11–20 of 53 posts
Aphantasia: In search of a theory https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mila.12432
I find it incredibly surreal to read current research on how my own mind might be working and finding parts of it quite relatable and insightful.
I'm struggling to figure out if my mind's eye "sees" anything, or if I'm just imagining the concept of the item I'm thinking about. If I'm comparing this vision to having a dream, say, it's certainly not visual. "...there is a simple and helpful test that can give you a clue into whether you may have it: Close your eyes and try to imagine an apple, seeing it mentally in your mind's eye. If you can see anything (anyth…
Yes, I see it in the mind but not with my eyes. In a way, all vision is in the mind, but the origin of the image is like a different channel of information. I'm aware of the blackness behind my closed eyelids, but it's easy to let that go, switch focus to a different channel of information. There is a perfect image of an apple in a white space.
It does feel like paying attention to a different input stream -- just like that -- although it's still not a visual that replaces the darkness, but I'm getting, what I would say, the effects of seeing the apple.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I try to see an apple, I see absolutely nothing. I can pretend that there is an apple in front of me and that it's spinning or whatever, but all I've really done is remember what attributes I've given it and roughly what size it is. There are some odd things I've paid attention to since I became aware I had aphantasia and that it was a thing. I know for a fact that my dreams are visual because I've had lucid dre…
Minus the last couple sentences, I would describe things the same way you did in terms of visualizing, and have experienced all those things. Along the same lines as the young woman you're experiencing, I used to get out of body experiences/sleep paralysis/waking dreams (pick a label) nightly when I was in my 20s, and I would see shadows and outlines of what would seem like energies. That was mostly non-visual and in…
I'm struggling to figure out if my mind's eye "sees" anything, or if I'm just imagining the concept of the item I'm thinking about. If I'm comparing this vision to having a dream, say, it's certainly not visual. "...there is a simple and helpful test that can give you a clue into whether you may have it: Close your eyes and try to imagine an apple, seeing it mentally in your mind's eye. If you can see anything (anyth…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I try to see an apple, I see absolutely nothing. I can pretend that there is an apple in front of me and that it's spinning or whatever, but all I've really done is remember what attributes I've given it and roughly what size it is. There are some odd things I've paid attention to since I became aware I had aphantasia and that it was a thing. I know for a fact that my dreams are visual because I've had lucid dre…
Minus the last couple sentences, I would describe things the same way you did in terms of visualizing, and have experienced all those things. Along the same lines as the young woman you're experiencing, I used to get out of body experiences/sleep paralysis/waking dreams (pick a label) nightly when I was in my 20s, and I would see shadows and outlines of what would seem like energies. That was mostly non-visual and in…
The first time I saw her I did go search around the house in case I had a "homeless person living in a cupboard" scenario.
I've never experienced sleep paralysis, thankfully, even when working on being able to dream lucidly.
On the topic of aphantasia, I would expect sleep paralysis and any visual hallucinations to be on the dreaming/near to dreaming side of the fence since that circuitry seems to work for people with aphantasia as far as I can determine. If I try to think of specific memories involving people I am very close to I can get a flash of something that goes away before I'm even really aware of it that seems to be in the side channel people talk of. It doesn't seem to work for anything not emotionally connected, and only rarely.
The lady that has visited me was felt completely different. Thinking back, I have also been able to see auras, and just proved to myself that I still have that ability. It might be a visual abnormality or something, though. If I was actually visualizing, it was an overlay and not on a side channel.
I'm struggling to figure out if my mind's eye "sees" anything, or if I'm just imagining the concept of the item I'm thinking about. If I'm comparing this vision to having a dream, say, it's certainly not visual. "...there is a simple and helpful test that can give you a clue into whether you may have it: Close your eyes and try to imagine an apple, seeing it mentally in your mind's eye. If you can see anything (anyth…
I've talked extensively to friends about this because I see nothing. I can picture nothing. It's just a void. Interestingly, it hasn't always been this way for me. I remember when I was in elementary and middle school, I could take exams and see the page the answer was on in the textbook in my mind. I'm not sure when or how I lost it, but it's gone. I do sometimes dream in video, though. For me, most of what happens…
However, one thing that throws me off is that when I see my parents or other people I don't see often, they look markedly different than I remember (aging). But I can't picture them in my head. So why is said disconnect occurring?
Example : I imagine a table > the legs of the table become rubber and bend, the table seems to be a live and jumps like if it was alive, some marbles fall onto it like raindrops on a bad day of autumn, the table falls because of the marbles on the ground ...
Very funny, but also quite frustrating because it really is HARD to stop stuff to happen.
How can you draw a thing without visualizing it? Do the coordinates of the vertices appear in your head or instructions about how to move your hand? Or is it like you wake up and suddenly you have a finished painting in front of you with no idea how it got there?
I'm struggling to figure out if my mind's eye "sees" anything, or if I'm just imagining the concept of the item I'm thinking about. If I'm comparing this vision to having a dream, say, it's certainly not visual. "...there is a simple and helpful test that can give you a clue into whether you may have it: Close your eyes and try to imagine an apple, seeing it mentally in your mind's eye. If you can see anything (anyth…