for all you fantasy magicians

badducky said:

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/050222_synesthesia.html

Discuss.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately the website is screwed up, I got blank black pages four times. I suspected that there ws an HTML error, and sure enough the fifth time I got such a message which asked me if I wanted to continue the script, I clicked yes and I got to the article.

Its fascinating, too bad their web editor is incompetent.

Regards,
Scott

Nice link. I've occasionally "tasted" things that were nowhere near my tongue (the concept of rubber has a pretty foul taste). I don't have anything like the condition described in the article, however (I wish I did, that would be so cool to be able to experience everything with every sense).

I'm a big fan of tying the senses together in writing. I prefer to work with smell and sight, but sound, taste, and touch are great, too.

Synaesthesia is fun, and I think synaesthetic magic would be splendid.

I've often thought it could also be the starting point for an explanation of magic in a subset of the population. There is evidence that suggests all babies are synesthetic, and perhaps it's more accurate to think of some people as keeping their synaesthesia while the rest of us lose it; a similar (related?) thing could happen with magic.

There's also a correlation between synaesthesia and art, and well, there's always been a link between art and magic, right?

Professor Ramachandran at UC San Diego makes big claims about synaesthesia.

[font=Arial, Helvetica][size=-1]“Synesthesia might tell us how the brain makes metaphors, which often take the form of cross-sensory associations – think “loud tie” or “sharp cheddar,” Ramachandran said. “Processes similar to synesthesia may underlie our general capacity for metaphor and be critical to creativity. [/size][/font]

[font=Arial, Helvetica][size=-1]“It is not an accident that the condition is eight times more common among artists than the general population,” he said. “A quirky color/number synesthesia is not on the evolutionary agenda – but the ability for metaphor, a flair for connection, is. In fact, it’s one of the hallmarks that makes us human.”[/size][/font]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/04/050411210623.htm

(Rama makes overly large claims sometimes. But most of the synaesthesia work was actually done by Ed Hubbard, who's cited in this article. Ed was one of Rama's students, and it was his dissertation work. He's a friend of mine, and I can vouch for him being a really rigorous experimentalist... uh, not that I have any particular rep here, so you can also ignore my vouching if y'like).

Badducky:

This one reminds me of Aldous Huxley's timeless masterpiece: The Doors of Perception. Mesculine and d-lysergicacid-dythelemide 25 have been said to enhance perception to such a degree, especially mesculine but I do not know. Personally, I have never experienced this phenomenon myself, but I believe it is real.

Think about it: How do we even know reality exists?

Answer: By our senses.

Could that be manipulated?

I think so.

This reminds me of an interesting book I read a while back. The mc has synesthesia and escapes earth (I think he was framed for something?). Somehow he joins up with these gypsies whose spaceship's main computer is a flock of parrots who are interfaced with the ship through a strange bio-technology. I'm not kidding. I wish I could remember the title.

It makes sense to me that painters and musicians would be more likely to have an association of colors with words and sounds. I love the idea that it is associated with magic too.

You can test yourself here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/derek_prog_summary.shtml