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Canadian researchers are reporting only the second-known case of a patient who developed synesthesia after a stroke — a bizarre brain phenomenon where stimulation of one sense triggers others.

Nine months after suffering a stroke in the summer of 2007, the 45-year-old Toronto man began noticing that words printed in a sky blue typeface revolted him; words written in yellow were only mildly better.

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The sound of high-pitched brass instruments — specifically, the theme music from the James Bond films — elicited feelings of euphoria that the patient described as “orgasmic,” as if he could “ride the music.” The Bond music also provoked blue flashes of light in his peripheral vision, researchers from Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital report in the journal, Neurology.

The patient was convinced he was losing his mind.

‘It scared the hell out of me. I thought, ‘this is how you lose your mind.’ I was convinced I was going to go crazy’

He remembers watching the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. “When the women came on from the Peking opera, they were singing in a very high falsetto tone,” the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Postmedia News. ”I had the sensation of entering the TV, and entering the stadium and I was floating above the crowd.”

The sensation was so real, “I could feel the heat and humidity coming off the people. I could feel it on my skin,” he said. “It scared the hell out of me. I thought, ‘this is how you lose your mind.’ I was convinced I was going to go crazy.”

When he reported his symptoms to his doctor, he was referred to Dr. Luis Fornazarri, a behavioral neurologist at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital. Fornazarri immediately recognized it as synesthesia.

“It’s a pretty rich synesthesia that he has,” said Dr. Tom Schweizer, a neuroscientist and director of the Neuroscience Research Program at St. Michael’s Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute.