Hey, I have been seeing a few people here trying to train themselves to get synesthesia. Firstly, I don’t think this is possible as synesthesia is when two sensory modalities overlap and as far as I have studied in my psychology lectures and textbooks, this is a highly heritable trait meaning it’s likely biological and not learned. Secondly, I haven’t ever used this to improve my mind palaces, all words and numbers for me inherently have colours but that doesn’t really help because I’m not going to just remember a huge floating colour over my bed. I could start colouring the objects that I’ve created with the major system for extra memory but this just seems superfluous. Is there anyone with this condition who has used it to their advantage? Or has anyone ever used colours in a mind Palace? My presumption would be that it would be a much weaker memory than a 3-D object? Any help would be great
Hmm yes, I also have thought about whether the reason for the colours I have chosen is because I was taught them at a young age in that colour. This is especially true with letters of the alphabet as many words are heavily influenced by the colour of the letter at the start. As to whether or not it’s a biological or learned trait, yes normally you could say that the environment has a big impact but don’t most people learn the letters of the alphabet in school and not from their parents? Obviously, I don’t have an answer here I’m only going off the feeling of the way I see and feel words seems fundementally different to everyone else so obviously I have massive bias here and may not be thinking logically. Also, for something to be biological it wouldn’t necessarily have to have its own region in the brain. Even the senses we already know don’t only occupy one region, the regions that we associate with senses are often described rather as “hubs” for that sense. Anyways most of this is guesswork and piecing together different things I’ve learned in neuroscience so take it with a grain of salt hahaha
Anyways the real question is, why are people trying to learn this? I don’t see the benefit personally
I have this to a mild extent. My mother has it very strongly. When I see colors I experience a tone among other things. I can’t describe it. It doesn’t match anything physical but it’s a definite sensation of hearing a tone. And likewise the tones induce color sensations that I can’t really describe. All my sense are a bit like this. There’s color, tone, texture, smell and feeling and a body sensation all combined. It’s not overwhelming or confusing. Usually the primary sense is dominant.
How do you experience music or visual art. Does this make more interesting or does it seem incoherent?
For myself, I find it enriching and I use it to enrich memory images. I assumed I got it from my mother genetically but it could just be nurture. I could be persuaded that at my level of intensity, it’s something I learned to do but don’t know. She never seemed to consider it a handicap or confusing.
Other’s have said this and for me too, these conversations have been a real eye opener. Normally people won’t discuss their inner experiences - partly because they haven’t really payed attention to what’s going on. I’d always felt one had to tailor the techniques to one’s own brain but I never realized how much variation there is - even among those who are primarily visual.
I don’t have grapheme synesthesia but numbers have personalities and feelings to me. In my case, it does help my memory. Numbers I like get stored in my brain much faster than numbers I don’t like but because strings of numbers are often random, I can just chunk them into numbers I do like and remember them all. Numbers have such a strong impact on me, that even just looking at a number could make me feel happy or troubled. I know the release year of 350+ movies after seeing them once, I think this could be because of my feelings for numbers.
I don’t really know. I never did massive calculations like a 7 by 7 digit multiplications in my head when I was younger but back in elementary school I always got more math homework and special exercises. My speed is definitely the same. When I went to middle school, I forgot my arithmetic talent and rediscovered it after I left middle school.
I think it’s similar to the interest in Lucid Dreaming. It’s magic - therefore it confers superpowers.
I can see doing it for artistic reasons but how is this different from training yourself to be more aware and take in more of your environment? My ex was a painter but not at all musical. Colors were extremely important to her, and they had personalities and associations far beyond the senses for her.