Sensory overload

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You know how if you look at a colour field for long enough you start seeing shapes and patterns that may well 'not be there'. And the same thing happens aurally when you play sine-tone pieces. Well I have just taken a swig of my nth can of coke of the day - not the first, halfway down the can - and it tasted kind of hickory-savouryish! Fantastic! Which of your senses have you deranged through monosensory overload?

― Tom, Tuesday, 5 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually it's not fantastic at all it's horrible and a reminder that I have to give up caffeine or die young.

― Tom, Tuesday, 5 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Give it up Tom, before your bones turn into chalk. At least that's the image I'm using to wean myself offa my diet pepsi vice.

― Kim, Tuesday, 5 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

drink more caffeine tom - it's the only way...also have a little bit of food to calm yr stomach...and then drink more caffeine...whoopppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

― goeff, Tuesday, 5 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ok, sense of smell. You know when you get home, and someone's been cooking with garlic and that's ALL you can smell for about five minutes, but then all of a sudden you just can't seem to smell it anymore? It's like your body's smell cells get worn out and take a break from smelling garlic, but you can still smell any other new stuff. I guess that's sort of on topic. But I'm not even going to touch, the sense of um... touch.

― Kim, Tuesday, 5 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This is a bit of a TMI moment, but has anyone else noticed how at the point of orgasm, their sense of smell is momentarily heightened? Sometimes I suddenly notice something that I hadn't until that point.

Oliver Sacks once wrote a case study of this guy whose brain damage left him in the curious state of having a radically more acute sense of smell. It was like an evolutionary throwback to a time when it was much more important. He found himself in this animalistic world that was not conducive to everyday human functioning. One day it just went away and he kind of missed it, a bit like cured manic-depressives hanker after their episodes of mania.

― N., Tuesday, 5 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Imagine if you had the memory of a goldfish, the visual acuity of an eagle, and the curiosity of Picasso. Every three seconds you would be looking at things thinking 'What the hell is that? It's so sharply-defined, yet so mysterious and interesting! I must draw it... Oh, what was I thinking about again? My God, what's that? (etc)'

― Momus, Tuesday, 5 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Who has to imagine? We're the MTV generation.

― Kim, Tuesday, 5 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sight, absolutely. I've hallucinated as recently as last weekend. You don't want to go to the place that makes that happen, let me tell you. Ok, maybe you do.

― Sean, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This properly goes in the Childhood memories thread, but I like it better in this one. One of my early childhood memories is of repeating the word "blouse" to myself, again and again, until it ceased to make any sense. (Not that it makes SO much sense in the first place, but you know.) Have also successfully done this with other words since, but none have remained so clearly in my mental filing cabinet.

― Pyth, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i guess this isn't that close to what pyth mentioned above, but i have gotten carried away by childhood memories after that distant memory thread and so i can't help mentioning we used to choose a consonant sound ("p" or "b" were favourites) to start every word with, and this seemed incredibly hilarious. i have actually wanted to do this as an adult but it's too embarrassing.

― elizabeth anne marjorie, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

so, like, "i hate you, you fuck muffin" would become:
"pie pate poo, poo puck puffin". funny eh?

― elizabeth anne marjorie, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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