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the word synesthesia
Modern English

synesthesia (noun) — a mixing of the senses
synesthesia  —  sih-ness-THEE-zhuh  ()
rhymes with "anesthesia"
synesthetic (adj.) — the quality of synesthesia
synesthetic  —  sih-ness-THEH-tick  ()
rhymes with "anesthetic" & "synthetic"
synesthete (noun) — a person with synesthesia
synesthete  —  SIH-ness-theet  ()
rhymes with "esthete"


Old Greek

  —  "having a joined sense"
pronounced "soon-eye-stehhh-SEE-ah" - almost like "Sue, nice ta see ya."
  —  "with"/"together"/"joined"
pronounced "soon"
-  —  "sense"/"sensation"/"feeling"/"perception"
pronounced similar to "ICED hay"
-  —  "act of"/"state of"/"result of"
pronounced "SEE-ah"

  —  synesthesiae; the plural of synesthesia
pronounced, in English, "sih-ness-THEE-zhee-eye"


If you mouse over the letters,
they show my personal colors
for the letters in the word
synesthesia.  I actually
see these colors projected
onto each of the letters when
I look at them.

The word itself happens to
sound rather silvery to me,
though, dissimilarly enough.

about the condition
Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which a stimulus in one sense modality is involuntarily elicited in another sense modality.  For instance, someone with synesthesia (called a synesthete) may be able to see sounds, taste shapes, or read otherwise black-and-white printed words in color.
Synesthesia is thought to occur in anywhere from one in as few as 1:2 to 1:2,000 people.  In infant (and younger) humans, it has been shown that synesthesia could even be standard up until three months of age, in that infants may at least see sounds, if not have other synesthetic perceptions.  Synesthesia is also thought to commonly occur in other types of animals as well.
Both science and the public are rediscovering this exciting condition, which was well-known over a century ago, yet was ignored when behaviourism became the popular in psychology.  With recent advancements in science and technology, more data is discovered about synesthesia every day.  Further, with this knowledge, synesthesia may be helpful in understanding human consciousness, as well as something as straightforward as the different levels of human brain function.

synesthetic perception
A synesthete can be an associator, a projector, or both.  To explain the difference between associator and projector synesthetes, I will use the type of synesthesia known as chromagraphemia:  An associator synesthete of this type simply gets a "feeling" of color when looking at a letter - he can "think" or "know" the letter A is red, yet not actually see any red anywhere, whereas when a projector synesthete sees an A, he would literally - and involuntarily - project color out onto it; so, he would actually see red superimposed onto the written letter A.  Projector chromagraphemic synesthetes realize that the text they are reading is black (or whatever color it really is), yet they see synesthetic color as well when they read.  According to independent studies by Dr. Philip Merikle and Dr. Jonathan King / Lisa Emerson, only approximately one or two per hundred chromagraphemic synesthetes are projectors; the rest are associators.
For other types of synesthesia, such as projected colored hearing, the experiences are projected outside the body in a way which looks like an image on a 3D screen, as opposed to being seen as an image in the mind's eye.  I personally can "project" my experiences anywhere from right inside my head to many feet away.  Usually the experience dictates where the image is to be seen (as with chromagraphemia).

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