Confused Senses!

[corpsechaser]

i had to post this article on here i was reading last night its the most bizarre thing i have ever read.its taken from poltergeist by Colin Wilson:

A Italian professor Cesare Lombroso investigated a case of a 14 year old girl who developed the ability to see through her ear,and the end of her nose and smell from her chin it all began when she started to menstruate she began to sleep walk and devloped hysterical blindness. he conducted several experiments and it turned out not only had she these strange abilites but she could also predict the future. but after a few weeks all the girls senses returned back to normal .
Lombroso also found similar cases one girl who developed hysterical sympyoms at puberty she could accurately distinguish colours with her hands, there was also another case of an 11 year old girl who suffered a back wound and was able to read with her elbow , another pubescent girl could read a book with her stomach when her eyes where closed.
Lombroso came up with the theory of the human faculties pointing out that seeing , hearing, smelling and feeling all take place through the nerves and if one of hese faculties becomes paralysed there is no scientific reason why another should not take over.

 

[Rrose_Selavy]

Synaesthesia - is a recognised neurological phenomena in that some individuals can eg experience sounds or smells as colours in a very specific way -

However as to the rest, I would advise anyone to take whatever credulous magpie Colin Wilson writes with a very large , nay enormous pile of salt.
-

 

[Doctor_Occupant]

Synaesthesia's interesting. I've had some unintentionally amusing conversations with a friend who suffered (not exactly sure that's the right word) from it.

However, reading through the elbow or stomach....mmmm....I'd be more inclined to suspect trickery. The ability to distinguish colour by touch, or read text the same way, seems so unlikely as to demand full bore lab tests to rule out any kind of cheating. So yeah, pass the salt.

 

[Anonymous]

It doesn't confer any extra powers or sensory modalities. Just different perceptions of the use of the senses - perceptual crosswiring. Thus one may tast chicken as spikey and yellow, but one cannot read via the ear (although, many cells are light sensitive e.g. some behind the knee, funnily enough)...

 

[JamesWhitehead]

. . . I would advise anyone to take whatever credulous magpie Colin Wilson writes with a very large , nay enormous pile of salt. -

What? credulous?, our Colin? You reckon he believes his own stuff then, Rrose?

He has his admirers on here, I know. He's certainly quite productive - or used to be - but an incredibly lazy writer. His preface to Catherine Crowe's Night Side of Nature showed that he had consulted exactly one work - the Dictionary of National Biography! I'm not convinced he'd even read the book itself.

Living proof of the perils of writing for a living. Acclaimed as a teenage genius and reduced to penny-a-word stuff ever since.

He was never a genius but the stupidity of much he has written since seems more cynical than credulous. Yup, he's the Jade Goody of Forteana!

 

[Anonymous]

I don't have access where I am, but wasn't there a molesworth conversation discussing Colin W.? :lol:

 

[kirmildew]

Synaesthesia - is a recognised neurological phenomena in that some individuals can eg experience sounds or smells as colours in a very specific way -

-

I do experience mild synaesthesia in its commonest form, ie "seeing" things (words, numbers, days of the week) in my mind's eye as vivid colours. I've been told, to my surprise, that people generally don't do this. I never forget a birthday as each date leaves a two- or three- coloured imprint in my memory. (single or double figure, and month.) Who knows, maybe I just had a vivid imagination as a kid, but I never get in trouble for forgetting someones birthday or phone number. I can remember my boyfriend's bank account number after seeing it once because it was such a simple repetition of three contrasting colours!