Synaesthesia is: The simultaneous perception of more than one sensory input, perceived as a single stimulus.

Synaesthesia happens commonly between the mouth and the nose. What one tastes is affected by what one smells. The diminishing of the olfactory sense, such as when one has a cold with a stuffy nose, diminishes the intensity and quality of taste that one experiences when eating. We have become so accustomed to this simultaneous sense perception that we hardly notice it unless something is so anomalous that we are forced to notice it by its total un-syncratic nature.

We are also normally Synaesthetic with regards to what we see and hear. We go through life seeing and hearing simultaneously, barely noticing it at all until something happens that is not Synaesthetic such as seeing something happen that makes a noise, but is far enough away that the LIGHT from the event reaches us before the SOUND from the event reaches us.

Example: Have you ever been to a baseball game and had seats in the center field bleachers, or have been playing center field during a baseball game? Have you noticed that you could see the swing of the bat and its contact with the ball, and could see the ball's reaction to being hit, long before you heard the crack of the bat? That is an example of the Synaesthesia being out of synch.

There are people who are called Synaesthetes.

They, through a rare quirk in their brain, are able to have a visual experience caused by an aural event and/or have an aural experience caused by a visual event. It has to do with the way the neuro-transmitters and receivers send and receive the impulses from the neurons in the Synapses.

That this occurs in children only to all but disappear as one matures is probably the normal course of this kind of thing. But there are those who did not lose this sense as they grew older, and if those include those with artistic propensities, then having this sense, they deal with it by making beauty with it in an effort to let others see the MUSIC/VUSIC that resides in the effort.

The kind of Synaesthesia that is produced by VUSIC is one of the reactions to hyper-stimulation. When one's input system is overloaded, the reaction by the mind is to either turn it off (in extreme cases, a state of shock can be reached) or it tries to rationalize it by relating it to some other thought in the mind.

It is not uncommon for people who have this happen to reach a conclusion that there had to be specialized knowledge about them personally, after all they saw it in the images.

VUSIC becomes the LIGHT-Track to the SOUND-Track of your mind.

The result is an ataraxia and a sublime feeling that all of this is somehow part and total of something huge that resides just outside or behind the sensory world and that by doing this kind of thing, the membrane or barrier between what is normal and what is ultimately possible is penetrated and for a while one can spend time in a realm that approaches ecstacy, but more often than not, is closer to enchantment.

One person, upon seeing a particularly moving performance told this VUSICIAN that: "He had seen more beautiful images in thirty seconds than VanGogh, DaVinci, Rembrandt, Picasso and Rockwell, put together, had produced in their entire life times."

Beauty being in the eye of the beholder. The Artistic induction into a Synaesthetic state of mind can be resisted, as hypnosis can be resisited, but it can also be sought as a place of pleasure and replenishment.

The Synaesthetic state of mind can be used in any way that the experiencer wants to employ. The kinds of things that MUSIC impels us to do pretty much give us an indication of what kinds of things that VUSIC would impel us to do. It is almost identical, in that VUSIC becomes an extension of MUSIC, an amplification of the amount of stimuli that is being perceived.

The greater the amount and intensity of the stimulous, and the more sensory systems that are involved with the stimulation, the more intense the experience. It is the ability to handle this kind of thing that makes one an expert. If one has a real aptitude for VUSIC, one needs to find out the various ways to express it. This is one of the reason that MUSICIANS are MUSICIANS. They have a special sense of audio and they manifest it in the MUSIC they make. The more sensitive the expression, the more beautiful it is.

That one is not normally Synaesthetic, or that as a child, one had Synasethetic experiences that have, for all intents and purposes, faded away, the watching of VUSIC is a replenishing experience that widens and amplifies one's awareness and sensitivity. One feels more alive when one has awakened from what appears to be an almost somnombulistic half-dream state to say: "Wow, did I really see what I just thought I saw?".

The greater the intensity and the deeper the half-dream state, the wider the gulf that is spanned when the awakening happens during a Synaesthetic experience. The wider the gulf spanned, the more encompassing the experience. It becomes a quite enjoyable and uplifting experience.

Having tried to describe the state of mind called Synaesthesia, it has to be admitted that in fact the state of mind called Synaesthesia is ineffable as far as using words to describe it are concerned. But there are a number of artists who specialize in the LUMIC art of VUSIC. They are the visual equivalents of MUSICIANS. They have developed VUSIC instruments and once in a while do a public performance and much more often do private exhibitions. While everyone seems to really like what they see, even some very influential people in the visual part of the entertainment industry say that they have no idea of what to do with it.

One of the most generous of all the patrons of this endeavor says, "It's almost getting to where it is not way ahead of its time."

There are just now coming to be uses of this kind of thing that were not even in existence just a short time ago.

If one could just figure out how to bottle this, it could be sold for what ever price was asked. This idea has always seemed a bit crass because the ability to produce beauty right before one's very eyes and ears is basically a spiritual/emotional thing. To put a price on it is only done because it is necessary to keep it alive.

During the sixties, the idea was that the MUSIC should be free. Well, it was, but they charged for everything else. None-the-less, the ability to make exquisite beauty has traditionally been rewarded with a moderate abundance. The time is coming when the VUSICIANS will be as highly regarded and respected as the MUSICIANS have become. The really good VUSICIANS, the ones that produce the most profound Synaesthesia, will be the super-stars and idols.

From their midst will come "The Next Phenom"!