the man who tasted shapes

Most disorders or illnesses terrify me. It all started with a special on E. Coli I saw on 20/20 back in 1994 or so. Ever since then I get freaked out and assume I have whatever illness I hear of. Some call me a hypochondriac, but I think I'm just overly observant or something, so that symptoms I have make me wonder if there's a bigger problem.

There is one disorder, however, that does not scare me in the least. In fact, it makes me a little jealous. I wish I had synaesthesia.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Does that look right to you? This is (roughly) what the numbers look like to me. 4 is always light blue, 2 is always red, and one is always white, but I think it also has a black outline. 8 and 9 are a little sketchier in my head.

Maybe you don't know what the crap I'm talking about, or maybe you're thinking that the number 4 is definitely supposed to be some other color. If the latter is true, you have synaesthetic tendencies, like me. Some call that cognitive synaesthesia.

Someone who actually has synaesthesia might physically see color when s/he looks at a number, instead of just knowing what color a number is.

I don't think they know quite what causes it, but it manifests itself as one type of sensory input actually being experienced as another....ie, when you hear a bell, you see some sort of orange circle in your field of vision, or when you eat chicken, you feel a prickling sensation on your hand. The type where you see a number or letter, and experience it as a color is the most common.

I think this will be the subject of my documentary.