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[Female Narrator] What is Synesthesia?
Everybody who has it experiences it in different ways,
so I asked a handful of people from around the world about their experience.
[Male Respondent] Somewhere in my brain,
the senses get mixed together.
When I experience one, I'm also experiencing another
that is completely unrelated.
[Female Narrator] What do you mean?
[Male Respondent] I color code numbers in my head.
[Female Respondent] So, ever since I was a child,
I was able to taste words.
[Female Participant] If I'm in physical pain,
I experience the pain in color and shape.
[Female Interviewee] Sounds, melodies, and, in fact,
soundtracks also has a color to me.
[Female Narrator] What sort of associations would you make?
[Female Participator] The number three is blue.
[Female Respondent] Number three is light blue.
- [Male Respondent] Three is yellow.
[Female Interviewee] Number six is a flirty woman.
[Male Respondent] Four is green, two is red.
42 is green-red.
That's my favorite number, because I like
the colors red and green together.
[Female Narrator] But wait, it gets weirder.
- [Female Interviewee] For example,
I loved Flashdance songs.
She's a Maniac is blue one for me,
but What a Feeling is yellow.
[Female Respondent] Word people tastes like meatballs in tomato sauce.
[Female Contributor] Violins as navy blue rectangles moving from right to left.
[Female Respondent] The word English tastes like
a slice of lemon.
The sound of banjos tastes like Oreos.
[Female Narrator] Crazy, right?
But a life without it?
[Female Interviewee] Hmm, my life without Synthesia
I don't want to imagine it.
More empty.
[Female Participator] My life would be a lot more bland.
[Female Contributor] The world would be very flat
and not as colorful.
[Male Respondent] I would be bored.