Poems and Thoughts    by Frank Maurer

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Synesthesia. "Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon where the stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to involuntary, automatic experiences in a second, completely unrelated sensory or cognitive pathway. Derived from the Greek words for 'to perceive together,' it is essentially a blending of senses." An example is when one sees a specific color, when one hears a certain musical note or reads a certain letter. Grapheme -- Color Synesthesia is the most documented form. Specific letters, numbers, or symbols (graphemes) are seen inherently with color. Chromesthesia (sound to color) is a crossover between the input of something auditory and a visual output. From hearing sounds, voices, or music elicits the involuntary perception of colors, shapes, and movement. A drum beat creates exploding blue spheres in the mind. Lexical -- Gustatory Synesthesia is not as often encountered, but is a very vivid form. An actual taste or texture on the tongue is triggered from hearing, reading, or thinking of certain words or spoken sounds. The taste of 'peanut butter' may come from the word 'table.' Spatial Sequence Synesthesia causes numbers , months, or weekly days to form in the mind as having exact, physical locations, spatially. around the synesthete's body. Mirror--Touch Synesthesia occurs when one observes a tactile sensation occurring with another person and the observer feels the same sensation. If one watches a film and the character is touched on the right hand, the observer will feel the same sensation. Ordinal Linguistic Personification (OLP) blends ordered, structural sequences with identity traits such as personalities, genders, or emotions. Auditory--Tactile Synesthesia causes sounds to generate physical feelings such as temperature changes or a symphony to cause tingling feelings in the chest. I have this latter type of synesthesia. What fun to have had a more dramatic form! Frank Maurer 30 July 2026 1655 Hours.