I've just discovered I have Aphantasia - who knew !

[VictoriaBun]

You might have it also.

Close your eyes and imagine a happy place, a wood , a beach anywhere that floats your boat . See the image in your mind, feel yourself there etc etc.
Now can you actually see the image in your head ? No. Well then you also have it ! !
It's blown my mind that I've got to this age and realise that when people say something like count sheep to help you sleep that can actually see the sheep in their head. Wow. Apparently 2 -3 % of the population also have Aphantasia. Who's in the club ?

This is so interesting! I am face blind. It’s got to be linked. Honestly the most interesting post I’ve read on MN. I had no idea that people could see actual things in their mind! How extraordinary! Off to research this.

Fascinating. When I imagine things it's a feeling, not a picture. I didn't know anyone actually saw a picture.

I don't know if it's related but I'm always surprised when people describe others by mentioning the colour of their eyes. I haven't a clue what colour anyone's eyes are.

I remember everything by running a film in my head and I 'see' in my head an imaginary situation too. I don't really know how you would remember events if you didn't do this.

I remember facts in words but events as a film. I find lost things by running this film over in my head. My DH doesn't do this and I thought he was odd!

I am completely shocked that people can actually see things when they imagine them! I have nothing, and genuinely thought that counting sheep was just a saying.
I feel quite stressed about this actually!!

I don't really see images and can't picture something. I also never really got progressive relaxation and imagining a beach, just made me frustrated and bored. I have fleeting moments when I can nearly see it but not really. I also don't really like music and generally don't get earworms, although I can if it has been sung a lot. I do however have a constant stream of thoughts in my head, so much that to sleep I often listen to podcasts because the words they are saying replace my own thoughts. I am not good at matching people's names and faces. I can though remember concepts and generally do really well in exams. I do imagine things but just don't really visualise them, I would use words to describe it instead.

Some questions

How do you recall a house viewing for example, and the differences between the look of one garden over another, or what the lounge looked like?

One of the biggest issues I have with watching books made into films is my completely different picturing of the characters and scenes! They look like different characters to the ones in the books, and then those images overlay the ones in reading the books! I don't like having my pictures manipulated in this way and sometimes it's best not to see the film! Some are able to say that it's a very close depiction though, which must mean the pictures are created quite similarly to many, just not always the director!

Running as an aside on this thread, do some have to have fantasies to masturbate [successfully]?

What about dreaming? If you cant visualise, is there no 'film' running in dreams?

Do some dream in black and white and some dream in case?

Colour?

I think some people are confusing imagination with being able to see something in your minds eye.
For example , I've just had a coffee in my back garden. I'm indoors now but I know I have to walk out of my back door that's coloured green, past my flower beds ( that are looking lovely ) to sit at my patio table with my coffee.
I can tell you about that because I remember I've done it.

So I'm going to have a cup of coffee in your garden.
Actually you tell me you are out of coffee so we have tea. We walk out of your door but see your little girl have made a tent out of your table and a bath towel, we don't want to disturb her so we sit on your back doorstep instead and watch her playing whilst we have a natter.
That obviously is all in my imagination . It's never happened. What I can do is imagine it but I can't actually see it in my minds eye.

I heard a radio discussion about this and have this too, can’t even picture my DH or DCs’ faces.

They can see the actual sheep? I always thought it was just a figure of speech

And the gate they are jumping over.

When I was first learning maths to count and multiply at school I would close my eyes, I was looking at the dots in my head that represented the numbers.

I'm a sign language user and I think my 'visual' brain helps with that, I picked up a lot of concepts quickly.

I also mostly know when I'm dreaming, I have no idea if they are connected.

I have this. I can imagine a friend, or an object.

I can imagine the colour and form of them, but not quite see it, if that makes any sense. It's really hard to explain!

So if I think of my son or my daughter now, I can get flashes of them. Of how they move. Their face for a split second, maybe their smile or another expression for a fleeting moment. But it's more like the concept of their face, than an actual picture of it.

I can't see them.

I'm more comfortable with imagining the shape of a cube, than the colour of it. I can sense the shape in my brain without actually seeing it visually in detail.

I can kinda see things but only for a very fleeting moment, and not in any detail.

I did once or twice when I saw young, see something in my minds eye. I was amazed and had the feeling that if I really practiced I might be able to do it more often. But it seemed like a lot of effort, probably. I thought I was special for seeing those couple of images haha! I thought no one else could do it.

I had no idea I was missing out. I feel a bit sad about it tbh.

I do dream.

I used to imagine the months of the year on a wheel, and each had a colour. But I didn't see it. I imagined the concept of it.

It's hard to explain...

I can do both

I can see in words and in pictures

When I write something, I see the words form as sentences in my head, like I'm typing them on a computer. I have to write them down there and then or they are forgotten.

I also see in pictures, for example,

If I'm trying to work out a spelling of a town or city, I picture the 'welcome to sign' and then "zoom in" on the place name to get the correct spelling.

Victoria I was picturing a grey back door step and a set of patio furniture as you were creating that story. I was seeing those things.

I think this is what some are saying they can 'see'. They know what these things are, but can't see them in their mind as actual objects.

hey know what these things are, but can't see them in their mind as actual objects.

Kinda. I experience them in the mind as the concept of that object. It has form and I can relate to it emotionally. But I can't see it visually.

Like if I imagined a beautiful waterfall, I might get a glimpse of the feeling of awe - or relaxation, or whatever - it might give me. And an idea of the shape of the waterfall and a flash of it colours even. But I wouldn't actually see it. There wouldn't be an image in my minds eye that I could look at.

I have this too. Never realised people could actually see something in their heads. I've been working really hard to try and visualise- it's been well over a year I sometimes I can get flashes of something but I can't control it yet so a random picture may pop into my head for a second but it's always just an outline, but I couldnt try and imagine a ball and see one

I can Imagine movement and form. So if I imagine a ball, I think of the shape and I can imagine it bouncing. But I can't actually see it.

I have it. I also didn’t realise that other people could actually visualise things until I read about it! I have a very good factual memory but a very poor memory of events, and I put that down to not being able to properly visualise them as I recall them.

Exactly what @womensvoicesmatter said:

Like if I imagined a beautiful waterfall, I might get a glimpse of the feeling of awe - or relaxation, or whatever - it might give me. And an idea of the shape of the waterfall and a flash of it colours even. But I wouldn't actually see it. There wouldn't be an image in my minds eye that I could look at.

I work in a very creative field and have a degree in English Literature but I genuinely thought that people "saw" things in the head the same way as me - knowing what they could / should look like and knowing how elements would be placed or layered, but never actually "seeing" them.

Fuck, do some people actually get to make scenes they can really see with their eyes shut?

I'm missing out and didn't even realise before - I'm 32!!!

Having said that I have EXTREMELY vivid dreams that feel real and I remember them when I wake up as if I've experienced them in real life, so they seem more like memories than scenes my mind has created.

I have no idea how I am able to do it in my dreams but not at all when awake - weird!

I have the opposite. I nodded off for a second the other day and got the most vivid image of a man in front of me in an airport check in queue. I could see the stubble on his jaw and the stitching on his shirt collar and the pores of his skin. Jolted awake and couldn't believe he wasn't real. It was like being teleported to a parallel universe for a micro second. I find it really disconcerting.

There's a kind of puzzle that I've done before that only shows pieces of a whole, meaning you'd have to be able to visualise them slotting together to see the finished shape. Or maybe there are other brain processes that would make the puzzle whole without seeing it?

I wonder if this is a thing that could identify those degrees of visualisation?

Thatcurly. Yes

I do have the ability to see mind pictures, or to create the scenes like the op says when doing mindfulness of a calming pleasant place to relax in. That might be cool sadly trees and dappled sunlight, the dancing light between the leaves on the ground as the leaves rustle gently in the breeze, maybe with the sound of a bubbling brook nearby, and seeing a heat haze across a field of corn with the buzz of insects and the distant thrum of a small plane. I can be there, seeing the corn waving slightly, the sunny colours, the shades, put myself there.

Shady (not sadly! That wouldn't be very pleasant!)