Monday, June 18, 2012

I SEE Noises!!





I really liked the movie “The Sixth Sense”.  Mysteries are my favorite type of movies and books.  This movie was one that I really did not figure out until the end. 

Remember Haley Joel Osment saying “I see dead people”?  Well, I see noises.  This is a type of synesthesia.  Synesthesia usually takes the form of seeing numbers, days of the week and months of the year as colors. Sound synesthesia, involves hearing sounds in response to visual motion. Over 60 types of synesthesia have been reported, but only a fraction have been evaluated by scientific research. Even within one type, synesthetic perceptions vary in intensity and people vary in awareness of their synesthetic perceptions.

On one of the MS sites, a lady described her synesthesia as this:When I am TRYING to sleep, the smallest noise - my dog sighs, the bed creeks, that little "mystery noise" as the house settles - will send a bright flash of light across the inside of my eyelids. Somewhat like a sudden fireworks display that lasts only a fraction of a second. Its like a form of synesthesia, I see loud noises, the bangs come up as a flash , but if my dog barks it’s like a crossword puzzle pattern, I put it down to a leak of data between my ear nerves and my eyes. Along with the flash of light I feel an electric shock that makes my body twitch."
I am not sure, but I think this may go hand in hand with startles.  When I am startled, the noise/sound that startled me is in color.  I wonder if, since MS is a disease that makes the brain miscue, that it doesn't know what to do wtih the sound so it puts it in color? Sometimes it is a bright light; sometimes it is a kaleidoscope of colors. Sometimes when I look at people, I see an aura around them.  (No, I do not claim to “see auras” as some do and be an aura reader!) The world seems to be filled with colors that really don’t belong in the normal realm of things.

Other times, it seems like the world is filled with pastel colors and nothing is the bright color that it is supposed to be.  It is very confusing.  I guess since it IS a brain thing,  I will just have to adjust to.

Some noises, although very startling and upsetting to me are “pretty” and the sight is enjoyable.  I guess if you have to go through life “jumping out of your skin” at each little noise, at least you can do it in a beautiful, colored world!!


1 comment:

Muffie said...

I actually never heard of this, and it's fascinating. I obviously don't have it because I don't see anything when I hear noise. You make it sound almost enjoyable -- for once, a nice MS symptom!
Peace,
Muff