Faith On The Line - Stress, Stress Go Away Vol 18 | Page 14

by Joshua Joscelyn

SYNESTHESIA:

MYSTERY OF GOD’S CREATION

W

hat if you could see the notes coming from a
piano? What if every number you saw had a
color, shape, and texture? What if each meal
you ate was its own bouquet of colors? What if you could
reduce every equation to a shape or sound?
Perhaps it’s not as ridiculous as it sounds. There exists a
condition known as synesthesia which causes some people
to confuse two senses in various patterns, leaving them with
very unique talents and frames of reference,
but also allowing other incredible skills such as
amazing memory.
These people experience things that defy
human expectations and perceptions of
reality, experiencing multiple senses at a time
in extraordinary combinations, and achieving
incredible feats. But why? How is this possible?
What does it mean?
Synesthesia simply means combining
senses. In other words, instead of merely
seeing a color, a synesthete might actually
hear and see it. Instead of merely hearing a
symphony, a synesthete might actually taste
and hear it.
The prevalent theory as to why this occurs is that the
neuron pathways in our brain can experience “cross-talk” if
the inhibitions imposed upon these wirings are not in place
to prevent this sort of mix-up. In other words, the pathways
in our brain, though blocked in most people, can sometimes
open up and allow cross-sensory interaction. Therefore, an
accident, such as an impact to the head or a defect of some
kind, is sometimes the precursor to this kind of condition.
In fact, some have concluded that this can be replicated by
drug-abusers, and that “existing connections become used in a
way that’s neurochemically altered for a few hours” when this
occurs (Carpenter 2001). So not only those with the condition

These people
experience
things that
defy human
expectations and
perceptions of
reality.

of synesthesia can experience this, but
theoretically anyone can.
Synesthesia comes in various forms,
but one of the most common forms is
known as grapheme-color synesthesia,
which simply means that individual
symbols for numbers and letters of the
alphabet, known as graphemes, are
viewed by the synesthete as having color
—and sometimes even texture, shape,
or gender. Therefore, a grapheme-color
synesthete might view the letter “G” as
being tall and lanky, having the color
blue, and being male—along with other
possible attributes. Many other symptoms exist.
One such synesthete with this ability
is a man by the name of Daniel Tammet.
His condition allows him to “learn a
language fluently in a week, memorize
22,500 digits of pi, and remember every
book he’s ever read” according to a
Harvard Brain article (Cooper 2007).
Patricia Duffy related one of her
experiences as a synesthete child, “I
realized that to make an ‘R’ all I had to
do was first write a ‘P’ and then draw a
line down from its loop. And I was so
surprised that I could turn a yellow letter
into an orange letter just by adding a
line” (Duffy 2002).
Other forms of synesthesia include
number-form synesthesia, which
allows some to actually map out
mathematical problems as shapes,
and sound-color synesthesia, which

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