In keeping with what seems like resurrection month for me, I'm posting this from the February 2010 Issue of Scientific American. It's about seeing "impossible colors."
Well then, what does this have to do with synaesthesia?
It would appear that these "impossible colors" add new tones/experiences to the palette of synaesthesiac experience.
I am able to see these colors pretty well. So some of you should be able to see them as well. (See the example below).
OK, first the article excerpts:
"
Key Concepts
Red and green are called opponent colors because people normally cannot see redness and greenness simultaneously in a single color. The same is true for yellow and blue. Researchers have long regarded color opponency to be hardwired in the brain, completely forbidding perception of reddish green or yellowish blue. Under special circumstances, though, people can see the “forbidden” colors, suggesting that color opponency in the brain has a softwired stage that can be disabled. In flickering light, people see a variety of geometric hallucinations with properties suggestive of a geometric opponency that pits concentric circles in opposition to fan shapes.
"
Here's the visual example:
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In any event, my overall point for bringing all this to the fore is that once I saw the reddish-green/greenish-red color, I immediately associated it with a particular mental state/feeling I have been experiencing recently and have been quite unable to put into words.
Now I have a color for visualizing/expressing it!
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And in general, regarding synaesthesia - I think there's more of it about these days.
You noticing this, too?