Joel Salinas, a physician from the United States, possesses the phenomenon of mirror touch, medically called synesthesia *. From childhood, the boy knew how to feel the sensations of other people as his own, writes BBC.
“Basically, it’s a malfunction in my brain wiring because I physically feel the same as other people. For example, if you suffocate from lack of air, I also suffocate, if you have a panic attack, I do too,”Joel said.
The phenomenon of synesthesia has been manifested since childhood. The doctor recalls that at school he painted the letters in different colors, and the ringing of the bell seemed blue or yellow. This approach helped the student to better navigate in spelling.
However, mathematics was more difficult.
“I didn't perceive addition intuitively. My number 2 appeared to be a red person with children, and 4 was a friendly blue guy. How, then, is two plus two equal to four? the boy wondered.
Peers avoided an unusual child, especially since the boy was constantly trying to hug someone. Touching people made Joel feel warm and calm. As a result, he was left alone, and the TV replaced his friends.
“When Skorokhod stuck out his tongue, I felt like I had stuck out mine. When Coyote got hit by a truck, I felt that too,”the boy recalls how the phenomenon made watching cartoons an exciting journey.
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As a teenager, Joel realized that when people get well, he gets better too. So I decided to become a doctor.
In medical school, he faced injury and pain while observing a teenager on an operating table. Felt the incision made in the man's abdomen and then saw the boy's internal organs and writhed in pain.
“The patient received a heart massage, and I felt a constriction in the chest, as if it were my body. After about 30 minutes he died, and I felt empty, after which I ran to the bath and vomited … I experienced a complete lack of physical sensations. It was terrible. It was like I was in a room with a loudly buzzing air conditioner - and suddenly it was turned off,”- described Joel's feelings after the patient's death.
After this incident, the man decided to defend himself and not react so openly. Joel noticed that the sensations were most intense if he was surprised or the person bore a physical resemblance to him.
“I was concentrating looking at the sleeve or collar of the patient,” the doctor made it a rule not to look in the eyes.
Joel is a neurologist at Massachusetts Hospital and Harvard Medical School. His abilities have helped save many patients.
In April 2018, the doctor released the third book on synesthesia. In his opinion, the phenomenon cannot be considered a mental disorder. This ability occurs in two out of a hundred people.
Despite the difficulties arising from the mirror touch, Joel can no longer imagine life without this gift.
“I do not consider synesthesia to be a boon or a curse, since it can be both. But I can't imagine life without it, because then I wouldn't be who I am,”the doctor says.
Scientists believe that humans are born with the ability to mirror touch. A recent study found that babies associate different shapes with different colors. However, with age, the brain eliminates unnecessary connections, and synesthesia disappears.
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* Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which irritation in one sensory or cognitive system leads to an automatic, involuntary response in another sensory system. The person who reports such experiences is synesthetes.