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Aphantasia Beginner's Guide

aphantasia.com

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Re: Aphantasia Beginner's Guide

#371

Post by boogieknite »

ToyKeeper wrote: post #273

I know someone with aphantasia. It's absolutely wild to me that he can't see things in his head. Totally alien from my perspective, since I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum. I see what's in my head so vividly that I often won't see things in real life which are right in front of me. But what's even more wild to me is the people leaving comments refusing to believe that different people are actually different. Re…

im like you where i become so caught up in the image in my head that i lose track of my surroundings

when engaging in small talk i make eye contact and have been told im very easy to talk to

when discussing something im interested in, i stare into the distance and start waving my hands around gesturing at the diagrams im describing. its to the degree where my managers prefer i not meet with one specific customer who commented on this

at my first job my coworkers pointed out that i stare directly up to the ceiling for a period of time, then will type furiously, and repeat. id never known that was different before. assumed everyone constructed their ideas mentally before getting it down on paper

im reminded of my high school AP physics teacher who would close her eyes while lecturing because i assume she was picturing things. the funniest students knew how to get some physical comedy into those windows of obliviousness

when it comes to aphantasia it reminds me of Stan in South Park: "I get it now! I don't get it!" the best i can do be nice and accommodating and acknowledge i simply cant relate

Re: Aphantasia Beginner's Guide

#373

Post by inigyou »

vonneumannstan wrote: post #182
mucha wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yay, I'm one of "these people" now. Aphants can still have inner monologues, and most do. I do.

Yes thats exactly what a P-zombie would say.

A PZ says exactly what a normal human says, including the reports of mental imagery.

Re: Aphantasia Beginner's Guide

#374

Post by dtkav »

xlii wrote: post #212

I have aphantasia in both visual and audio forms. And I can tell you audio aphantasia is wild. I cannot hear a song in my head if my life depended on it but then there are triggers that extract it music it. Examples: "who let the dogs out" (I remember rhythm but not the music). I play piano for almost 2 years but I have no idea what's the each sound is. It gets even better. Even though I play and record [0] I can't r…

I think i have this too (also play piano, have perfect pitch). I have an excellent musical memory, but i have to actually play a song / sing it out loud to hear it if that makes sense.

I do have the motion-centric imagination sense (i could "feel" what it would be like to do a layup) without physically moving.

No ability to generate audio, visuals, etc "on the inside".

Do you have an internal voice?

Re: Aphantasia Beginner's Guide

#375

Post by ctxc »

tpoacher wrote: post #9
Artgor wrote: post #2

You know, I have learnt that I have aphantasia several years ago and it opened my eyes to many things. I have thought that people say a lot of things metaphorically. - Imagine a beach when meditating - If you are nervous about giving a presentation, imaging that the audience is naked - Count sheep in order to fall asleep fast - Undressing someone with your eyes - Visualising what is happening in the book you are read…

Same. This, and also the fact that it is also very highly associated with SDAM (Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory) -- which I also have. And also, reasonably associated with ADHD -- which I also have, but only recently realised and assessed for at the tender age of 46. The SDAM is particularly useful to be aware of, otherwise you go crazy trying to understand why you remember how much your local pizza cost b…

Thank you for your comment! It was useful. Found this that helped me look through the signs

https://www.reddit.com/r/SDAM/comments/nkolwi/my_attempt_at_...

Re: Aphantasia Beginner's Guide

#376

Post by D-Machine »

andy99 wrote: post #306
techgnosis wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm one of the naysayers denying aphantasia in the comments. Why would we default to believing people, though? I get your point. Believe people when they tell you their experience. Sure, that seems like a reasonable thing to do. But in this case, when there is zero evidence besides a self-reported experience, why do we default to believing that there are suddenly two types of people, instead of assuming that semantic…

It was funny to watch this discussion turn from skepticism at the top to then a bunch of proponents moving in and crowding out the rational voices. It feels a bit religious to me, at least unscientific, there are obviously no testable hypotheses about subjective descriptions, and so people seem to dig in on their sides more than if there was a real basis for comparison. I default to not believing in it until there is…

> there are obviously no testable hypotheses about subjective descriptions

Clearly false if you take just 30 seconds to scroll through this thread. Embarrassing.

Re: Aphantasia Beginner's Guide

#377

Post by dtkav »

iamhamm wrote: post #354
xlii wrote: post #212

I have aphantasia in both visual and audio forms. And I can tell you audio aphantasia is wild. I cannot hear a song in my head if my life depended on it but then there are triggers that extract it music it. Examples: "who let the dogs out" (I remember rhythm but not the music). I play piano for almost 2 years but I have no idea what's the each sound is. It gets even better. Even though I play and record [0] I can't r…

You just broke my mind. I have visual aphantasia but until I just read your comment about audio aphantasia it never even dawned on me that hearing a song or sound in my head was a possibility. I just did your “who let the dogs out” test and I could remember the tune but as soon as I stopped thinking about it, it went away. That’s a wild personal discovery to have from an HN comment. Thanks!

There's been some great research into aphantasia in the last ~5 years - worth reading about if you have aphantasia.

Re: Aphantasia Beginner's Guide

#378

Post by D-Machine »

ksbd-pls-finish wrote: post #275
techgnosis wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right away the story is impossible to verify. What does "I was seeing that landscape and not the road" actually mean? You can't answer that, and neither can I. I will never, ever, know what you mean by that. I can guess, and I definitely have already done so.

Well, I can't imagine myself in this situation. Under no circumstances I would use the expression "I see landscape and not the road" because well, I can only see the road. I can't imagine seeing something that I don't see. If I close my eyes and try to imagine a landscape (or a car, or an apple) I don't see anything. Asking me "what was the color of the apple that you imagined" is meaningless, because the apple had n…

This is why the denialism about differences in visual experience are so indefensible: they basically require an assumption that the whole world is out to lie and deceive.

Like, so, people just say things like "I see it in my mind's eye", and insist it is not a metaphor... why, exactly? If the typical mind fallacy assumption of denialists was correct, then no one would have any incentive to use such metaphors, because they would feel false. So clearly minds do in fact differ.

To state otherwise is a kind of narcissism / solipsism, or at least there is something monstrous about this kind of denial. "Everyone else is clearly wrong about their experience and their descriptions of it. I know better".

Re: Aphantasia Beginner's Guide

#380

Post by UpsideDownRide »

hirvi74 wrote: post #328
nomel wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> zero evidence besides a self-reported experience There are clear differences in brain scans [1]. [1] https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2025/01/mind-blindness...

I'm on your side of the argument, but while that research may be evidence, it's not definitive proof.

What would you accept as a proof if that doesn't clear the bar for you?
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