Learning that your lived reality is uncommon is understandably shocking, but even more so when you're told your everyday experience is, in fact, a condition. “It frightened the daylights out of me at first, but it ultimately revealed to me who I am.” It wasn't until a couple of years ago, a point in time that Sutherland describes as a “spiritual awakening,” that it dawned on him that he’s “not like everybody else.” This epiphany occurred at a 2017 art exhibit when a scientist asked him if he “knew what he was” after examining a few of Sutherland’s paintings.Īccording to Sutherland, she could even list the three types of synesthesia he had “just by looking at art from a scientific standpoint.” People born with the condition often describe daily experiences of hearing, tasting, and smelling colors and even envisioning time, months, and days in spatial sequences and landscapes.Īlthough these experiences may seem abnormal and even shocking to the average individual, synesthesia is often so ingrained into synesthetes’ lives that, according to synesthesia experts, many go years and even lifetimes without realizing they have a condition that makes them perceive the world differently. Robin Kingsburgh, the president of the Colour Research Society of Canada, says that “people with synesthesia have a conscious way of seeing into the unconscious,” which is a truth that likely no synesthete would refute. Synesthetes live a reality that most cannot comprehend. ![]() The word Synesthesia is derived from the Greek words “syn,” meaning “union,” and “aesthesis,” meaning “sensation”: a union of the senses – and people who experience this phenomenon are commonly referred to as synesthetes. According to Psychology Today, the phenomenon occurs when “stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway (for example, hearing) leads to automatic and involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway (such as vision).” Synesthesia is a rare neurological condition that has been a topic of scientific fascination for years. How about reading the word Friday and interpreting it as a unique shade of forest green - no, not because it’s printed that way, but because your brain automatically associates it and every other day of the week with a specific colour? This is my everyday reality because I am a part of the estimated four per cent of the world’s population with Synesthesia. Or hearing a C# sharp and tasting the most delicious, warm, and savory piece of apple pie. Imagine hearing a song on the radio and seeing the most beautiful shades of blue spiral and dance behind your eyes.
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