An Explanation of my Spatial-Sequence Synesthesia
In my spatial-sequence synesthesia, I see months of the year, days of the week, and hours of the day in circular sequences that occupy space.
Months of the Year
My year is a large circle around my head. The months run counter-clockwise, with January at the “top” slightly to the left of center. The months follow around the circle, until June and July are basically inside my head, then continuing around to the right until December meets January. Whenever I think of a month, I see it in its spot and its color. My calendar does not rotate. It is always the same no matter what month it currently is. If I think of a month, I can sort of move myself into it, but retain the dominance of the static calendar. I don’t know if this is making sense to anyone but me…
The idea of this circular spatial sequence is that the months are constantly flowing one into the other, in a constant, repetitive pattern. There is no break in the pattern, which is why my circle is so appropriate. Below I’ve drawn a couple of diagrams of my year, complete with each month’s color. The first one is as if you were standing behind me. The second is as if you were looking down at it from above my head.
Days of the Week
My week is similar to my hear in that it is circular and runs counter-clockwise. It is much smaller than my year, and sits in a space in front of me and slightly to the left. Sunday and Saturday and in the “back” of the circle, and the rest of the days are in the “front”. It also has less dimension/depth than the year does. Each day has a color as well. Just like my year, I can move myself into each day, but the week never changes its spatial sequence. Below I’ve drawn a diagram of the way I see my week, with each day in its color.
This is a very rough sketch of how I view the days of the week via my spatial-sequence synesthesia. It’s a circle, where Saturday and Sunday are farther away and Wednesday is closest to me. It’s really hard to depict this properly. The days are also colored based on how they are colored to me (via my grapheme-color synesthesia). This is not necessarily how the actual words look to me, just the DAYS.
Hours of the Day
The hours in my day are slightly different from my year and week. My day is like an elongated oval, and sits vertically, as opposed to horizontally (like my year and week) in space. It is like a big oval that I could draw on the wall in front of me, and is about the same height as my body, but higher than me (it doesn’t start at my feet, but maybe my waist). It is also different in that it runs clockwise, but it is not exactly like a clock.
Midnight is at the top. 6:00 am is at the bottom. Noon is halfway through the left side. The chunks of time also have colors associated with them, but it’s mainly just the color of the sky during that time of day, so I don’t know that it counts in a synesthetic way.
Below is a diagram of my day (click it to make it bigger).
March 23rd, 2010 at 6:02 pm
My week and year are elliptical too, Becky, and infront of me same as you described and they go around anti-clockwise. I was sure that’s usual in people…and I can’t imagine any other way of thinking about days and months without having a some sort of ‘map’ of it in your head.
April 4th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
I thought everyone was like this ! My days are clockwise but my months are anti clockwise. The dates of the month (1 – 31) curve out and up from the right. Years fall down from the left and numbers run on a ribbon, but I go straight to the one I need. Wish I could get the colour and taste stuff… Maybe I can train my brain to do it.
April 18th, 2010 at 7:07 pm
Fascinating! My year runs clockwise, and it is VAST–six whole months in diameter, I would say! (Yes, I’m being a tad facetious here). I have to FLY around the year to get to a particular date. My perspective is pretty fluid. I sit on whatever month it is and gaze/fly at whatever date I’m thinking about, from the perspective of whatever date it is at the time.
I have a history timeline as well. The centuries alternate between cream color and brown. The 21st century is brown, the 20th is cream, the 19th is brown, etc. The centuries march backward in time, rather wide in shape, until you get to the year 600 AD, when things take a sharp bend right (from the perspective of looking back at time). As you head into BC, the colors change to green, and things fork. One fork branches out to the left and becomes vast and hazy–the natural history of life, the universe, and everything. To the right is a small “boat launch” that goes steeply down into biblical history and ultimately lands in the Garden of Eden.
I could go on about my rollercoaster-shaped week, but I’m thinking maybe I should make my own website about this…
April 18th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
@Claire (August 25th, 2009 at 6:17 pm) : I laughed out loud when you said your teens “go through the woods.” I wouldn’t have described it exactly like that, but I understand what you mean! I think my number line is similar to yours, except 1-10 go up, make a left at the teens where they get dark (go through the woods?), head steeply up, then get very bright at 20 and then march off to the right in a pretty straight and bright line.
April 22nd, 2010 at 5:56 pm
Hi Alexandra – welcome to the conversation! It’s awesome to learn about so many different number lines and spatial sequences. Yours seems a lot more in depth than mine. No fair! :)
April 27th, 2010 at 8:24 am
Very interesting! My week is almost exactly the same as yours except the mirror image. I don’t have the colours though. I can zoom in and out of the week depending on where I am in any given particular day and whether I’m looking backwards in time or forwards.
My calendar has no colour either but runs anti clockwise in a kind of S shape but with December and January joining. I can also zoom in and out of any given day or even hour of the day within the calendar. My calendar cannnot pivot around but I can move around within it and face different directions.
I’ve got different spacial forms for all sorts of things like hours of the day, numbers (which twist and turn around me and have ‘breaks’ in the line at random places), shoe sizes, dress sizes, temperatures, decades/centuries etc.
I always thought everyone else thought this way until watching a documentary on BBC and saw that that was definitely not the case!
:o)
April 27th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
are you synesthetic if you see everything in your mind, not physically right in front of you? because i see years, months, days, letters, and numbers all very vividly in my head, and some of them have distinct colors. when i “see” them in my mind i can’t focus on what i am staring at in front of me at the same time. but they are not in an actual space outside of my body. i guess it doesn’t count
April 29th, 2010 at 9:46 am
Here’s a link to a 3D representation of my synesthetic calendar year that I created a while back — which has been this way for as long as I can remember. It’s really amazing to read all of the posts here — specifically the common sentiment that the majority of synesthetes are eventually surprised to learn that others don’t think this way.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65028506@N00/4496995375/
April 30th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Dana is so right: “…the common sentiment that the majority of synesthetes are eventually surprised to learn that others don’t think this way.” I’d heard of people who see colors and letters in color, but until a couple of years ago when I read an article concerning spatial sequence synesthesia, I had no idea there were numerous types of synesthesia, and that not everyone SEES time, whether it’s a history time line, or days of the week, or months of the year, or hours of a day. Evidently a lot of people don’t even see the alphabet…! I couldn’t believe it! So I asked my husband, to whom I’ve been married for 31 years, and for the first time discovered that he, all these years, has been plotting his life without a mental image of where in the week a dentist appointment, or whatever, will occur, etc. On the other hand, as I mentioned in an earlier post, when I asked my three daughters if they could point to April, only one of them looked at me as if I was nuts. The other two, without hesitating, stabbed a specific spot in the air.
April 30th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
so if you don’t physically see colors in the air in front of you it still counts as synesthesia?
May 1st, 2010 at 12:33 am
Anna – yes, you are synesthetic! There are those of us who see the colors kind of “projected” in front of us, and those of us who see the colors in our “mind’s eye” so to speak. I’m a “mind’s eye” girl. :)
May 6th, 2010 at 5:58 pm
I never realized that this was abnormal until recently! My year and week are nearly identical to your own, except that they go clockwise. And my day is the exact same, too, but I only see shades of gray. I can’t imagine not placing myself in the right “time.” It’s weird to me that most people don’t. :) I also see historical timelines in a very distinct curving pattern and anytime I do math calculations I have a particular pattern of numbers. It’s so interesting!
May 25th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
My calendar is exactly like yours, counterclockwise and circular. I have described it to people before and I only recently realized that it wasn’t “normal”. I’ve had it for as long as I can remember and it’s awesome that there’s an official term for it.
I also memorize birthdates, employee numbers, phone numbers, addresses, and other random stuff without trying. When I see someone, I automatically associate the numbers with their faces.
May 25th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Reading through more of the comments now. I am also a very good speller.
My boss is amazed that I know everyone’s employee number (I work in HR) but I can’t NOT know them — I see the numbers when I see the people! I didn’t try to memorize them.
May 25th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Ah! I can’t stop thinking of things to post now.
My son is almost three, and just after he turned two, he was able to recognize all of the letters of the alphabet. He just walked up to me one day when I was on the computer and pointed to a letter and said, “is it S?” and anoother: “is it H?” and he went through the keyboard and was right on all of them! I never taught him the letters but he had quite the collection of books and one of them had the alphabet and each page had things that began with that letter. We never really emphsized the letters so I have no idea how he picked them up, and the only thing I can think of is that he watched “Super Why” on PBS and it’s all about letters and spelling (mind you, it’s geared towards preschoolers). He then went on to learn all the sounds the letters make because we got him a LeapFrog DVD, and after one or two times through that, we could ask him what sound a “K” made and he’d say, “K, K, K”.
This is random, but the other day I was pumping in the other room (I breastfeed) and I came out to the kitchen and my son was saying, “HUM-bo HUM-bo HUM-bo” and I realized right away that he was mimicing the pump. He is not autistic or anything — he is actually overly social. I wonder if he is also synesthetic? He’s gotta be, right?
May 25th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Hey Sarah – When I first started reading about synesthesia years ago I had read that children can’t really communicate that they have synethesia until they learn their letters and or numbers. My sons did not inherit my synesthesia and it’s no surprise as the gene is transferred from female to female more often. (My sister has synesthesia and both her daughters have it but not her son). I now have a five year old daughter and although she started reading on her own last year, I am holding off for a bit until I start to quiz her.
May 26th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
I have this too! Numbers, months, days of the week, all have a 3-dimensional pattern, but not colors. So odd to find others that do this too.
May 26th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
I see numbers from 1 – infinity in a particular pattern too.
I see the years and the centuries in a particular pattern too.
I never realized that this was unusual until later in life.
June 7th, 2010 at 2:41 am
I actually studied psychology and it wasn’t until last night that I watched a documentary on synesthesia that I realized I can relate a lot to those who have spatial sequence synesthesia. I see my months of the year in a circle as well, but clockwise. Its very easy for me to quickly calculate what the 6 month mark is from any given month because i just draw a diagonal line from say february to august in my mind. I also see my numbers on a sort of plane where 1-29 are on a single line and then 30-39, 40-49 etc fall in columns next to that first line, since I view this at the stand point of around 20 everything after 50 starts to fade because of it’s distance from where Im standing.
June 8th, 2010 at 4:22 am
On April 27th Claudia mentioned that she could move around inside her calendar and see it from different angles. I do this as well with months and years but am interested in knowing if this is usual or do most peoples’ spatial images move with them?
June 8th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
MK-
mine definitely do. all of mine (months, years, numbers, etc.) are like long lines and i am able to scroll up and down them and zoom in on them.
August 1st, 2010 at 9:04 pm
My calendar of months in the year is fixed and colorless, and January is always closest to my head. The months proceed counter-clockwise from there in a bent sort of elliptical shape. I’m pretty good at zooming into a particular month inside my head, but the actual physical structure of my calendar outside my head doesn’t change. Hmmm…that doesn’t sound very clear. Does that make sense at all?
August 2nd, 2010 at 9:42 am
Yes Monika – it makes sense. That’s the unique fun of having synesthesia. We can come up with some pretty bizarre descriptions yet we all get it. : )
September 14th, 2010 at 8:15 am
I am 40. I am in health care. I never heard of synesthesia until last week when I was reading about Justin Chancellor, the bass player for the band Tool. He has a form of synesthesia where he sees colors associated with different sounds. I thought that was interesting so I did some more research. This was how I learned that I have spatial sequencing numeric synesthesia. I always figured everybody pictured numbers on invisible scales, continuums and graphs, so I never thought twice that I did. Very interesting. Noone I’ve talked to in the last week has this experience, and I think that’s awesome. I feel pretty unique. My images vary depending on the context… Ages, years, centuries, money, calendar dates, weekdays, hours, distances, and so on, all have different appearances, and all all linear, none circular, though many are kind of elliptical, and none are really connected to colors, which sounds different than most of the other contributors to this forum. But it’s there and it’s predominant. I feel lucky to be “affected” by it!
September 14th, 2010 at 9:15 am
It is so interesting that we all assume that everyone SEES timelines and number lines, etc., until suddenly we find out that they don’t.
My daughters, the two who do carry a visual image of the hours of the day, months of the year, years throughout history, etc. around in their heads are trying to convince my third daughter, who doesn’t, that nevertheless she is synesthetic because she has a map of the world in her mind.
Their argument interests me, because, as far as I know, even non-synthesthetes must refer to a mental map or globe before they can process the evening news, don’t they? If there’s an earthquake in Peru, for instance, everyone actually zeros in on a mental image of South America…don’t they?
Just wondering.
September 14th, 2010 at 10:16 am
That’s what I always wondered, because I see elaborate numeric/alphabet sequences in my head, but doesn’t everyone have to see that? Because you can’t really count or say the alphabet or think about days of the week without visualizing them.
September 14th, 2010 at 10:19 am
“Because you can’t really count or say the
alphabet or think about days of the week without visualizing them.” Yes, thank you!! That’s how “we” see it but “normal” people don’t see it that way. Frankly I can’t imagine not seeing anything! How completely dull.
September 14th, 2010 at 10:30 am
“as far as I know, even non-synthesthetes must refer to a mental map or globe before they can process the evening news, don’t they?”
Well, I just quizzed a co-worker who does not have synesthesia and she does not see a mental map. She associates. I say there was an earthquake in California, she thinks of someone she knows who lives there.
September 14th, 2010 at 10:37 am
Wow, Yvonne, that is so interesting! It never occurred to me (although, I suppose it should have) that people wouldn’t see maps in their mind the way we do.
September 14th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
That’s really interesting, I can’t even imagine how it’s not natural for other people.
September 14th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
I know…it seems crazy that they can even function! LOL
June 2nd, 2011 at 1:46 pm
This is an amazing description. I love that when I think about things like this I always have such a hard time explaining it to others. This description such perfect sense to me though – you have no idea – it was identical to the way I spatially visualize – minus the shapes, patterns, and colors that mine have.