This past Sunday morning, I was very excited for a moment. Those of you who have been following my story know that I have been experiencing cross-sensory perceptions for the past three years. I do not “hear” the organ or piano playing in our Sunday church services. My ears are working fine because I hear the choir and congregation singing. I hear the wind instruments in the worship orchestra playing their music. I hear the worship leader or the preacher speaking from the pulpit.
However, in the year that we have attended our current church, I have “heard” organ music only once. All of the other times, I have felt vibrations across my forehead. If the music is a familiar piece, I can recognize it from those vibrations. The only time I literally heard the organ was when the organist switched to a flute register. As the organist played in this register, I could distinctly hear flutes. Obviously, we have an electronic organ in our church. I do not know what would happen if I listened to a real pipe organ where the tones are produced by air forced through tubes like the wind instruments that I hear regularly.
When a pianist plays the piano in our church, I do not hear music. I see one of two things. The first is an oscilloscope screen with a sinusoidal wave running across the screen. The second is an amplifier mixing board with its rows of lights flashing up and down. These images are visual representations of the music that is being played. Again, if the music is familiar, most of the time, I can recognize the music from the visions.
This phenomena occurs not just with physical instruments. When I listen to digitally reproduced music (CD’s, tapes, television, and radio) I have the same results of either feelings or visions. With other stringed instruments, I have similar sensations. With guitars and violins, I see the music. With cellos and basses, I feel vibrations. The only “logical” explanation that I have for the difference is the general pitch of the notes that these instruments play. I was stumped at first with the organ and piano since the two instruments should be playing the same notes. However, there is still a tonal difference between a “High C” on the organ and one on the piano.
It took me some time to realize that this was translating over to other auditory experiences. I no longer hear robins and the typical song birds. When they are making their music and I recognize the sound, I “see” a bird. However, with ducks and geese, I feel their honking along the temple region on my face. It doesn’t happen with human voices. I hear people singing and speaking. As long as I can recognize the sound, I can live with the cross-sensory perceptions. All my neurologists can tell me is that this is unusual. Two weeks of hospital observations of brain activity have produced no viable explanations.
Now back to the Sunday that I heard the piano! The choir was singing a hymn. The first verse and chorus went as usual. I heard the words that the choir was singing, I felt the vibrations of the organ, and I saw the amplifier lights from the piano. When the choir finished the second verse and proceeded to the chorus, I stopped feeling the vibrations from the organ and I started hearing the piano playing music. I was very excited. The music was back!
However, all it took was a glance toward the piano for me to realize that the instruments had stopped playing and the choir was singing a cappella. When I came to that realization, the piano music stopped. Another hallucination! My brain was inserting the music that it felt should be present. When I knew that there was no instrumental music, the sounds of the music stopped. When the instruments began to play again on the third verse, it was back to my reality. I felt the organ music and I saw the piano music.
At this point, all I can do is thank and praise God that I can still recognize and enjoy good music, whether I hear it, see it or feel it.
Leave a Reply