In the case of synaesthesia for pain, people describe that the empathic response of observing pain in another causes an actual sensation of pain in oneself (Giummarra and Bradshaw, 2008).
People with mirror-sensory synaesthesia report experiencing first-hand sensations when viewing touch or pain to others. That is to say that seeing other people's experiences evokes tactile sensations on their own body.
Pain synesthesia is a form of synesthesia that causes a person to experience pain when seeing pain empathetic eliciting stimuli. The most common group who report pain synesthesia are patients with phantom limb syndrome.
Additionally, some individuals experience pain when observing someone else in pain, and this is a condition usually developed from birth. Approximately 30% of the normal population experience some form of this condition and around 16% of amputees report synesthetic pain after an amputation.
In a 1913 article in the The Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Isador Coriat describes a case of “colored pain,” which is still considered a rare form of synesthesia. These synesthetes perceive colors as they experience pain.
Mirror touch synesthesia (MTS) describes a rare condition that causes people to mirror sensations they see and then experience emotional and physical touch. For example, feeling pain, to an extent, after seeing someone get hurt.
Empaths are highly sensitive individuals, who have a keen ability to sense what people around them are thinking and feeling. Psychologists may use the term empath to describe a person that experiences a great deal of empathy, often to the point of taking on the pain of others at their own expense.
A sadist is someone who enjoys inflicting pain on others, sometimes in a sexual sense. Sadists like seeing other people hurt. A sadist is the opposite of a masochist, who enjoys being in pain.
The most common form of synesthesia, researchers believe, is colored hearing: sounds, music or voices seen as colors. Most synesthetes report that they see such sounds internally, in "the mind's eye." Only a minority, like Day, see visions as if projected outside the body, usually within arm's reach.
Chromesthesia is one of the most popular, and 30% of synesthetic people are believed to feel it. It is the association of sounds with colours, and just listening to a sound or a musical note can trigger the sight of colours.
Lexical–gustatory synesthesia
It is estimated that 0.2% of the synesthesia population has this form of synesthesia, making it one of the rarest forms.
The color of pain—as well as inflammation, irritation, and annoyance—is red. Science is now discovering that every color of light produces an effect. 1 Pink is calming, as is blue; orange stimulates feelings and yellow stimulates our minds.
People with synesthesia are usually born with it or it'll develop in early childhood. Research suggests that synesthesia is often hereditary. Synesthesia is caused by a merging of senses. For example, both the primary visual cortex and parietal lobe may be stimulated when looking at a colour.
Physical empath: Physical empaths feel people's physical symptoms in their own body (much like emotional empaths experience other people's feelings). Empaths may feel the physical pain of others due to this intense physical empathy.
Some people, known as dark empaths, understand the feelings of others but don't feel these feelings themselves. They might act like they care, but deep down, they don't feel sympathy for you or have a desire to help. They use their understanding of your feelings to manipulate you.
Hyper-empaths take everything on (noise, colour, conversation), so often find crowds overwhelming. Of course, there are many reasons why we might be flooded with emotion, but hyper-empaths are so tuned in to other people's feelings that the sensation of taking on someone else's experience is unmistakable.
No matter if the hurt is physical or emotional, we feel our child's pain. This might be as simple as a bad day at school or it might be as significant as pain associated with dying. While all pain isn't equal, it is there for all parents.
Hyperalgesia and allodynia are both types of hyperesthesia, where problems with the nervous system cause increased sensitivity to stimulation. Hyperalgesia is when people feel excessive pain from a minor injury or pain stimulus. In allodynia, the pain has no apparent cause, or a very gentle touch may trigger it.
Perhaps you have always had the ability to feel the emotions and physical symptoms of others as if they were your own. If this rings true in your life, you may be an “empath.” Only 1 to 2 percent of the population experience this type of sensitivity, having the ability to feel and absorb the emotions surrounding them.
Emotional synesthesia is a condition in which specific sensory stimuli are consistently and involuntarily associated with emotional responses. There is a very small number of reports of subjects with these stereotyped emotion-sensation pairings.