Dear Audy,
I have spent the last few days in a painful blur....an evil flu type bug got me and shook me up and spun my weakened insides until I curled up in a ball and cried. I finally went to the doctor and got me some antibiotics and I am feeling a bit better today...no parts of me are stabbing me right now so that is nice.
I have been reading a fascinating book, Audy, Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks . It explores different ways that music effects the brain and recounts tales of people who's brains are fundamentally different than the norm and the ways in which their perception or interpretation is altered.
I find evolutionary theories compelling, Musicophilia has introduced me to a couple and one in particular that dances through my brain...imagine a world in which humans had developed to communicate through music over language. It has been theorised that perhaps the physiological reaction that music can bring and the emotional response is an undeveloped communication faculty. People who have absolute pitch can hear each note distinct from all others, similar to how one visually perceives colours as being distinct from other colours; for example, it is common for people to be able to locate notes in relation to other notes such as recognising C and thus being able to identify A in comparison, however identifying blue only in relation to red is something that might seem ridiculous. A person with absolute pitch could tell you what note the cicadas were singing, or what note the pots hit when you dropped them on the floor. If the majority of humans were capable of absolute pitch, then it would seem possible that perhaps notes and the emotional reaction they induce could be used as a means of communicating...such as the alphabet is.
The most exciting chapter I have read to date is entitled The Key of Clear Green: Synesthesia and Music. It has introduced me to the very concept of synesthesia, Sacks explains, 'For a true synesthete, there is no “as if” - simply an instant conjoining of sensations. This may involve any of the senses – for example, one person may perceive individual letters or days of the week as having their own particular colours; another may feel that every colour has its own peculiar smell, or every musical interval has its own taste”.
When I read the above I stopped and hit the page and exclaimed “Hey! I do that!” For as long as I can remember the days of the week have had their own colours. They are always the same colour, however the transparency can vary dependent on the importance of the day, this is something I have always used as a memory tool. The day itself is also broken up by transparency if I am thinking of the day alone, the morning is lighter and slowly gets darker toward the evening. It's something I have always taken for granted, that peripheral part of my brain that I don't always pay attention to kind of thought they were colours that had been imprinted from watching Play School, but I don't see how that would explain the transparency thing....this is my week in colours:
The months of the year also have colours in my head and numbers seemed to be grouped into colours. It takes a weird concentration to think about them consciously and the more I do, the more I realise how many things in my brain are being recorded and stored using colours...I'm starting to think that this is how I see everything. It's not that I don't perceive the actual colour of things, but it's like when I remember them I drop them into the blue, or the red, or the weird colour that I can't even name box.
Songs have colours. I have recognised these associated with lyrics and it's how I remember them however, until now, I have never paid attention to colours swimming through rhythm or the way different instruments have coloured tinges that distinguish them from one another...but they are all there, they have just been kind of operating unnoticed all this time...I have known for a long time that I remember things visually, however I just never noticed that the visuals have this kind of unwarranted 'coloured' aspect.
The most interesting thing I have contemplated so far, Audy, is my imaginaiads. You can check them out here. I don't consciously choose their colours, they just happen, kind of like they choose themselves and they are very exact, right down to their faces, it is something I see rather than make up...if that makes sense. This sense of seeing usually extends to naming also, they have their names and all other names simply sound wrong to me, kind of like if you tried to convince me that that table is a beanbag. I am starting to think that on some level the imaginaiads I see are some sort of interpretation of the colours I associate with a person or what I know about a person....
I've written a lot today, Audy, it's just so fascinating! Do you see colours where there are none? It's so exciting to discover that it isn't just me...
Love & Rainbows,
Caf
P.S. I feel more research coming on....
