Synesthesia

Hey class, for this week's blog post I decided to share a few snippets on the phenomenon known as synesthesia. According to Wikipedia, synesthesia is a neurologically-based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.

Basically, this means that two of your senses are mingled in some fashion. People who are genetically predisposed to this condition are described as congenital synesthetes, while others who develop synesthesia through psychedelic drug use, stroke, or some other way are described as adventitious synesthetes.

I myself have a moderate case of synesthesia, wherein single digit numbers (and 10) are always associated with specific colors. For instance, the number "9" always appears olive green in my mind's eye, while "1" is white, "10" is gold, "4" is blue, "2" is red, and so forth. Synesthesia is common in poetry and some easy examples might be "I tasted the clouds" or "I heard the grass". Each describes a sense organ experiencing a stimulus that it can't normally detect.

The French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire wrote of synesthetic experience but there is no hard evidence to prove they were synesthetes themselves. The linked poem is a poem by Rimbaud in which he explores this experience of synesthesia.


"Vowels" by Arthur Rimbaud