Aphantasia

[snoball]

I started a thread about this on WC but it didn't make it through the transfer. I was going to copy and paste parts of it here but I'll just start a new one. This is something that fascinates me. I have this but most people I talk to, including my husband, do not. I would think that being an artist I would be able to visualize but I can't. I think in facts not images. Here is what Wikipedia says about Aphantasia:

Aphantasia is a mental condition characterized by an inability to voluntarily visualize mental imagery. Many people with aphantasia also report an inability to recall sounds, smells, or sensations of touch. Some also report prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces.

 

[Maybenartist]

I don't have that, on the contrary my memory is almost photographic and I can recall people and scenes easily.
Of course, some of the memories may have been photoshopped by the image editor in my brain cell.

 

[snoball]

I can recall people and scenes and places easily too, but in facts and memories, not images.

 

[Maybenartist]

I can visualise the images you posted in what the heck do you look like thread. Can you visualise them?

 

[JohnEmmett]

I have visions


most of the time I don't

 

[Artyczar]

I definitely don't have that in the least. Sno, does it bother you in any way that you might have this?

 

[snoball]

I can visualise the images you posted in what the heck do you look like thread. Can you visualise them?

No, I can't visualize them. I remember well what most all of them look like but to "see" them in my mind's eye, I can't.

 

[JohnEmmett]

you probably overestimate the mind's eye


since it's not an eye, rather a thought

 

[snoball]

I definitely don't have that in the least. Sno, does it bother you in any way that you might have this?

It didn't bother me at all until about a year or so ago when I found out about it. I always thought that all anyone saw when they closed their eyes was darkness. Until I found out about aphantasia, I had no idea I was abnormal.

 

[JohnEmmett]

I always thought that all anyone saw when they closed their eyes was darkness.

that's what everyone literally sees


science is misleading……

 

[Artyczar]

Wow, how odd/interesting. That must have been a bit shocking. When those types of things have happened to me, it hits hard. How do you think it works when you have recall on people's faces? How are they recognizable to you? I'm wondering how this "affliction" works with the part of the brain that uses memory.

 

[Artyczar]

that's what everyone literally sees

Yes, literally, but not in one's imagination if someone says, "picture a cat." If you can do that, you can "see a cat." Picture a green cat. If you can see a green cat in your mind clearly, then you don't have what this is.

 

[JohnEmmett]

imagination is barely anything


that's why we paint, write, etc

 

[snoball]

Wow, how odd/interesting. That must have been a bit shocking. When those types of things have happened to me, it hits hard. How do you think it works when you have recall on people's faces? How are they recognizable to you? I'm wondering how this "affliction" works with the part of the brain that uses memory.

You just have to read up on it to understand what is going on. I've researched it a lot since I found out about it. I have a great imagination so you would think I could come up with an image, but no. The only way I can have an image with my eyes closed is to look at a negative image of something and then close my eyes and then I can see it for a few seconds.

 

[JohnEmmett]

no one can literally see anything!


except in dreams…

 

[snoball]

John, I studied science in school as well as hygiene and I was taught how the eye works.

 

[JohnEmmett]

that's not what I meant

 

[snoball]

that's not what I meant

OK, I'm a sucker for punishment, explain yourself.

 

[Artyczar]

imagination is barely anything

that's why we paint, write, etc

It's not barely anything. I disagree, but then again, I disagree with most of your statements--mostly because you don't put them in the context of opinion. You write them as if they are truths.

Based on this theory that imagination is hardly something, that would not be a reason "we" paint or write. Sorry, but I am not included in this "we."

 

[JohnEmmett]

closing our eyes we can see… only darkness


literally that's all