Young Texas Girl Suffering from "Mirror Touch" Synesthesia

A rare sensation phenomena called "mirror touch" synesthesia has been identified in a young Texas girl, where an individual feels the emotions of things around her, like machines and mechanical objects.

She chose the pseudonym "Kaylee" for herself, taking it from a character who talks to machines on Fox's "Firefly" science fiction series, Psychology Today reports.

In an interview with Maureen Seaberg, she said she feels a connection with most of the mechanically-powered machines, which includes cars, robots, escalators, locks, levers and many more.

She said she has learned to ignore most machines and other synesthetic reactions, both to appear normal and to reduce interrupting sensations.

If she is surrounded by too many machines, she feels no machine-touch reaction. She can "tune in" to a machine by focusing on one particular thing, and ignoring her surroundings.

If any machine is near her or touching her, she almost feels as if the machine is an extra limb, or an extension of her.

However, when she is in or on the machine, and directly influenced by its motion, then she becomes the machine. She feels everything that is happening to the machine, such as she feels a shift in her lower body while accelerating a car.

She has varied forms of synesthesia such as grapheme-color (associative), personality-color (associative), color-number (associative), sound-touch, sound-kinetic, and sometimes mirror-touch reactions to people.

She said her synesthesia is helpful when trying to remember long streams of numbers or words, and it also gives her a better understanding of physics and mechanical designs.

Source: ANI