Synesthesia: Language Connections?

Laura Herman

Synesthesia, he said, is the union of senses otherwise unconnected in a normal brain. He described Albert Einstein using shapes instead of numbers to complete mathematical algorithms, and briefly scoffed at the absurd idea of colored letters. Could it be that none of my classmates saw our teacher’s name in purple with flecks of sandy brown? Were As not inherently fire-truck red nor Z’s metallic gray? Didn’t everyone find it efficient to memorize phone numbers according to their unique color palates? … Confused and bewildered, I stumbled home, repeating over and over the word my teacher had mentioned so nonchalantly: synesthesia, synesthesia, synesthesia. Powering up my computer, I immediately began to read every article I could find on this mysterious disorder, disease, condition, or superpower. It seemed as though researchers did not even know how to classify my sixth sense. As it turns out, every day of my life, I’ve been wearing rainbow-colored glasses. Cemented to my eyes like irremovable contact lenses, they turn letters into colors, music into tastes, and time into space …