Feel the Music See the Music

 Hello.  My name is bob and I am a synesthete.  That means I suffer from a condition known as synesthesia.  According to wikipedia "Synesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a secondary sensory or cognitive pathway."  What on Earth does that mean? 

It means some of my senses are crosswired.  Specifically, I hear instrumental music kinesthetically and visually.  I don't hear music as  just a series of sounds.  Yes, my ears hear the sounds of the instruments and how they're combined to create different effects in timbre and texture.  Yes.  I hear music texturally. Or, with physicality.  I feel the music.  As in light, dark, soft, hard, pointed, hot, icy, heavy, relaxed, tense, thick, thin, open, closed, etc.  Sometimes I hear staccatos as jabs.  Glissandos as a rip.  I feel the conflict and tension in dissonant chord structures.  Sometimes music feels heavy.  Sometimes it's light and I see colors or haziness or clouds or brightness depending on what I hear.    

Like some people with ADD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, I view my condition not as a defect but a gift.  I don't know how it happened and I didn't even know I was different than other people.  I thought everyone heard music the same way I do but they don't.  There have been many times I've been listening to music with a someone and I blurt out did you feel that?  They just look at me with a bewildered look on their face.  It's cool.

When I'm writing, I don't write what I think.  I write what I hear as the thoughts flow from my stream of consciousness.  That's why you'll sometimes see words spelled wrong that sound write - (right) if you read them out loud.  Literally - that just happened.

As Doug DeMuro would say, this is one of my quirks and features.  After learning what synesthesia is, I find it quite fascinating.  Not fascinating in a way desiring research but in a way that enhances my life experience and how I interact with the world around me.  It's my little secret.  Don't tell anyone.  Thank you.