Science on the Web

I just came across an awesome science site, and spent the better part of a half hour skimming through articles. Everything from Star Trek doors and weapons to ancient crocodilians.

There's even an article on Synesthesia. I have a suspicion that Synesthesia is the real explanation behind seeing auras and such. I am synesthetic; I associate sounds and colors and letters (among other things) with colors. This association is consistent for me, but is likely to be different with another synesthetic. The article at LiveScience is the first I've found that describes my experience, of "seeing" the colors in the mind's eye, rather than with the eyes themselves. No one really knows what causes Synesthesia. I find it both amusing and annoying that it is often characterized as a "disease of the brain" when Synesthetics tend to have better recall abilities than nonSynesthetics.

At any rate, my suspicion is that us Synesthetics are actually taking in more information than nonSynesthetics, and that our brains don't have a specific way to process that information. So it gets lumped in with colors. Which colors depend on the person involved. I have yet to see any research even consider that the colors might actually be meaningful (at least to that person) and represent extra information about the object at hand. Part of the reason for my suspicion is that I tend to associate colors with the people I know, and those colors change from time to time, often seemingly in connection with his or her mood. This sounds a lot like the idea of an aura. Is it meaningful or all in my imagination? *shrugs* At least it's testable.