t really understand all the websites I visited to research this article. But the end result is that your sense are all mixed together like a cocktail made up less of alcohol and more of delicious neurons.
People with synesthesia experience visual and audio stimuli differently than non-synesthetes, also called “normals” or “assholes,” as their brains are a jumble of tangled up nerve endings. Since their senses are intertwined, synesthetes experience more than one sense at a time, and when they watch The Sixth Sense, they’re able to figure out not only the ending for not only that film but also for The Usual Suspects, Fight Club, Star Wars and The Producers.
According to Wikipedia, there are over sixty different variations of synesthesia. While I’ve listed a small sample of the most common forms below, please keep in mind that there could be an infinite number of different types that have yet to be discovered.
The Most Common Forms of Synesthesia
Associating sound with color (Example: the song “Bad to the Bone” is a cheery shade of vermillion).
Associating taste with music (Example: Chocolate tastes like Handel’s “Messiah”).
Associating personalities with numbers and letters (Example: The number 7 likes to watch you sleep).
Associating the personalities of the Monkees with numbers and letters (Example: “F” acts like Michael Nesmith).
Associating sound with what the Monkees probably smell like (Example: Harmonica solos smell like Peter Tork).
Associating days of the week with color (Example: Tuesday is light shade of blue).
Associating days of the week with the Monkees (Example: Although seriously, everyday is MonkeesDay).