Re: Synesthesia anyone?

November 9, 2006

Yup I do, but you already know that. I get smells, and colors in relation to other peoples emotions, especially with people I am emotionally close to. Beth Co-administratorenvironmental1st2003 <no_reply > wrote: Anyone have this?I associate smells with locations. I got mad when Montgomery Ward went out of business. It reminded me of crayons. TomAdministratorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia"Synesthesia (also spelled syn©¡sthesia or synaesthesia, plural synesthesiae) -- from the Greek syn- meaning union and aesthesis meaning sensation -- is a neurological condition in which two or more bodily senses are coupled. In a form of synesthesia known as grapheme ¡æ color synesthesia, letters or numbers may be perceived as inherently colored, while in ordinal linguistic personification, numbers, days of the week and months of the year evoke personalities. While cross-sensory metaphors are sometimes described as "synesthetic," true neurological synesthesia is involuntary and occurs in slightly more than four percent of the population (1 in 23 persons) across its range of variants (Simner et al. in press). It runs strongly in families, possibly inherited as an X-linked dominant trait."

Everyone is raving about the all-new beta.

November 9, 2006

one additional note on this topic, and here I am truly cautious there

is a lot of misintrepretation. I don't want to get on a tangent of

Aspergers being the next evolutionary step yada yada but one can read

about crystal and indigo children. I feel SOME of what is said is

accurate, I don't get washed away by angels I don't feel like I am

Christ or any lofty derivitive(how could I be my spelling sucks)

But some of the sensitivities are similar, everything is about

intent. I very much think selling mysticism/pre science is

regressive. Truth is truth, you can't horde it, but people hide it

for a long time, but honesty requires no sales pitch, and is so much

easier to track. It can't be bought or sold because it just is.

people have what they have they can get polluted but(here is my

nievete) there are no evil children. there are new, clean,white

(regardless of color) that is what we see people as as Aspies: people

not color or gender or ability or disability. There is beauty is the

meekest and darkness in the most beautiful. I may be nutty but I

think our sight/my sight is clear and unclouded. that doesn't mean

we don't have likes or dislikes it just means we are oftentimes more

open. We sometimes get hurt or I do because I don't write them off,

I allow them to speak I can agree or disagree but what is the

intention? and to what end. Does a person have honesty, many times

NO, but sometimes YES. In this group I have found Yes. No one is

selling anything or has a secret vested intrest, everyone seems to

get a fair shake. So I hope to not have compromised myself by

seeming other than I am. I believe a mishmash of many many things.

Sometimes I say I am the keeper of all useless knowledge, mostly I

say this because I can hold conversations with big wigs and capture

their attention with these things but when it comes time to show my

abilities may transfer over environments I am suddenly a muppet (not

real) and not employable. In the NT world that is what I am: muppet,

I am intresting, engaging(for a period) but somewhere along the line

I become a comic and it is hard to place me, I don't fit in the neat

box, so here I am and here we are. Friends with sounds colors and

numbers foods and months. Understanding but misunderstood. I am not

magical, but when I have said what I wrote before people start to be

afraid of me(afraid I could know somethinig they don't) so I become

unreal and they are the real ones. What cannot be explained is

worshipped or feared. (worshipped/devalued) um once mounted. Likely

this could be a large part of what you Raven has experienced from

men. Men often want to mount/own you women often show you scorn. In

my own case I find myself unremarkable (visually) right size and

shape and right gender, but not noteworthy(I am not on any mag

covers) but I have the ability to enchant(GREAT) and this tends to

get me unwanted attention. I am not saying this only happens to

women I just happen to be one. I know it happens to men but it

becomes a macho problem and the dynamic must be similar not human by

females and hated(perhaps to the point of violence by males)

what about it anyone get this? reverse jealously?

November 9, 2006

When I was a child, we used to make the long drive to my grandparent's place in Alabama. I could alway smell the difference in the air when we crossed the state line into North Carolina. It is hard to describe, but it was like a smell of a different kind of trees even though the forests were still the same.

November 9, 2006

I am reading this thread with interest, although do not see

colours, I do have an acute sense of smell.

It's at its peak with people.

If a person doesn't " smell " right to me then I cannot be near them

on any level.

This doesn't mean that they are unclean or dirty, just their

personal body odour repulses me.

I once met a lovely man and we were getting along quite well...when

we met I had to leave in a hurry as his odour was making me dry

retch.

This of course makes it so hard to be in a crowd of any sort, and

coupled with the overload from the sounds and the light, it is a

nasty experience.

I usually cannot go to a large supermarket, I smell the neon gasses

that they use in the refrgerated areas, and walking down the laundry

and cleaner section , nah, impossible.

In my home we do not have any chemicals at all, we are all sensitive

to them so all our cleaning is done with soap and water.

newsprint cleans windows beautifully:)

Same with food, we do not have processed foods, all our food is made

from scratch and with natural products.

It's great top be able to share this with the group as most people

cannot begin to imagine what I am on about.

thanks for sharing and listening

Deb from down under

November 9, 2006

an enhancement of a sense as a way of world navigation, flight safe

response. they all preform a similar function. We Speak as it were

or recieve information without verbal communication so why

communicate verbally? Sometimes the sound of speech can be

offencive. A almost unbearable intrusion, sometimes I jump. i also

think when many of us are soft spoken there is a root cause. I have

remarked that sometimes the sound of my own voice can overwhelm me.

So you are scent sensetive. I thought when I was a child that my

sight was so poor that it made sense that other senses took over.

But in fact my sight is also over tuned in my myopia and I can use it

as a tool to find irregularity at night in terms over reflected

light. It certainly makes sense that our experiences are similar and

sensitivity related. In many respects I am sensetive overly

sensetive so muting things is a natural progression of things we

limit overstimulation. I believe that it is even more acute with our

children and without a way to verbally express this the information

overload causes neuroreceptive changes. the research about denser

more compacted neurorecipters can verywell be an overaplification of

sense. This causes pain or confusion. like kim peek my son could

watch and sometimes still does watch 2 televisions. He sees 2

pictures. 1 with each eye. the influx of information confuses him.

part of my concern is that he should be supported in his abilities

and be able to master(make sense and have retention of the material)

It is why I confident in my parenting and as Raven mentions the

connection to the AS/ASD offspring, can be harmonious because there

is a non-verbal understanding. Not an inacceptance but a kindred

guider of the offspring. supporting them to absorb and not be hurt by

the inconsistancies of the world in which they are. Be seen

understood and have a lingistic liasion(a translator of the physical

world)

November 9, 2006

Hi Deb,

I find your email name ironic with your sensitivity to smell in

addition to getting emotions, I also am alergic to a great many

smells some like tar give me migrains, some, like most perfume cause

uncontroled sneezing. I can't go near anyone who has showered with

Irish spring soap, I can't breath around that scent at all. My son

also an aspie, also has smell sentitivity, and sound sensitivity.

there are certain smells and sounds he just can not stand, other

smells evoke hunger, normally food smells but sometimes a stray

strange scent can cause him to burst out I need pork chops now Mommy,

or I need potato chips now Mommy. Its quite funny. He has done that

in school a few times, he goes from being fine to being ravinously

hungry for one item, whether it is an item being cooked or not, he

has to have that one item, right now.

Beth,

Co-administrator

>

> I am reading this thread with interest, although do not see

> colours, I do have an acute sense of smell.

>

> It's at its peak with people.

> If a person doesn't " smell " right to me then I cannot be near them

> on any level.

> This doesn't mean that they are unclean or dirty, just their

> personal body odour repulses me.

> I once met a lovely man and we were getting along quite well...when

> we met I had to leave in a hurry as his odour was making me dry

> retch.

>

> This of course makes it so hard to be in a crowd of any sort, and

> coupled with the overload from the sounds and the light, it is a

> nasty experience.

>

> I usually cannot go to a large supermarket, I smell the neon gasses

> that they use in the refrgerated areas, and walking down the

laundry

> and cleaner section , nah, impossible.

>

> In my home we do not have any chemicals at all, we are all

sensitive

> to them so all our cleaning is done with soap and water.

>

> newsprint cleans windows beautifully:)

>

> Same with food, we do not have processed foods, all our food is

made

> from scratch and with natural products.

>

> It's great top be able to share this with the group as most people

> cannot begin to imagine what I am on about.

>

> thanks for sharing and listening

>

> Deb from down under

>

November 10, 2006

I did. Very interesting.

Tom

Administrator

Tom did you watch that clip about daniel Tammet

November 10, 2006

Read Asimov's " The Naked Sun " if you have not already. People live on

a planet where no one wants personal contact with one another and

socialization is appalling. Yet a murder has been committed. Who did

it and how? Read the book to find out.

It's the prefect Aspie " locked room " murder mystery.

Tom

Administrator

Todays mystery is tomorrows science, so I view sci/fi as pre history,

it to me is a kind of scientific journal (no not everything) I liked

asimov mostly but some others.

November 10, 2006

People with AS see the world differently. I wanted to have this

discussion in part because a member was wondering if others had it,

and also because this is a subject Aspies may not be able to share

with NTs without NTs thinking they are crazy.

Tom

Administrator

" I am glad to have weird discussions where I am not singular. not the

same but not alone. "

November 10, 2006

People with AS see the world differently. I wanted to have this

discussion in part because a member was wondering if others had it,

and also because this is a subject Aspies may not be able to share

with NTs without NTs thinking they are crazy.

Tom

Administrator

" I am glad to have weird discussions where I am not singular. not the

same but not alone. "

November 10, 2006

Inger, our erstwhile moderator (who may pop in for a visit this

winter) also has an accute sense of smell. She keeps her house

chemical free as you do.

Tom

Administrator

I am reading this thread with interest, although do not see

colours, I do have an acute sense of smell.

<snip>

It's great top be able to share this with the group as most people

cannot begin to imagine what I am on about.

thanks for sharing and listening

Deb from down under

November 10, 2006

One thing I think might be beneficial to those of us who CAN

tolerate smell would be for us to go through a store and find all

the scents that we do find apealing and stock our houses with those.

Many of us do that already....but a lot of us just buy what's on the

shelf rgather than SHOPPING for a scent that might please us.