What Is It Like To Live With Synaesthesia?
What is synaesthesia?
Synesthesia is an anomalous blending of the senses in which the stimulation of one sense simultaneously produces sensation in a different sense.
In other words and literally:
Synesthetes hear colours, feel sounds and taste shapes.
When I look at colours I hear music and see them in motion, gleaming in the light. As if I can sense the energy of the world and that energy manifests itself in colours.
The hills are shadows, and they flow
From form to form, and nothing stands;
They melt like mist, the solid lands,
Like clouds they shape themselves and go.
Alfred Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam, seascapes Section 123
Synaesthesia – a gift that translates into my paintings
This world of mine is ruled by Synaesthesia…
I have always been blessed with Synaesthesia, a rare phenomenon in which the brain links a person’s senses together. People with Synaesthesia, for example, might “hear colours, taste sounds, and feel shapes”.
Be Go Sha
What is it like to Be Go Sha? – What is it like to live with syneasthesia?
For me, it mainly manifests itself by seeing words in colour and also in space…
Every letter has its own unique hue and words are a combination of these colours. The first letter gives the word its colour scheme.
‘a’ is always bright orangey-red
‘g’ is indigo blue
Vowels always shine, brightening up surrounding letters.
Consonants have usually dark, solid colours.
- a is always bright orangey-red and shines,
- b is dark umber, brown nearly black,
- c is ochre yellow,
- d is raw sienna,
- e is blue and translucent just like the sky on a sunny day. It shines, it’s got an inner light…
- f is light purple, something like lilac with a hint of grey…
- g is indigo blue,
- h is blue-grey,
- i is white and shines. It’s good to have an ‘i‘ in a word – it brightens it up…
- m is blue like the sky on a sunny day,
- y is white.
There’s so much to know about letter ‘y’! I’m Polish and in my language, ‘y’ is a vowel but it’s a consonant in English. So, for me, when I think about an English word starting with the letter ‘y’, it’s white. But if I think about a Polish word which contains ‘y’, then it becomes transparent, like frosted glass.
Colours Of The Night
I often notice colours where they’re not – they seem to be there looking for me. I especially love the sky, when the light is just right, rich and saturated. There are so many colours in the night sky. Most people don’t pay much attention to colours at night – it’s so dark and a cue for many to sleep.
I however think that the different shades of blue that appear in the sky every night are some of the most beautiful, majestic colours. It does feel wonderful to stand in your garden at night and look up, sometimes you’ll see the moon, other times only a few timid stars. What fascinates me the most is the deep, almost eerie denim shade of the all encompassing sky. It is never completely black due to a phenomenon called skyglow; this June the sky had a warm orange-pink tone during the night….magnificent.
Colours play Symphony Of Beethoven
I can best describe this phenomenon by describing this painting. I get various sensations when looking at colours, they trigger off all my senses:
I hear music when looking at this sunset (sense of hearing) It is 9th Symphony of Beethoven, can you hear it too? Ta ta ta taaaa… 🎶🎶 ta ta ta taaaa 🎶🎶… – the sound resonates around the sky.
I hear people talking and birds screeching, cars beeping… The city is alive…
Beautiful colours filling the sky: dark blue, violets, oranges, red… spilling over the canvas like sweet juice (sense of taste)
There is so much going on in this painting of Liverpool. Everything is in motion and I sense the energy of exploding light, gleaming water. The bird on the top of the Liver Building flutters its wings, the Wheel is turning…
I can feel the chilly breeze of wind on my face when I look at this, I can hear the busy roads and individual voices of people walking down below.
Can you feel it too?
Energy Of Colours and My Mission
Can you imagine that everything and all we are is the energy of light? We are just a sparkle of light, and light in colour. We are a vibration of this energy, a wave of InnerGee that consists of different colours.
Colours are everywhere in the world and are constantly present. They bathe the world we live in and make it beautiful. These colours smell so sweet and make you feel amazing… So happy and content.
That’s the world we live in. That’s the world I’m talking about!
I see all these colours and it feels great like they’re giving me energy and healing power. I have a need to show those colours to people and I’m doing it by painting my pictures.
I want you to realize that your world could be different – just by changing the paint colour!
Bring on the light!
Shine through the prism! Make the colours stand!
It became my mission to change the look of the world for you, so I could pass to you the healing energy of colours.
Let my art take you to a different Universe, a place full of colour, happiness and awe.
Visualisation Technique by Gosha
If you struggle with visualising try my visualization technique and download one of my special synesthesia wall papers.
Here is my visualization technique – look at these colourful backgrounds for about 5 minutes, breathe slowly, and let the colours shine. When you see the vibrancy of this colour and how it stands out, that’s when this colour releases energy. Its shiny qualities give your eyes an electric impulse which then transmits and passes the impulse to the brain. The brain then translates it into ‘your’ mind… Gives you my vision… So you can see what the world really looks like… So you can see through my eyes.
Download My Synaesthesia Wallpaper
Once, in my studio at Haworth Art Gallery in Accrington, I met writer Carol Anne Strange (CarolAStrange) who interviewed me for an article about experiencing synaesthesia in order to write about it for Breathe magazine (justbreathemagazine). This article came out in August 2022 and I would like to share it with you. It was illustrated by Irina Perju (FB: irina.perju.illustration). In this article, you will explore some of the various types of synaesthesia and the ways it is formed. Download pdf file copy of the Senses Working Overtime feature in Breathe (issue 50)
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Read Also:
Experience Synaesthesia – Colours And Shapes Of Music
I have a rare neurological condition – synaesthesia… No, it is not a disability, it is a remarkable sensation that I consider a gift. In this post, I would like to share with you some aspects of this experience and show you how I sense and see the energy of reverberating sounds of drums. For a…
GOSH ART by Gosha Gibek 
Hi Gosha,
Will be visiting your exhibition on the Sunday with Francesca. Take care.
Georgina
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