I spent a day with SYNESTHETES (Neurological condition aka SYNESTHESIA)

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bruh now i'm self-conscious about how i taste to people with synesthesia

'I can't enjoy my cake because this girl tastes like oranges' honestly killed me 😭😂

I learned I had synesthesia when I took piano lessons in high school, but my earliest memory of noticing a difference in my brain, is when I laughed at a boy next to me in kindergarten and said “dude your name is yellow why would you use a purple crayon?” I’ll never forget realizing other kids didn’t see colors w sound and letters/numbers

I think people with synesthesia are very cool. I met a guy in my school once who had it. He saw sound as colors. I didn't really ask about it, but he mentioned that he wanted to become a singer because when he sang he saw a "perfect bright green color", and he really does have an amazing voice. The poor boy had a rough childhood tho, so I'm glad he has that future for him.

imagine getting punched in the face then tasting chcolate milk

the person who created the expression “to feel blue” most likely had synesthesia

I was in the state choir and our conductor had synesthesia. He was the best conductor I’ve ever had and it was really helpful when he told us what color we were singing in. At one point he said his favorite sound to see was purple.

When he said everyone has a tiny bit of synesthesia : I thought to myself about how I was SO SURE the red notebook was math , the green was science, the blue was history and nobody could ever talk me out of it 😆

Anthony: giant violin
Musical community: *extremely triggered*

Imagine falling in love with someone that taste bad..... that must SUCK

i have synesthesia, mostly where sound makes me see colors, but plot twist i also have aphantasia (no imagination, just dark void when i close my eyes)
the best way i can describe having both is like seeing/ being in a pitch black void, but if i were to just turn around i would see a world of imagination, colors, shapes, and sounds. but because i haven't learned to turn around, im stuck seeing nothing and just sensing the sounds/colors behind me where i cant see them.
btw some foods have color
milk doesn't taste white, it's mossy green. And Anthony has a cerulean personality with a khaki (the color) voice and no aura. 4 is E. Anyone with blonde hair's name starts with A. Triangles are red. almost every sound a chello makes is a shade of yellow-ish orange.

Coming back a year later…I actually had a buddy in high school who could taste color in my ap psych class. We were all so intrigued to know more about her, so our teacher brought skittles for everyone and we blindfolded her and asked her to tell us the color she was eating and it was obvious right every time. I have never met anyone like this other than her, and I think its interesting to hear about more people similar!

"I can't enjoy my cake, because I'm with a girl that tastes like oranges!" That was kind of the cutest thing I've ever heard! This was so fascinating. I've heard about this, but I didn't quite understand what they meant until this video!

so that girl is a real definition of.... "i see your true colour" expression..

This video has just coloured this entire comment section. Look at all these cute humans, making space for each other and bonding over the experience of synesthesia, similar experiences, or lack thereof. I feel so seen, as this is something I’ve always experienced, but only just opened up about recently because just nobody talked about it.
Thanks Anthony!!!! ♥️

My friend has something similar to this, she will see letters and numbers and immediately in her brain, there is a color that pops into her head. If I ever have a project that I want to add some color too, I’ll ask her” what color is this word” and she’ll be like “ oh it’s smoky blue,” or something like that, it’s pretty cool honestly

If someone said I tasted like garbage. I’d be confused and offended

"Everybody's brain can connect in a certain way that's exactly like synesthesia."
That makes sense to my experience.

I had a friend in college that when she wrote she would see the sentences in her mind, grammar and all. She could "write" in her head and then just transcribe the sentences, editing as she went. She was an Art History major and she told me this because I studied creative writing and she figured this must be how I write my drafts. I was blown-away! I can't see letters or words in my mind at all, let-alone sentences or paragraphs. It really hit me that this is why I struggled so much in spelling and grammar. I was really like "Wait... all this time people could SEE the words in their MIND!? No wonder they aced spelling tests and I struggled." To be fair this is also why I got into writing, I HAD to write things down because otherwise the words I think are only auditory, seeing, typing, and crafting sentences only exists when I actively write. Anyways I don't think any of this is synesthesia, but it really goes-to-show that minds are all so different and the way we think influences how we learn and what we do.

I like that Anthony never says “normal” when talking to these people. Like when he was asking if the one guy would ever like to see what it’s like without Synaesthesia to see what most of the population perceive as the world instead of saying “normal.” It’s very respectful and nice and I like it.

The video editor is giving us THE EXPERIENCE!!!

I have a friend who smells feelings. She links the way she feels or thinks about people or certain things with people. It was very interesting to have this described to me when I was told I smelled like cucumbers, and then she panicked with a "Nonono not actually I just like cucumbers!!" which just threw for an even bigger loop.

Anthony, this has nothing to do with synesthesia but I just wanted to let you know thank you for sharing this series with the world. It helps people even if they've had a bad funk
I've been having major anxiety for the past couples of days and it's been hell. Watching this series helped me fall asleep and even had calmed me down and broke my anxiety at 3 in the morning.
You're basically saving my life here. I want to cry because I feel like I can breath again. Thank you so much for educating people, and not even knowing that you're helping people in amazing ways. Love ya dude, keep doing what you're doing ❤️

“You’re disgusting” has a whole new meaning

Anthony’s intros: dark and mysterious
Anthony 2 seconds after his intro: hiii omg

I remember reading a book called "a mango shaped space" (it's targeted at a younger audience, but it's pretty good) about synesthesia and how trauma took away her color for a bit.

I've had this for as long as I can remember. I have lots of memories describing what this was like to my mom. I have always associated colors to everything, people, objects, places, even memories. I only recently found out the name of it, it's good to know I'm not crazy. I'm glad Anthony posted this.

You’ll have to tell Lana Del Rey if she actually tastes like Pepsi cola.

"I can't eat my cake when I'm with this girl who tastes like oranges."
This is one of the most odd but really interesting things I've ever heard of.

I have synesthesia and can see words being spoken. It’s kind of like having permanent subtitles on in a movie. Safe to say, it definitely makes spelling words a bit easier.

the girl who tastes like rancid garbage watching this: 👁👄👁

My best friend has synesthesia and she can always tell when I'm tired because she sees sound and apparently my voice looks like blue fairy lights and when I'm tired they get dimmer, its so cool

i give personalities to numbers and when i’m doing any math i imagine scenarios with them. i had no clue this was a thing and not everyone felt like this!

I really enjoyed this video. I have had synaesthesia all of my life. When I was a child I thought everybody was that way but I got to about 14, and in the middle of explaining the concept to my older sister noticed that she was looking at me as if I was totally weird. I didn’t talk about it for another decade until I came across a documentary about the very same thing. It was very refreshing and videos like this are essential. I would say for me synaesthesia is 99.9% a blessing. I have at least four types of it and couldn’t imagine life without it. I sing,write and compose music and have had a very successful career in the music industry. I do not read music but synaesthesia has helped me immensely. It’s a secret creative tool🤩🤩🤩

I would love to see:
"I spent a day with the cameraman"

I’m glad Anthony is introducing people who are different and proving that they are just as human as everyone else.

I HAVE THIS THING!! It's helped me as a musician to remember the notes and key signatures of certain songs because I see the colors associated with them every time I hear those sounds. (It's also hurt me sometimes when the color of the chord of the whole band does not line up with the color of the individual note I'm playing :') OR if the colors of the words/letters in the song title doesn't line up with the music colors too.) Additionally, it helps me recognize my friends' cars because each of their license plates have a specific color palette. I couldn't tell you for the life of me what the actual plate said, just that Bryan's car's palette was purple, blue and green. I'm an artist and have been since before I can remember. I wonder how much of that contributes to why I have it now?
Additionally, a fun thought I've had for ages now but haven't done was to make paintings or character designs inspired by the colors I see/feel when I hear certain songs. I'm too lazy though to actually go forth with it

As a person with synesthesia, it was interesting to see what these people experienced! Some of it was very different from what I coordinate things with.

My synesthesia is so set in stone. My mom never believed me as a kid about each letter and number having it’s own color. She thought I just ‘chose’ the colors in that moment. So she told me to write each letter and 1 to 10. And write each corresponding color. She said she would ask me about it one day to see if I remember. So she didn’t wait very long and about a week later she took out the piece of paper, and asked me random letters and numbers, and I would say their color. She was shocked that literally every color I said was exactly the same as what I wrote down. She still didn’t really believe me, she thought maybe I just remembered really well. Years later (like 11 years later lol) she found the piece of paper while just cleaning out a cupboard or something and she asked me. I was 19 I think. She asked me, just for fun. And I said every number, and every letter, exactly the same color as I did when I was a child. I wasn’t surprised at all obviously but she was seriously impressed and shocked. It just felt good to finally really prove it to her.

i wonder how many colors there were during the presidential debate...

24:16 "So you're constantly getting to experience the feeling of eating cake or some kind of junk food? [She nods affirmatively.]" This is the real question! I think it relates to the prior one about why are synesthetes commonly artists... I want to know the followup: SO, do you have a collection of art that TRIGGERS the sensations you enjoy the most? ie. sound bytes, colors, numbers, etc. framed on the wall? Essentially synesthesia porn? haha. Does it ever get old to experience your favorite things? lol That's what I want to know!

I didn't realize synesthesia was this rare or misunderstood. Both me and my sister are synesthesic. It makes things interesting sometimes, but it doesn't change too much of anything.

All the cellists: ITS NOT A VIOLIN

Random related fact: The rats in ratatouille have synesthesia

Nick is great at explaining the visuals he experiences. I clicked on this video not knowing if I could understand another persons reality like this.

So I have Graphmeme Color Synesthesia, and I find it so fun to try and explain the colors of letters, numbers, words, etc. To my little sister. She doesn't understand it at all, but it is very enjoyable for me. Now I'm also experiencing things where when I am not able to describe something I use colors. The other day I was trying to explain the difference between sprite and siera mist and I said " no because McDonalds sprite is blue, and Sierra mist is green" and my dad just stared at me.

as a classical violinist of 12 years, i’d like to say that the cellist’s vibrato is probably the prettiest i’ve ever heard. he’s so ridiculously talented.

Being married to someone who doesn’t taste good, that’s a funny out of context sentence

i have been researching about this since i was in 9th grade. i have always chosen this topic in my presentations. now im a year away from graduating from med school and my highest grades + my research is targetting neuroscience + psychology. synesthesia will forever be the most fascinating condition i have ever heard of. if anyone reading this is also into fascinating conditions like these, you could learn about the parietal lobe of the brain (if it gets damaged, you'll see the most bizzare diseases you never knew were possible).

Being ill and sad, I feel like these interviews really help me out, one of a few things I can enjoy

I think he should do a "I spend a day with people with antisocial personality disorder" , since to me , it's an interesting disorder that is often misinterpreted

The girl talking about “the colour was gone” during a bad period of depression, that’s literally what happens to me during a depressive episode, all the colours of the world go muted. It looks like I’m looking at everything on a dark rainy day. So, I get not wanted to have that be a permanent thing, we need colours however we experience them

Loved this video man. A friend had told me about Synesthesia one time and I had no clue what it was. I did some research. It was very interesting. Been watching documentaries on it ever since, and that was about 7 years ago. It was interesting that people can use it as a memory enhancer. They can keep track of, and remember things that would boggle the mind. Loved the video man.

I love how understanding and compassionate Anthony is. He is also clearly intelligent. He is never offensive, but he asks the questions we all want the answers to!

Imagine having to tell your friend that you can’t hang out with them anymore because you hate the taste of oranges. They’d be so confused if they didn’t know

That brings a whole new meaning to "I have a good taste in friends"

I first heard about synesthesia in the children's book series "The Secret Series" by Pseudonymous Bosch. It's a great read!
I like the part where they discussed whether or not everyone has a little bit of synesthesia. It made me think of when I was in high school and how I chose what color to label different school subjects for my notebooks and folders and stuff. Like, math was red. I'm not sure why (probably because I don't like math so it makes me angry and red is angry lol). Science was green because biology was my favorite science and it's about living things, which are green. And English was purple or blue because those colors reminded me of royalty. But I guess that's really more about associations made based off life experiences and knowledge rather than synesthesia.

Love getting to watch these videos. Helped me with my touretts and really love learning more about all these different people.
Cannot wait for another episode

*If anyone was curious Anthony is orangey red, Padilla is yellow, and Anthony as a person is magenta and fuschia*

Popular opinion: Anthony is the worlds best interviewer.

Wow, I did not know this was a condition. Absolutely love that you interview so many people in different walks of life and teach people about all the awesome things this world has to offer. Your videos always leave me wanting to learn more about the subejcts you bring forward. Thank you so much for all the great interviews.

Ok so I have multiple.
Colored Pain: when I experience pain I see colors physically, making it projective. For example, if I have chest pain, I see a translucent kinda red disk about 4 inches from my face. When I had a terrible stomachache earlier, it was a deep green/muddy yellow color that I could like see next to my eyes.
Chromesthesia: This one is associative for me, meaning I can’t physically see it there in front of me but I still see it inside of my head, which is actually more common among synesthetes. I don’t know the names of notes but if I hear a certain note it’ll have a color. Songs have shapes and colors that float around in my head. For instance, the song Loonatic by Loona OEC is pink bubbles.
Grapheme-Color: Also associative, pretty self explanatory, I associate graphemes with colors. I also don’t know the name for it, but I’m also gonna include associating words, names, dates, concepts, series of things (like months and days) with colors.
Not sure what this is called, but whatever it would be to associate a voice or sound with a very specific shape and color: For instance, my friend Rory’s voice is a kind of yellow blob with like idk it’s not really yellow but it’s not… it’s too abstract to explain. I can’t even draw it because thinking too much about it is extremely overwhelming.
Well, idk, that’s all from me. I’m up to answer questions.

Im guessing the person who made the saying “you left a bad taste in my mouth” most likely had Synesthesia 🤔

when ratatouille sees color when he eats the cheese off the lightning rod is that synesthesia?

I can very much relate to this video because I have synesthesia. I can feel things I see and I relate certain words to sounds or colors. Thank you Anthony for making such a wonderful video about this topic and thank you to the people who were interviewed for helping other people understand synesthesia.

I have ASD and have experienced this my entire life, however I don’t physically see colors in sound. It’s happening in my head, and the colors are clear, but a single sound is like a tie-dye shirt with certain colors (depending on the sound) that morphs and evolves as the sound hits my eardrums. It doesn’t overlap into my vision but I see them vividly overlapped in my mind. I used to think album art was chosen by the artist based on how they saw their colors in their music. I remember arguing with a classmate who put their school subject folders in the “wrong colors”, and I figured everyone had their own internal connections with senses, but now I believe that it’s more of a conscious decision rather than a true sensation for those without synesthesia.

I use to be friends with a girl who has a version of this, she could taste words. She told me that my name tasted like Strawberries.

"Or saying climate change is a hoax"
*Looks directly into camera*
What a legend.

One of my friends has synesthesia and I think it’s so amazing and fascinating how she can see colors in names and hear colours

I had no clue about the number thing I have definitely classified numbers with personalities, also this was so cool to listen about thank you so much guests :D ❤️

The thought that someone out there in the world has probably tasted me without my knowledge....

It's like the scene in ratatouille when he's explaining the combos of flavors and they close their eyes showing explosions of color

Its so interesting to hear others' experiences with synesthesia! I personally experience emotion-colour and sound-colour synesthesia

Skye is such a lovely and interesting person! Thoroughly enjoyed her interview💕

Person: “red is sus”
Team: “Oh okay, then let’s vote em out bois”
*red was not an imposter*
Person: “oh no no, I meant their aura, not their player colour”

"Why are you avoiding me"
"I'm sorry you just taste so bad"
im dying lmaoooo

i was recently diagnosed with Synethesia! this video helped me understand it more thank you :’D

I have Synesthesia, and it’s so cool to hear how it effects other people! I mostly have sound to color, but I also have the one where people have colors/aura like presences, and a bit of sounds to touch.
So sound to color is a lot like what they were talking about, and it causes me to love different types of music because they grant me different colors and feelings. Like if I’m having bad anxiety I have songs or sounds I can put on that make me feel wrapped in a blanket even if I’m not, which can help. I can listen to songs that are a little more sharp if I’m struggling to stay awake and they help.
I’m a huge extrovert, and I feel very lucky to have the aura one, because everyone I know has very specific colors and how those colors coordinate with each other in their movement, so often, if someone is having a hard time, even if they’re good at hiding it, I can usually tell because their color or texture pattern will be off.
I love asking my boyfriend what’s up, and he’ll be like “I’m fine” and I just look at him and say, “My love , you are running underground in a silver stream instead of floating in a cloud with gold flecks.” And then he tells me what’s going on because I’m always right 😂

My cousin has synestia. He can see smells and the color of a woman changes when shes pregnant. He has always known my aunt was pregnant before she did.

Mentioning that even someone who doesn't have synesthesia can have a degree of synesthesia perception, like 5 is a boy, is very interesting and funny to me because when I was a cashier I would always mix up the codes for avocado(4046) and lime(4048) not because they were one number different, but because the number 8 felt stronger, more masculine? like my perception of an avocado, where as the number six felt softer, and gentle like lime. Typing this out makes me realize how ridiculous it sounds because I know limes aren't gentle, and avocados aren't tough, but in my brain both avocado and 8 are strong, and limes and 6 are soft.

I feel like i have Grapheme Color Synesthesia. ive been thinking about this for a while. its really cool to think that so many people brains work so differently from each other. It makes me wonder how different the world would look though someone else's mind.
i think my brother has it also because one time we argued about the colors of numbers but i thought that it was normal for everyone.

I can't handle a certain name. Trauma related. And I'm psychotic enough rn in my life that just the first letter coming up (J) was kinda rough....
I'm almost Glad someone else hates that letter....
I Know it's Just a name. It's not inherently Bad. Buuut.....
I personally can't even trust people with that name. Without knowing them really well. (I know my reality isn't right. But hearing them talk about things that seem so "unreal" to most people so normally and casually.... makes me feel less alone.)
Anthony has done an amazing job with all the interviews I've seen/ heard so far.
I'm Very thankful of his inherent respect towards all these people.
Thank you Anthony for making this series and being so Understanding. It has helped me feel less insane lately. So.... Thank you. /G ❤

This made me so jealous because I have aphantasia, which means I can’t imagine anything. I always thought “imagine being on a beach” exercises were a figure of speech, I only recently discovered people actually can /see/ images in their heads. It’s honestly been really depressing to know that I lack the ability to see loved ones or places I’ve been on demand. The same percent of the population has red hair- I also have red hair 😂 won the genetic lottery - I would LOVE if you could cover aphantasia!

Imagine meeting a person and being like " you taste like trash, bye." And just walk away 😂

1:38
Hey he stole my name

numbers and letters have always had a color to me, and food has had different colors and temperatures to me, days and months have colors, and so does certain music genres, i had never heard of the term synesthasia so this helped me understand myself a lot

Awh omg imagine falling in love with someone who happens to taste exactly like your favourite food or snack

Person: pulls out cello
Anthony: that's big a violin
Me a musician: angrily plays a d minor chord

One time I had a synesthetic experience listening to a professional mixer reacting to one of TOP's album. He was explaining it in 3d terms like depth or texture and me being an artist I somehow started to experience it in my own way and for a solid 2 minutes I felt like I could touch the music and even visualize it like it was a sculpture.
It felt really weird like I was warping reality or something but it is till this day the coolest experience listening to music I've ever had.

I do this to , at 2:30 when he talked about things in an order such as numbers or days of the week, I could relate.
1 = blue 2 = red 3= green = 4= also blue 5= also red 6= also green 7= brown 8= dark green 9= purple 10= brown

I’m not even a cellist and I was offended

This woman deadass seeing chakra like it's naruto. Love her

God...this video is just...so strong to me
I knew I had synesthesia with touch and hearing
It's not so strong and I need to concentrate sometimes to be able to feel sometimes
I can feel pressure points, my body moving, actual textures in my skin and specific parts, like my legs or hand and etc
and it's the same things always produce the same results
BUT SEEING THIS VIDEO MADE ME REALIZE SO MUCH
SO LIKE people don't see numbers interacting and changing in their head when they are doing math?
People don't have specific feelings or personalities or even touch sensations to different words and stuff like this?
Like
I knew I had part of it
but I never thought the other things were also synesthesia

I know this video was a while ago but I’m a synesthete too and I just love relating to this video!! Feels like my soul is on my screen rn. My synesthesia is mostly a very positive experience but it can have its drawbacks. At the end of the day I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s just how my world works and I wouldn’t have It any other way :)

i don’t understand how people don’t believe that synesthesia is real??? there is so much connection to colour, sound, music, taste and much others, in everyone’s brains that is similar to synesthesia! baffling.

NO ONE TALKS ABOUT SYNESTHESIA THIS GAVE ME SO MUCH SEROTONIN

I had it when i was a kid and it radically muted by itself when i started puberty. I still have it but its less intense. I had it around words, music and certain like... vibrant 🤷‍♂️ people. Its very emotionally linked. It helps with so much too. Especially playing instruments and learning languages. With words I'd vividly see the word in my mind with particular patterns and colours around it. Music presented like waves made of smoke and the colour changed with the size of the waves. Also concepts turn into images in my head. So when i need to remember something i remember the image first. Certain people would also have certain colours. Others didnt have colours at all.

this was always interesting to me because typing this out i can see colors in the letters and around them like a glowing effect, like dark blue, bright green, red etc and it always made wonder what could be causing it. i did have 4 grand-maw seizures and i thought it was from that, when ever i am in the shower and hear the water hitting my head and the tub and if i close my eyes i see flashes of color, or if my eyes are open i can see like bright white stars or something moving i don't know how to explain that.. never been to a eye doctor for that specific reason other than for glasses.. but am curious enough to see if i should get my eyes checked for those reasons or how ever they do it

my ex girlfriend had pretty much EVERY type of Synesthesia. we had yet to find one she didn’t have. i remember her making a painting for me, a visual of what she saw when she felt love for me. apparently my voice tastes like the green gummy bears (thank god, there were a couple of people whose voices tasted awful and she’d avoid them because of that). whenever she saw white, she’d feel pain, where it was in her vision made different parts of her body hurt. she got incredibly overwhelmed very easily though.