Blogpost 5: Famous People with synesthesia

Synesthesia can be presented in so many ways. Each synesthete has their own perception of using synesthesia which lead some famous people to making inspirational music or songs. It is very obvious that most musicians from the past have great and wide imaginations to form different kinds of entertainment through singing, playing the guitar and bringing joy to the soul of every listener. 

As I was looking for different articles and blogs, I found a blog entitled "Incorrect Pleasures: Famous Synesthetes or possible synesthetes by Lili Marlene(not her real name). I find the blog very interesting because some of these famous people are celebrities, musicians and artists that I see on live show and hear their music on the radio.

I see guys like Jimmi Hendrix, a very influencial American rock legend, singer and songwriter. Hendrix claimed that he played colours rather than chords or notes. Hendrix had a reputation for taking LSD (known as the Street name "acid") and other mind-altering drugs, and LSD causes an artificial type of synaesthesia that I believe is consistent with Hendrix’s described experiences, but I also believe this description might not be inconsistent with naturally-occurring synaesthesia. Hendrix had an extraordinary musical memory and he could even learn a band’s entire repertoire in one sitting. Hendrix died from an overdose of sleeping pills. He had a sibling who was born blind and two other siblings born with other problems. One biographer claimed that Hendrix falsely claimed to be homosexual in order to be discharged from the army. Hendrix is reported to have been a left-hander and gifted with perfect pitch. 

Another famous person with synesthesia is Patrick Stump, an American singer-songwriter, record producer, music critic and a former member of the Fall out Boys band. He is grapheme to color synesthesia.

This a blog entry of Patrick Stump: "In the case of graphame to color synthetics it basically means that one interprets written information as 'Colored.' For instance the letter 'F' for me is green. When I see it written in black I obviously still notice that it is black but it 'Feels' green. Or 'S' is red. Most of the alphabet and numbers from 1-10 have some sort of associated color to me." 

Marilyn Monroe, Actress, singer and model (June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962).

She has that displacement of the senses which others take drugs to find. So she is like a lover of rock who sees vibrations when he hears sounds. — Norman Mailer Marilyn: A Biography

In the point of view of a synesthete, synesthesia is not a burden, and according to Thomas Pychon's statement, "The Situation must necessarily appear to a single observer much like a diagram in four dimensions to an eye conditioned to seeing the world in only three." 

This must be the reason why famous people with synesthesia tend to be creative in the lines of entertainment. In a way, they can get great ideas with it and put it into action. But most of this famous people did not have a pure synesthesia syndrome. 

They only acquired synesthesia is because of the use of illegal drugs. Famous people like Hendrix and Monroe are the ones who used drugs in order to acquire the talent of being a synesthete.