This has been in the news a lot lately - apparently because scientists just managed to figure out that it's a valid way to experience the world instead of a brain malfunction, or a bunch of "sensitive" people walking around. Synesthesia is a state of affairs extant in certain people - maybe one in one thousand - who perceive reality with a certain overlap in senses. They can see sounds, hear and smell colors, feel music, et cetera. There's a good article about it here, and NPR had something else about it this morning.
We're talking about this because it describes me. I have been this way ever since I can remember, and I was unaware that it was recognized enough even to be rare. I didn't think I was the only one or anything - people talk about "cool blues" and "warm reds" all the time - but I also have never devoted much effort to breaking this down, and it's really pretty important when you think about it. It's only my perception of reality - whoooh.
So yeah, I can smell purple, red and yellow (not always), and hear a numerical concept. It's how I do math in my head. Certain numbers have tones, and those tones have sustain. When I need to remember a number's location, (say in a mentally pictured equation) that tone sustains longer. Metal music is heavy blue tones, with navy guitars, depending on how much they shred. Jazz is oranges and greens, unless it's Mingus, who is different sometimes. Classical tends toward blacks (imagine a pulsing, vibrant black surface with lit variations) and reds, depending on who it is. Smells trail, visually, and I don't have to take anything to make them do it. A nasty smell which I cannot escape will make itself a brownish haze at the fringes of my vision. Egg smell has a pinkish halo. Time is a spiral road, and when I can't remember something as well, it's often because I have trouble accessing that part of the spiral. There was a greyish-white high pitched noise at work today, and the myclonic twitch I invariably have before dropping off to sleep comes with a burst of ice blue light. Gunshots are yellowish, and gasoline registers as a taste and smell and greasy tactile sensation simultaneously. Certain emotions tend to bring on certain colors, too.
It is actually kind of weird describing it, because I kind of have to force myself to be more aware of it than normal to do so. Since I / my brain has always done things this way, I can't really imagine anything being any different. I wanted to write this to register my experience with the phenomenon, and if anyone has any of the same sort of experience, or questions, the comment field is always open.