For an example of Synesthesia for me, I have included within this article a YouTube Video I created of what I see and hear when I am tasting an orange!
Synesthesia is considered to be a neurological condition that approximately 10% of the overall populace exhibits. In a very broad sense, it is the crossing of the senses (sometimes even referred to as the confusing of the senses). In other words, someone with this condition may see sounds as colors or geometric images, they may smell or taste sounds, they may hear colors and images, taste colors, etc. This may be so strong as to be confusing (hence – confusing of the senses) or slight enough that a person needs to be alerted to the fact that it even exists within them.
When I was in my early teens in the mid to late 1960s, there was a lot of attention placed on drugs that could help one see sounds, taste colors, smell what one feels, etc. Many musical efforts were given over to these ideas and much popular works devoted to the effects of drug-induced states. A brother of mine and I realized by virtue of these types of musings in mostly popular songs of the times that we already had these abilities without the use of drugs. We made a sort of game of it (i.e. what does this color taste like?) and found ourselves strengthening our abilities through doing so. We also seemed to realize not to quantify it or expect that our answers would be the same as each other – or anyone else.
At the time we had no word for this newfound awareness, although we certainly found it curious that we could exhibit an ability so many others were taking drugs to achieve! At the same time we simply assumed we more psychic than most around us, so were not especially surprised by this fact, either. I had already begun to work with astral projection and was inducing alternate awareness without external stimulation.
By the time I had finished High School and was entering College, I began to have memories of previous lives. I became convinced that I had been a Bard in many of them and began my quest to remember how I had become one and why I was one. I was looking for methods that I might both explain to myself how I had been trained and how I might impart that same understanding to others. (By Bard I basically mean Shamanic Artist). I had a voice that I could project with strength and timber that I really couldn't explain. I could also manipulate that voice with an intuitive understanding of how and why. Sound was and is important to me. I could basically see it and had some understanding that I could impact others by manipulating the manner of my voice.
In College as well as High School I had some interest in Theater and although a certain amount of those lessons and exercises were things that I carried forward as Bardic, it seemed more that my ability to nearly see energy via sound was more important. I began to format exercises that I called Energy Weaving that emphasized that aspect. I also began to create exercises that targeted crossing the senses in order to help one to grasp what the energies were that they sought to weave. That as a Bard one weaves the energies about the people that are being touched by their Art and that as a Bard one is seeking to spiritually uplift others in this way.
It wasn't until later that I was given to understand that I had what was termed Synesthesia and that I was seeking to teach others how to tap into that and to increase it. There is some argument within the scientific community whether or not someone such as I would be able to teach such as it was considered to be a condition and some view it as a condition that only certain people have and can have. Others view it as something we all have, it is simply far more pronounced in some. I believe it is something we all have, that it can be taught, enlarged on and increased with exercise and practice. That it is actually fairly easy to teach and have others grasp. And that it also increases one's psychic abilities in a natural, progressive way. I believe this because I've been teaching this for many years and have had the pleasure of watching others expand their creative abilities in this way.
For more information concerning my Bardic work or to contact me, visit my Web Site at:
At the time we had no word for this newfound awareness, although we certainly found it curious that we could exhibit an ability so many others were taking drugs to achieve! At the same time we simply assumed we more psychic than most around us, so were not especially surprised by this fact, either. I had already begun to work with astral projection and was inducing alternate awareness without external stimulation.