Synesthesia

While I was in the midst of reading books and researching about Indigos, I discovered that the woman who created the label of Indigo around 1970, Nancy Tappe, is able to see auras and began seeing a new color -- indigo, around some children, calling them indigo children. Nancy also has Synesthesia, which is a rare condition of joined sensations in which an external stimulus is experienced by two (or occasionally more) senses simultaneously. This trait occurs in only about 1% of the population.


Synesthesia is a physical experience of the brain, not a product of the imagination. The condition is thought to be a genetic trait. It is not a disease, disorder or a medical condition. Trait is the most accurate description. There are many types of synesthesia but the most common form is a visual link between colors and letters of the alphabet, known as grapheme synesthesia. For example, someone with this form might always see the letter B as pink or Y as orange. People with this form can have difficulties with reading and math because of the additional visual input.

Another fairly common form is a cross between color and hearing perception. Those with this form experience colors with musical tones or keys. The music they hear has colors attached.

Nancy has a rarer synesthetic combination. Hers combines visual color and geometric taste. She sees a variety of colors around every living thing, and most foods have a geometrical shape attached to the regular flavor. For example, she says avocados have an additional pleasant sensation of circles, whereas macaroni and cheese is angular and sharp and actually causes physical pain. She has had these sensations her entire life and "wonders what the rest of the world sees or what food tastes like without having shapes attached to them." This is hard for the rest of us to imagine!

I also discovered that my Indigo friend has synesthesia. She has the form which combines colors and music. She says she always sees colors with music or tones. For her, trying to watch a video that has music playing while showing visual images of colors would be sensory overload. She sees her own color show to the music.

While I was researching synesthesia, I also discovered that my husband is a Mnemonist, which refers to an individual with the ability to remember and recall unusually long lists of data, such as unfamiliar names, lists of numbers, entries in books, etc. Over the years I have noticed he has an amazing ability to remember numbers, people's names and other things as well. Neither one of us was aware there was a label for it and he was not aware that the majority of people don't have this ability. 

As we search for answers about ourselves along our own path of self discovery and self-realization, we in turn also help those around us discover and realize who they are. We are all -- each and everyone of us -- amazing beings!

For more information on synethesia, here's a YouTube video with Dr. David Eagleman of Baylor College of Medicine explaining this strange condition, and four synesthetes explaining how they perceive the world:

https://youtu.be/6vs-ez62DVc

Here's a short YouTube documentary about synesthesia from a teenage synesthete herself:

https://youtu.be/xLGMsPN-zWM