Six Of Six

(This is the SIXTH of six interesting/quirky/random things about me.)

Recently, I discovered that I have a form of synesthesia, which 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".  I have the Spatial Sequence or Number Form type of synesthesia, where "numbers, months of the year, and/or days of the week elicit precise locations in space". 

What it means in simple terms is that when I think of a number (or day or month or year or time of day, etc.), I see it on a three-dimensional map in my mind.  The numbers are always in a very precise location on the map, and I cannot think of a number unless I also see the map in my mind's eye.  Here's an example of someone else's map of their numbers.  (Mine is different; it's more vertical and three dimensional and hard to describe!)

Until I was reading wikipedia one night, I had NO IDEA everyone didn't do that!  Here's how it happened: we watched a movie one night called The Prestige, and one of the characters interacted with Nicola Tesla, an actual historical figure. My baby woke up while we were watching, so I went upstairs to nurse her back to sleep, taking my laptop with me. While I was nursing, I looked up Tesla on wikipedia and was reading about him. I learned that he had synesthesia, which I'd never heard of, so I followed that link.

So there I am reading about how some people see colors when they hear certain notes of music and some people see letters as colors (like A is always red, etc.). When I get to the Number Form type, it showed an example of someone's map, and I thought, "What??? Isn't that normal???" The ODDEST sensation washed over me, and I felt like someone had just given me information that related to my whole life just in that instant.   Kind of like being told that you really were born in Africa instead of Mississippi, though not quite as dramatic.   It was really bizarre.

Ok, there you have it - the sixth and final interesting thing about myself.  I think this series can officially catch my blog up to 'current' status because surely I've written more today than I would have written over the past 5 months, don't you think?  Does this mean I can wait 5 more months?  Just kidding!  I have lots to post now from my browsing.  Maybe I'll actually do some writing!