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Aphantasia: I can not picture things in my mind

theguardian.com

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Re: Aphantasia: I can not picture things in my mind

#51
post #25

Every time I’m reading about Aphantasia, I’m confused again that people really see stuff in their head. I have basically the same as the person in the article. So, if you want to know anything, AMA. I’m also trying to respond to a few questions which are already asked.

Have you ever taken a hallucinogen?

[deleted]

Re: Aphantasia: I can not picture things in my mind

#52
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other ones for me: - "go to your happy place", or "imagine you are on an island..." - counting sheep to fall asleep. I just couldn't visualize them.

I still counted them, it just didn’t make sense. It was more a spreadsheet - spreadsheep? - than visualizing real sheep. And it didn’t help me fall asleep at all.

I had to laugh so much because of spreadsheep. Thank you.

Re: Aphantasia: I can not picture things in my mind

#53
post #25

Every time I’m reading about Aphantasia, I’m confused again that people really see stuff in their head. I have basically the same as the person in the article. So, if you want to know anything, AMA. I’m also trying to respond to a few questions which are already asked.

I am also the same as the person in the article. Pure speculation on my part, but I am convinced that it’s the people who can fully visualize things that are the outliers and not the other way around.

Re: Aphantasia: I can not picture things in my mind

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems totally contradictory to me.

How so? A DB schema is not visual: it's something that lives inside a DBMS. Boxes with arrows is a way to represent it. Text is another one.

>A DB schema is not visual

How is it not visual?

>Boxes with arrows is a way to represent it. Text is another one.

Boxes with arrows are clearly visual. The text, at least, for me just is a representation of those arrows and boxes.

Re: Aphantasia: I can not picture things in my mind

#55
post #45
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you hear or imagine sounds in your head?

Not the GP, but I can. I can play back songs in my head quite vividly or remember and replay how different people sound like, when it's coupled with a memory.

Now I'm wondering about other senses. I can readily imagine sounds and pictures, but it took my brain some time before it figured out how to imagine smells and tactile sensations when I asked it, like a muscle that is rarely exercised.

Since my imagination layers on top of my existing senses, I wonder if aphantasia is really about the (in)ability to induce sensory hallucinations at will (and to what extent). That's about the only way I can make sense of it personally, given my own subjective experience.

Re: Aphantasia: I can not picture things in my mind

#56
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you dream? Dreams are generally heavy on mental imagery.

Not op, but sleeping and shortly after waking (like seconds not minutes) are it for images. I dunno how often you guys dream but a standard night for me is it's dark out and then it's light out without a dream in between.

Ever had a lucid dream?

Re: Aphantasia: I can not picture things in my mind

#57
post #53
post #25

Every time I’m reading about Aphantasia, I’m confused again that people really see stuff in their head. I have basically the same as the person in the article. So, if you want to know anything, AMA. I’m also trying to respond to a few questions which are already asked.

I am also the same as the person in the article. Pure speculation on my part, but I am convinced that it’s the people who can fully visualize things that are the outliers and not the other way around.

I learned about Aphantasia about eight months ago, and it really sent me for a trip. I have no problems visualizing in my mind and sometimes can get lost in it, to me that’s what daydreaming is.

I discussed it with some of my friends, and it seems to exist on a spectrum. The most different from me was one friend who had to really focus to visualize in his mind, and even then he could only do so in black and white.

I find it absolutely fascinating that the human experience can vary so greatly at such a fundamental level, yet it doesn't manifest in ways that are obvious to others, and everyone thinks that their form of thinking is a common shared experience so they don't even bother to talk about it.

Re: Aphantasia: I can not picture things in my mind

#58
post #57
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am also the same as the person in the article. Pure speculation on my part, but I am convinced that it’s the people who can fully visualize things that are the outliers and not the other way around.

I learned about Aphantasia about eight months ago, and it really sent me for a trip. I have no problems visualizing in my mind and sometimes can get lost in it, to me that’s what daydreaming is. I discussed it with some of my friends, and it seems to exist on a spectrum. The most different from me was one friend who had to really focus to visualize in his mind, and even then he could only do so in black and white. I…

We have these common concepts which are actually very personal everywhere. Even with good eyes the color perception differs a lot between different people. For most it's obvious that this is red and this is blue, but in between the colors it gets very fuzzy. The same goes for sounds and smell and touch, so for every sense.

Re: Aphantasia: I can not picture things in my mind

#59
post #25

Every time I’m reading about Aphantasia, I’m confused again that people really see stuff in their head. I have basically the same as the person in the article. So, if you want to know anything, AMA. I’m also trying to respond to a few questions which are already asked.

When you read a word relating to something you've seen or regularly experienced, how is that processed by your mind? For example if you were asked to draw and color a basketball, how would you approach the task without 'seeing' something in your mind?

For me it's an analytical process: I start by a round object ("ball") and try to figure out how the lines should be so that it can fit together. I remember (barely in my case, but that's because I'm not that into sport) that there is a difference between a football and a basketball, the football has pentagons and hexagons and the basketball has bigger shapes. I also remember the color, but not as picture, but as word, say "brown".

All this together and a bunch of more subconscious processing will result in a very bad picture of a basketball which wouldn't win a prize and probably would fail us another round of "guessing the picture".

OTOH, tell me about the structure of a house and how long something is, I can probably wind up a good 3d picture and even tell you how to walk around in the house. Maybe best described as "blueprint recognition".

Re: Aphantasia: I can not picture things in my mind

#60
post #25

Every time I’m reading about Aphantasia, I’m confused again that people really see stuff in their head. I have basically the same as the person in the article. So, if you want to know anything, AMA. I’m also trying to respond to a few questions which are already asked.

I personally find it hard to believe that people would really experience things so differently. Seems simpler to attribute it to differences in how people describe their internal representations in words.

Even for myself it's a little bit unclear and changing how I'm really representing things. One day I might say oh I don't see anything, it's all just concepts (oh no it's aphantasia). On another it would be like ok maybe if I focus these concepts can have some form to them, so yeah I'm actually totally seeing things (wow he has mental imagery).

So if you made 100 clones of me take a questionnaire, you might see 50% reporting aphantasia and 50% saying they have mental images, even though they're actually the same.

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