[-empyre-] synaesthesia, drugs and surgery, literature

[Barrie Collins <barriec@optusnet.com.au>]

It just came to mind, ten years ago, when we moved North from where I live
now, to a country area well known for alt culture, Bellingen, on the North
coast of NSW, my partner at the time, and I experienced our first magic
mushroom trip and that this may have some bearing on the discussion about
experience of synaesthesia.

The effect was to enhance our perception, in different ways. My wife lay in
the long grass at the house where we were staying watching spiders spin
their webs for hours, totally immersed in the experience, the exquisite
detail, quietly contemplating their minute but finely detailed life. Later,
when we went for a walk in the rainforest, I ate a couple of goldtops and
had my own first hallucinogenic experience.

I remember that the first thing I noticed was that when I moved my head
rapidly that my vision was broken up, there was a trailing edge of primary
colours following every object that I looked at, trees, the bush,
everything. These were the additive primaries, I think, seen in rainbow like
bands. A disintegration of perceptual processes, not necessarily akin to
what happens for synaesthesics but an indication of how the mechanics of
perception can be altered. There were other aspects to the experience, the
enhancement of pattern and texture - greatly enriched.

This is not synaesthesia, but it is altered perception/conciousness as is
synaesthesia.

I also remember being paranoid, wondering whether anyone would notice that I
was tripping, which seems hilarious in retrospect as my appearance and
behaviour hadn't changed, just my perception.

I guess the question I'd like to ask is why do we want to have this
experience? Certainly, I'd like to eat another mushroom one day, and like
Aldous Huxley, document the experience as he did in Doors of
Perception/Heaven and Hell. But would you really want to have the experience
of synaesthesia, all the time, would it be too disturbing, disorienting,
undesirable? Particularly if it was a constant in your life.

Another question I have is, are there synaesthesics who experience sensory
crossovers with text, words, meanings. I seem to remember that there are
those who experience colour/flavour/number and sound crossovers. But the
verbal experience interests me, as a writer and past visual artist.

Metaphor is a well known literary device, the real thing would be quite
another experience.

Barrie



barriec@optusnet.com.au
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~fizzion