Bob Stumpf wrote:

>There is an article in today's NY Times about synethesia, a phenomenon
>wherein people will "hear a color".  Fascinating reading about a rare
>experience.  The author quotes Messiaen among others.

Indeed, the phenomenon takes on more guises than just the seeing of
colours.  It can be a general "mixing-up" of the senses, so that one may
feel a particular shape in the hand as a result of tasting, say, chicken,
or one might see patterns in response to aural stimuli.  The "seeing of
patterns" is very common.  For example, if you're nearly asleep and a small
sound startles you, do you ever see a brief flash of dots while your eyes
are still closed, rather like someone quickly flicking through an empty
channel on a television? These patterns are, apparently, the basic
building-blocks of how the brain interprets what the eye sees so,
sometimes, one might see lines, dots, circles, etc.

As far as the recipient of synaesthasia (British spelling!  Sorry...) is
concerned, these colours or feelings are just as real as the rest of the
world...  this isn't a case of consciously deciding that, say, D major has
a "yellow" feel about it.

An interesting book on all this came out around six years ago, title
something like "The man who tasted shapes"...?

Yours,

John Hayward-Warburton
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http://www.billabong.demon.co.uk