UPSB v3
Serious Discussion / Documentaries: Extraordinary People
Synesthesia, etc.
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Date: Fri, Jul 25 2008 02:14:32
http://quicksilverscreen.com/watch?video=49343
Documentary on one of the world's smartest people and how he calculates.
http://quicksilverscreen.com/watch?video=49342
The boy who sees without his eyes, another installment in the Extraordinary People series.
Moved Resonance's thread here as it relates to the first documentary.
06/09/09 -
Date: Fri, Jul 25 2008 02:30:49
The vid is slow to load, but I think I've already seen this. This is Daniel Tammet right? Savants are cool. I really dig this kind of stuff. He has synesthesia for numbers, but sometimes synesthesia involves (musical) hearing and sight. I believe his ability is rare even among synesthetes.
Check out this thread I started regarding perfect pitch. There's a little synesthesia discussion and how it relates to perfect pitch.
http://www.upsb.info/forum/index.php?showtopic=8368QUOTE (Lordbojo @ Jul 25 2008, 10:21 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I'll share more soon don't worry, I'm a documentary fanatic.
Try to check out the My Brilliant Brain mini series from National Geographic and Superhumans from Discovery Channel. It's very similar to this stuff. -
Date: Fri, Jul 25 2008 08:40:59QUOTE (jux @ Jul 25 2008, 11:39 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Can't believe I spent 45 mins watching that vid lol, it was really interesting. I liked the asian kids with the "air abacus" a lot.
Thats a form of mental abacus, and it helps in solving sums quickly. I myself have learnt it when I was young, it helped alot in terms of speed. Sums like 972 X 823 can be solved within 5 seconds mentally using that method. -
Date: Fri, Jul 25 2008 13:53:19
Sorry to delete posts, but discussion of the documentaries' content needs to take place or else this is merely an off-topic thread. You can post your own documentaries too as long as it falls under the same category.
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Date: Fri, Jul 25 2008 21:48:58
"Ben is the only person in the world who sees using echolocation"
that is a rediculously untrue statement. There are many others documented, i even saw a feature on oe who was teaching others to do it, it was a whole class of them
EDIT: Daniel Kish was the teacher. It says on wikipedia he taught Ben how to do it, but i'm not sure if that's reliable. -
Date: Fri, Jul 25 2008 21:57:01
Umm.. If you watched the video on Ben, there's a teacher that teaches people about echolocation but he still needs his cane to help him. It's true that he's not the only one, but probably the only person that has taught himself.
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Date: Fri, Jul 25 2008 21:58:53
im still watching it, and the teacher im talking about was riding mountain bikes around man.
EDIT: ok so he's in the video. so why did they say that? that's kinda stupid -
Date: Sat, Jul 26 2008 02:06:38QUOTE (Shadowserpant @ Jul 26 2008, 05:58 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>im still watching it, and the teacher im talking about was riding mountain bikes around man.
EDIT: ok so he's in the video. so why did they say that? that's kinda stupid
Well, you know Wikipedia, the encyclopedia anyone can edit. "Ben is the only person in the world who sees using echolocation" probably means that he is the only person in the world who relies on echolocation alone, without the use of a cane etc. Or maybe he is the only one who can 'see', meaning he can form mental pictures of things in the environment like nobody else can. Regardless, it seems like his skill level is as high as they come. -
Date: Sat, Jul 26 2008 18:25:55
So this is the man I heard so much about, I was never sure if the stories I heard were true.
Thanks for sharing this Lordbojo!
Amazing, outstanding, astounding, sharp, quick, fantastic mind that man has! -
Date: Sat, Jul 26 2008 19:01:41
Ben is sorta like daredevil except that daredevil is not real and uses a cane.. lol
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Date: Sat, Jun 6 2009 20:58:52
I really hope I could make myself clear, since I'm not all too sure how to explain or express my thoughts about this, but I'll try. I'll be happy to answer questions if needed.
So, here's the story.
Since I can remember, I always somehow linked in my mind feelings, colors and numbers. I never really put any though into it since I though everybody does that, but recently I discovered that I seem to be by far the only person I know who does that. Let me explain what I mean:
Whenever I see, or think about certain numbers, I instantly get a picture of a color, sometimes with an image of an object, a place, or such things. For example, the numbers 3 and 6 instantly make me think about blue, slightly greenish, such as the ocean, while numbers like 4 and 5 have a more yellow-ish red-ish feeling, which sometimes comes with an image of leaves in the autumn. Combination of numbers can sometimes mean different colors, or simply two colors together, like when 14 is yellow and silver, while 13 is blue and silver.
I also notice I tend to prefer certain numbers over others, sometimes because of their colors, or the feeling they give me.
That's the main subject of this topic. another thing which I noticed is that I also seem to vision shapes, and colors in my mind when listening to music. I see stuff like a continuous line, changing with the music combined with many shapes, and colors, depending on the music. not every kind of music does that to me, if I'll hear a random pop song in the radio it most likely won't make me feel almost nothing- or at least, I don't pay attention to it.
So, I wanted to ask- do you do the same? Or is it just me really? have you ever heard about something like that? or maybe it's completely normal? I have no idea if it's normal, or something special. so I'd love to hear some information, opinions, or thoughts about the matter. -
Date: Sat, Jun 6 2009 21:18:12
It's a phenomena I just recently discovered due to my English final.
We were given an article about it and it was one of the most interesting I've read in English exams
But from what I remember- the phenomena is considered fairly rare but without any exact numbers since most people do not conceive it to be something out of the ordinary.
I can't remember the exact name though,sorry.
The phenomena is visualizing things with other aspects (numbers with colors, tastes,smells. Music with numbers, colors etc...) and in each one it appears differently or with a slight variation.
That's what I can remember. -
Date: Sun, Jun 7 2009 02:11:26
this condition is called synesthesia, many famous composers haev it, most notably Rimsky-Korsakov, Ligeti, Liszt, Bernstein, Sibelius, Messiaen and Scriabin.
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Date: Sun, Jun 7 2009 02:23:02
dude... u have itunes visualiser in ur head!
does this have any hinderances/advantages in life? -
Date: Sun, Jun 7 2009 02:27:18QUOTE (k-ryder @ Jun 6 2009, 10:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>dude... u have itunes visualiser in ur head!
does this have any hinderances/advantages in life?
if you see a number in a different color than what you imagine, it could be annoying I suppose.
he said 36 are blue for him, so if I do
3
it'll look weird -
Date: Sun, Jun 7 2009 02:35:32QUOTE (Zombo @ Jun 7 2009, 10:27 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>if you see a number in a different color than what you imagine, it could be annoying I suppose.
he said 36 are blue for him, so if I do
3
it'll look weird
hmm... interesting
reminds me of when i found out my friend had colourblindness and made him do the colourblind test book
that was a fun science lesson....
and yes, i am mean
4 -
Date: Sun, Jun 7 2009 05:00:24
I remember that Daniel Tammet from that documentary (I think Bojo posted it) associated all numbers with a image/colour.
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Date: Sun, Jun 7 2009 09:34:47QUOTE (k-ryder @ Jun 7 2009, 04:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>dude... u have itunes visualiser in ur head!
does this have any hinderances/advantages in life?
Well, since I started studying music this year, I've noticed I seem to associate different intervals with colors (and numbers, a bit more obviously). For example, when I hear 3rds or 6ths I think of blue, like I mentioned above. So yeah, you can say it helps sometimes.
Oh and yeah, the numbers you posted are a bit annoying xD
It's cool to know there's a name for this condition =P
EDIT: Oh yeah, I hope you can understand when I mean about the music, I learned those terms in Hebrew, so I'm not sure if I'm using them right -
Date: Sun, Jun 7 2009 09:57:25QUOTE (Zombo @ Jun 7 2009, 10:11 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>this condition is called synesthesia, many famous composers haev it, most notably Rimsky-Korsakov, Ligeti, Liszt, Bernstein, Sibelius, Messiaen and Scriabin.
Composer of flight of bumblebee? -
Date: Sun, Jun 7 2009 12:07:00
yes, but more importantly the Piano Concerto and Scheherazade.
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Date: Sun, Jun 7 2009 12:10:24
Oh, and by the way, not all the colors on the piano keyboard match the colors I see (or feel?) =P
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Date: Sun, Jun 7 2009 12:14:24
Both maintained that the key of D major was golden-brown; but Scriabin linked E-flat major with red-purple, while Rimsky-Korsakov favored blue. However, Rimsky-Korsakov protested that a passage in Rachmaninoff's opera The Miserly Knight supported their view: the scene in which the Old Baron opens treasure chests to reveal gold and jewels glittering in torchlight is written in D major. Scriabin told Rachmaninoff that "your intuition has unconsciously followed the laws whose very existence you have tried to deny."
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Date: Sun, Jun 7 2009 12:16:59
When I concentrate, I can see blue, green, and sometimes purple circles with closed eyes, but that's nothing like that =/
But Yea, I have heard about synesthesia -
Date: Sun, Jun 7 2009 12:25:32QUOTE (Zombo @ Jun 7 2009, 03:14 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Both maintained that the key of D major was golden-brown; but Scriabin linked E-flat major with red-purple, while Rimsky-Korsakov favored blue. However, Rimsky-Korsakov protested that a passage in Rachmaninoff's opera The Miserly Knight supported their view: the scene in which the Old Baron opens treasure chests to reveal gold and jewels glittering in torchlight is written in D major. Scriabin told Rachmaninoff that "your intuition has unconsciously followed the laws whose very existence you have tried to deny."
D major is green for me >.> at least when I think about it. I can't really tell what colors I associate with chords and such unless I hear them, so I'll check later. When I think "D Major" I get a sense of green, sometimes a bit metallic.
EDIT: though the word itself might be completely different from the chord... also, in different languages, same words have different colors sometimes. Since the letter "D" is usually blue for me, while "D major" is more green like I said. -
Date: Sun, Jun 7 2009 13:32:24
i believe you have synesthesia. It's not something so bad though. some famous music dudes have it.
and also, having mind like that boosts creativity in music according to my brother who just finished his Bachelor's degree in science, more specifically neuroscience. -
Date: Tue, Jun 9 2009 21:06:00
Sorry, I think I accidentally deleted the last post in Resonance's original thread, but the post was pointing to the Daniel Tammet documentary in this thread. I apologize to whoever made that post.