“The number 7 is green, the shape triangle tastes like spaghetti, and the song “Bohemian Rhapsody” smells like vanilla ice-cream.”

Most people would think that the sentence above is something that one could say only after taking a substantial amount of drugs. However, there are some for whom it makes total sense, and although they would not all necessarily agree if the number 7 is green, black or blue, they would agree on one thing: 7 does have a color. Does this ring a bell? Then you might be one of the special having a condition called synesthesia.

Synesthesia is a phenomenon of intermixed senses, meaning that the stimulation of one sense results in an involuntary reaction from another sense. To put it simply, individuals with synesthesia may see colors when hearing sound, taste words, or smell music. Synesthesia is a neurological condition that affects about 4% of the population, but according to Psychology Today, almost a quarter of the people working in the creative industries (artists, writers, etc.) have it. Some famous synesthetes are Vincent Van Gogh, Lorde, Billie Eilish Kanye West and Stevie Wonder.

There are different types of this condition as well and in most of the cases synesthetes (people with synesthesia) have at least two types. The most common type is grapheme-color synesthesia, in which specific numbers and letters evoke different colors or patterns in individuals who have the condition. For example, the number two or the letter “R” can appear yellow in the mind of a synesthete or even on written paper. The second most common one is chromesthesia, in which sounds are associated to colors. You can imagine this as if hearing your favourite song would make you see all kinds of colors around you. Jealous yet?

There are also people who feel different emotions associated to certain textures (tactile-emotion synesthesia), who see colors as a response to pain or experience taste when hearing or seeing words (lexical-gustatory synesthesia). In a rare type of this condition called time-space synesthesia, people even “see” time around them in the physical space, giving them advanced skills in memory and association. All this sounds too weird to be true?

Meet Alessia Camposeo, a BUAS student with grapheme-color synesthesia, who told us about her experience with the condition.

“I experience it all the time, to an extent that I wasn't even aware it was a thing. I thought it was completely normal. I experience synesthesia with names, numbers, letters, times of the year and months. For example, the number seven to me is brown and the number 11 is black and 6 is red. March is blue and my name is brown. Names can change depending how I see the person, but they always are associated to a color.

I see things very visually in general, so even if I think of a city or a country I just have in a specific color mind that reminds me of the country, or a flashing image that reminds me of a postcard or something like that. I also have it with hours of the day. I don't just think of the time but I see the time on a clock visually in front of me. I have it with smells as well and it's really easy for me to associate smells with very specific memories.

I thought it was normal until once I talked with my psychologist. We were just talking and he asked if I was creative. I told him about how visually I experience everything, thinking that it was normal. He told me that what I am experiencing is something particular and that it had a name: “synesthesia”.

Still difficult to imagine the experience? Here’s a 360° VR YouTube video created by Discovery Channel that will help you see through the eyes of a synesthete: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obrBAysVef0