Our guest today is Alas Baker who has a very unusual ability. Alas, thank you for coming into the studio. What kind of unusual ability are we talking about here?
Wow, it's quite easy to describe. Basically, when I read a word or even think of a particular word, such as Tuesday, I see a color connected with it. It's not that I imagine a color. I really see it loading in front of my eyes.
How interesting! Is it a sort of medical condition?
Yes. And just recently doctors have begun to understand it more. They call it synesthesia, which means that somewhere in my brain, there are links between sections that should really be separate. Other people have a form of this condition that affects emotions. So they see colors when they feel particular emotions. Apparently, it's generally passed on from parents to their children, which is the case with me.
Do you have any brothers or sisters with the same ability?
Yes, my brother is the same as me. If we start talking about it, people think we are completely mad. When we were younger, we used to have arguments about things like what color the word Tuesday is. It turns out that everyone with this condition sees different colors.
It sounds as though it could make life quite exhausting.
I suppose it does. But you see, if you've never known anything different, you don't think of it like that. It does make you aware of your moods. I know when I started to feel depressed, things begin to look grey.
Are there any other advantages do you find?
Well, it seems that quite a lot of artists and musicians have this condition. So I guess it can be beneficial if it's combined with some sort of gift or natural talent, which is not the case with me unfortunately. But I do find that it makes reading very interesting, because sometimes a sentence has a very nice range of colors. So you want to read it again just to experience that. Of course, this makes me quite a slow reader.