Synesthesia is an intriguing condition where people experience the world differently.

The common phrase “1 see what you’re saying” is literally true for synaesthetes who may feel a taste or see a colour. Perhaps watching Walt Disney’s Fantasia where music is visualized may help you appreciate their experience.

“Far from being a mere curiosity, synesthesia is a consciously elevated form of the perception that everyone already has. Minds that function differently are not so strange after all, and everyone can learn from them” stated neurologist Dr Richard E. Cytowic author of 'The man Who Tasted Shapes: A Bizarre Medical Mystery Offers Revolutionary Insights into Emotions, Reasoning, and Consciousness.

How does this relate to Kabbalah?

Kabbalist’s analyze every nuance of scripture, noting the linguistic similarities, masculine and feminine qualities of words and describe a map of our infinite reality.
Intriguingly, the Torah describes a case of national synesthesia.

Exodus 20:15 (v18 Christian Bibles) describes Israel receiving the 10 Commandments when “the people saw the sounds”. Hassidic philosophy states that in a heightened spiritual state, such as hearing G-d speak from a mountain, the souls capabilities flow through all the senses of the body.

To understand the Kabbalistic model, imagine an umbilical chord connecting you to the Infinite Light of God (Hebrew, Ohr Ein Sof). This is your neshama or divine soul channels the 10 divine energies between you and the Ein Sof. This is the level to which our souls aspire.

Between you and the Ein Sof are an infinite number of worlds (Heb. olamot) that repeat a pattern of 10 energies with varying intensities that broadly group into four levels.

These energies were manifested by the 10 statements that made the universe in Genesis 1, and the 10 commandments that are the foundation of Jewish life. Life’s infinite complexity came from Gods utterances and the 613 Jewish laws extrapolate from the 10 commandments.

The first world, the realm of our subconscious, called Atzilut, is closest and almost indistinguishable from the Ein Sof. Next is Beriya, the realm of the mind, where the three mental sefirot predominate. Next is the world of emotion, Yetzira, followed by Assiya, the actualized world we inhabit.

Just as the atom is a microsm of the universe, the universe, the spiritual and psychological realms repeat the same laws and patterns. So everything is within man.

The sefirot are disembodied mind and emotion called seichel, the 3 mental energies and middot, the 7 emotional energies. All these qualities link all levels of creation through the language of branches.

Psychologically, seichel manifests through our brain and includes chochmah, the masculine unformed creative spark, that the more feminine binah (understanding) cogently shapes and births through da’at, the type of knowledge that comes when you try to explain something and it gels, connecting the mind and heart. These mental qualities are more masculine when compared to the feminine emotions. These qualities are known by the acronym CHaBaD.

Just as there are 7 colours of the rainbow there are 7 emotional qualities that colour our life.
The emotional middot , or CHaGaT, are expressed externally and externally. Chesed (loving kindness) is an expansive giving, with full unlimited awareness. This is balanced by the limiting focus of geruvah, that empowers like a magnifying glass. Tiferet (beauty) unifies these with the strength of compassion.

The external emotion, called NeHeY, that predominates in Yetzira, include Netzach (Victory), that victoriously crosses the chasm between you and others. This is balanced by Hod (empathy),that allows us create our own inner space. This allows you to balance netzach so that you do not emotionally overwhelm others. Yesod (foundation) allows us to focus mind and emotion in a relationship.

Although the emotions are more feminine than the mind, the first six emotions are masculine when compared to the seventh quality Malchut. These compare to the six active masculine work days. The seventh day, the Sabbath is feminine and sacred. Just a a person rests on Sabbath to receive from God, the quality of Malchut rules the week as a queen receiving the intersecting qualities of the mind and heart.

Malchut takes these qualities and actualizes them in our lives, the world of Assiya.
All these qualities are in a fine, but shifting balance. Through Kabbalah, we begin to understand the divine qualities in our lives.

We cannot look at God directly, yet, with systematic introspection, we can perceive the artistic expression of the creator within. When we blossom our creative spark through Binah, we learn to refine our qualities and partner in completing the artwork of G-d.

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