Brains that Work a Little Bit Differently

How can you taste a color, or see the sound of the letter "M" as a fold of pink flannel? We all know what it means to talk about a bright sound, a dull flavor, or a sharp smell. We might even have some idea what it might mean if a poet described a flavor as "smooth green glass." Now, imagine that every time you tasted a peppermint, you saw columns of green glass so vividly you could virtually reach out and touch them. The difference between someone with synesthesia and the rest of us is that "green glass flavor" is a metaphor for us, but for a synesthete it could be overwhelmingly literal.