Projective and associative / Projector and associator
Synesthesia is a neurological trait possessed by 4% of the general population (this is an approximate figure, and it could be more).
For these people, perceiving a certain stimulus – which can be sensory or conceptual – involuntarily and consistently triggers a second perceptual experience, typically via a different sense.
Synesthesia is the US/international spelling and Synaesthesia is the British and Australian spelling. A person who has synesthesia is called a synesthete (or a synaesthete).
For a fuller description, go to the page All About Synesthesia.
In synesthesia, the inducer is the stimulus that triggers the synesthetic experience, and the concurrent is the synesthetic experience itself.
Examples of inducers and concurrents:
Inducer: the sound of a violin.
Concurrent: seeing a yellow line.
(In auditory-visual synesthesia.)
Inducer: reading the word “telephone”.
Concurrent: experiencing a taste of melon.
(In lexical-gustatory synesthesia.)
Projective and associative / Projector and associator
In visual types of synesthesia, the term “projective synesthesia” is used when the synesthetic concurrent is seen physically before the eyes as if it was on a screen in space, and “associative synesthesia” is when it is perceived only in the mind’s eye but not seen physically.
Associator synesthetes can have occasional experiences with projection, although this is not very common and seems to only happen if their synesthesia is suddenly very much intensified for some reason.
A photism is the image (normally abstract and usually a colour or shape) seen or perceived by a synesthete in response to a specific stimulus.
For example, someone with auditory-visual synesthesia might hear the sound of a violin and see or perceive a photism consisting of a yellow line.
The word photism is used to describe visual synesthetic concurrents. If the concurrent is an auditory sensation, the word “phonism” is used.
The term ideasthesia is an alternative name for synesthesia proposed by the neuroscientist Danko Nikolić in 2009. In accordance with this theory, rather than being an interaction between one sense and another, synesthesia actually always consists of an interaction between a concept or idea and a sense.
I recently discovered the name for what my mind and body have done my whole life. Everything I'm reading feels so familiar and it's wonderful to learn so much! A few of them I definitely don't have but auditory and more for sure. Thank you for giving so much great information!
ReplyDeleteI understand there is a type of synesthesia related to sexual activity which I do not have, I have always had some synesthesia but when I started to pray and became religious I experience a very strong form that only happens in prayer/mass/adoration as well as a hypogogic state while thinking about these subjects or even being woken up with this imagry. they can be random shapes, shapes to the voice of the priest, a handful of constant shapes, but they are often religious imagry and even imagry I dont know consciously such as connections maybe my subconcious mind has made to things I may have heard but not connected consciously. I also have visual aphantasia and these shapes appear as if I can visualize but they are not related to my concious mind its more like something that comes on tv. I have a lot of repeats but not all are consistent, such as this morning when I made the sign of the cross after praying for 10 minutes I saw a large shape of a cross in my mind even though it was unrelated to how I was thinking, this can come up occasionally but is not always present. When I think of making the sign of the cross i do not think of a cross I think of physical spatial direction in the form of a compass. over time i have found there are often these shapes radiating colour as well that I feel and a handful of occasions where I experienced projected synesthesia related to spirituality not just my Catholic faith as I used to be an atheist. There has also be a handful of occasions where I seemed to visualize and image in full colour or textured detail when I cannot visualize at all and most things are concepts. If I am honest it feels like a spiritual experience but I can also understand it to be related to the synesthesia.
ReplyDeleteI would just be interested to know if others experienced this. I first started looking because I met a woman who was saying "you know when you can see words on someones forehead" and i learned thst to be tickertape synesthesia but originally I thought she was not being literal but I met her in this setting as well. I met another synesthete at church in the choir who has chromesthesia. my projected synesthesia experiences have been due to an extremely high momentary feeling of connection to the universe or God. In daily life I have person colour synesthesia, the spatial one and the colour letter one and stuff about concepts tied to words I cant even explain. if this type is possible it explains why it feels as if my synesthesia has grown massively after becoming a Catholic and why ocd was so devastating my whole life due to sensations tied to belief.
DeleteHi!
DeleteYou noted the similarity with sexual synesthesia, I think because what you experience in prayer, at mass or on adoration also appears to be state-dependent, rather than a phenomenon exclusive to actual synesthetes, or the imagery seems similar to it in some ways (it seems hypnagogic, for example).
You’ve clarified you’re a synesthete so you could probably consider some of what you describe to be synesthesia, while other parts of it - the pictorial (non-abstract) religious imagery, the shape of the cross etc.) could be because you’re making an association at a time when your mind is exceptionally tuned in to the religious experience.
However, as you’ve clarified that you’re a synesthete, some of the other experiences could be considered a stronger manifestation of your synesthesia. If the shapes (or shape+colour+direction, spatial positioning etc.) that you perceive with the priest’s voice, for example, seem to be determined by the sound of the voice itself and are consistent each time you experience them, then that could be because your special state of intense focus or flow state is making your synesthesia more noticeable and stronger at that moment. Perhaps you do also perceive these photisms at other times, but no so strongly: at other times you might perceive them just as a feeling, or in your mind’s eye, if that’s possible for you.
Yes, synesthetic photisms can just “appear” without you feeling as if you control them, “like something that comes on TV”, although you would normally know what they were being caused by of course. A person with aphantasia, i.e. who doesn’t normally visualise anything in their mind’s eye, can occasionally visualise if they are in an altered state or have an emotional shock or a profound mystic experience.
The sudden appearance of an “image in full colour or textured detail” sounds like a hypnopompic or hypnagogic vision. If you get it when you wake up suddenly, or when you suddenly come out of a religious trance, it would be hypnopompic, whereas if it happens as you are slowing down and entering the trance or falling into a state of deep relaxation (or sleep) then it would be called hypnagogic.
So there could be a variety of things going on there!
Maybe someone else will comment here if they’ve experienced this, but yes, cases like yours have been reported. On the Do I Have Synesthesia page of the Tree - https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/02/do-i-have-synesthesia.html?showComment=1778481724935#c8484142063640500849 - someone with a religious experience commented (I can’t create a specific link to the comment, you’d have to scroll to the end of the page twice and click on Load more) but they added their comments on the 11th and the 13th of May 2026.
If you were interested in reading a study about aphantasia and mystical or religious experiences, you might like to look at this one:
Aphantasia and religion: Exploring the impact of imageless cognition on spiritual experience. Reagan J. Pletcher Southeastern University - Lakeland. The link is:
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