Have you ever heard of synesthesia?
It is an absolutely mind blowing sensory condition in which one sense (like sight) is simultaneously perceived as one or more additional senses, like hearing. The word synesthesia is from two Greek words, syn (together) and aisthesis (perception). So, synesthesia literally means “joined perception”.
People who experience synesthesia are called synesthetes.
And NOPE, we know what you’re thinking, but this is not come sort of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas drug-induced hallucination.
It’s not very common… OR, it’s way more common than we know!
It is estimated that synesthesia occurs in as few as one in 20,000 people, to as many
as one in 200! That is a VERY WIDE RANGE – but there are probably a lot more people who HAVE the condition but do not realise what it even is.
In Forman’s case, he thought everyone saw the music notes that way because he always did, and he didn’t know other people didn’t. Forman also has the most common form of synesthesia, which is coloured hearing: sounds, music or voices seen as colours.
Forman hears piano notes as colours:
C – orange
D – light blue
E – green
F – yellow
G – brown
A – red
B – dark blue
What is FASCINATING about Forman’s synesthesia is that it is exclusive to piano notes! A violin playing the note B is NOT dark blue, it’s just a violin playing the note B.
There are also people who feel things in response to sight, who smell in response to touch – any combination of the senses is possible, and some people even possess synesthesia with three or more senses!! THAT is very rare.
If you want to hear more from Forman on how HE experiences synesthesia, go to 6:30 on the Melody & Forman podcast:
Forman is in GOOD COMPANY: There are a surprisingly large number of famous people who experience synesthesia!!
Musician Duke Ellington had chromesthesia: Musical notes were colours, but also TEXTURES. He described the note D as dark blue burlap, and the note G as a light blue satin. Other VERY famous people with chromesthesia include Stevie Wonder, Billie Eilish, Beyonce, and Kanye West!
Billy Joel has chromesthesia, BUT ALSO grapheme-colour. So, his letters have colours too – vowels such as –a, –e, or –i are a very blue or very vivid green , whereas consonants like t-p-or s are red.
Marilyn Monroe saw vibrations whenever she heard sounds.
And a lot of historians believe that artist Vincent Van Gogh had chromesthesia, as he said in letters that sounds had colours and that certain colours, like yellow and blue, were like fireworks for his senses. Kind of changes how you perceive some of his most famous works, doesn’t it?
The most RARE form of synesthesia is Auditory-tactile (a.k.a. hearing-touch synesthesia). It occurs when sounds produce a tactile sensation on certain areas inside and outside of the body – like whenever you hear a trumpet, it causes your ankles to itch.
As for WHY it happens… Doctors aren’t really sure. They think people with synesthesia are just wired differently. It also appears to run in families and may be passed down from parent to child.
Want to know if YOU have it?
