Synesthesia is a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. A popular example is seeing colors while listening to music. Anyone can experience it in it’s adventitious form while using psychedelic drugs. There is also another form of synesthesia that is genetically based and constantly “on” with some people. The estimated prevalence of this in the population have varied between 1:20 to 1:20000. As a matter of fact, some might argue that “seeing stars” is a rather common experience.

There was a phase of scientific research between 1880′s and 1930′s, but due to difficulties in assessing and measuring subjective and internal experiences, the studies gradually waned. In the recent years, with the advent of more sophisticated neuroimaging methods such as fMRI, scientists have begun to study synesthesia again and synesthetes have formed organizations and community sites on the Internet.

It is a fascinating phenonomen and if indeed every 1 in 20 persons have mild synesthetic experiences there are a lot of implications in education, for example. The strength of the phenomen varies greatly and there is also variance between the prevelance of different forms as illustrated in the table at Richard E. Cytowic’s Encyclopedia of Neuroscience.

There are a number of other genetically inherited abilities (color blindness, perfect pitch, etc) that can produce rather unusual combinations if the person also happens to be genetically inclined to synesthesia.

While reading about it, it occurred to me that it is possible that some of the paranormal abilities that people are describing are in fact nothing more than a rare form of synesthesia perhaps combined with another extremely rare and unresearched genetically inherited sensitivity. People who claim to see “auras” of other people may be associating another ultra low level sensory experience with colors and therefore have a strong sense of color in the presence of another person. The physical or chemical activity that triggers the color experience could indeed be something as simple as the odor cues that the other person is emitting. The smell receptors in the aura-sensing persons nose could be transmitting the signals to an area in the brain where the cross-signalings takes place although they are not consciously experiencing any kind of peculiar aroma. As an analogy, it is well known that dogs have the ability to detect various forms of cancer in humans just by sniffing.

I googled around and sure enough, other people have come up with this same idea.

To take this theory a bit further and just for the sake of discussion: What if there is a gene that increases the magnetic sensitivity in humans on a cellular level, but it normally causes no sensory experiences whatsoever and therefore is quite difficult to study? Now, what if that gene is combined with an equally rare, say, radiation → visual or radiation → spatial synesthete gene? Again, it is easy to draw a parallels between species with primitive limbic systems that can predict earthquakes and use magnetic fields as a navigation aid. It has been found out that there is a tiny magnetite crystal in the ethmoid bone of humans. The ethmoid bone is located between the eyes, behind the nose. This magnetite is speculated to be vestigial, i.e. lost most of it’s original function during species evolution.

I would like to explore this idea in the form of an art piece or perhaps a short film. I welcome comments by anyone interested in this subject.

Posted by api in Audiovisual instinct

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