Synesthesia is said to affect a tiny percentage of people. Synesthesia is a phenomenon that causes sensory crossovers, such as tasting colors or feeling sounds. One can read about it here:
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/24995-synesthesia
It begs many questions beyond the medical or scientific.
The deaf are said to exhibit enhanced peripheral visual attention and motion detection capabilities that compensate for auditory loss. Also, the brains of blind people adapt to a sharpened sense of hearing. The human ability to experience senses is varied.
As a writer, this fascinates me. I want more than anything to touch people through their senses. It is a challenge to pull the reader or listener into written and spoken compositions. With synesthesia, a listener or reader may taste glue when seeing the word ‘love’, or feel a stabbing sensation at hearing the word ‘spring’. The writer has zero control over how the the words will be experienced. I assume most people are guided by the writers’ intention and are induced into physical sensations, ideas and thoughts that are produced by the imagination. When a person is triggered by the written and/or spoken word into sensory crossovers, this also is a form of synesthesia. It is uniquely human. To believe that animals experience the same is to equate humans and animals. To conclude that cyber minds( Artificial Intelligence), can or will be able to experience this uniquely organic capability denies the inherent difference between the two.
Synesthesia, this sixth sense as it were, is a divine element. The breath of life became a living soul. Giving over fully to this idea truly is elevating. When the mind takes flight simply by words, is why people enjoy stories, songs and poems. It is a gift.
The simple act of fantasizing about anything provokes a physical sensation. Imagining the taste of a particular food causes salivation. Fearing for ones personal safety accelerates the heart. Thinking about being physically intimate with another spurs arousal. Embrace the human experience to the utmost. This is more than the proverbial “Stop and smell the roses” or “Carpe Diem” common expressions. Do not take for granted this special ability. Live your life collecting moments like treasure ethereal.