AUDITORY MOTOR SYNESTHESIA (A Bit Of Blogetry)

 

I hear music when I hear motors from fans, lawn mowers, air conditioners, etc.  Sometimes it is what I call “Angel Music” or Biblical movie music. Sometimes it is classical, sometimes rock-folk-blues. Ultimate playlist, never knowing what I’ll tune in.

 

I never told anyone because I was afraid they would Baker Act me into an asylum, but tonight I was in the kitchen and thought the next door neighbor was playing an organ or keyboard and it was terrible (not that I’m a good musician when I play my ukulele, but still).  Anyway, I opened the front door to see why he or she would be sitting on the front steps playing and it turned out to be a lawn mower.  So I  Googled “I hear music from motors” and wow! It is called Auditory Motor Synesthesia and lots of people hear as I do.  In fact, Synesthesia is 3 times higher in people like me with Autism Spectrum Disorder than the general population.

 

Confusingly, the word “motor” can refer to motors/engines but also there are people who hear music and start walking—or dancing--in strange ways, meaning their motor skills (no relation to motors in fans) are forcing them to react physically in a different way. This includes hand movements that may be what is behind the childhood hand-flapping some of us exhibit.

 

Quite a few successful musicians have synesthesia (seeing notes in colors) but for me, I guess the music wasn’t quite loud enough to compose that number 1 hit…

 

Seems it’s time to Google hypnagogia again, in the hope that recent research will not accuse us of being whacko, just being, what I always suspected, creatively diverse with a fun superpower of auditory/visual entertainment. 

 

(c) 2024 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: From my Paul Simon songbook