Imagine you're walking into a house party. As you walk through the door, you can smell the food sitting in the kitchen, hear the loud music banging in the background beneath all the voices, and feel your hand grip the plastic of a red Solo cup. Now, imagine it again, but this time you can hear the scent of the food in the kitchen, you feel the music and the tones of each of the voices on the back of your neck, and the texture of that red Solo cup in your hand sends an odd, savory smell through your nostrils.

Before you start to wonder what drug you just took, let me introduce you to the world of Synesthesia. According to recent studies, About one in every 2000 people experiences this phenomenon which is commonly described as a bonding or cross-wiring of the senses. Some people taste sights, see smells, or in my case, hear and read colors.

When I was in the sixth grade, I discovered that my favorite color was "fisherman" and I tended to avoid the color "matchbox." When I did school projects, I would cover my posters with "basement," but never touched the "ladle" marker. As my teachers and classmates simply chose to ignore my strange comments such as these, I began to realize I was the odd one out.

What makes this completely unnatural perception of the world so interesting is the fact that we know pretty much nothing about it. Aside from the fact that it is genetic, occurs passively, and is completely separate from hallucination, the world of Synesthesia is completely untapped by the modern scientist.

Following their education on the condition, many people ask why synesthetes have not been researched further. Surprisingly enough, the most common documented response has nothing to do with science: synesthetes fear ridicule. Whether their music teacher yelled at them for not playing A-sharp on the piano because it tasted bitter or their mother didn't believe that the true reason they wouldn't eat their vegetables was the deep bass that rang through their ears, almost everyone with Synesthesia has faced some form of prejudice. And yet, in the words of Simon Baron-Cohen, PhD, "If you ask synesthetes if they'd wish to be rid of it, they almost always say no."

Becoming used to an utterly abnormal perception of the world is quite an abstract concept, but it is one that follows us synesthetes in hiding while we live out our lives as members of this secret society. So if your roommate asks you if you cut the cheese every time you turn on "Plain Jane" by A$AP Ferg or your daughter craves bacon whenever she puts on her red dress, they might not be as crazy as you think.