Ouch, I saw that
Some people literally feel what they see.
'Mirror touch' synaesthesia is a strange but real condition, and it might be wide-spread, psychologists have found. So-called mirror-touch synaesthetes actually feel a touch on their own skin when they watch someone else being touched. Perhaps as a consequence, they also show more emotional empathy than normal people.
Comments
nope, BUT when i hear heavy bass on my ipod, literally can feel the ground shaking at my feet.
freaky scarry real somethings
Posted by: readernl | June 17, 2007 10:02 PM
Well, I funnily felt something in my arm, but I just realized it after I read the question and it was on my right arm, opposite of the one being touched in the picture.
Posted by: Henrique | June 18, 2007 11:38 AM
It hurts when I see someone get hurt (also animals), I have to cry when someone cries. Had the hardest time dissecting a mouse, even thinking of it years later hurts where I cut it open. No medical career for me. Thank god there is tissue culture. No bloody movies either. And you rather don't chase doves when I'm around! I'm a hard core emphatic. :-)
Posted by: Frauke | June 18, 2007 06:00 PM
I would suggest that a similar mechanism occurs in hypnosis. The subject switches its normal sensorial input to what the hypnotizer says. Once this change takes place, other sensorial switches can take place, making for the extraordinary effects of this old and little understood phenomena.
Posted by: Petr Jan Svacina | June 18, 2007 06:14 PM
Yes. So what is this information good for?
Posted by: HeAry | June 18, 2007 07:17 PM
yes, I do a little... but certainly I don't have synaesthecia! I think this common... In some movies we literally feel... if some one is beaten badly!
I think I has more to do with mirror system, in understanding others emotions.
I will be curious to hear other's comments!
Posted by: Gangadhar | June 18, 2007 07:21 PM
You are taliking about someone being "touched"not someone touch others. It is the role player we should put into considreation. For example, in a violent movie, will you consider your self as the murder or the victim?I believe the term of "Synaesthesia" is dependent on which role you are playing.
Posted by: Owen | June 18, 2007 10:17 PM
You are taliking about someone being "touched"not someone touch others. It is the role player we should put into considreation. For example, in a violent movie, will you consider your self as the murder or the victim?I believe the term of "Synaesthesia" is dependent on which role you are playing.
Posted by: Yu-Hsin Lin | June 18, 2007 10:19 PM
So nice to have a term for something I've lived with all my life. As a child it took some adjusting to learn to "play past" such empathy.
I wonder if there aren't patterns of synethesia. For instance, while I don't "see" music, I do feel some music. Certain pieces play out over my skin, with the same notes hitting the same place every time over my neck, scalp, arms, back, etc. It has nothing to do with volume or mood, and it's not all music. These are also all pieces that trigger my TLE (at least, I think that's what's happening), by creating a state of intense joy or grace. Not all TLE songs create a synethesia state, but all my synesthetic songs produce the joy.
This and the mirror touch synesthesia seem as if they might be symptoms of a deeper function.
Posted by: Alex O'Neal | June 19, 2007 12:09 AM
I guess this isn't normal.... I can't handle violent movies for this very reason.
Posted by: Deanna | June 19, 2007 12:49 AM
I too thought that was normal.
I don't like watching others being tickled because I can feel it - and I'm very ticklish!
Posted by: Kate | June 19, 2007 03:46 AM
I think 'Mirror touch' synaesthesia is something that may come and go depending on age, environment and other causes such as the way you rationalize or try to understand what you're seeing, basing this on my own experience.
Posted by: Sebas | June 19, 2007 07:36 AM
Hi there,
Yes, I can feel a tingly feeling on my (right) arm, but also a very light sensation in my hand (not really trying, but kind of having the urge to squeeze something).
Happy researching
Posted by: Dirk | June 19, 2007 08:09 AM
By an interesting coincidence the BBC website has just had a story on something called couvade syndrome - a condition in which men, whose partners are pregnant, experience their own phantom pregnancy. Another mirror neuron disorder?
Posted by: chiz | June 19, 2007 08:32 AM
Hi!
This is so interesting! I am very emotionally empathic, but a "real" feeling like that, i have not felt..
Only one time though (or acutally a couple of times, maybe 15) I could SWEAR i felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. And some days i didn't even have it with me. I mean, i definetly felt it vibrate against my leg. Either i got some spasm in the leg, or i felt it with some kind of 'Mirror touch' synaesthesia.
Posted by: Gustav | June 19, 2007 10:52 AM
This is 100% me! When I was a child and people around me got hurt, like my sister, I would wind up being in more pain than she would be. I have always concidered myself an empath, where I can literally feel other people's emotions. I have been reading up on it recently. It is funny though because it really comes out when the other person (whether I know them or not) has strong emotions that they are not able to express. For example: 1)someone who is very depressed. Even though you cannot see their emotions (they are desperately trying to hide them) I will channel their emotions and all of a sudden become profoundly depressed but in my head I am thinking, "I have nothing to be upset about, why am I feeling like this". Another example: 2) I went to a concert where the seats were very very tight. One of the men that went with us is a war vetran and sufers from claustrophobia. You would never be able to tell by looking at him even in a croud. He was fine all evening. I however was not. I had never in my life felt claustrophobic! My heart started racing, I started sweating, and all the color drained from my face until I had to get up a leave. Once I left I was fine.
Posted by: Emilee Manthey | June 19, 2007 03:55 PM
Interesting... There are several points that may be worth thinking of:
1) "Mirror" means here only acquired by vision? I could think that "viewers" could either feel on the same side of the body that the "touched" person or on the mirror reflected side: e.g., if facing each other, touch can be felt either on the same arm or on the opposite one, which may be "visually" more logic.
2) The negative reaction to terror films is evident. But, what about a positive reaction to pornography? For many people this is a silly activity as it is not really happening to you, but in these cases...
3) Have differences been detected in the degree of synesthesia related to how much the viewer identifies himself with the touched person? Something like same sex, age, race... Different social groups and cultures can more readily identify other individuals as "belonging to your own group" or "aliens", "others". This kind of double moral is often seen in war films (and real life, I am afraid) when the enemies (others) are killed without a second thought while the injuries of allies (we) are extensively lamented.
Posted by: Antonio Molina | June 19, 2007 03:57 PM
Yes. I feel it. I've lived with this my entire life and sometimes its so bad I can't bear to be in public or around other people.
Posted by: kate | June 19, 2007 09:28 PM
What about any correlation with gender?
Have women more synaesthesia than men?
Posted by: Giuseppe Pagliarulo | June 19, 2007 10:19 PM
No,I do not actually feel anything when I see the picture, but I ALMOST do.
At one time I interested myself in Acupuncture, and found that when I read the charts I often felt I knew the points, and I could with great confidence find the exact points on myself. I could with the same confidence find them on others.
Would that not be a feeling related to the one that is being researched here?
Best Regards
Steffen M P
Posted by: Steffen M. Poulsen | June 21, 2007 10:32 AM
Not this kind, but i strongly feel the hurt when i see people being hurt by some reason. Especially, in movies when they fall, hit etc..But i feel it so strong sudden hurt in that region of my body, and it continues along many minutes. I put the region with my hand. I always think it is normal, but now, I don't know whether it's normal or not.
Regards,
Burak.
Posted by: Burak | June 21, 2007 11:25 PM
I felt as though my right arm was being squeezed. I then dismissed it as I noticed it was the persons left arm in the picture. But a lot of you guys say you felt something on your right arm too. Weird.
Posted by: Sharon | June 23, 2007 09:44 PM
When I look at the picture I can feel someone holding my left arm just above my elbow, actually it feels warm more than being hurt. generally I have high empathy, that's why I couldnt work with animals and humans :)I actually fainted when I heard stories of people who were feeling pain, e.g my grandma giving birth, my friend hurting her head, etc.
Posted by: gkayihan | January 21, 2008 09:31 PM