What on Earth is that?!!

That’s what the horsefly in my room sounds like visually. The fly approached me and flew past my left ear.

–Say what?!

I’ve got synesthesia, which is basically a misfiring of synapses that makes a person experience one sense through means of a different sense, or multiple senses. I “see” sound in my mind’s eye. It’s involuntary and it only goes one way: I can hear something (say a noise or a song) and “see” it, but I can’t look at an abstract painting and “hear” it (but Kandinsky could)! I still hear the sound, of course– that’s what triggers the visual.

I can, to a degree, “hear” visuals: I always need to listen extra hard when I’ve got sunglasses on, because everything gets quieter.

And lots of loud music seems to make a place brighter than it is– though conversing with music on is really difficult because I need to separate the visuals of the music from the visuals of the voice/words.

Other forms of synesthesia I have are grapheme-color, touch-visual and on occasion, taste-visual and scent-visual, too (mainly if I’m expecting to taste/smell one thing but get something completely different).

Questions about synesthesia are more than welcome. From now on I’ll try to make blog posts about the visuals I get!