Re Vilayanur Video : Synesthesia & whisky tasting.

I was delighted to view the video re synesthesia etc. I first met this interesting neurological condition about 20 years ago at a whisky tasting! It was at a Rotary club gathering, all very serious and sober persons, one member was putting on a whisky tasting promoting his family's single malt. We were seated on six tables of six, given notepads then each handed a shot of whisky. We were told not to drink it but to agree amongst ourselves on each table what colour it brought to mind when we smelt it and write it down not letting other tables know, then we we once again told not to drink it but this time agree on the kind of sound it made, what kind of musical instrument! By now we truly thought our benefactor was mad, but we humored him and agreed on a musical instrument without much trouble. We were now asked to describe the texture was it rough and sandy or smooth and velvety or soft and sqishy etc, desperate to get to the serious business of drinking we once again complied and recorded our join decision on each table. We were then at last invited to taste the golden nectar! At this stage all the recorded assessments were compared across all the tables, the first whisky was a cheap blended scotch almost without exception the recorded colour was a green, the sound was a tin whistle or triangle and the texture was sand paper or similar. The next sample the procedure was repeated but this time all tables agreed once again that colour was a red/orange, sound oboe/double bass and texture velvety, this was a single malt of some maturity. Four more whiskys on the pattern was repeated. This was a remarkable demonstration as far as I could see of the fact that we ALL "suffer" from synasthesia. Perhaps readers would like to repeat this experiment at their next night out, with full statistical protocols of course!
Michael Lingard