Synesthesia

I have synesthesia.  I have known this since I was thirty-five, when I read a Globe and Mail article about research being done in London, England.  I had only returned from there two weeks earlier and thought that had I stayed longer and learned about it I would have happily offered myself for research.  Synesthesia, for those who are unfamiliar with the term is a neurological syndrome where senses and perceptions overlap.  For example one might hear colour as music or see music as colour (I sometimes do), or one might see numbers, letters of the alphabet and days of the week as colours, as I always do.  I have always had synesthesia, and I always assumed that everyone else also saw numbers as colours.  I was very surprised when I began talking openly about it when almost everyone I asked said they didn't have a clue what I was talking about.  I always unconsciously assign the same colour values to the same numbers, letters and days. 

 

Three is always the colour green.  It is a

chartreuse, or apple green, or spring green, or leaf green if you will.

 

531 × 531 - aliexpress.com

Four is a darker green, rather like malachite or

 

jade: .   

 

This is a detail of the malachite room in Castillo Chapultepec, a castle in Mexico City that houses the National History Museum of Mexico and the malachite features, number four for me, are breath-taking, especially with the gold leaf trim.  Number five for me is always an intense red:

Six is always bright primary yellow:  It's a

 

great colour for getting my ducks in a row.

Seven is always magenta:

 

One is white with a touch of gold, two is silvery, eight is a very dark grey and nine is the blackest of black.

A is a soft saffron yellow:

 Actually the real name for this colour is gold.  It is also the colour of Sunday and Monday. B is a yellower gold:

And it drives me bananas!

D is kind of a dark teal:  M, N and R are all similar with certain variations of shade and intensity... It is also the colour of Tuesday.

Or maybe I'm spinning another yarn...

E is the lighter colour orange on the left, F is the darker orange on the right. J is the dark edge on the left side of the right orange.  Still there? 

 

 

 Wedneday is mauve:

I was born on a Wednesday and every March when I visit Mexico City the jacaranda trees are in full bloom.

Thank you for sharing with me this journey through my experience of synesthesia.  For me this is a very rich experience because colour is such an intrinsic part of my life.  If seeing this post will be enough to inspire you to see colours where you do not ordinarily see them then this little essay will have fulfilled its purpose.