vortexforgot

I think almost everyone has associations between things of different "categories" (you can almost smell the grass if you picture yourself in a field). As a synesthete, I have both kinds of associations (synesthetic, and non-), and many lie in the spectrum between.

The strongly synesthetic associations are 1) always-on*, 2) automatic and immediate, even for novel stimuli**, and 3) consistent over time***

* You can turn your focus away from them, like focusing on a person's voice in a noisy room, but you're still aware of the noise.

** You won't experience the smell of grass looking at a photo of a field, if you've never been to a field before. But many synesthetic associations occur immediately even for new stimuli, especially if it's a simple input like sound. If it's a complex concept like someone's personality or an algorithm, they are initially in flux and solidify as understanding of the concept improves.

*** They can change very slowly over time (years)

The above is more of a personal definition from my experience, and not a clinically accepted one.

This is correct, I see visuals when I hear sounds. The textures and shapes correspond to the type of sound. For instance, a clean guitar has a different texture than a distorted guitar. Same for people's voices.

I'm not sure "enjoy" is the right word, but it's what I've known all my life, so when it's gone (happens sometimes when I'm depressed) it's kind of disconcerting. It's almost like turning off one of your senses.

I also see sound, and it constitutes roughly half of the stimulus I receive from music. Though it can be a bit annoying in noisy places when it can get distracting.

So do you experience both yellow and orange simultaneously when you see 3? Are they juxtaposed, mixed together, or in completely separate visual spaces?

I do experience multiple colors for certain things, but they are either in the form of a texture/gradient or dependent upon context. For instance, a "C" in a chemical formula is different from in a word.

I do have synesthesia, and this is quite interesting to see. One thing to note is that (at least for me) the colors are very specific. It isn't just "red", it's a specific shade of red that I can pick from a color picker with relatively little error. Sometimes there are gradients involved. So looking at the graphs, none of them actually jump out to me as the "correct" color.