This page contains all the readers’ comments on the “Person-colour synesthesia” article, received between 2022 and 2026.
......Comment by: Anonymous. August 21, 2022 at 7:10 PM
This is very interesting!
Comment by: Anonymous. October 17, 2023 at 4:41 AM
I am the one who have this kind of synesthesia. I'm
suspicious of this kind of synesthesia is really relatively common. Because, I
am korean, and I've never seen or heard of this kind of people in my country.
Even I couldn't find the korean post or something on the internet. There's
nothing about it. I barely found this post by google this in english. Is it
common in other countries? I really want to know it because I desperately want
to contact with people who got person-color synesthesia.
Reply by: Pau (The Synesthesia Tree author). October 23,
2023 at 10:14 AM
Hi! It appears that synesthesia occurs equally with people
everywhere in the world, so I'm sure there are many people with person-colour
synesthesia in Korea. It’s often the case though that if you search in
languages other than English on this subject you don’t find very much, as the
vast majority is in English, so you had a good idea to google it in English as
a starting point. In general, many synesthetes have never met any others in
real life, or at least they have very probably met them but didn’t realise, as
a lot of synesthetes don’t normally talk about it, and they often don’t know
they have it.
I’m not aware of any online groups of synesthetes from Korea
and as far as I know there’s no Asian Synesthesia Association. To find someone
with this type of synesthesia to chat I would suggest posting in an English
language Facebook Synesthesia group in English, if you have a Facebook account.
The one just called “Synesthesia” is the largest and would give you more
chances. You could ask there, writing in part English and part Korean perhaps,
so that a Korean interested party could send you a private message via Facebook
chat or just contact in the comments. Or you could ask the same thing in Reddit
Synesthesia too, and there’s also a private message or direct message (PM or
DM) feature there too where people could contact you if you preferred. I don’t
know whether you would get replies or not but I’ve seen people post similar
questions before to find someone with their language or in their country.
Here are the links:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/synesthetes/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Synesthesia/new/
Comment by: Anonymous. December 27, 2023 at 6:09 AM
Hi, I first found out synesthesia existed 5-6 years ago. I
thought for a while I probably didn't have it, but I found this today and felt
hopeful. I'm still not too sure if I have it, and was hoping you could give
some insight. Here's what I experience:
When I first meet someone, I don't associate any color with
them, even if they ask me for one. I have to have repeated interactions with
them for at least 5 times total, or 10 if it's an online person, in order to
start associating them with a color. Most people only have one color, some have
two and very rarely does anyone have three. Once I know their color, it doesn't
change much. It can get a little brighter or darker, and someone can get a
second color if they only had one, but they can't lose colors, and their colors
can't change too drastically either (yellow to orange, etc).
I want to note that if someone is hiding a lot of themself
or pretending to be someone they're not, the color takes much longer to show
up, if at all. I get little "glimpses" of it if the mask slips, but
otherwise not much. Also, I don't see the colors, but rather I "feel"
them. In order to actually pin the color down I need to use a drawing program
and pick from the color swatch until it feels right.
I also can't associate any color with myself aside from what
my favorite colors are.
Reply by: Pau (The Synesthesia Tree author). December 28,
2023 at 7:45 AM
Yes, totally! Everything you describe there is totally
consistent with person-colour synesthesia.
Comment by: Anonymous. October 7, 2024 at 10:48 PM
I associate people that I'm close to with colors, but I
don't actually see the colors around them like an aura. It's like when I look
at them, I immediately think of their color. Like for example, my best friend
is a beautiful teal color, but when something is wrong, I think of her color
differently, as a greener teal. The more something is wrong, the greener I
sense it as, but the happier and more 'normal' she feels, the brighter teal I
sense it as.
Would this still count at Person-Color or would it be
something else??
Reply by: Pau (The Synesthesia Tree author). October 13,
2024 at 9:40 PM
Yes it’s still person-colour synesthesia if you just get a
strong feeling of a colour when you look at or think about that person, you
don’t need to see it physically like an aura or in any other way. So if each
person normally has their own consistent colour for you, then that’s it, yes.
What you say about the colour changing when something is
wrong and your friend is feeling bad, that’s interesting. I’ve seen it commonly
reported that a person’s colour can change if the person changes drastically
for some reason (that’s how mine works too). In this case it wouldn’t just
happen on a day-to-day basis depending on how they were feeling at that time,
but only with something very occasional and serious (maybe a serious illness or
mental problems, a change in their attitude to you, you realise they are not
the person you thought they were, etc.). But maybe in your case that’s just how
your person-colour synesthesia works, perhaps their emotions are an important
part of how you perceive them and the colour would change somewhat as you see
those changes and you are more sensitive to them.
Although probably you are experiencing two types of
synesthesia: person-colour and also perceived emotion-to-colour, and in your
case they kind of mix in together and inter-react. You could look at this page
and see what you think:
https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/02/perceived-emotion-to-colour-and-other.html
There are some cases similar to yours there. The first one
particularly.
Comment by: Anonymous. December 1, 2024 at 2:53 AM
Hey fellow person-colour people! I’ve just realized this is
the name for something I have been experiencing for years.
My colours take a while to coalesce. It takes me knowing
someone for maybe a few weeks or longer for a stronger image to come forth. It
depends ultimately on how close I get to be with the person.
When I have strong feelings about them the image is like a
fully fleshed-out palpable abstract image. There is a smell, a temperature, a
texture too.
One example: An ex-situationship I had once upon a time. He masqueraded as a light grey-blue, but quickly bled into a sickly greenish blue with black. He was a pair of legs that were on fire with burnt flaking skin and his torso/head was a chrome circle with something like a dark wormhole within. This image is something that I could not shake and didn’t really understand until some time later.
He was emotionally abusive, a bully, and full of self-hate
it turned out. Running from his issues and throwing his hate onto the people
close to him. His soul was literally being removed and replaced by chrome, that
void where his soul should be trying to steal from everyone else. The circle
bothered me for so long until I figured it out.
He’s a cyclist! Kinda obsessed a bit, and super arrogant
about it. That’s why his head was a chrome circle.
Funny, how I couldn’t shake this image and couldn’t see how
obvious it was at the time! Phew, that one was a doozy. He was trash.
Reply by: Pau (The Synesthesia Tree author). December 7,
2024 at 3:49 PM
Very interesting to read about your case, thanks for telling
us about it!
Comment by: Anonymous. July 16, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Hello there , I would like to speak to someone who knows
what I'm talking about. I had a I guess severe brain injury I had a severe
concussion because I was knocked out unconscious by my ex I thought maybe it
was because I just had surgery the day before but apparently I'm wondering if
it wasn't because of that and it was because he hit me in the head. At any rate
I woke up having this problem where I could feel people's colors and I'm not
really sure how to explain it but it's not that I see them I just feel the red
and I feel the blue one I feel the purple and it has texture and feeling and
the density and the texture behind it are very important because it tells you
the history of their life I'm not sure how to explain this all but if you could
please help me please send me a message my email is Jenfahel@gmail.com please
help me
Comment by: Anonymous. March 10, 2026 at 1:11 AM
I have this type of synesthesia and I actually never
realized until I was describing someone to my therapist (this person is a
golden yellow to me) and I was struggling for normal descriptors and I was like
"shes just such a yellow." Which of course led to a very long
conversation. Anyways I was wondering because someone I know who had a very
distinct green color basically lost his color overnight and I don't know why
and this has never happened to me before. (for reference Everyone I know has a
unique color and, for some people that I am close with, a texture as well)
Reply by: Anonymous. April 10, 2026 at 8:14 PM
hey you can ignore the comment above this it was answered on
a different page of this site
Here is the comment that was answered on the “List of Synesthesia
Types by Prevalence” page:
Comment by: Anonymous. March 18,
2026 at 2:25 AM
hi
I have Person Color synesthesia and I am looking for some help because someone
I know who was a very distinct green color basically lost his color overnight
and I don't know why and this has never happened to me before.
For reference
for me once a persons color manifests it never changes with the exception of
trauma or masking but they never down right disappear. also everyone has a
completely unique color (or sometimes a color pair) and while emotional masking
and similar things can dampen a color they do not get rid of it
anyways
please respond cause I am low key freaked out
Reply by: Pau (The Synesthesia Tree author). March 19,
2024 at 22:32 PM
Hi! This is interesting and I'm sure it's nothing to worry
about, I'll give you several possible reasons that occur to me why it might be.
(I like thinking these things over, so be prepared for a long answer!)
Person-colour synesthesia tends to manifest at unconscious
level, i.e. the colour tends to appear for the person before you even know why.
Sudden colour changes are infrequent but do happen (as you say, it could be
because of "trauma or masking", usually a sudden major change
affecting their personality.)
So perhaps this person has undergone a big change, but
you've only realised that unconsciously and haven't reasoned it out yet, it's
just intuitive still.
Perhaps something you previously saw in him you don't see
any more. Or he's sending out very subtle signals that something's happened in
his life to change him. If you've worked out the "meaning" of the
colour(s) you have for him, you could find a clue there.
Or the lost colour connection could be due to a change in
your relationship: have you noted that he's cutting off his communication with
you? Or he isn't who you thought he was? Maybe he's hiding things or lying, and
you don't know what to think or who he is? This can happen at intuitive level
only. But your synesthetic colours are sensitive to it.
Here's something that could provide a clue: in general, for
you, if a person has no colour, why would that be? People you don't know would
be colourless, I presume? Or perhaps people you have no relationship with,
can't access, who don't want to know you? Maybe people with a weak personality?
(The reason for a lack of colour can be different for different synesthetes).
Whatever being colourless means to you in general, maybe the change affecting
him has something to do with that? Has he become inaccessible to your
friendship for some reason? Or become indifferent to you or passive?
Or your own feelings towards him might have changed. You've
lost interest in him, or suddenly you don't know how you feel about him any
more?
I also wonder if this colour loss happens to more of us too
but we simply don't notice... precisely because we've lost interest in the
person and don't think about them much. But in your case you're more sensitive
and very tuned in to it.
It doesn't sound like a problem with losing your synesthesia
(can occasionally happen with things like depression, medication, brain
injury... but this is just one person, not everything starting to seem
colourless, so it doesn't sound like your case (syn does come back, though,
even if it was).
If he's an online friendship, the way those people are
erased from our memory can be much more final than with a real-life friend, and
their colours too. Maybe you feel it's the end of the online friendship
(although I presume he's real-life not online?)
It doesn't sound like a memory issue either, although it's
logical to forget someone's colour if we forget the person. With someone you're
still seeing that wouldn't be the case though. So if it did have anything to do
with memory I think it would just be like a "glitch in the machine"
and he'll get his colour back pretty quickly.
Those are just some things to think about, some possibilities... I think probably when you become consciously aware of the change that's occurred in him or
Reply by: Anonymous. March 21, 2026 at 7:30 PM
thanks a lot for this and actually I did get kind of an
answer to what happened (although I'm still not exactly sure why his color
disappeared completely) basically he got diagnosed with something fairly
serious (not fatal) and hadn't told anyone yet. I am pretty sure this was the
reason for the sudden change although its still kinda odd to be around him
because of how important a persons color is to my interactions with them.
anyways thanks so much for your
Reply by: Anonymous. March 21, 2026 at 7:32 PM
I'm pretty sure it was like a subconscious response to that
happening and I just hadn't realized it yet
Reply by: Pau (The Synesthesia Tree author). March
23, 2026 at 9:03 PM
Yes, you're right - that seems totally coherent with what
happened. He must have been showing some subtle signs of feeling sad, worried,
despondent, not wanting to communicate and you picked up on those unconsciously
and it was something important enough to cause a total colour change in him. I
hope he's OK and comes to accept his illness and live with it, and when he
starts doing that he'll probably get his colours back. It sounds like he has a
good friend in you, with plenty of empathy to be sensitive to what he's feeling
and understand and help him!
Reply by: Anonymous. March 24, 2026 at 12:00 AM
thx so much for helping to solve this mystery
Comment by: Anonymous. April 29, 2026 at 6:37 PM
Hello there. I was doing some digging about this as I often refer to my partner as a "yellow" color. I started to think back and there's only very few people I think I have labeled under colors. Mostly people who are really close as family and friends. But it makes me wonder, is this feeling or perception something that can be trained? Meaning, if I already feel sensitive towards it, if I put it into constant practice, could I expand my sensitivity?
I recently realized I'm highly intuitive and can perceive people's intentions based on their energy. So I wonder if these two things are connected and if I can somehow "strengthen" that perfection.
Thank you for all the insightful information above!
Reply by Pau (The Synesthesia Tree author). May 1, 2026 at 7:05 PM
Hi, and thank you for appreciating the Tree!
Yes, I do think you can expand this if you focus on it to increase your awareness of it in your day-to-day life. I have this type of synesthesia too and have definitely been through this process. I'd always strongly associated certain colours with people in my life but never known it was a thing or really thought about it, but when I discovered it was a type of synesthesia I began to think about all the people I know, realising what colour they all were (and had always been), trying to think what some of the colours might mean, and also beginning to enjoy experiences like fixing my gaze on the person to "watch" their colours appear in a certain shape or in a certain place - and then thinking about why this should be so, and what each colour and how it manifests can tell you about each person. I think this is a very intuitive type of synesthesia - which fits in with what you say about being intuitive yourself and being able to easily perceive people's intentions. I am sure that what the colours are telling us is what we've already perceived intuitively about them, but haven't realised on a conscious level yet or been able to put into words. That is very valuable, and personally if I have to choose now between trusting my colours or what I consciously think about somebody's personality... I choose the colours as they tend to be more accurate. I wouldn't have been able to do any of this without a process of focus, almost like "training" it, as you say. So I definitely agree with you and I think it would be a great idea for you to "put it into constant practice".
Go back to the Person-colour synesthesia page
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