Investigating Spatial Sequence Synesthesia
Do you visualize numerical sequences in physical space? How ’bout days of the week, months in the year, or years in the past decade? If Wednesday’s floating to your left, and 1999 is situated just above your head, you may be experiencing spatial sequence synesthesia. Since several readers have inquired about this form, I thought it appropriate for a post topic. As far as tests go, there isn’t a whole lot to discuss. This form is relatively self-explanatory. Perhaps some of you, though, who’ve had similar experiences, mightn’t have thought them to be synesthetic. Let’s dive a little deeper!
Sequences in Physical Space
When we talk about visualizing sequences in physical space, we’re not talking about outer space. If you can see that far, you’re dealing with something far more esoteric and mystifying than synesthesia. In fact, we’re talking about the space around you – your “bubble”, if you will. If – when it comes to numbers, dates, and sequences – you visualize entities in your immediate vicinity, there’s a fair chance that you’re familiar with this type.
Spatial sequence synesthetes might have a tough time convincing their friends and family members that they’re seeing what they claim to be seeing. However, Dr. David Eagleman has no trouble believing in this phenomenon; after all, he is a neuroscientist (working at the Baylor College of Medicine, no less). Appropriately enough, Dr. Eagleman’s lab has actually developed a sort of virtual reality, in which synesthetes can map their spatial visualizations. The findings are quite interesting; you can get a quick briefing by reading his abstract. There are several takeaways, of course. What I find most compelling (and in hindsight intuitive) is that the research supported “the possibility that SSS is directly related to the sequence representations in nonsynesthetes” (Eagleman, 2009). Month visualizations, for instance, were generally mapped from left to right, which is consistent with the “directional bias” of Western speakers.
A Memory Advantage?
One study, conducted by Julia Simner of the University of Edinburgh in the UK, found that spatial sequence synesthetes have a built-in and automatic mnemonic reference. In other words, where the nonsynesthete needs to create a mnemonic device to remember a sequence (like “Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally.”), the synesthete can simply reference their spatial visualizations. Read the full coverage of this study on ScienceMag.org. It’s worth the five minutes it takes to peruse. So, really, there is a subtle memory advantage. It isn’t eidetic (or photographic), though.
This is certainly one of the most interesting forms of synesthesia that I’ve written on, and I’d love to learn more. Feel free to share your experiences anonymously, if you’d like! I’ve been tossing around the idea of publishing a collection of anonymous synesthetic experiences, with the thought that it might be beneficial for others to reference. Of course, all experiences published would be with the permission of the sharer, and (as I mentioned) each synesthetic experience would be published anonymously. Do share your thoughts on this, loyal readers!
That’s all for now, though! Whether tomorrow’s on your left or on your right, make it a fabulous day!
Credit for this image goes to People.Brunel.Ac.Uk
I am a student who has several varied reasons for interest in this subject and area.
Hi Travis and Regina,
I can do this, but more easily by visualizing sound and music than dates. See http://www.highexistence.com/topic/visualizing-sounds/#post-5864
As for mnemonics, I don’t recall based on linear sequences. I’m not an audio verbal sequential learner at all.
I’m a visual spatial learner, hence I recall information starting with big picture and discover significance; more about visual spatial learning at
http://gypsyschoolhouse.blogspot.com/2011/03/visual-spatial-learners.html
and http://www.visualspatial.org/spatialstrengths.php
Cheers,
Lloyd
Thanks for the comment, Lloyd. Awesome links! It’s certainly interesting hearing about how others learn.
When I saw this article I was floored because I have been experiencing this my entire life. I actually that I was the only person like this. The picture above is almost exactly what I see. My days of the week and months have different positions and when I explain it I receive strange looks.
My long term memory is out of this world. I can go back years ago and tell you what you were wearing, place, exactly where you were standing, who else was around, and numerous other things when we were having a conversation and etc. Thank you so much for posting this because it has helped me tremendously!
Regards,
Jay
No problem, Jackie! I’m glad that you found it helpful!
Hi! I’m a synesthete who sees the months as having a particular location relative to my own body. I would be happy to share my experience.
I have always had a “mental calendar” and never thought it was anything out of the ordinary. About 5 years ago, I was talking to my parents about a trip we were going to take in a few months’ time. I gesture a lot when I talk so when I mentioned “the trip in July,” I pointed up and to the left where July was (it was January at the time). A few minutes in to our conversation, my dad got a little distracted and asked why I kept pointing up. “What’s up there?”
When I told him it was July, he looked at me like I was crazy and became frustrated. He didn’t let the topic go until my mom chimed in and told him to stop. “That’s just how her calendar is. My July is down here. It’s not a big deal.” My mom and I have very similar ways of thinking so I wrote the incident off and didn’t think much about it until my neuroscience course in college. The professor explained some forms of synesthesia, and while doing some research on my own, I discovered that my mom and I have time-space synesthesia. After asking some family members, I found out that my mom’s brother and sister and all their children have this as well. However, our calendars can differ greatly.
My calendar is like a big ring. If I think of the year as a whole, January and December are at the bottom, and from Jan at the bottom right, the months continue up counter-clockwise to June and July at the top and back down to Dec on the bottom left. Also, my past (more than 2 years ago) is to my back left and the future (more than I year from now) is to the front right. Also, whatever month it is appears directly in front of me. Some of us have clockwise calendars or linear calendars, and one cousin even has her months associated with specific colors.
I hope I haven’t rambled too much. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Travis,i will give you a small example among the many things that i experience…whenever i see or hear the name “euclid” i can see an aircraft with a cone flying beside it.sometimes its just the cone.there are many more things.do i have this synesthingy?
Hey Samantha,
Awesome share! It’s cool to see how the location of different months differs from synesthete to synesthete. Thank you so much for sharing your experience; this is exactly what I was looking for.
We’ll be sure to mention this on Twitter – @SynesthesiaTest
I feel a little weird saying “hello” to myself, but here it goes:
Hello Me,
Thanks for the comment. It’s hard to say, really. This seems like a pretty subjective experience. Have you tried our simple test?
Hi,
I tend to see my letters differently, they all have different shapes based on the word they are in or the context of the sentence. Its kind of hard to explain. For example while growing up, “B” in Book always looked like an actual open book and “C” in Cup was a cup. My calendar runs diagonally, i have like 20 or so different handwritings and my accent changes based on whom i am talking to. Kinda keep it to myself cos u know what happens when u tell people stuff like that.
Hi, I have spatial sequence synesthesia, as well as grapheme -> colour and music/sound -> shapes and textures.
I visualize the weeks and months as a kind of ascending line towards the left. I can zoom in or out but the line moves so the present is always central.
Actually it’s not a straight line, it’s curvy. Periods of the year have different colors. I can zoom out a lot and see my life time.
I can also visualise centuries, but strangely, that calendar goes from left to right.
I used to have a very precise memory of when events occured, but i feel it becomes a little less clear as the years go by. The timeline is not a simple as when I was a student.
I use the ability to place events in a mental timeline for my work : as a film editor, it’s quite convenient.
I also see numbers in a kind of ascending line, with which i can play when solving arithmetic problems (simple ones, i’m no Daniel Tammet!
)
I’m writing abour that because you seemed interested, but to tell you the truth, I don’t think it’s a big deal. I’m really curious about how non synesthetes actually think about time, I don’t understand how people can function without visualizing it.
Hey Zize,
Thanks for sharing! Nothing to be ashamed of, of course, but I can empathize with your not wanting to spill the beans. When others aren’t fully aware of phenomena like synesthesia, it can be hard for them to understand such things. Seems like you have a lot of unique experiences!
Hey Audrey,
Thanks for sharing! While it might not be a “big deal,” per se, I think that when individuals like you voice your experiences, others having similar experiences get some reaffirmation. Many people have synesthetic experiences their entire lives without any knowledge of synesthesia.
It’s interesting that you have become so accustomed to your visualizations that it’s hard for you to imagine living without them. I would guess that non-synesthetes have the same trouble imagining living with these experiences.
Again, awesome stuff. Thanks for stopping by! Happy travels.
Hi Travis, thanks for your answer. When i say it’s not a big deal, it’s because I think of synesthesia more like a spectrum that most people experience on some level (like the “kiki – buba effect” you wrote about kind of shows). Not really like something super strange.
Especially this kind of synesthesia.
Actually, I can understand how grapheme – colour or sound – shape can be hard to imagine, because for me it is hard to imagine, for example, sound-taste synesthesia. But spatial sequence? I’m sot really shure why it’s a synesthesia at all.
Anyway, thanks for the interesting website.
(And sorry for my poor english, I hope it’s clear enough!)
Hi. I recently discovered that I have grapheme color synesthesia and spatial sequence synesthesia. I would have never even thought about it being strange or odd until I read about it about a year ago. I find it particularly interesting that while most people with spatial sequence have the months around them in the same place, I visualize myself wherever I happen to be on the circle like the one above. For example, right now it is August, so September is to my right and July is to my left. Across the way is February and March. However, it will change as the months do. I also do this with the days of the week and Years. I also am known to have an excellent memory for certain events and what people were wearing. Although my memory for day to day things is average, I seem to remember particular events, even if they were unimportant. It’s good to know that other people share this with me!
Hey Haley,
Thanks for sharing your experiences. Interestingly enough, how you describe your spatial sequence synesthesia is just as I’ve always imagined it. And yes, there are plenty of others out there! Stop back!
I have spatial sequence synesthesia for months and days of the year; for example my daughter’s birthday in late October is in front of me and slightly to my right (the entire circle of the year, with January starting at my body, is about 15 feet in diameter). My birthday is in January so I don’t know if January starting at me is related to that or Jan being the new year. Like many of the responses I thought everyone had some sort of concrete “vision” of how to understand time. I do a lot of what I’ve thought of as “associative” memory that is probably somewhat synesthetic. Interestingly, although I envision time in space, I have an AWFUL sense of actual direction (ie in unfamiliar cities and in malls).
However….SSS is not my strongest synesthetic experience. As you might imagine, my very strong orgasm –> color and taste synesthesia isn’t something I bring up in casual conversation!
I realized that I had synesthesia after learning about it in psychology class. My friend was describing her experiences as a lexical-gustatory synesthete, and had mentioned that she heard some synesthetes see the months of the year like a football field. I was shocked, because her description fit my vision perfectly! Since then I have done some research and discovered that I have number form synesthesia. I see months of the year, days of the week, letters of the alphabet, times of the day, year dates, ages, the past and future in specific orders in my head; I continue to realize more of my mental maps are actually a result of synesthesia. I am not sure if I have spatial-sequence though, because while I can describe the locations relative to me, they are not extremely specific or vividly before me. As for the possible connection to better memories, I do have an excellent memory. I am very competitive and seem to remember grades (for myself and others) dating years back, as well as important dates. It’s been awesome learning of others who have synesthesia too!
Madeline,
Thanks for the share! I think most readers share our sentiment that it’s “awesome learning of others who have synesthesia.” Reading through all of these different experiences (now including yours) is so fascinating! Perhaps we’ll do our next post on number form synesthesia, specifically.
I realized I had synesthesia after hearing a radio documentary about it. Then I found a research website where I could test what kind I had and to what degree. I wasn’t surprised to find that mine was strongest in the Spacial Sequence type. The research site even has a test where you can place each month of the year in a horizontal Spacial grid and adjust the height of the months. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing since I didn’t think anyone else perceived the calendar like this. My months also have a strong colour association with each of them. My months are laid out in a distorted oval that is tilted upward at the front and downward behind me. December and January are in front and upward with the months moving clockwise; April to my right, July & August behind me with September sweeping up from the left behind me and October & November completing the oval on my left back up to December. My mother was always amazed at how I remembered everyone’s birthdays in our large extended family. I think the mnemonic reference of the calendar was the reason it was easy to remember all those dates. I’m not aware of any other handy uses for this condition.
I’m glad to hear from others who have it to.
I only discovered last year that I have spatial sequence synesthesia. For as long as I can remember, at any mention/sight of a number, that number would appear on a timeline in my mind. Here’s how I knew I have synesthesia: the timeline never changed. It’s always been the same clock-shaped timeline with the same off-white numbers against the same black background, with each number having a different fixed distance from me. A slightly similar thing happens with years/centuries. And often, I visualize a calendar when a date is brought up. It’s difficult to explain it all! Ironically, with all those timelines running through my synesthetic head, I am terrible at math! However, my memory, although not perfect, is great. I remember many conversations word-for-word, which admittedly, is a burden at times, as not all conversations are good ones.
I’m so glad there are others out there who are like me!
I’m 17, and whenever I mention my timelines to my parents (which does not happen often), they think I’ve gone a bit mad…
Shea,
Thanks for sharing your experiences! I’m guessing you’re referring to the Synesthesia Battery (at synesthete.org). When individuals are looking for a more in depth testing experience (and more granular results), that’s where I point them. A lot of great stuff over there.
Glad to hear that you find the others’ shares interesting, as well! Stop back!
Michelle,
Thanks for the comment! Great point about the consistency of your experiences – consistency is one of the signs we look for in could-be synesthetes. You bring up another common trait in your reference to the position of the numbers on your spatial calendar. It’s as if the numbers are floating in physical space at varying distances.
Happy to hear that you’ve found everyone’s shares to be a bit enlightening! And thanks for contributing your story!
Great post! So I’m actually rescraehing synesthesia as my Ph.D thesis work (I also have it), and I have a handful of comments/questions. First, I’m intrigued that you no longer experience synesthesia anymore. I’ve heard so many anecdotal reports that people had it when they were young and lost it sometime during the teen years that I’m starting to think it might be influenced by hormones. I know it’s hard to pinpoint a time when you stopped having it, but do the teen years fit with your timeline?As for time-space synesthesia, I think that term is a misnomer (although it is definitely out there and used often). We run the Synesthesia Battery (www.synesthete.org), and after analyzing thousands of synesthetes, we’ve coined a phrase for a new category of synesthesia that encompases several types. These types are: grapheme-color (numbers and letters), weekday-color, and month-color. Turns out, if you have any one of those 4 types, you’re more likely to have another of the 3 than a random person in the population. So these 4 types cluster’ together, and we call it Colored-Sequence synesthesia because it involves associating color with over-learned sequences (Novich et al. 2011). As you’ve probably guessed, half of the cluster involves time (weekdays and months), but we think it has more to do with the fact that it’s a sequence than the fact that it represents time. Thusly, I think the spatial aspect (what has been called time-space) is actually just an objectification of that sequence such that you can turn it around in your head, change perspectives, move through the sequence, etc Last question: do you have any family members who have synesthesia? It definitely runs in families, possibly on chromosome 16 (Tomson et al. 2011). If you’re ever in Houston, we’d love to have you drop by.
I have spatial sequence synesthsia. I could never explain it to my family, but happy to learn it has a name. I see letters, numbers, weeks, months, years and days. My week is kind of circular, almost teardrop, pattern that floats flat in front of me. Mon is on my left (west) Tue in front of me, Wed to my right(east). It then turns north and Thurs and Fri are on the east side. It then curves west for Sat and Sun on the north side. Sat and Sun are longer sections that equal M T & W on the opposite side. Sunday night connects back to Monday. I cannot plan an outing or think about a day without this pattern automatically popping in my mind. My calendar year is similar with the summer months longer than the rest. Dec and Jan are east and June July and August are west. Years in general are in a long line in front of me, with before 1900 turning left far away from me and 2000 turning right close to me. Numbers are harder to describe. It is a strange pattern with turns and spirals and ascends as the numbers get higher. Always the same, never changed since childhood. All of this floats in space in a constant pattern, but I sometimes move about the pattern depending on what I’m thinking of, like my age, a math problem, etc. I have always been good at math and directions, but I think my memory is average. I like reading everyone’s postings on this.
Cyndie,
Great stuff. Thanks for sharing your experiences. Agreed on “everyone’s postings.” This is getting to be quite the collection! Stop back!
Hi!
I definitely have this (I think), but mine is a little different. I have everything grouped into centuries, going all the way back to around 1500 B.C. and forward infinitely. However, the more I know about a certain time period, the more detailed or expanded it becomes. Like with the 1900s, it is split into decades, and then some of the decades are split into years (depending on how much I know), and then the “important” years are split into months (i.e. My mother was born in July 1972, so the year 1972 is very detailed and bright to me). Another is the 100 B.C. – A.D. 95, which I know a good bit about, and this time period is bigger to me than the others immediately before and after it. Everything that is past is in a straight line to my left, and everything that is in the future goes to my right and fades away. I’m able to focus in on years and zoom in down to the hour.
Then there are the months. They are in a shape like a backwards “D,” and each month is a different size. For example, December and January are very large, and they are the flat side to the “D,” on my right (I suppose because they feel longer?). Also, the months are different colors: December is bright red, January is ice blue, May is sunshine yellow, and August through November go from deep gold to burnt orange to brown.
The days of the week are much the same as the months, but they are in a normal “D” shape, and Saturday and Sunday are very large, like December and January. Then the days break down into hours, with the nighttime hours being larger, but taking up less space than the daytime hours. Also, day hours are somewhat yellow while the nighttime are darker.
One last weird thing – It seems like certain time periods are colored. The 1900s are very brassy-gold, and the time of the Roman Empire is very gray and crackled, like stone.
Sorry for being so long winded, but I am seriously excited about finding out about this! I think it is awesome because I thought everyone did the same thing. I do wonder if this is maybe linked to having higher intelligence?? Because my parents have always been told that I was “gifted for being gifted” (such as with the gifted program, not sure if you all know what that is). So if you know anything about that, I’d appreciate it.
Thanks:)
Wow, Mackenzie – great share! These experiences – given that they’re involuntary – sound very much like synesthesia. And quite involved, I might add! While I’m not sure that synesthesia can be linked directly to higher intelligence, I would guess that there exists a positive correlation between the two. I am familiar with gifted programs, actually. Congrats on your involvement!
Ever since childhood I’ve had a mental map of the week – Monday is close to me on the right and the rest of the week stretches away from me going left, with the weekend wrapping back around clockwise to touch Monday. I see the hours in the day as stacking up from lowest, early in the morning, to highest, and scheduling things fills in time-slots like shelves! I also find that when I take notes or doodle while listening to something, when I look at the writing, I can replay whatever I was hearing like my pen is a needle in the groove of a record! I’m looking forward to learning more about synesthesia–it kind of feels like a not-all-that-useful super power
MKP, thanks for the comment!
Great share. I like the super power angle, I have to say. Best of luck w/ the learning!
I just heard about synesthesia and was curious if that strange way that me and both of my daughters visualize days of the weeks/months of the year, etc. I thought maybe everyone did it but after quizzing my daughters- and learning that they visualize them much differently than me, but definitely visual them. (I thought my way was the way everyone ‘saw’ them!) Then when I continued my quizzing of friends, they looked at me like I was crazy.
How fun to learn about this!
Lynn,
Thanks for the comment. Fun it is, indeed. Awesome that your daughters will grow up aware of synesthesia!
sir,
i identified four subjects who have personification of numbers and letters but they do not have color synesthesia. my question is they come under synaesthete group or not?
I took the test at synesthete.org and discovered I have spatial sequence synesthesia. As with many others commenting here, I assummed everyone had these little mental maps. I am 67 years old. I contacted my sibs and my children to see if any of them have anything like this and the answer was NO but now they think there is something weird about me. I see days of the week in front of me but the position changes depending on the actual day. For example, Sat/Sun is on the left on Mon-Wed. but moves to the right on Thurs Fri etc. I visualize the year as an oval ring with Jan at 1 o’clock and July 31/Aug 1 at 6 o’clock. I see ages of people with birth to 12 on an acending slope; teen year as horizontal; then 20′s start up a slope that gets steeper with age. I also see decades as other have mentioned. When I count such as stitches on a needle, I see them acending, as well. When I point to a date in space such as April 15, I do it exactly the same regardless of where I sit or stand and always have. Nothing is behind me as other have reported. Most things are directly in front of me. Depending on what I am thinking, the numbers may roll, so to speak, like get brighter when I focus on it with numbers behind it, on the left, becoming dimmer. My husband is a psychologist and was very surprised at my little quirk. On the test, there was a section on visual imaging, setting out scenarios…think of a beach etc. I completely see eveything in all detail much like a full color movie. He doesn’t do this at all which was a surprise to me since, again, I assumed everyone can call up these images. Maybe that is why my brain is so cluttered. I don’t have any extraordinary skills. Best of luck with your work.
Hey Carol – thanks for the awesome share! It’s great to hear such a detailed explanation of one synesthete’s experiences. It seems like spatial sequence perceptions are a common nerve amongst readers. Happy travels!
Hey vijayasree – there are many different forms of synesthesia. It’s quite possible that an ordinal linguistic personification (OLP) synesthete will not also experience grapheme-color synesthesia. Hope this helps!
I’ve always had this. Some of the colors of each month are indistinct or at least hard to explain. Some colors are similar. I never thought it was odd, I always assumed EVERYONE thought like that. I feel cool now!
Haha! THANKS! VOTE ROMNEY!
Finally got some people who would not think I’m crasy when I talk about my awkward experiences. When I was child, I told my dad that we gonna move down to June in a conversation, he looked at me strangely and said “June is not down there, it’s a month”. That was the moment I realized it was special to my perception. Since then I didn’t talk about it with anyone.
2 years ago, while searhcing the term synestesia, found out my experience has a name and there are others like me. I took many of the test on the net. My strongest synestesia type is SSS I think. Years, months, hours have their own unique sequence as well as numbers. I can show you the place of World War II, a king in the history, birthday of a friend, my university enterance or the new year celebration. A 250.000$ house is always upper side than 300.000. Apart from my general number sequence, clothes and other usual shopping prices have a different one. For each language I learn numbers are in different sequence. There are tens of sequences maybe. I take them for granted so much that most of them I maybe dont even realize. Each day I find out I have a sequence for this or that too.
I have personification type too. Its for each letter and number. I know which is male which is female. Some are tall, some fat, some well educated, some always wear suits like A. They have age. It’s valid for Arabic letters too I think because I learned it in my childhood. I started Japanese alphabet but apparently they don’t have personalities. Only the months are in color, dont know why. Some voices have visual image and somne smells have color. I hate the color orange. I had a perfume which smells exatly like orange, -not like a fruit orange,impossible to explain how- and I hate it too.
I have a very strong visual memory, I can date back to a meeting and tell you who wear what, sit where and etc. Especially the locations. On my daily road,I can easily recognize if a building is painted, if a new board is put up or an advertising changes even small changes.Who ever I saw, even years later I can remember where I have seen. And also their voices. But I can poorly recognize names.Sometimes even my class friends, people I know very well. I’m very bad in directions too. Still mix my left and right. Dont know if they have anything to do with my synestesia. Shared to see anyone experiencing similar stuff among synestetes. Thanks for the website.
Thanks for the share, Robbie! For the time being, Synesthesia Test is politics neutral!
Awesome share, Zeynep. Thanks for sharing your experiences in such great detail!
I just learned I have SSS – i didn’t know it’s a ‘thing.’ I am also eidetic, and i can visualize pretty much anything with great vividness and detail. i can remember places and incidents clear back to my infancy – i even remember processing the world before i had language. like Zeynep, days of my week have personalities (thursdays are flat-out charming), and my sense of direction is wonky – often by exactly 180 degrees. While I don’t have any type of color synesthesia, i am a tetrachrome (I can see more colors than a lot of people). mackenzie’s time structures appear to be similar to mine.
When I was in kindergarten, i could not understand the concept of time. I was otherwise quite academically advanced, so this was incredibly frustrating. I learned to tell time and read calendars, but it had no meaning – just clear (empty) words. For a while I thought that clocks and calendars actually generated time. When my parents bought me a watch to help me with the concept, I was so worried about stopping time that I became obsessed about winding it and rather quickly broke the watch due to over-winding (imagine the subsequent hysteria).
Still the question persisted – ‘what the heck is a tuesday?’ I did understand yesterday, today and tomorrow, before and after tho. Then one day it all clicked – hours and minutes and days and years just STORED certain amounts of time, which repeated in cycles within each other (why didn’t they just say so?). Once I got that, I consciously built a structure in my mental space to hold time (the images of the elements just appeared, but i organized them). Years are elliptical (with months running counter-clockwise) and stack on each other, with the past stretching infinitely towards the bottom and future towards the top. when i need a specific date, the tower of years slides up or down from its ‘present’ resting place at eye level, and the correct year lights up. I swing open the year, find the month and remove a standard monthly calendar vertically embedded in it (like a honeycomb in a hive), then the correct day-box physically rises out of the calendar and stands out.
How do non-sss people do it?
Thanks for the extensive share, Colleen!
Always interesting!
Samantha (above) described my SSS almost exactly. I was surprised as an adult to find that others dont know where the months are, the days, ir the 24 hour “loop” that obviosly snakes up and over me, like a roller coaster. i cant imagine thinking of November in the location where it is and has always been.I also get the comments from others that they can tell you where historical years “are”, and how time is moving us forward. How do people keep track of numbers any other way?!
This is all amazing, fascinating, curious and weird to me. I am researching the topic because at 45 during a meeting at school I learned the way I visualize the months, numbers, years and days of the week is not typical and has a name. I immediately went to my desk and googled number synesthesia… The pictures that others had drawn made me gasp as they looked so similar to how I see theses things- minus the colors. My calendar surrounds my body like an oval in space. Days of the week exist in a line that moves in an oval kind of wihin the calendar. I always access these images when I think or talk of days and months. The numbers 1 to 10 are in a line connected to the teens and then they are in rows of decades until about the 200s when they vanish. I see place values in space up to the billions. I cannot do mental math without visualizing where the numbers are in my number lines. I think it slows me down at times. The years back to BC are also in a pattern that appears in space jutting away from and past me fot the future when I talk about time. It just happens. I can’t stop it. I am not sure how I feel about it…. It’s just who I am. I am stunned that not everyone has this experience. Thanks for letting me post.
Hi!
I just heard about synesthesia a week ago. I also have SSS, didnt know it really was something. I noticed this summer I dont really have “a sense of time” in a linear sense. I haven’t really thought about it but my mom made me pay attention to it. And we noticed that I “see” time, events etc as if I were surrounded by it, and can go back whenever and however. I see time especially months as colored blocks surrounding me with the cold months with colder colors of course. Sometimes it causes a problem for me because im “inside” the time and I loose my sense of time because I see all the months and events equally surrounding me. But mostly its just very helpful, because the memory is beyond great!
Thanks for sharing, enya!
No problem, Kat. Thanks for sharing your experiences!
Hi!
Unfortunately my calendar still refuses to accept this week..
Im not exactly sure if i have SSS or not, but I do have systems for weeks, numbers and letters. I recently discovered that I have a system for months too, at least for December. My sister told me she was jealous because I’m having three weeks of christmas holiday this year. Surprised, I told her she was wrong, it would only be two weeks. As she counted the days aloud, I had to agree with her, it would make three weeks. I discovered that my calender has deleted the week between christmaseve and new years eve. I guess the huge yellow-lightening 24 at christmas eve, just calls for all the attention.. Finally I know the reason for my wondering every year when christmaseve has passed: Why do I have so much time untill the year ends, and why diddn’t I make any plans with my friends!??
This year I am deffinitly going to do something this “forgotten” week – I feel so gifted with time!
One last little thing: I wonder if SSS has any influenze on how synesthetes feels the corners of the world? I can almost always “feel” (And not because of the sun!) where north, south etc. is. I have always wondered why. My father has a bit if synesthesia too, and he’s able to do the same thing.
Thanks for sharing, Lene! You pose some interesting questions. Perhaps someone else will’ve shared some of these thoughts.
Hello!
This is indeed a very intriguing topic.
It has been such a delight for me to learn about synesthesia. I experience SSS when it comes to days of the week, seasons and months of the year, years, people’s ages and just plain number sequences. Also, I can see the alphabet – at least partially – in a certain formation in front of my eyes.
For example, the days of the week run counter-clockwise around a round-cornered rectangle that’s lying on it’s long side. So, Sunday is located at the upper right corner, Monday right next to it on the left, as well as Tuesday and Wednesday that come right after Monday. They are very tightly next to each other… But Thursday takes half of the bottom side, and on its left , almost in the lower right corner, is Friday. Right in the corner is Saturday that climbs about halfway up the short right side where Sunday begins.
The months of the year run also counter-clockwise in a perfectly formed circle that I am able to imagine two-dimensionally in front of my eyes, or optionally, three-dimensionally either vertically or horizontally around myself. in the “3-D setting” I am usually standing in the middle of the circle but I can also go stand at mid-December where I can point out different months and even important dates such as birthdays and national holidays.
Different months take a bit different amount of space in the circle.
Also, I don’t know if this can be counted in with synesthesia but every time I think of a location in the world I mentally look at a flat map of the world (as if it was on a paper). I’m not really sure if it’s just because of my enthusiasm about geography and traveling, haha.
Anyway, it is unbelievably, incredibly rewarding to speak out these visualizations and feelings, and to read other people’s experiences.
Thank you so much for the possibility to share a comment!
~Tuija
I’ll have to correct my previous comment! I wrote that Friday is on the left from Thursday, but of course I meant to say it’s on the right!
Thanks for sharing, Tuija! I’m sure that others will enjoy reading about your experiences, as well.
This is incredible.
Last night my daughter (4 years old) started crying saying that the conversation I was having with my son was making her left pinky throb… I started looking at Synesthesia and discovered that I hvae spatial sequence synesthesia.
Ive told my wife on countless occasions that I see the days of the week and the months of the year as color wheels. My week is like an oval, with small sections for each day along the bottom curve, and Satursday and Sunday occupying two much wider sections along the top curve of the oval. I couldn’t tell you their specific colors, but they have them.
Similarly with the way I perceive the year is as others have described it above. I perceive the year as a much larger (yet thinner for some reason) color wheel. Mine goes clockwise, with Jan Feb and Mar segments on the bottom left.
I also perceive the past to be physically to my rear-left (and down a little. As though I’m looking back down a narrow lane that grows dimmer). I will cast my mind’s eye over my left shoulder when recalling past events. Future predictions happen to my front right and slightly elevated. The years for some reason are on a straight line going from bottom left to top right. I have always naturally done all my calnedar calculations and scheduling this way. My whole life. never thought anything of it until yesterday.
Thank you for sharing all of this information here. I much appreciate it.
Hi Travis,
I only discovered I have spatial sequence a couple years ago. I thought everyone had a map for things. I hadn’t even heard about synesthesia before. Then I read a webcomic (that I can’t find back, sorry) that mentioned it and I looked it up to see what it was. When I got to SSS I was shocked to see a description of the way I think.
Anything that has an order gets a map once I’m familiar with that order. Numbers, dates, months you’d expect but also the Alphabet. Each CD gets a map of the tracks and each track gets a map for the current location in the song when I’m listening to it (some go left-right, some right-left a few go diagonally). Chapters in a book (The Hobbit goes South-North while The Lord of the Rings goes in a clockwise direction starting and ending south). The cardinal directions for a location I’m in (North feels like to the right of me when I’m at home, but at my old apartment, north was in front of me). It goes on.
Also, as it happens, I have a terrible memory, but I never get lost.
Hi Travis,
This truly is the most interesting blog I’ve ever come across. It’s so intriguing reading the various posts and various descriptions of other synesthetes perceptions.
I have always been a number form/spatial sequence synesthete, but I didn’t recognize it as anything out of the ordinary, or rather something that could be labeled, until 2009. In 2009 while watching a documentary that heavily touched on color/grapheme synesthetes, my then 17 year old daughter sat straight up on the sofa and said, “Don’t you associate colors to your letters and numbers? Doesn’t everyone?” I looked at her and thought she was joking. Then she went on to explain that she associated colors to specific words and people as well as music. When she listens to music, ribbons of color are in the “air”, obviously different colors for different songs etc. I was fascinated by what she was explaining to me, so I did a little research on it. She took a test online on January 30, 2009 in which all 26 letters of the alphabet were flashed on the monitor three different times and all randomly, with each letter she had to use a color graph to depict exactly the shade of color she associated with each, this also included numbers 0-9. Her score absolutely SHOCKED me. The further I researched it, I noticed that it tends to be hereditary, but I couldn’t figure out how she was able to get it from me or her father….THEN, I discovered the number/spatial sequence form of synesthesia and couldn’t believe what I was reading. I thought it was strange that she and I would have two completely different forms of synesthesia.
Until reading all of the comments above, I didn’t even recognize that fact that in addition to my days of the week, months of a year, and years in general(all of which have completely different graphs), I ALSO view my personal “age” years differently than I do the years that correspond with those ages. ie, 1987 is down a line completely different to the age of 16. When I see the days of a week, I see them in somewhat of an oval shape, but with Saturday and Sunday right next to each other straight and not curved, always have. It looks more like a bracelet that’s almost oval, but straight for about 1/3 of it. I usually see the entire “oval” off to the left of my mind, but if I am “in” a day of the week, the position of the next day varies. Does that make ANY sense? If it’s Thursday, then Friday is kind of to my right, but if it’s Friday, then Saturday is to my left, if it’s Saturday, then Sunday is right in front of me.
I JUST took your “test” that you posted in one of the comments above, the funniest thing is that the results came back that I was a non-syn…I STRONGLY disagree. But the parameters I think were set up to cover various types, and I only fall in this category.
My daughter thought to re-take the test that she took four years ago, last night. It was very ironic that it was four years to the day. The site that she took her test on still had her results from four years ago. The comparison between then and now was very interesting to her and I, and I wonder how someone else would interpret it, her color/alphabet associations seemingly have gotten much darker. Everything was on the same color scheme as it was four years ago, except the number four. Four years ago, she saw it in a dark green color, and now she sees it in red.
Anyway, thank you for allowing me to babble on, but the biggest thanks to you for enabling me to read about the many exceptionally similar experiences that I have. It’s a neat feeling knowing that there are so many other people out there like me.
I might add, that my days of the week seem to be the only round graph. My months of the year are in a straight vertical line in front and to the right of me with January at the top and December at the bottom…unless I am “in” a month. For example, today is January 31, 2013, the previous weeks of this month are above me, while the remainder of the year is below me, with February almost below and out front, but January is right above my head.
I think what I like most about posting this here, is that I know what I am explaining to you doesn’t seem crazy or unusual, but if/when I try to describe this to my husband, he thinks I’m a lunatic….so thank you.
Hi Danette,
You’re more than welcome! Thanks so much for contributing to the discussion!
This comment thread has become quite the collection – let me tell you.
Thanks for the comment, Andrew. Interesting to hear about your experiences with The Hobbit/LOTR. It’d be interesting to see if you could find books that reflect similar directional patterns.
You’re very welcome, Steve. Thank you for sharing your SSS experiences!
Hi! I have several situations that my family says is “weird,” but one that stands out a lot is my calendar. If I think about a month, I see it in a particular place. My calendar starts with September up in the top left and moves to the right with January at the top right. Next, it comes straight down until April and then the rest of the months become almost transparent. May to June are almost invisible and they begin to glide back up in an arc motion to September, and July and August are floating in the arc. It’s always been that way for me.
I also feel what numbers personalities are. For example, 7 is very evil and I dislike it completely. I have trouble even writing this because I can feel it “looking” at me from the screen. Other numbers are much less worrisome than 7, although some are really rude or indifferent. Some numbers are nice.
Very interesting accounts from others here. I’ve got the SSS version; a close family friend for many years had the personality/color/shape version, and it was pretty spectacular. Oddly, tho I grew up knowing about synesthesia from the family friend, I only realized I had SSS about 2 years ago. I visualize years, months, days, weeks. I *love* Excel — so full of satisfying boxes. I think I have some carryover into words: I’ve always been a top-flight speller, because the words look “right” when they’re spelled correctly. And I’ve used visualized grids to learn lots of languages. Like others, I can’t imagine how people get through the world without this kind of help — it’s sort of like living inside a permanent day planner, and it’s really helpful in my daily work.
I was interested in Audrey’s comments at the top — I too feel that the grids are fading a bit with age — I’m now in my mid 50s. I worry about how I’ll remember and keep track of stuff if I lose my orientation. I tried mentioning this to a GP, but she’d never heard of synesthesia and seemed wary.
I’ve also noticed I like “organized” activities: knitting, which is essentially a large grid; music – again, notes organized on lines; gardening, where you can control plants spatially. I loathe political science and philosophy, which seem to me disorganized. Abstractions are unsettling — cannot get them onto an organized grid!