This page contains all the readers’ comments on the “Mirror speech” article, received since 2023.
Comment by: Anonymous. March 12, 2023 at 6:01 AM
I think I experience something like this, but it differs
from the description in a key way: I experience what the sound of other
people's voices feels like in my own throat and chest, but I don't feel like my
anatomy is moving most of the time. Certain sounds cause a sensation that
tricks me into thinking "Did I just do that too?" But that's rare.
Mostly I'm just feeling the sound of the other person's voice. The resonance.
The vocal fry. The shakiness or firmness.
It happens on a wide spectrum of intensity, with some vocal
sounds not even registering, and some vocal sounds being scarcely perceptible,
and some vocal sounds matching or exceeding the sensation of making the sound
myself. When I sing together with other people and we're harmonizing, I feel
like the vibrations in my own throat have doubled or tripled because their
voices are in there too. Same for when I'm at a concert and everyone (including
me) screams with excitement.
And the inducer isn't just human voices. I feel sensations
when I hear the voices of animals, especially some of the sounds ravens make.
And totally artificial sounds that kind of resemble voices- I feel those too.
Other forms of synesthesia: I have textures for sounds in general, mostly in my
mind but sometimes they have a location in my mouth, cheeks, inner ears, and on
or in my head. And sounds distort how things taste and feel in my mouth.
Comment by: Jess. May 30, 2023 at 3:54 PM
I experience something similar to this but only related to
singing. When I am singing along with music I am listening to, I can feel what
the singer's voice feels like in my throat and mouth. There's an element of
being able to emulate their singing voice, but it's not mimicry, since I don't
sound exactly like them. It's more like a physical feeling of their tone, their
technique, their style, their phrasing, their way of pronouncing words. The
most interesting part is that when singing along with different singers, I seem
to adopt their range limitations. I won't be able to hit a note that I am
actually capable of hitting when I am singing in another singer's voice who
can't reach that note.
Comment by: Greer. April 9, 2024 at 5:16 PM
This sounds so much like me! Although, I don't need to be
singing along to feel it in my mouth and throat, I can just be listening. Also,
just imagining a song I know well can cause me to feel it in my mouth. I can't
reproduce someone's range though, but I can feel the resonance of lower /
higher notes. It's amazing to know that other people experience this too!
Comment by: Anonymous. April 13, 2024 at 7:33 AM
This is me as well! For me it specifically comes with a very
strong urge to sing myself, and I think that's actually a big part of how I
started learning how to sing in the first place. When I eventually took formal
lessons, my instructor really wanted me to work on doing less mimicry (because
I do think of it as such) because I needed to learn how to sing in my own
voice.
Comment by: Natalie. February 22, 2024 at 10:33 PM
I think I might have this. For a while I’ve just written it
off as my adhd, because I accidentally copy people’s accents when I’m talking
to them, and my dad (adhd) does the same thing. I thought the reason he does it
is because he also feels the way someone is speaking, but whenever I explain it
to others I just get blank stares. I’ve gotten multiple roles in plays because
I’m great at copying accents, but whenever I would try to help someone else do
the same accent I would be so confused why they couldn’t do it. It’s not just
accents though. I’ve been copying the way singers sound since I was a toddler.
It’s really freaky.
Comment by: Anonymous. May 14, 2024 at 6:10 PM
I have this. It seems to be stronger with fictional
characters and animals. It's an extremely vivid sensation, it's as if my
tongue, lips, teeth, and throat are moving like I'm saying what the person is
saying, even though my mouth is completely still. It's so weird. And it also
happens with songs, and basically any sound a person makes with their mouth. It
happens anytime anyone makes any sound with their mouths. It's really vivid,
and the only downside is when someone swears within my hearing range.
Comment by: Anonymous. September 10, 2024 at 12:31 AM
I'm pretty sure I have this. It's extremely vivid, even
though I know my mouth is staying still. It also happens with sounds other than
voices.
Comment by: Anonymous. October 12, 2024 at 3:08 AM
why does this only happen to me in uncomfortable situations,
like i don’t wanna feel a very scratchy voice or out of pitch singing or
terrible voice effects😭
Reply by: Pau (The Synesthesia Tree author). October 12,
2024 at 2:56 PM
I totally agree with you there, and understand you! It’s a
mirror phenomenon, and mirror phenomena tend to be bad. Not always, but
usually.
I have this too and things happen like I get a sore throat
when I listen to a recording in Portuguese or I can’t stop clearing my throat
when someone with a “frog in the their throat” speaks… and I hate it so much!
I can think of some possible tricks you could try, to get a
better experience. I think we notice more if it’s a voice that bothers us, but
have you tried concentrating on a voice you really love, and see what happens?
A singer, for example?
(I have mirror-touch too and it’s nearly always unpleasant,
but good ones do exist: for me it’s watching the left-handed badminton player
or “being” a big dog and feeling sensations through a thick layer of shaggy
fur. I’m sure some mirror-speech sensations would be good too, if you like what
you’re hearing.)
If you’re an experimenter, you could try listening to a
recording of your own voice, and see what happens. It would be interesting, and
I think it couldn’t be bad :D
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