By Nina Petrou
When asked how the calendar appears in their minds, most people will say they see evenly sized boxes representing the months laid out with smaller boxes inside to represent the days.
However, for some, this is not the case. A fascinating phenomenon known as synesthesia occurs when you experience one of your senses through another one. According to Scientific American, “Synesthesia is an anomalous blending of the senses in which the stimulation of one modality simultaneously produces sensation in a different modality.” To most people, this might sound crazy, but for some, including students of Nyack High School, this experience is familiar.
Nyack Spectrum took this question to the Freshman Social in September, polling students on how they see a calendar when they close their eyes. Three out of nineteen students said that they see the calendar as a three-dimensional circle, with some months bigger than others and themselves standing within the current month. Another student noted that they saw something similar but instead of a circular array, the months appeared in a straight line.
Senior, Janice Yohannan, stated, “I see myself stepping down a staircase as a step down until December.” Senior, Rose Gordon, added, “When I think about the calendar, it's a circle with the longest month being October.” The NIH reports that time-space synesthesia might affect as much as 10-15% of the population and can influence people’s talents and weaknesses due to heightened senses.
Synesthesia does not only involve the calendar. Other types of synesthesia include being able to hear sounds or see numbers and associate them with colors. Synesthesia provides new and unique perspectives, and, in some ways, can almost be like a real-life superpower.