Why don't we sing in public?

I was sitting on the train, to visit my sister. The trip takes seven hours, and I had thankfully been left alone for most of it. About halfway there, a man got on the train and sat down next to me. He took his phone out, placed it on the small table in front of his seat, and put on some football scoring service. "Great", I thought. "He is a football fan and will stay occupied with this and not bother me". When the football phone was all set up, he took out a second phone, and started playing music on it. Then he started singing along. I had to control myself to not stare at him. He obviously didn't know all the lyrics, or even the right notes, so he substituted the missing parts with loud humming. This went on until he got off the train, two stops later. 

When I told this story to my sister, we both laughed at the strange man. "I guess he was a foreigner?", my sister asked. I had to admit that yes, he was African. My talking about a man singing on the train had given her an image of a foreign person. It was apparently unthinkable that a native Norwegian would sing in public.

I was at work, late on a Friday evening. It felt like only my coworker and I were left in the mall. Suddenly, we hear a loud voice from the common area of the mall. He was singing "Halo". His voice wasn't bad at all, he could follow the complicated rhythm of the song well. We couldn't see the man, only hear his voice. My coworker and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. This made our day.

It was strange and unusual for us to hear an adult man singing in public like this. The fact that he was singing a well known song by a female singer made it even stranger. I have later thought that if it had been a child, or even a young woman, the scene wouldn't have been so weird.

Why is it seen as so strange to sing in public? At which age are we supposed to stop singing? When a child sings, people usually think it is cute. Of course, children are also "allowed" to do other things that we adults can't, such as running in public, climbing trees, and generally exploring places without a purpose or excuse.

I sometimes hum while working or walking, without a thinking about it consciously. It comes naturally. It is usually just a sign that I'm feeling safe, since I usually stay quiet in the presence of other people. Sometimes, a coworker or my SO will point it out. I usually apologise! Thinking about it, I wouldn't expect somebody who has been "caught" humming to apologise. I don't mean the kind of people who hum while people talk to them to demonstrate their ignorance. I mean just humming, as in adding background music to whatever they are doing at the moment. In some cultures, it is perfectly OK and common to sing while working. It used to be a common thing for sailors, for example.

Showing happiness in public is a good thing in my eyes. There is nothing shameful about it. The next time I catch somebody singing in public, I'll maybe smile with them instead of laughing at them.

How do I explain synesthesia?

"Sundays are white" 
"December is at the bottom of the year" 
"This song looks like a white brain"

As a child, I used to puzzle my parents with expressions like these. I couldn't understand what they thought was so strange about this. They couldn't understand what I meant. As I grew older, it became clear that almost nobody else shared these experiences. I wrote it off, stopped speaking of it and hid it inside my mind.

Not until I was an adult, almost 30 years later, did I first hear of synesthesia. My mother had heard it mentioned on TV, and reminded me: "Do you remember that Sundays were white? You should look at this..."

I experience most of the forms of synesthesia that are discussed in the Wikipedia article, but the strongest association is the one that shows sounds and smells as visual images. When a word has a colour, I don't see the colour strongly when I look at the letters of the word, but I see it when it is spoken out loud. The shapes are usually in 3D.

The song that looked like a white brain was an upbeat, big band version of a famous jazz song. A well known radio show in my country uses it as its intro. I can't find this specific version of it online, but I have found several others. Interestingly enough, they look different. Where the big band recording looks like a white brain, a slower version with the main melody played on a clarinet looks more like a dark green fractal tree. The general "winding" shape is the same, but the faster version has a lighter and more compact visual.

Smells have even stronger associations than sounds. I have learned that the sense of smell has a strong connection with the primitive, subconscious part of the brain, especially with old memories. I can often visualise a smell before my conscious mind can come up with the name for it. The smell of blood, for example, is a semi transparent iron grey blob.

I experience synesthesia stronger when my mind isn't fully alert. When I am very sleepy, intoxicated, or sick, the associations become stronger. This is especially an issue with (lucid) dreaming. The connection between a word, its sound, and its shape and colour is sometimes so strong that it makes the dream hard to type up.

One peculiar thing I have noticed is the fact that the lower quality the sound recording is, the less colourful and detailed is the image, unless the recording is of a sound I know very well. It is as if the brain fills in the blanks, and gives me the image I expect.

The article also links synesthesia with misophonia. I don't know if that is universal, but I definitely have misophonia too. Some sounds translate to fear and/or aggression. I wonder if that works in the same way as the connection between smells, memories and emotions.

Wikipedia article about synesthesia

A good article on Google+

My favourite thing to do in a lucid dream

I am a natural lucid dreamer. Staying on LD4all for many years has greatly improved how often I lucid dream. A lucid dream is a dream where you are aware of the fact that you are dreaming. This mental state, although limited in time, is complete freedom and privacy. If you can imagine it, you can do it in a lucid dream. With some experience, training, and mental focus, it is possible to make a lucid dream last for several minutes, and you can do literally what you want.

In their first lucid dreams, many people will typically want to do the same things. It is common to want to lucid dream about flying, other superpowers, and fulfilling one's desires. I have done those things. It works just like daydreaming, just in full virtual reality 3D.

When we are asleep, our senses are turned down. We don't pay much attention to the world around us, because we are sleeping. This means that everything that happens in a dream happens inside our own heads. This also means that our experiences aren't limited to what our senses can process. I have read lucid dreams where people have had 360 degree vision, where they could follow scent trails, and where they could see and hear from the point of view of two people at the same time.

Flying and singing in my own private world

I love music. I love making music, singing and drumming random rhythms when I am alone. Unfortunately, I'm not very talented. This is where the lucid dreaming comes in. In a lucid dream, my voice sounds good. It becomes deep, expressive, and powerful. It is as if I listen to a skilled singer, and can perfectly control what they sing, because I am that singer. The dream environment can also provide background music. Since my mind isn't limited by my ears anymore, I can clearly hear and follow multiple voices and instruments playing together. In a lucid dream, the harmony is always perfect. Sometimes, the music comes from my surroundings, from people around me, or even from the planet itself. The euphoria from this is impossible to describe with words.

Apart from all the other good sides of lucid dreaming, it is this that makes me keep trying. There is simply nothing like standing on a private world, singing a song you make yourself as you sing it, loudly and freely.