We Walked around til the Moon got Full like a Plate

Oh, that was so real. 

(Jeff Buckley)

This year, I've chosen to do my thesis on synesthesia - essentially a fusion of the senses, so that stimulation in one sense modality (i.e., sound) elicits automatic, involuntary stimulation in another sense modality (i.e., vision). Synesthetes are people who "see music," "hear colors," or "taste shapes" - feats seemingly impossible to accomplish by the "normal" non-synesthetic brain, at least without ingestion of hallucinogens (i.e., LSD, ayahuasca, etc.).

I think their day-to-day experiences are much richer than the average person's, or at least more multi-dimensional.  For example, musical pitches aren't just sounds & numbers aren't just digits - they can have colors, sometimes complete with depth; and perhaps most interestingly, they can elicit particular feelings in their beholders.  

What would it be like to experience the world as they do?  I'm not inclined to believe that even a full description, backed by all corresponding scientific knowledge, would give us complete understanding of their worlds, much less make their actual sense-experiences more accessible to us.  (Hmm - qualia & Frank Jackson's Knowledge Argument - something perhaps to come back to?) 

While we're on the topic -Daniel Tammet is a high-functioning autistic savant who also happens to experience synesthesia.  He wrote I Was Born on a Blue Day, in which he describes, among other things, how his synesthetic experiences allow him to accomplish huge mathematical calculations in his head.  He also has a blog, in which he shares diverse personal ideas (not necessarily related to synesthesia). Here are some posts that I found interesting: 

• The Benefits of Self Sufficiency (agreed - something else to come back to?)
  
• 'Simplified Spelling' Is a Bad "Eyedihr" (why the English language shouldn't revolutionize its spelling)
  
• Falsifiability and the God Hypothesis (what would convince him to stop believing in God)
  
• Mänti (a language he's created)
  

And always finish with something to soothe the soul.

Jeff Buckley - Lover, You Should've Come Over

Besos.

Sometimes It Takes a Thousand Tries

A thousand pardons. I know I promised to keep things interesting, & so I'll keep this one short.

I'm just SOO happy that I can hardly contain myself! I've managed to listen to a particular song so many times in a row over the last week that its - ahem -"transcendental nature" & "global pertinence" (-yeah, yeah, just go with it) has seized my roommate (see figure above for girl in pink sweater w/ finger stuck in bottle) & compelled her to include a small quote in an essay due for her Masters in Global Politics at LSE, even if only as an allusion to some sort of international consolidation between peoples. Alas, my attempts to raise musical/ lyrical awareness aren't futile... Please listen, below (& I do apologize for the quality of the sound - but his beginning words more than make up for this).

Jeff Buckley - [Leonard Cohen's] Hallelujah


Besos.