The Power of Crossed Brain Wires - Issue 86: Energy

When I was about 6, my mind did something wondrous, although it felt perfectly natural at the time. When I encountered the name of any day of the week, I automatically associated it with a color or a pattern, always the same one, as if the word embodied the shade. Sunday was dark maroon, Wednesday a sunshiny golden yellow, and Friday a deep green. Without knowing it, I was living the unusual mental state called synesthesia, aptly described by psychology professor Emma Geller as a "condition in which ordinary activities trigger extraordinary experiences." More exactly, it is a neurological event where excitation of one of the five senses arouses a simultaneous reaction in another sense or senses (the Greek roots for "synesthesia," also spelled "synaesthesia," translate as "joined perception").