A long while back I was hanging out with one of my sisters and she said that she hears thunder in her head when she gets startled.
Me: “Scuse me. What?”
Her: “You know. That thunder you hear when someone startles you.”
Me: “Again. What?”
Her: “You don’t hear thunder when someone startles you?”
Me: “Uh, no.”
Her: “Oh. I thought that happened to everybody.”
Is this a thing? Does this happen to anybody else out there? She did struggle with depression for much of her life. Could that have had something to do with it?
I’ve actually heard of this before. Is it common? Do you know of other people like this?
I think I’ve experienced this a few times that I can recall.
I had to dig up my old neuroscience notes. After my notes this is called “Synesthesia”. “[It] is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway” (Wikipedia).
After my notes only 1 in 25’000 people (Cytowic, 1988) have that. And after Wikipedia the effect vary strongly.
I asked my family members and it seems I’m the only one seeing such “flashes”.