Comparaison de deux types de vision : synesthésie et hypnagogie

A synesthete describes the visual similarities and differences between her lifelong synesthetic photisms (triggered by sensory input) and hypnagogic visions that began in 2013 (which occur without a trigger). She compares triggers, location, appearance, colors, and commonalities of the two phenomena. The hypnagogic visions have changed over time, and now both types of visions sometimes occur together. She reports finding other synesthetes who also experience both synesthesia and hypnagogia.

Study at a glance

Abstract

When I was seven years old I discovered that I had been seeing the world differently from other people. My senses were joined. I was a synesthete. Over the years, I learned quite a bit about my synesthesia, but I was surprised in 2013 when I suddenly began to have another kind of vision, hypnagogic images. At first, I thought these new visions were part of my synesthesia, that I was seeing a new form, one I didn’t have a name for. But synesthesia needs a trigger, a trigger that causes us to see what we see. This form did not have a trigger, and that concerned me. In this paper I will explore the visual similarities and differences between my synesthetic photisms and my hypnagogic visions. I will compare the triggers or lack thereof, where I see the images, the ways in which the shapes I see appear, their colors, and their commonalities. I will discuss how the hypnagogic visions have changed, along with the fact that now both synesthetic and hypnagogic visions occur during the same experience, and that I have found other synesthetes who also have both synesthesia and hypnagogia.