Why can some people see colors in sounds?

i have a hard time not visualizing music as moving shapes. colors, not so much. could be one reason i write about music instead of making it. :/

There's a really insightful and well written novel about a woman who has this, written by Clare Morrall, called Astonishing splashes of colour.

I seen it wit me own eyes!

Dial-Up Sounds would come up as really ugly colors i would think.=)

We are all unique....and thats a interesting article!

The answer to the question is that their brain is broken. It's not psychicness or supernatural powers. Their brain is just broken. Like Deja Vu is just your brain screwing up your memory, it's not a premonition or something.

everything has a frequency..it depends how you can connect to a particular resonance...

I'm colorblind. I tend to see things others don't, and others tend to see things I don't. But I've never heard of someone seeing sounds. Very interesting article.

How could it be? Color in sound? I dont understand... It`s a very interesting phenomenon.

I'm a registered sound->color broadband synesthete.
Sounds are also tactile sensory for me, and they have form and "physical" substance on the same plane as a car or a tree or that-crowd-of-children-over-there.

I'd tell you it was awesome, but I've honestly got nothing to compare it to.
It's both hyper-fuel for the brain/ imagination, and a blatant, constant source of confusion and distraction.

I know it's been said somewhere above - but really, who doesn't sense something beyond pure auditory stimuli when listening to music? It speaks directly to the sixth sense. Everyone has synesthesia to a certain degree, and music is one of the easiest ways to sense it, I believe.

everybody i know associates certain sounds with certain colors. i definitely think more than 1% have that ability.

I have another form of synesthesia, when I hear a date I see a whole year calendar. Dates and days have images and colors! Wild!

Wow! reading all this responses got me even more confused! I heard of this a long time ago and i thought i had figured this out. Does anyone know about smelling or tasting sounds? I don't know if this was on the Current pod or smewhere else but heard this also happens.

So I'm just really confused... when those of you that claim to be "normal" listen to music do you not see anything? Even within your own mind?

Or what comes to mind? Or do you just feel emotions?

Do you not see patterns? Symbols? Color? I just don't understand how people really get into music at all without this... or is that just it. Is that why boring MTV music culture is so prevalent in today's society, because people can't do this?

I hope my son is this way if this some how makes me unique....

Synesthesia is quite common actually. I have the letter/digit/colour type and so does my friend. I used to be frustrated as a kid when other kids in my class have no idea what I was talking about. Sadly this ability is fading as I grow older. As for learning disability aspect, my friend was diagnosed with a learning ability as a child. She is extremely astute and intelligent, and finished graduate studies but cannot spell to save her life. I don't have a learning disability but (embarrassingly) have difficulties conceptualize left and right. Specifically conceptualizing left and right in the context of problem visualization. (I can turn left and right just fine, take that Zoolander ) There is actually a on going study on people with this type of ability at University of Waterloo. I am however not gifted with the sound and colour, what a rich world these lucky people must live in.

I agree, and I have read the whole article, which is why I bring up these issues. But also there is a world of difference in "having trouble learning" and "the inability to learn". I may have an inability to learn in a particular schema or framework, but I may be able to learn the same material if presented to me in a way that I personally understand and can effectively apply. Though this process may be costly and time consuming (two attributes the average special needs organization/union has very little of; time and money), ultimately, it does seem to be more fair and appropriate in comparison with generalized teaching/testing techniques.

I understand as someone in the field of special education how careful one must be when labeling something a disorder but really this term is used when the symptoms affect the individuals capability to learn. I work with children with autism and believe me it is a disorder, not just "not normal". If you read the whole article it goes on to state that many children with synesthesia have reported having trouble learning. And so while you might see "disorder" as a negative label for people struggling to receive a fair and appropriate education that label can save them.

I hope to everything holy that science doesn't kill this with a pill. This type of mutation (that seems to be growing in frequency) could be an improvement, i.e. a positive evolutionary progression. Because evolution, at its base, is driven by "survival of the most suitable/satisfactory", then we should embrace such a phenomenon and not see it as a 'disorder'. Unfortunately, it's already being pegged into categories such as bi-polar and autism which, alone, these 'disorders' have not been fully explored or understood, but in the meantime, have been deemed dysfunctional, and above all, "not normal".

Ever since I was a kid, I always thought everyone else had it and never bothered to bring it up. It wasn't until this last year when I started reading up on this that I felt so lucky.

It's not as if you're tripping hardcore when you listen to music though. However, when half asleep (usually only happens in the middle of my night's sleep) and while you're brain isn't processing much other than it's automatic functions, the right music (usually the soft parts of trance, with or without lyrics, but without any bass) can get me higher than any drug out there, and the best part is without any side effects and it could happen at any age. But since you're only half awake, half asleep, it only lasts for so long before you fall asleep again.

But you can organize your music by colors/mixture of colors, which is pretty cool.

That's not an accurate description really..

that is awesome! i wish i could see sounds!

Pharrell of NERD is another well known person with this condition.
I always wondered what exactly this would look like. Are the colors so strong it affects line of sight?

Synesthesia comes in many flavors. This is just one. I wish I had a visual imagination at all. That would be awesome.

Richard D James, better known as Aphex Twin, has this "affliction". His music really reflects it, imho - he's a maestro. I _wish_ I had this, it would be awesome ^_^

Wow, I didn't even know something like this existed naturally in people. That's really interesting, and I can't even imagine going through life seeing sounds.

I have seen and read about this alot lately. I remember hearing that some individuals can TASTE sounds as well!

im also bi polar but i dont hear colors or see sound unless i ingest alot of LSD, and i mean alot at once!

I saw a thing about this on TV and my bi-polar room mate tried to claim he also saw colors in sound. I can't stand it when people see something on TV and they think it always applies to them. Everybody is an expert.
*angry sigh*
Anyway its fascinating. Thanks for posting this.

not that i anymore but i had this experience on a sip of LSD 25.