The Synesthesia Experience

The Synesthesia Experience PDF Author: Maureen Seaberg
Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser
ISBN: 1633413217
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
“Explores a dimension of synesthesia long encountered in reports of synesthetes: its relation to mystical and artistic vision . . . fascinating accounts.” —Patricia Lynne Duffy, author of Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens “The Synesthesia Experience will open up for you a whole new world in our universe.” —The Amazing Kreskin What does blue taste like to you? A violinist sees a scarlet form when he plays a certain note; a rock star sees waves of blue and green as he composes a ballad; an actress tastes cake when she utters the word “table.” Described by some as a superpower, this mingling of the senses is called synesthesia, and the people who possess this amazing gift are called synesthetes. What happens when a journalist turns her lens on a mystery happening in her own life? Maureen Seaberg did just that and spent a year exploring her synesthesia. What she learned is that synesthesia is not an idle “brain tick” but a unique ability to tap into and reveal a greater creative universe and even the divine. Join her as she visits top neuroscientists, rock stars, violinists, other synesthetes, philosophers, savants, quantum physicists, and even Tibetan lamas on her journey toward the truth. Famous synesthetes and experts interviewed in the book include Billy Joel, Itzhak Perlman, Pharrell Williams, Dr. Dean Radin, Dr. Amit Goswami, and Dylan Lauren.

The Synesthesia Experience

The Synesthesia Experience PDF Author: Maureen Seaberg
Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser
ISBN: 1633413217
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Get Book Here

Book Description
“Explores a dimension of synesthesia long encountered in reports of synesthetes: its relation to mystical and artistic vision . . . fascinating accounts.” —Patricia Lynne Duffy, author of Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens “The Synesthesia Experience will open up for you a whole new world in our universe.” —The Amazing Kreskin What does blue taste like to you? A violinist sees a scarlet form when he plays a certain note; a rock star sees waves of blue and green as he composes a ballad; an actress tastes cake when she utters the word “table.” Described by some as a superpower, this mingling of the senses is called synesthesia, and the people who possess this amazing gift are called synesthetes. What happens when a journalist turns her lens on a mystery happening in her own life? Maureen Seaberg did just that and spent a year exploring her synesthesia. What she learned is that synesthesia is not an idle “brain tick” but a unique ability to tap into and reveal a greater creative universe and even the divine. Join her as she visits top neuroscientists, rock stars, violinists, other synesthetes, philosophers, savants, quantum physicists, and even Tibetan lamas on her journey toward the truth. Famous synesthetes and experts interviewed in the book include Billy Joel, Itzhak Perlman, Pharrell Williams, Dr. Dean Radin, Dr. Amit Goswami, and Dylan Lauren.

Tasting the Universe

Tasting the Universe PDF Author: Maureen Seaberg
Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser
ISBN: 1601636679
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
“Explores a dimension of synesthesia long encountered in reports of synesthetes: its relation to mystical and artistic vision . . . fascinating accounts.”—Patricia Lynne Duffy, author of Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens What happens when a journalist turns her lens on a mystery happening in her own life? Maureen Seaberg did just that and lived for a year exploring her synesthesia. The wondrous brain trait is often described as blended senses, but for Maureen, synesthesia is not an idle “brain tick” that can be explained away by science (although it does offer some important clues). It is a unique ability to tap into and reveal a greater creative universe and even the divine. Join her as she visits top neuroscientists, rock stars, violinists, other synesthetes, philosophers, savants, quantum physicists and even Tibetan lamas in her journey toward the truth. Step into Maureen’s shimmering alternate universe as she explores this fascinating subject, combining clear explanations of groundbreaking scientific research with an exploration of deeper spiritual truths. “Tasting the Universe is not only the brilliant writing of a top, professional journalist looking in on a strange but romantic phenomena, but it is the writing of a person who could embrace the feelings of those she interviews, because author Seaberg herself possesses this remarkable gift of synesthesia. I predict when you pick up this book, you will be unable to put it down, as it will open up for you a whole new world in our universe.”—The Amazing Kreskin

Synesthesia

Synesthesia PDF Author: Richard E. Cytowic
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461235421
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
Synesthesia comes from the Greek syn (meaning union) and aisthesis (sensation), literally interpreted as a joining of the senses. Synesthesia is an involuntary joining in which the real information from one sense is joined or accompanies a perception in another. Dr. Cytowic reports extensive research into the physical, psychological, neural, and familial background of a group of synesthets. His findings form the first complete picture of the brain mechanisms that underlie this remarkable perceptual experience. His research demonstrates that this rare condition is brain-based and perceptual and not mind-based, as is the case with memory or imagery. Synesthesia offers a unique and detailed study of a condition which has confounded scientists for more than 200 years.

Wednesday is Indigo Blue

Wednesday is Indigo Blue PDF Author: Richard E. Cytowic
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262012790
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
How the extraordinary multisensory phenomenon of synesthesia has changed our traditional view of the brain.

Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia

Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia PDF Author: Julia Simner
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199603324
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 1104

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Book Description
Synesthesia is a fascinating phenomenon which has captured the imagination of scientists and artists alike. This title brings together a broad body of knowledge about this condition into one definitive state-of-the-art handbook.

Synesthesia

Synesthesia PDF Author: Lynn C. Robertson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019516623X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
Owing to its bizarre nature and its implications for understanding how brains work, synesthesia has recently received a lot of attention in the popular press and motivated a great deal of research and discussion among scientists. The questions generated by these two communities are intriguing: Does the synesthetic phenomenon require awareness and attention? How does a feature that is not present become bound to one that is? Does synesthesia develop or is it hard wired? Should it change our way of thinking about perceptual experience in general? What is its value in understanding perceptual systems as a whole?This volume brings together a distinguished group of investigators from diverse backgrounds--among them neuroscientists, novelists, and synesthetes themselves--who provide fascinating answers to these questions. Although each approaches synesthesia from a very different perspective, and each was curious about and investigated synesthesia for very different reasons, the similarities between their work cannot be ignored. The research presented in this volume demonstrates that it is no longer reasonable to ask whether or not synesthesia is real--we must now ask how we can account for it from cognitive, neurobiological, developmental, and evolutionary perspectives. This book will be important reading for any scientist interested in brain and mind, not to mention synesthetes themselves, and others who might be wondering what all the fuss is about.

The Hidden Sense

The Hidden Sense PDF Author: Cretien Van Campen
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262265001
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
The uncommon sensory perceptions of synesthesia explored through accounts of synesthetes' experiences, the latest scientific research, and suggestions of synesthesia in visual art, music, and literature. What is does it mean to hear music in colors, to taste voices, to see each letter of the alphabet as a different color? These uncommon sensory experiences are examples of synesthesia, when two or more senses cooperate in perception. Once dismissed as imagination or delusion, metaphor or drug-induced hallucination, the experience of synesthesia has now been documented by scans of synesthetes' brains that show "crosstalk" between areas of the brain that do not normally communicate. In The Hidden Sense, Cretien van Campen explores synesthesia from both artistic and scientific perspectives, looking at accounts of individual experiences, examples of synesthesia in visual art, music, and literature, and recent neurological research. Van Campen reports that some studies define synesthesia as a brain impairment, a short circuit between two different areas. But synesthetes cannot imagine perceiving in any other way; many claim that synesthesia helps them in daily life. Van Campen investigates just what the function of synesthesia might be and what it might tell us about our own sensory perceptions. He examines the experiences of individual synesthetes—from Patrick, who sees music as images and finds the most beautiful ones spring from the music of Prince, to the schoolgirl Sylvia, who is surprised to learn that not everyone sees the alphabet in colors as she does. And he finds suggestions of synesthesia in the work of Scriabin, Van Gogh, Kandinsky, Nabokov, Poe, and Baudelaire. What is synesthesia? It is not, van Campen concludes, an audiovisual performance, a literary technique, an artistic trend, or a metaphor. It is, perhaps, our hidden sense—a way to think visually; a key to our own sensitivity.

Synaesthesia

Synaesthesia PDF Author: Julia Simner
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 019874921X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 153

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Book Description
In 1893 a Swiss neuroscientist called Theodore Flournoy conducted an interview with an individual known only as "Madame L", during which Madame L described the personalities of numbers, from 6, an orphaned young man, very well brought up and polite, to 9, the selfish and maniacal husband ofMadame 8, to the extravagant and self-centred 5. For Madame L it was impossible to contemplate the numbers without feeling their attendant personalities. This is one of the first records we have of synaesthesia, often described as a rare neurological condition that gives rise to a type of "mergingof the senses". For those who experience it - synaesthetes - one sense appears to cross with another. Some people experience the sensation of different flavours when they hear certain words, while others see vivid colours on reading words. In the varying forms of synaesthesia letters, numbers,words, sounds, colours, or textures can merge together, resulting in sensations of colourful chords, chicken that feels pointy when eaten, and beef that tastes dark blue.In this Very Short Introduction Julia Simner introduces the many different ways synaesthesia presents itself. Discussing the scientific tests we have developed for distinguishing true synaesthetes (who may not even be aware that their sensations are unusual), Simner considers how we can measure theeffects synaesthesia has on the everyday lives of people living with it. Exploring the fascinating stories of different individuals' experiences of the world through the many forms of synaesthesia, she discusses the increasingly documented links between synaesthesia and artistic creativity andlateral thinking, and also the potential limitations synaesthesia might impose. Delving into the neuroscience behind synaesthesia, Simner also relates contemporary attempts at understanding both the genetic causes of synaesthesia, and how synesthetic sensations occur in the brain.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, andenthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia

The Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia PDF Author: Julia Simner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198836279
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 1104

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Book Description
Synesthesia is a fascinating phenomenon which has captured the imagination of scientists and artists alike. This title brings together a broad body of knowledge about this condition into one definitive state-of-the-art handbook.

The Frog Who Croaked Blue

The Frog Who Croaked Blue PDF Author: Jamie Ward
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135249563
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
As little Edgar Curtis lay on his porch, he remarked to his mother how the noise of the rifle range was black, the chirp of the cricket was red, and the croak of the frog was bluish. Edgar, like many other people, has synesthesia - a fascinating condition in which music can have color, words can have taste, and time and numbers float through space. Everyone will be closely acquainted with at least 6 or 7 people who have synesthesia but you may not yet know who they are because, until very recently, synesthesia was largely hidden and unknown. Now science is uncovering its secrets and the findings are leading to a radical rethink about how our senses are organized. In this timely and thought-provoking book, Jamie Ward argues that sensory mixing is the norm even though only a few of us cross the barrier into the realms of synesthesia. How is it possible to experience color when no color is there? Why do some people experience touch when they see someone else being touched? Can blind people be made to see again by using their other senses? Why do scientists no longer believe that there are five senses? How does the food industry exploit the links that exist between our senses? Does synesthesia have a function? The Frog Who Croaked Blue explores all these questions in a lucid and entertaining way, making it fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in the intriguing workings of the mind.