Oxford Handbook of Syn-aithesia :

Pars IV : Contemporary & Historical Approaches

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Capitulum

Auctor vel Auctrix

Paginae

22.

Synaisthesia in Space vs. "Mind's Eye"

Christine Mohr

440-458

23.

Synaisthesia : Psychosocial Approach

Markus Zedler & Marie Rehme

459-472

22-23.

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22.

Synaisthesia in Space vs. "Mind's Eye"

Christine Mohr

440-458

p. 440 synaithesia

"The most prevalent form of synesthesia is grapheme-color synesthesia ... in which perceiving an achromatic grapheme ... can trigger the percept of an idiosyncratic color experience ..., sometimes accompanied by texture, shape and movement qualities (Tyler 2005). Independent reports include for instance the simultaneous activation of smells, taste and color induced by pain, or when viewing words and shapes (... Ward and Simner 2003)."

Tyler 2005 = Christopher W. Tyler : "Varieties of Synesthetic Experience". In :- Lynn C. Robertson & Noam Sagiv (edd.) : Synesthesia : Perspectives ... . Oxford Univ Pr. pp. 34-46.

Ward & Simner 2003 = Jamie Ward & Julia Simner : "Lexical-Gustatory Synaesthesia". COGNITION 89:237-61.

p. 442 perception of photisms in projector-synaithetes

"projector synesthetes could perceive the synesthesic colors in external space ..., appearing as a transient mist, a transparent overlay, or as saturating the printed letter (Cytowic 1993, 2005 ...). In the latter case, this would involve a simultaneous perception of

both the synesthetic and display color existing within the same proximate perceptual space, where these colors do not mix or occlude each other (Kim and Blake 2005)."

{This description is not capable of making cohaerent sense, unless a sort of double or split consciousness on the part of the perceiver be tacitly understood (though such double consciousness is usually possible only under influence of a psychedelic drug).}

Cytowic 1993 = Richard E. Cytowic : The Man Who Tasted Shapes. NY : Putnam.

Cytowic 2005 = Richard E. Cytowic : "Synesthesia : Perspectives ... ". J OF CONSCIOUSNESS STUDIES 12:141-3.

Kim & Blake 2005 = Chai-Youn Kim & Randolph Blake : "... Illusion Induced by Synesthetic Colors". PERCEPTION 34:1501-7.

p. 445 evaluating of inconsistent responses to quaestionnaires to synaisthetes

"Confronted with the finding that projector/associator status is apparently inconsistent over time, one option would be to consider this variability as an accurate reflection of the ... state of affairs : i.e., that

synesthesic experiences are indeed changeable (Edquist et al. 2006).

{Spiritual experiences of all sorts are notoriously variable (as I can testify from my own experiences) : they are more variable than dreaming.}

On the other hand, this conclusion would seem inconsistent with the fact that synesthetes describe their experiences as unchanging."

{Their description of their experiences as "unchanging" may, however, be intended by them only to apply to the emotive content or component of their synaisthesia-experiences, or even to their metaphysical or ethical premisses.}

p. 450 wariness on the part of synaisthetes of being officially labeled "insane"

"if asked whether they "see" their colors, synesthetes might associate this description with a pathological condition (e.g., ... being "mad") and deny it".

{The synaithetes (or any other person having paranormal abilities) is at all times at risk for being involuntarily committed to an "insane asylum", being "certified insane", and being held therein for many years (as I was, until with help from the outside I succeeded in escaping the locked ward) or for life.}

p. 450 possible relations among distinctions in synaisthesiai

"one can speculate whether the two distinctions (higher-lower; associator-projector) do or do not map onto each other, or

whether they are actually orthogonal".

{In physics, forces which are not mapped onto each other may instead interact orthogonally (by rotation in a plane orthogonal to the direction of the lines of force being converted), as is the case of electric field versus magnetic field (with right-hand rule and left-hand rule describing their interaction).}

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23.

Synaisthesia : Psychosocial Approach

Markus Zedler & Marie Rehme

459-472

pp. 461, 463 hyperconnected

p. 461

"synesthetes are known to have hyperconnected brains (Rouw and Scholte 2007)."

p. 463

"Since synesthesia seems to be only one symptom of a hyperconnected brain (Ha:nggi, Wotruba, and Ja:ncke 2011), there may also be a kind of personality-type influenced by this particular way of experiencing the world."

Rouw & Scholte 2007 = Romke Rouw & H. Steven Scholte : "Increased Structural Connectivity in Grapheme-Color Synesthesia". NATURE NEUROSCIENCE 10:792-7.

Ha:nggi, Wotruba, & Ja:ncke 2011 = Jurgen Ha:nggi; Diana Wotruba; & Lutz Ja:ncke : "Globally Altered Structural Brain Network Topology in Grapheme-Color Synesthesia". J OF NEUROSCIENCE 31.15:5816-28.

p. 465 social interactions

"synesthetes ... talking with non-synesthetes. ... "Talking with non-synesthetes is sometimes hard, because they are so slow to understand." ...

Another synesthete[, a female,] said : When ... my boyfriend

is having an inner conflict, I see ... a kind of ... brown ..., which appears in the air. ...

{Brown is the usual color in which will appear in tbe aura to denote something amiss.}

And it doesn't help his self-confidence [for him] to know I knew beforehand that something was wrong. ...""

"Social interactions could be investigated either in behavioral tasks, or in neurobiolological investigations via linked functional magnetic resonance imaging (Montague et al. 2002)."

Montague et al. 2002 = Montague; Berns; Cohen; McClure; Pagnoni; Dhamala; Wiest et al. : "Hyperscanning : Simultaneous fMRI During Linked Social Interactions". NEUROIMAGE 16.4:1159-64.

pp. 466-7 realization of a "threatened self"; self-regulatory process of identity

p. 466

"In the subgroup of the test which deals with "the threatened self" there were significant findings of :


a more helpless self,

{helpless in the face of by state-appointed psychiatrists by whom one could be involuntarily committed for life to the state "insane asylum"}


social and archaic retreat, and

{retreating into reclusion in order to evade being discovered by state-appointed psychiatrists, and committed for life to the state "insane asylum"}


higher rates of depersonalization and de-realization.

{not taking such persecution personally, but understanding it in social-class conflict terms, that their class cannot achieve ("realize") freedom until the ruling-class be eliminated}


But on the other hand, synesthetes also showed a significantly ... basic potential of hope, ... strong confidence in their possibilities and power.

{Hope for insurrection by the working-class, with confidence in success of the forthcoming revolution.}


In the subgroup of the test dealing with the classic ... self, synesthetes showed a distinct sense of their own self-significance, which is a

p. 467

trait that might provide protection again critics and insults.

Self-regulatory processes were identified in synesthetes by the strategy of Grounded Theory, a qualitative method for creating a theory by empirical data (Strauss and Corbin 1996)."

Strauss & Corbin 1996 = Anselm Strauss & Juliet Corbin : Grounded Theory. Weinheim : Beltz.

p. 467 personality inventory of synaisthetes

"synesthetes feel more socially responsible, and more ready to help others."

"synesthetic women found it significantly easier to beome excited, were more sensitive, and even sometimes more unrestrained."

"synesthetic women showed fewer somatic complaints than controls, a higher psycho-vegetative stability (i.e., stress factors don't irritate them ...), and fewer psychosomatic complaints".

"synesthetes ... showed more life satisfaction, were happier, and were more self-content."

p. 468 orgasms of synaisthetes

"Day (2005) found that ... synesthete subjects had orgasms as inducers for colored visions, making up 2% of the sample."

"we found significantly higher scores of "oceanic boundlessness" and "visionary restructuralization" in the group of synesthetes. In other words, ... synesthetic women do feel a deeper state of trance in sexuality. ... achieving deeper trance and synesthetic colors in orgasms may lead female synesthetes to a deeper level of fufillment."

Day 2005 = Sean Day : "Some Demographic and Socio-Cultural Aspects of Synesthesia". In :- Lynn C. Robertson & Noam Sagiv (edd.) : Synaesthesia : Persepectives from Cognitive Neuroscience. Oxford Univ Pr. pp. 11-33.

p. 469 constructivism & synchronicity

"According to the three-component-system

hypothesis of perception (Emrich 2005),

{this could better be labeled a "system of consciousness or of mentality"}

sensation is the bottom-up mechanism of information ..., constructivism is the top-down component, and a third component ..., is a type of "ratiomorphous" apparatus (i.e., a preconscious organizing centre, of the type Jung called the "Self").

It is the very strong top-down mechanism which seems to be the source of ... in many synesthetes ... unusual abilities in intuition, ... abilities such as fortune-telling or death-foreboding. ... Many synesthetes describe phenomena which ... fall into the category of "synchronicity" (Jung 1993). Ask a group of them, as we have, and you get ...

firm agreement ... for the power of intuition (and a similar observation also made by Cytowic (1998)).

{Powers of intuition have often been proven in scientific tests. The authors of this article, however, may not have bothered to verify such easily-provable facts; neither on own accord, nor by referring to the abundant scientific litterature abundantly published in the many journals of parapsychology.}

Contributing to their firm belief is strong de'ja` vu processes and changes in the ascribing of memories to a period. ...

{The "period" herein referred to would include their own visits to said sites while in material bodies in praevious lifetimes here on this planet; their own visits to such sites while astrally projected out of the material body; and memories of what they may have been shewn (whether by being flown thither personally, or by being shewn cinemata of such scenes) while aboard flying saucers.}

However, ... Rich, Bradshaw, and Mattingley (2005) investigated this same issue.

When they compared synesthetes' responses to those from the general population, it became clear that non-synesthetes, too, reported extremely high levels of these unusual experiences as well.

{Very nearly entire population (of this country, and of all countries) hath directly witnessed such "unusual [or rather, "extra-ordinary", for they are not really unusual] experiences". This fact, however, is continuing to be suppressed in the mass-media at orders from ruling-class ploutokrats who control the general public's access to information.}

As such, our synesthetes may be exhibiting nothing more than an "average" belief system."

{Why the sly trick of shifting from the word "experiences" in the praeceding sentence to the word "belief" in this sentence? Did the authors expect that the government-appointed censor would read this sentence but not the praeceding sentence?}

Emrich 2005 = Hinderk M. Emrich : "Ego-Experience, Synaesthesia and Emotion". ANALYTISCHE PSYCHOLOGIE 34:243-50.

Jung 1993 = Carl G. Jung : Synchronicity : an Acausal Connecting Principle. Bollingen Foundation.

Rich, Bradshaw, & Mattingley 2005 = Anina N. Rich; John L. Bradshaw; & Jason B. Mattingley : "A Systematic, Large-Scale Study of Synaesthesia". COGNITION 98:53-84.

p. 469 mirror-touch & empathy

"One particular form of synesthesia is synesthesia triggered by touch and pain, which could be from touch/pain in the synesthete himself but also for the touch/pain experienced by others. This latter is called mirror touch synesthesia, in which

viewing another being touched causes a sensation of touch against the synesthete's own body ... . ...

{Contrary to what the authors write here, the synaisthete's experience of pain is not caused by "viewing"; but is a telepathic effect which can occur without any material awareness of the correlated person's body : it is an unmediated action-at-a-distance similar to quantum-entanglement in quantum physics (besides being more definitively proven than the effect in quantum mechanics).}

At the very least, the ability to identify pain in another person would be of clear value".

{This can readily be accomplished by expert shamans, even at a great distance (by "remote-viewing") without any personal knowlege of said "other person".}

pp. 469-70 dreaming-lucidity

p. 469

"Another often-reported phenomenon by synesthetes is lucid dreaming. This is a form of dreaming in which one is aware that one is dreaming and that


the events in the dream are not reality.

{Those lucid-dreamers of greatest expertise (such as, Robert Waggoner) designate the locus of such events as an "alternative reality".}


It is possible to influence these dreams

{Yea; and Robert Waggoner repeatedly warneth the reader not to misinfluence such dreams, inasmuch as such misinfluence could be taken (by entities in the dream-world) as a sign of repraehensible rudeness.}


and one may perform

p. 470

volitional actions such as flying over roof-tops ... .

{Such action are performed at the pleasure of, and with assistance from, identified deities in that world.}


Lucid dreaming is ... a common phenomenon in sleeping synesthetes, according to those who attend our sessions. ... Eighty-two percent of the synesthetes described clearly the experiences of lucid dreaming. ...


What does it tell us about their consciousness?"

{That their consciousness is well-appretiated by divine entities, who in the dream-world awaken them to realization of the divine reality.}

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Julia Simner & Edward M. Hubbard (edd.) : The Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia. Oxford Univ Pr, 2013.