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About Synaesthesia

DragonFly31

Bluelighter
Joined
Feb 12, 2007
Messages
451
Perhaps I make a mistake posting this here, but last time I wanted to post something serious I did so in expect of serious answers and all I got was rebuttal and laughs - so hopefully this more 'serious' forum will be more appropriate for the type of answers I am looking for.

I have taken drugs for years, and for various reasons. About two and a half years ago, I first learnt of the phenomena of synaesthesia -- far after the first time I took drugs, including psychedelics.

From that time on, I became more and more fascinated by the phenomena, or occurrence, and as a musician, sought increasingly to experience this myself, to a point now where it has reached obsession.

A dangerous one at that. I know I'll stop at nothing. For example, two weeks ago, I took more than 40 mg of 2C-E for instance in hope of achieving this, but to no avail. (I did trip for more than 12 hours though and had a great time in a park in the sun.)

Some of my friends, however, describe experiencing synaesthesia on lower doses of 2C-E. For example, a friend of mine took it and said to me how she could 'see her breath'... I asked her and she said she knew about it and thought it was synaesthesia. How envious I was of her experience.

So to all of you out there, knowledgeable on this subject - what can I do to satisfy this need? SWIM has about 50 mg of 2C-E left, and while I wouldn't hesitate to take another 50 mg as the last one was incredible, I am a little afraid to go above those doses simply for sanity's sake... I think that one could have left some marks... visually.

I have not had the chance to explore LSD much - only once have I taken it, but this is because I've not been able to get my hands on it - would taking LSD increase my chances of experiencing it?

I've tried a lot of mushrooms though (and heavy doses of that) and never experienced synaesthesia on them.

Would doing anything else before, or during the drug-taking improve my chances of experiencing synaesthesia? I have tried a lot of stuff...

What other drugs would you recommend for experiencing synaesthesia?

Anything else to add please do.

Cheers
 
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Have you tried DMT?

On a high dose I find myself completely immerged in the experience, in such a way that sense data seems to merge into giant streams of emotion. I must say that I experience synaesthesia to a certain degree on a lot of psychedelics, though.
 
All I can suggest is trying more tryptamine psychedelics - IME they've caused much more synaesthesia than the PEA psychedelics have as a general rule, for myself (more 5ht1a activation, perhaps?).
Some people seem to get it a lot more easily than others, though - don't try pushing your doses too far, it might be a bit fruitless.
 
^The research I've done also suggests some people are more prone to experiencing synaesthesia than others.

The advice to keep to tryptamines is sound, will heed that. As part of that, DMT is on my list.

And you are right, pushing doses might simply be fruitless, not only dangerous. Hence perhaps I should wait for a wider range of experiences with drugs. I am pretty young, and although you can't predict the future I don't think I'll be shying away from them anytime soon...
 
I naturally experience synaesthesia, namely Ordinal Linguistic Personification. That means numbers have human characteristics.

I can also taste and smell colors. For instance, Pepsi tastes purple.
 
I am a natural synaesthete as well, I've had this quality ever since I can remember. Mine is mostly between vision and taste/smell, and audio and touch (the latter being the most prominent)

Curiously, psychedelics seem to actually reduce my experience of synaesthesia.

DF31, have you tried pursuing it while sober? :)
 
limestoneman said:
I naturally experience synaesthesia, namely Ordinal Linguistic Personification. That means numbers have human characteristics.

I can also taste and smell colors. For instance, Pepsi tastes purple.

Huh, for me numbers and letters have colors. I was diagnosed with "grapheam-color synaesthesia" (is that spelled correctly?) when I was 16. Also diagnosed bipolar at the same time.
 
I've experienced pitch related synaesthesia my whole life. Ever since I was child I've had absolute pitch, and I remember at a very young age "hearing colors" when i would put my ear on the window of an airplane during a flight, and the colors would change as I slowly identified all the overtones.

Certain keys, and intervals can evoke certain colors and even tastes. For example, F# major triad can taste metallic/salty, whereas D flat/C# minor tastes sweet (more like anti-freeze), but generally these tastes only occur after I have just woken up in the morning. Psychedelics only distorted these sensations, and on 5-meo-dipt and DIPT, my absolute pitch was flattened by an entire (and consistent) half-step.

The auditory effects of DMT were quite profound (for me), i recall hearing other-wordly music (if aliens listened to music, it would sound like this). The issue is that there is so much going on while under the influence of psychedelics, it is difficult to focus on one aspect of the drugs effects. As Jamshyd suggests, perhaps try developing such things while sober.
 
Jamshyd said:
I am a natural synaesthete as well, I've had this quality ever since I can remember. Mine is mostly between vision and taste/smell, and audio and touch (the latter being the most prominent)

Curiously, psychedelics seem to actually reduce my experience of synaesthesia.

DF31, have you tried pursuing it while sober? :)

Although I've heard it can be a difficult condition to live with, I would give a lot to be able to see and feel what you do, if just for a minute. Have you ever heard 'Any colour you like' by Pink Floyd? I enjoy listening to that song and thinking one day I may see the very notes coming out of the speaker.

EDIT: Maybe one of you can tell me what that song looks like from your perspective...

negrogesic said:
I've experienced pitch related synaesthesia my whole life. Ever since I was child I've had absolute pitch, and I remember at a very young age "hearing colors" when i would put my ear on the window of an airplane during a flight, and the colors would change as I slowly identified all the overtones.

Certain keys, and intervals can evoke certain colors and even tastes. For example, F# major triad can taste metallic/salty, whereas D flat/C# minor tastes sweet (more like anti-freeze), but generally these tastes only occur after I have just woken up in the morning. Psychedelics only distorted these sensations, and on 5-meo-dipt and DIPT, my absolute pitch was flattened by an entire (and consistent) half-step.

The auditory effects of DMT were quite profound (for me), i recall hearing other-wordly music (if aliens listened to music, it would sound like this). The issue is that there is so much going on while under the influence of psychedelics, it is difficult to focus on one aspect of the drugs effects. As Jamshyd suggests, perhaps try developing such things while sober.

I think Jamshyd was joking when he said I could develop such a thing sober. I wouldn't know where to start for one. I'm pretty sure drugs are the only way, in fact. Plus, being a musician, I engage in musical activities every day, and have done so my whole life.

Out of curiosity, would any of you natural synaesthete prefer to experience life like me? I've read that it can be overwhelming at times; does it ever become so that you wish you hadn't the condition?
 
I always wondered if I experience "sexual synaesthesia" , different girls have different feelings to me like "this girl feels higher pitched or sour" like each person has a different flavor & "sound pitch".
 
DragonFly31 said:
Have you ever heard 'Any colour you like' by Pink Floyd? I enjoy listening to that song and thinking one day I may see the very notes coming out of the speaker.

I feel the same way about that one. I don't often experience synaesthesia, but it has happened a few times. I should dose in moderation this summer.

Good luck.
 
DragonFly31 said:
Some of my friends, however, describe experiencing synaesthesia on lower doses of 2C-E. For example, a friend of mine took it and said to me how she could 'see her breath'... I asked her and she said she knew about it and thought it was synaesthesia. How envious I was of her experience.

Was she able to describe how her breath was represented whilst she was 'seeing' it?

As someone who knows very little...about synaesthesia, I would ask BL'ers with personal experience to distinguish what differentiates a hallucination/altered perception from synaesthesia?
 
DragonFly31 said:
Although I've heard it can be a difficult condition to live with, I would give a lot to be able to see and feel what you do, if just for a minute. Have you ever heard 'Any colour you like' by Pink Floyd? I enjoy listening to that song and thinking one day I may see the very notes coming out of the speaker.

EDIT: Maybe one of you can tell me what that song looks like from your perspective...



I think Jamshyd was joking when he said I could develop such a thing sober. I wouldn't know where to start for one. I'm pretty sure drugs are the only way, in fact. Plus, being a musician, I engage in musical activities every day, and have done so my whole life.

Out of curiosity, would any of you natural synaesthete prefer to experience life like me? I've read that it can be overwhelming at times; does it ever become so that you wish you hadn't the condition?
It would only be "difficult to live with" if one thinks of it as a "disorder" and then wallows in self-pity :)

'Any colour you like' mostly feels like orange-red pyramids and dark-blue "bubbles" originating from my solar plexus and floating upwards throughout my body.

My synaesthesia is pretty easy to "tune out", and therefore I think I can experience "life like you". I use quotes because I find it difficult to believe that someone is totally unable to fuse their senses (could be just ignorance on my behalf...). I do think that an important factor is to stop thinking about it. Perhaps try to meditate on it?

I suggested trying it sober because, really, psychedelics will only give you what they want to give you, no matter how many times you try (and of course, that could go out of hand and become dangerous).

I can try giving you a tip: you say you're around music a lot. Sit on a subwoofer or beside a speaker with heavy bass. Do you feel it vibrating in your tummy (or anywhere else)? Take that vibration and go with it, empty your mind of rationalizations, and try to gain somekind of tactile "texture" out of the vibration. If you get there, go along with that texture and try to find patterns of shapes emerging from that texture.

I don't know if this would work, but it won't hurt to try, eh?

I have actually met a Japanese guy with a fascination just like yours. What he is doing about it is training for visualization (which is something that anyone can learn, synaesthete or not) by reproducing in his brain an accurate map of a huge landmark in Tokyo. He claims that visualization has helped him achieve synaesthetic states every now and then.

----

Spellman: Interesting question. I do not get a lot of hallucinatory phenomena on psychedelics. However, such experiences are fleeting and ever-chaning.

sober synaesthesia is more automatic and permanent. The number 5 has always been orange, and always will be.
 
piggybacking on what Jamshyd just said, I think you def can gradually develop synaesthesia-like "abilities" while sober. Try meditating daily, body/sensory meditations especially. After doing this for a while I cannot feel a tactile/physical sensation without a corresponding inner visualization, same with listening to music - if I pay any attention at all to the notes, melodies take on visual patterns. I never consciously cultivated this, btw. A no-tolerance cannabis high takes it to a much more pronounced and exciting level. Sometimes psychedelics do, too.

I would not classify myself as a "synaesthete," though, because I haven't really
noticed any marked consistencies in the experience (such as a number always being the same color) - its got more of a psychedelic, shifty aspect to it.
 
classic LSD moments I've had when I first started experimenting with it (strangely the last few recent LSD experiments have not produced anything cross-sensory):

seeing music come from my speakers (each guitar crescendo accompanied by a wave of emitted blue diamonds)
tasting colors (eating citrus fruit!)
 
I don't think my experience of color with letters and numbers matters a whole hell of a lot for my life either.

It's just an oddity that I'd probably have never realized 'was something' if I hadn't mentioned it to a doctor.
 
sry if this has been said, didnt have time to read through all.

OP fuck 2cs and RC's. It seems as if they're the most likely candidates to cause you easily avoidable pain in the long run. Instead of Research chemicals try achieving ego death with LSD. A mouthful of paper is many times less dangerous and more so a priceless teaching experience as apposed to a mouthful of any of the 2C's.. lol ouch
 
Instead of Research chemicals try achieving ego death with LSD. A mouthful of paper is many times less dangerous and more so a priceless teaching experience as apposed to a mouthful of any of the 2C's.. lol ouch

Agree with Samadhi, but in reality there's little difference between the R/Cs and LSD. LSD is really the prototypical RC. We have a lot more research on it than many of the others (barring the DOx's that appeared in the 60s), but qualitatively there's not that much difference between it and others.
 
i find ALOT of differences between LSD & phenethylamines in particular. not just a little, but a whole lot.

i have synthaesesia while sober (& typically enough, my mother does too), but not the visual/auditory crossing kind... on mushrooms though, i vividly saw music. :D it was amazing.
 
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