21–30 of 215 posts
I take it from the article that this would solve one of my biggest internal issues: songs getting stuck in my head. It's gotten so bad in recent years that I don't listen to music at all , because it may stimulate a "earwig" that will not stop.
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Meditating has never done anything for me visually. I thought the idea of "visualizing" while you meditate was just a figure of speech. I haven't tried psychedelic drugs. Maybe I should start.
So you cannot visualize things while trying to but do you dream at night ? About psychedelic drugs, it's not something I would advocate lightly as it has the potential to mess you up pretty badly. From my limited experience it was more like having my imagination on steroids so I wouldn't know what happens if there's nothing to enhance in the first place... That said I've never taken hardcore stuff like lsd or dmt whe…
8. Do you dream? No, or I don’t recall them. I’ve had a couple dreams but there was no visual or sensory component to them. When I woke up, I just knew a list of “plot points” about things that happened. This is also how I digest fiction.
And now I wonder what someone with aphantasia would see using psychedelic drugs, or while meditating... Still nothing ? Could that help ?
Similarly for sounds, except that I can always imagine sounds. However I can only imagine sounds that I can try to 'subvocalize' with my own voice (plus humming, whistling, etc.). When on the verge of sleep I will hear gorgeous, fully orchestrated (as far as I can tell) songs. Sometimes memories of ones I know well, sometimes either something I don't recognize or am subconciously improvising. It's extremely alluring and makes me annoyed that I can't do this at command. (Though friends who always have a tune of music in their heads tells me it gets annoying too.)
Number 8 makes me think the author is even more extreme than I in aphantasia.
Sorry to tell you this, but my inner monologue does have texture and sound :P It sounds pretty close to my voice (or how I imagine my voice, I guess) and my inflections when speaking (even across languages). Even when I read other people's writings, I kinda hear myself in my mind.
> However, most of my friends and family describe what they “hear” as music—not as vivid as the real thing, to be sure, and not as many instruments—but “music” nonetheless.
That reminds me of an anecdote with my older brother: I was very young and I remember telling him I could hear music in my mind when I wanted to, just like if I pressed PLAY on a cassette player. He looked at me like I was crazy (note to self: test if he's aphantasic).
I still can, and (I think) I can reproduce it in high polyphonic detail (even details I don't consciously remember!) I perceive my aural imagination (aurination? audination?) as vivid as the real thing (though real sound kind of "overpowers" my imagination, like my imagination was playing through earphones close to my ears, not quite plugged in, but inside my head!) It's much clearer than my visual imagination, which is more blurry and fleeting.
Maybe that's why I became an amateur musician :)
And now I wonder what someone with aphantasia would see using psychedelic drugs, or while meditating... Still nothing ? Could that help ?
I would describe my ability to visualize as almost exactly like that in the article. I can't answer these questions directly, but I can tell you that when I am falling asleep there is a 'switch' that turns on in my brain and all of a sudden whatever I'm thinking about will appear before me in full detail, color, texture as if I were viewing an image of it. The sudden change has been enough to wake me up at times, oth…
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Really?! That is fascinating to me. I am 100% language on the inside.
That begs another question - if you are doing something althletic (or even soemthing simple like driving a car), do you develop "muscle memory" the same as other people, or do you need to actually think through each motion you perform?
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So you cannot visualize things while trying to but do you dream at night ? About psychedelic drugs, it's not something I would advocate lightly as it has the potential to mess you up pretty badly. From my limited experience it was more like having my imagination on steroids so I wouldn't know what happens if there's nothing to enhance in the first place... That said I've never taken hardcore stuff like lsd or dmt whe…
That's one of the FAQ's in the piece: 8. Do you dream? No, or I don’t recall them. I’ve had a couple dreams but there was no visual or sensory component to them. When I woke up, I just knew a list of “plot points” about things that happened. This is also how I digest fiction.
The survey is oversimplified, obviously, but it was devised by the Exeter neurologists who are studying this. I got the lowest score (8/40) since none of the questions make sense to me (no image on any of them).
My wife has multiple sclerosis. Aphantasia is one of the complications she's experiencing. Without being able to visualize she's had to resort to using a notepad and paper to write everything down. She's always been creative and it's been very hard on her to come down with this.