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Synesthesia. My brain trauma left me with a strange condition called synesthesia. This has always been hard to explain to people who's worldview includes the supernatural.

What is the one topic you just can't explain to people who believe in magic?

William12354 6 Sep 8
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18 comments

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Existence itself. It must have been created, right? That means there is a creator, right? Ask them where the creator came from, and they seem to be content with "I don't know".

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TBI on my end. It's been a year.
I would guess that is the perception in how your brain interprets things.
Mine plays tricks on me sometimes. I see most colors in fluorescent. I know that is not reasonable. The brain is a magnificent organ.
What caused your TBI ?

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Magic.

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Critical thinking and science.

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Coincidences.... The differences between causation and association.

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depends on the magic they believe in, largely. I've found the principles of evolution to be very difficult to explain to overly religious people, because they will always reach their "comprehension limit" and then try to insert a god, and we have to basically go back to basics at every single point.

This includes many believers who accept evolution, but assume god had some kind of hand in it.

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That there is or will eventually be a scientific explanation for everything in the universe or multi verse or whatever it turns out to be.

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Logic.

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I know the term for two reasons: 1) it's a disease on House (season 4, the first one where he's looking at getting a new team, so probably episode 2 of that season) and 2) it's used in poetry as a term (basically the same meaning as the medical condition -- using a different sense from the expected one to express something, for example, the yellow odor. As for the question, I'll have to think about that some more. Some of the answers below are relatable: trying to explain evolution, faith not being a virtue, that events are not signs, among them.

Baudelaire!

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that psychics are fcking con artists my sis and ex regularly went to these pond scum filter feeders and came back with amazing insights and visitations from dead relatives with amazing messages like something good will happen in the next 6 months your dad says hes proud of you, really?? never went with them as prison doesnt appeal to me but fuck those cockroaches

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That “faith” is not a virtue.

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It's pretty hard to explain biological evolution to people who think all species magically popped into existence in a blinding flash of divine inspiration.

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Synesthesia arise out of neuronal/synaptic connections between areas of the brain normally process different kinds of stimuli. As in the difference between numerical graphemes and colors. Some see each written numeral in a different color. There is nothing magical about that. We are all, to a degree, synesthetes. As the neuroscientist V.S.Ramachandran has pointed out, when the Bard writes, "What light in yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!" he is playing on our natural ability to make connections between things that might otherwise seem unrelated. No magic involved.

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First of all, synesthesia is cool.

The human brain is a hotbed of perceptive truth, everything we see, hear, taste, and feel is "filtered". Eye witness testimony is a joke. Seeing is believing is extremely problematic. A good illusionist can make a third of the people believe in magic. Doesn't help that 70% of people are brainwashed before they even hit puberty.

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My youngest son had it when he was younger. He would tell me that yellow tasted wonderful.

My worldview includes the supernatural/paranormal and I understand it fine. Not sure why they would be unable to understand it.

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I can't think of anything I can't explain at the moment, though whether I can convince is another question.

This the first time I've heard of synesthesia, though. I looked it up and found it fascinating. Do you consider your type of synesthesia a super-power or a handicap?

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i am envious, although i imagine it's hard to adjust to if you were not born with it. i have, ever since learning of its existence, wished i had been born with synesthesia. it sounds just wonderful. i actually can imagine it, or i imagine i can imagine it. but then, i am an atheist lol. one topic you just can't explain to people who believe in magic? why you don't. i am currently arguing with someone who says atheism is faith-based. give me a BREAK, yeah?

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@William12354 you don't like it? i'm sorry. again, if you'd been born with it, it'd be normal. having to deal with its sudden onset is different and i guess it's a bit discombobulating. me, i am dying to hear colors and smell sounds. annoying lights could be headache-inducing. is it like auras? those i would not find annoying. otherwise, yeah, that could be annoying.

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@William12354 yeah i can dig that. of course, if you'd been born that way.... again different. i like the idea of auras though. (i do not attribute supernatural characteristics to them, though.)

g

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