Less Gore, More Gorgeous

Photo by Valentina Saduil I’m glad that Halloween is over. Once upon a time, it was my favorite holiday. When I was a kid, I’d spend weeks planning the perfect costume, trying to hit that sweet spot between spooky and beautiful. I would comb through my mother’s closet for dresses and accessories that could transform…

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A Strange and Wonderful Life

I’m honored to have an interview published today, “A Strange and Wonderful Life”, which appears on the blog Sometimes Life Is… This fascinating project is edited by Rodger Hoefel, a writer, graphic designer, and art director who makes his home in Amsterdam. Sometimeslifeis.com is a showcase of stories and conversations shared by those who have experienced life at its most…

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A Question That Can’t Be Answered

My mother Joan Mary Crowley (far left) in her nursing school dorm room, 1955. Today, October 7th, 2015 would have been my mother’s 80th birthday. While we struggled with most of the problems common to mother/daughter relationships, she was wonderfully supportive of my career in manual therapy. She encouraged me to attend a therapeutic massage…

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Moon Over Miami

The American Synesthesia Association begins their 11th annual conference today in Miami. Over the next few days, synesthetes and the researchers who study synesthesia will come together at the University of Miami campus for a series of lectures and discussions. The papers presented include several focused on neuroscience research along with others that explore the…

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Mirror, mirror…..

It’s been an exiting few weeks for MTS synesthetes! Erika Hayasaki’s brilliant article on Mirror-Touch Synesthesia (MTS) was published in Pacific Standard Magazine. The physician profiled in that story, Dr. Joel Salinas, had his experiences with MTS recounted in People Magazine. And, my personal essay on MTS as a massage therapy super-power was published this…

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Confessing My Syns (Part 1)

For several months, I’ve planned to pen a series of essays about specific incidents from my life that illustate the complexities of mirror-touch synesthesia. I’ve written and then obliterated multiple opening paragraphs, and I’ve left my computer untouched for weeks. I’ve told myself I just haven’t had time to write; my summer’s been occupied by…

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Twitchy Kid

That’s me on the right, kicking my sister Elizabeth on Halloween, 1967. “Stop it!” Elizabeth jabbed me in the ribs with her elbow, just as Kirk and Spock went to blows with each other on the planet Vulcan. “I didn’t do it!” I balked. How could I have done something to disturb her? I was…

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Why Combinator

The one certainty in the world of synaesthesia is this: there is no clear answer to why a fraction of the population has it, and others don’t. There are as many theories about the origins and significance of synaesthesia as there are scientists studying it.  Simon Baron-Cohen, a professor of developmental psychopathology at the University…

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