The seventh sense is synesthesia - the ability to "hear" a color or "see" music. After the five main ones: hearing, touch, sight, smell, taste. And sixth, intuition
People who have the ability to perceive the world with a large number of senses are considered unique. But nothing more.
There is nothing supernatural in the nature of synesthesia. It is given to every person from birth. After all, in the brain of babies, impulses from all senses are mixed. But at the age of about six months, they separate: sounds - "to the right", visual information - "to the left." Scientifically, this is the process of dying off of neurons that create synaptic bridges.
In synesthetics, the bridges remain intact, and the feelings remain undivided. As if superimposed on each other. And here are some of these people and call themselves psychics, sorcerers and healers. And some even messiahs.
Neuropsychologists at the University of Zurich undertook to dispel the myth about the origin of the alleged divine gift. For several years they studied psychics who believed that they were able to see the future and shine through people like X-ray machines.
During the experiments, scientists asked "clairvoyants" to look at a monitor designed specifically to "turn on" a specific center of the visual cortex of the brain. With its help, the researchers wanted to understand how different images arise in the brains of unique people. And they discovered: very often many "hear" the picture. Some are faint buzzing, others are whistling. Although the picture is not actually accompanied by any sound effects.
Moreover, the so-called psychics, listening to music, sometimes felt all sorts of tastes in their mouths: bittersweet, salty, sour. Have seen the colors. For some reason, the F for them shone purple, and the C - red.
The subjects do not imagine colors or tastes at all. And they really feel them. This was checked by the professor of psychology and neurophysiology at the University of California Vileyanur Ramachandran, who developed a special test (see Fig.). Black two's and five's in random order appeared on the computer screen. It is very difficult for an ordinary person to isolate one from the other. And the synestheticist easily sees that the twos form a triangle. After all, for him they are colored. Using similar tests, Ramachandran and his colleagues found that synesthesia is far more prevalent than previously thought. About one in two hundred adults.
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NERVOUS ANOMALY
“All the so-called psychics showed clear signs of synesthesia,” says the author of the Swiss study, Dr. Michaela Esslen. - This phenomenon occurs against the background of anomalies in the development of the nervous system. In ordinary people, each external signal receives its own sensory system: sound - hearing, smell - sense of smell. And in synesthetics, neurons function chaotically. And the signal intended for one sense organ goes to several at once.
Neurophysiologist at the American National Institute of Psychiatry Peter Grossenbacher associates synesthesia with the existence of peculiar crossroads in the brain. They intersect the paths along which neural impulses are transmitted from the eyes, ears, mouth, nose.
And ordinary people have crossroads. But they are passive. And in synesthetics, they distribute nerve impulses in several directions at once. For example, signals traveling along the auditory pathway reach an intersection, which sends an impulse to the eyes.
Brain scans of synesthetics have shown that when people who "paint" letters look at printed text, they activate not only the part of the brain responsible for understanding speech, but also the zones responsible for color recognition.
ILLUSION OF BIOPOL
Perhaps psychics really see foci of ailments in the body of a diagnosed person, painted in a certain color. And they experience unpleasant sensations in those areas of their body that the patient has. Or they hear a special sound when touching a sore spot. This is a type of synesthesia, scientists say. As well as the observation of the biofield - auras, ghostly visions, pictures of supposedly future events. Scientifically, it is the ability for reflex, visual, auditory, or kinesthetic illusions.
“Visions are usually illusions and there are,” explained in one of his speeches the famous psychologist, Doctor of Medical Sciences Ramil Garifullin. - Some people can hear or see the smell, see the colors of depression. The smell of gasoline, for example, can be blue for them and ring, and the scent of some flower can be red with a white speck and hum.
GENIUS WITH MIXED FEELINGS
Many famous people have had synesthesia. For example, the French poet Arthur Rimbaud associated vowel sounds with specific colors. Composer Alexander Scriabin saw the color of musical notes. The abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky, on the other hand, heard the sound of paints. Synesthetics include Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, Marina Tsvetaeva, Konstantin Balmont, Boris Pasternak, Andrei Voznesensky.
However, for the most part, synesthetics are not distinguished by high intelligence. Weak in math. They are poorly oriented in space. Suffer from a manic passion for order and symmetry. And their memory is inaccurate. For example, a typical synesthetic person might well say, "I don't remember the name of this street, but I remember that its name is orange." Their peculiarity is passed on by inheritance. Most are left-handed.
CAN YOU TRUST HEALERS?
According to Dr. Garifullin, if there are common points of contact between the illusory picture of the synesthetic and the psychological state of the patient, then "seeing" is useful for diagnosis. In this case, synesthesia gives additional information about the disease, which can only be "deciphered". If there is no connection, then the psychic can be deceived by choosing methods of treatment. Synesthetics often hit their targets thanks to their highly developed intuition.
ANOTHER OPINION
Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Dean of the Medical Faculty of Tula State University, Director of the Research Institute of New Medical Technologies Alexander Khadartsev:
- It's not a fact that the secret of psychics is synesthesia. In my opinion, they hear more sounds or feel subtle aromas.