The Big & Dandy Psychedelic Synaesthesia Thread

[biffhenderson]

I have it naturally as I'm on the spectrum if you know what that means. If I concentrate on pleasurable musical sounds I can taste them. Only works on enjoyable sounds.

 

[!!4iV4HF9R34g]

On Salvia, I feel anything I think of and all sensory imput in a tactile way.

 

[aislinnna]

I've been able to see the music pulsing, but I'm not really sure this qualifies as unusual synesthesia.

 

[phenethylo J]

Several times on salvia I have got this sweet sensation on my skin like it had taste buds on it. It tasted kinda like taffy.

 

[Bone14]

I remember I've tasted words on a high dose of 4-HO-MiPT, when some words were spoken i got weird taste sensations in my mouth.

 

[Solipsis]

} awesome posts are awesome!

 

[Jesusgreen]

Not really unusual compared to anyone else's experiences, but isn't all synaesthesia unusual? I'll detail some different kinds of synaesthesia I've experienced.

On 2C-E I commonly find that I get these cyan lines of lightning across my visual field, and like an equalizer these begin to shake and dance to my music when I'm listening to anything. Whatever I'm looking at also shifts and morphs according to the sounds I hear.

On aMT I found that looking at different objects led to me having auditory hallucinations of various tunes that sounded like fully fleshed out songs - only I'd never heard any of them before. This is probably the most interesting and unique synaesthetic experience I've had.

With Ketamine, and to some extent Methoxetamine, I found that music would greatly affect my senses of touch, smell, and taste - so much so that if I feel nauseous on Ketamine, the wrong music will cause me to projectile vomit everywhere, while the right music will diminish my nausea completely.

 

[Aetherius Rimor]

I don't mean to nitpick but if the topic is unusual forms of synaesthesia maybe we aren't actually talking about synaesthesia anymore.

Perhaps, it's such an abstract concept almost, that it may be pretty hard to define what I'm asking for. However these last few posts are excellent examples.

Tasting words... sections of rooms having emotions... skin being able to taste.

These are all things that I wouldn't have imagined, and are exactly the type of reports I was interested in hearing about!

 

[Foreigner]

Does sneezing when you look at the sun or bright light count as synesthesia? Because I have that one a lot.

I've always had some form of synesthesia, but it happens at random. I've been told by some people that it's related to psychic potential, but I'm not sure if I believe this.

 

[psood0nym]

I don't mean to nitpick but if the topic is unusual forms of synaesthesia maybe we aren't actually talking about synaesthesia anymore.

I once gave a presentation on synesthesia in a psychology of perception class, and yes, it doesn't take long looking into the topic before one is smacked in the face with this problem. If I recall correctly, dozens of different types have been named, but it's mostly color-grapheme synesthesia (CGS) that's been studied a lot. So far as I can tell CGS is the most studied because it expresses itself in ways that lend themselves to cheap experiments rather than because it's the only actual type. For example, if a CG synesthete sees red auras around the number 4, the CG synesthete will be able to perceive a triangle shape consisting of number 4's within a random number field:

1254779
1347499
7653899

... much faster than a control.

For the longest time synesthesia was (and to a degree still is) thought about as a merely metaphoric or poetical way of describing perceptual experiences. Honestly, even though I believe synesthesia is quite a real phenomena, I don't think this dismissive interpretation is really that far off, and this is why: the best neurobiological signifier of synesthesia is itself extraordinarily "general." By general I mean that it's been found that CG synesthetes have greater white matter densities (a measure of the degree of interconnectivity) in the inferior temporal cortex. The more extreme the subjectively reported synesthesia, the greater the connectivity measured (by degree I mean whether a synesthete actually sees color auras projected out in the world around graphemes [like a red number 4] or they merely experience a perceptual impression, or association with, color auras [4 "seems to be" red]). However, to talk about synesthesia as the degree of interconnectivity neurobiolgically, and therefore presumably the degree of interconnectivity of perceptual associations, is to talk about nearly everything in consciousness -- because most all experience can be conceived of as "associations."

Obviously we're not talking about "everything" in consciousness, but it's very easy to lose our conceptual boundaries for a subject when speaking in terms of mere associations. It's also been noted that a disproportional number of poets and artists, those who work in metaphors and have powerful analogical minds, are synesthetes. There's a lot of overlap between analogical thought and synesthetic perceptions, and I'm not sure the concepts we have of each can be disentangled without tearing out essential chunks of each other. In line with this generalized conception, some 90 percent of people, when given a choice between the names "Booba" and "Kiki" to assign to each of the below figures names the left figure "Kiki". It seems pretty obvious why: "Kiki" has hard angular consonant sounds and "Booba" has soft rounded vowel and consonant sounds that map onto the visual properties of the shapes. The answer as to WHY it's obvious suggests there is some degree of synesthesia in the entire population, an interpretation consistent with the idea that what underlies synesthesia is a very generalized interconnectivity in the brain (there are also auditory technologies for the blind that that scan objects and convert them into sound forms, which, given enough training, the blind are able to visualize, such that the sound form of a wood saw, for example, can be consistently identified as a wood saw by blind users of the technology [search for "sensory substitution" technology for more info]).

At this point our understanding of synesthesia is not well delineated. So, in my view at least, the best we can say at this point is that the different forms of synesthesia arise from the neurobiological developmental contex in which synaptic pruning occurs. If synaptic pruning is low during a period when a child is learning about colors and numbers you might get a color-grapheme synesthete (I see "4" as red). If it's low when they are learning about numbers and shapes you might get a synesthete who sees numbers as shapes (I see "8" as an octagon). It's telling that most synesthetes outgrow their synesthesia, which is a predictable outcome considering synaptic arborage is much denser in children. As we grow and the arborage is pruned through learning our perceptions and ways of thinking are further crystalized and defined.

It's also interesting that there is a correlation between synesthesia and the degree of nerve tissue in the body. For example, I have a spot on the back of my head where, if I scratch it, I feel an electrical twinge in the middle right side of my back. This kind of nerve tissue interconnectivity is pretty common. There was a thread in Second Opinion months ago by Seattle_Stranger about a poorly understood phenomenal called "ASMR," where certain sounds and sights can actually trigger a sensory response in 'affected' people that they find relaxing and euphoric. I experience this to a small degree. If anyone else experiences this we had a discussion about it in that thread (in which I draw parallels to synesthesia that you may find interesting).

As far as psychedelics are concerned I believe they mimic synesthesia by blurring associational boundaries between sensations, concepts, and perceptions (as far as these are even different phenomena). In published material on synesthesia authors have noted that only some psychedelic users report synesthetic experiences while tripping, which may indicate that a certain level of innate synesthesia may be prerequisite for experiencing psychedelic synesthesia.

 

[Solipsis]

I love you for mentioning that Kiki Booba experiment, that is a really beautiful one indeed!

Also I sometimes I am led to believe that synaesthesia has some mirrored phenomena in nature, like piezoluminescence, sonoluminescence.
My point is that maybe we should not only consider synaesthesia a purely technical simple fact of neurology but rather a reflection of the whole concept of conversion. With 'kiki' and 'booba' I think the conversion can be explained by the fact that the sound of the words are produced by a time-shape pattern made by the mouth. This shape must have in it the essential form of the soundwave as a form in it, though how this form relates may be somewhat encrypted for us.

Where synaesthesia in the mind could be considered analogues to certain naturally occurring phenomenon is the idea that concepts that are measureable by physics can sometimes have a universal, almost Platonic conceptual symbol. In essence an information pattern.

It may be a philosophical question where the internal phenomenon ends and the external phenomenon begins, I think that is the biggest problem of my idea (which probably is not original at all).
By best answer to that would be that it's information patterns that are universal and it may be irrelevant what ingredients are used, in microcosm and macrocosm. Inside, outside or both at the same time representing the same thing.

 

[SONN]

Dude I've had synesthesia so many times. Seeing sounds? I've played music so many times while tripping i've gotten pretty good at guiding myself through a trip with it. There has been so many times where a certain melody or something produces a lot more closed eye visuals than usual.

I have also gotten a pretty bad taste in my mouth when I was near sloppy drunk girls the first time I did acid.

One time on 30mg of 4-aco-DMT on the beach it started to rain. while it was still drizzling, It felt like I was being hit with Ideas rather than raindrops.

 

[maxxsskip]

on a low dose of lsd at bassnectar it smelled like gun powder when the bass rattled my chest

 

[Psyke]

While tripping I've noticed that the corner of a room may have its own "mood," despite the fact that I had never paid much attention to it before. It's as if every sensational experience I've ever had has its own coordinate in consciousness, oriented in phenomenal space by the features of its memory, accessible only if my attentional loci happen to graze it in their travels. (yes I intend this to be as subtle and abstruse as it sounds -- I know of no other way to talk about it).

As I recall, carlos Casteneda really delves into this in Journey to Ixtlan. I haven't read it in a few years, but I remember a long scene where don juan asks Carlos to find a comfortable place on the porch to take a seat. Carlos starts to settle down into a seat and Don Juan continues to say that he should not only find a good seat, but the best one. Carlos is of course nonplussed, and attempts many different seating arrangements before giving up and breaking down. There could be no way one certain area was the best one...could it? I think at this point he notices a slight opaque green hue in the field of his vision over a portion of the deck. As he sits down in this spot he is filled with a feeling of content so powerful and liberating that he instantly became sharp, euphoric, and focused. Thats all I remember, looks like it's time to give Jorney to Ixtlan another read!

 

[Thorns Have Roses]

I can feel certain sounds in my teeth while sober, if that's not normal. It's always uncomfortable ones though. Like the sound a broom makes on concrete.

 

[purpledrumsticks]

one time I was on LSD and my friends around me decided to put in a dip. (chewing tobacco) I could taste it in my mouth every time I saw one of them spit it out. This caused me to gag, as I am not very fond of dipping. I always found it to be interesting though

 

[Aetherius Rimor]

There was a thread in Second Opinion months ago by Seattle_Stranger about a poorly understood phenomenal called "ASMR," where certain sounds and sights can actually trigger a sensory response in 'affected' people that they find relaxing and euphoric. I experience this to a small degree. If anyone else experiences this we had a discussion about it in that thread (in which I draw parallels to synesthesia that you may find interesting).

Could the same thing apply to smells as well?

I know one thing that has always baffled me, and confuses anyone I tell is my response to the smell of car exhaust. If I'm nauseous for any reason, the smell of car exhaust always makes it go away immediately.

 

[psood0nym]

^Who knows? That sounds like some idiosyncratically conditioned aromatherapy to me, but it's interesting. Maybe the next time I feel like spewing I'll go suck on a tailpipe to see if that helps -- seems like rationale enough.

The ASMR thing seems to be tied in with "projecting tactile attentiveness." If you read the thread you'll see that the OP and myself both almost nut when we're getting a haircut. There's something about the idea of another person with a blade next to my skull very meticulously grooming me that awakens my inner flee-picking monkey. The trust and intimacy of it factor in. It may not seem like it, but Never Knows Best's comment about the broom on concrete sound being felt in his teeth seems obviously related to what I'm talking about to me. It's the whole tingling empathy with the broom thing -- the idea of projecting my nerve endings into the bristles as they scrap over the crevices in cement, the contrast of textures and the scrap sounds. Scratching a chalk board is related, too, but with that it spills over into a kind of pain. It seems to be tied into the nerve networks in the jaw and the back of the head, like the feelers that run through there and the whole chill sensation thing is tied into the phenomena. It's like seeing and hearing is scratching an itch that I didn't know I had.

It's the same or similar thing with those "ASMR" videos linked to in the thread in Second Opinion I was referencing. Why would watching someone fold wrapping paper be euphoric? It's the projection into the paper: being folded with care, caressed and creased in a steady rhythm, hearing the crisp sound of crumpling and the squeak of fingers on glossy surfaces (cleaning glass with a squeegee works, too, or the way the squeak of chewing a cheese curd reverberates in my teeth). It's fucking weird, and I can even see some jealous sap labeling it perverse, no doubt. I won't try to justify it beyond describing it -- but it's also just obvious what's so great about it if you're a lustfully perceiving, experience drinking, sensationalist synesthetic type of animal (the kind of person accomplished at petting cats).

 

[evokatroid]

I had synesthesia on 2C-I where I felt like every sense in my body became 1 and I could perceive things in their original way (like sound) but simultaneously have it evoke colors, thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, and even smells. Crazy time.

 

[Aetherius Rimor]

Thanks psood0nym, I think I have a much better understanding of it now.

I also get that same euphoric rush when getting my hair cut. And it's specific to the act of getting a hair cut, someone rubbing my head, or scratching my head, though pleasurable, does not give me the full body goose bumps/euphoria as someone actually cutting the hair.

I love how you say "inner flee-picking monkey" as well... I wouldn't have made that connection to evolution had you not. Makes sense why some of us have that trait, and I wonder if it is the sensation experienced by monkeys grooming each other as well...

I also know there are certain melodies that will trigger the goosebump/euphoria feeling as well. Though there appears to be a tolerance to it... can't just listen to it on repeat unfortunately :/