Imagine your senses are intertwined. Every time you hear music your brain is flooded with rainbows or geometric patterns. When you read the letter ‘A’ you associate it with a deep red. Or even stranger, when you taste something salty you feel triangles on your skin. No, these are not anecdotes from Woodstock. These are the everyday experiences of individuals with synesthesia.

Found in about 4% of the population and more abundant amongst people in creative fields, synesthesia is the literal intertwining of our senses—when information meant for a specific sense stimulates multiple sensory experiences.

From Duke Elington to Kanye West to Vincent van Gogh, many famous creatives experience synesthesia. While there are many types, the most common type of synesthesia is chromesthesia—when colors are perceived in response to a specific stimulus (usually alphabet letters or musical notes). The associations are different for everyone but are consistent to the individual. Duke Elington experienced the musical note D as dark-blue burlap. For another synesthete, D may be a shade of purple or yellow.

For many years society didn’t believe the experience of synesthetes. Vincent van Gogh’s early piano teacher thought he was insane and kicked him out after learning about his association between the piano notes and colors. But science has made some progress into theorizing its origins. People with synesthesia are either born with it or develop it early in childhood. Some believe that we are all born with synesthesia, losing it by the time we are eight months old. MRI tests have shown that certain individuals have extra activity in the visual cortex while hearing auditory stimuli. There’s also growing evidence that synesthesia is genetic.

So when a synesthete sees color upon hearing a specific musical note, what are they actually experiencing? It’s hard to describe this because of the explanatory gap—the inability to articulate the raw experience of senses with language. Is your red the same as my red? How do you explain what color looks like to someone who is blind? This is the same dilemma synesthetes encounter when trying to explain their experiences. Some synesthetes see colors or patterns overlaid upon their vision, while for others it may be more of a psychological association. Nevertheless, this is something that language fails to fully describe. The experiences are too raw.

I do not have synesthesia. And I’m unsure whether or not I would want it. Nevertheless, it is interesting that so many famous creatives share this sensory phenomena. I look forward to learning more as scientists crack the enigma that is the synesthetic experience.

Jack Gaffney is a local musician and piano teacher. He can be reached at JackGaffney.com.