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 ?

When people can ‘see’ pictures- do you see them with your eyes? Or in the back of your brain?

My brain whirls with description and I am sure I imagine what things look like. Which is why films based on books are sometimes odd.

I have aphantasia too, and I also have no inner voice, so my head is a very empty place

I asked the professor who is studying it whether your brain can be trained to see images, but he doesn't think it is and says it's likely a biological limitation - apparently people compensate in other areas. I'm a counsellor, so I think I compensate with empathy and actually feeling things rather than seeing them if that makes sense? With regards to sexual fantasy, I find that speaking the scenario out loud helps - nothing like a bit of dirty talk

Whoa ! What ?
So when some people close their eyes they actually see things sheep jumping over a hedge is it a real sheep a real field or is it more cartoon like. ?
I'm generally not too bad at remembering people's faces when I see them however I cannot imagine them, I tend to evoke an image of a photograph rather than their real face so for example if I try and imagine my brother smiling I always come up with the photograph of him looking slightly away from instead of at the camera.
However when it comes to writing things down my imagination runs riot.

I have this! I read about it a couple of years ago and I was amazed that people can see actual images in their heads. I can't even picture my children's faces which makes me quite sad.

@flower777 it's like looking at a painting or even video of what I'm imagining. Literally like seeing except with eyes closed

I discovered the same a couple of years back. I had always assumed that 'picture this' was a figure of speech not something people really did

In my case I am also tone deaf and pretty much face blind, which are both apparently linked.

I imagine in words so to answer the fantasing/masturbating question I have stories in my head a bit like pages of a book.

*MetuaVahine

Sorry if I appear nosy but... What do you feel when you read a book? Especially if it has a lot of description?*

I can't speak for others, but I base it on things I've seen in real life. If a house is described I can either relate it to something or I can't. If I can't then it's difficult to imagine the scene. I rarely have an expectation of what/who characters should look like.

To answer questions......
At night when I close my eyes I just see black. If I'm remembering things I never, and never have seen an image. It's like remembering in text only (obviously not actually seeing text)
If I close my eyes I don't see my children, or my parents or dh.
I know I like walking around my local park but if I close my eyes to imagine it I can only talk myself around it in my head - I have no image of it.
Also to answer a question about a sex fantasy, I don't have them 😟 Which (only also realise since you asked is because I cant see the object of desire in my head ) to float my boat as it were.

I don't have aphantasia. When I close my eyes I don't actually see anything, it's just dark red. I "see" a picture in my mind, I can visualise things that have happened, make up scenes, remember and visualise colours etc.

So it looks like having the condition is normal and being able to see stuff (???) is rare, surely

I’m really confused. So do people see like a photo image in thier minds if they close their eyes???
Say I imagine a beach, and close my eyes - it’s just black and I can think about a beach but I can’t actually ‘see’ an actual image, more like it’s there on the very edge of my brain and I can imagine the concept of a beach and I can remember beaches I’ve been too and recall what they look like but there’s no actual image?

So can I rudely ask how sex fantasy works for you?

I can't understand needing to create a picture to imagine a person.

If you shut your eyes, you can still experience the world. You still have emotions, knowledge, sensations, communication.

And if most men could 'see' stuff in their mind, there woukd be such a huge market for porn surely?

Wouldn't be

Ref reading a book. I can imagine what characters look like but it would be much likened will have blonde hair ,blue eyes, age 30 ish. I know what blond hair/ blue eyes look like but I can't conjure up the person.

I doubt you're unusual, op. I can do it quite well, have a vivid imagination, however I can't keep it up and other thoughts intrude all the time. I can't meditate, wish I could.

I thi k op is saying aphantasia is the inability to do this, and is rare.

*BrieAndChilli*Chewbacca

Yes welcome to our small club. It's crazy when you realise people are actually seeing that image in their head when we see total black.

So when some people close their eyes they actually see things sheep jumping over a hedge is it a real sheep a real field or is it more cartoon like. ?

Can be either. I can imagine whatever I feel like. It could be a series of alternating real and cartoon sheep if I feel like it. One real, one cartoon, one purple, one going backwards, two together...

Don’t think I have this.

What happens when you view a house?

Can you not see what a place could look like with different coloured walls or your furniture in place.

I have always struggled when explaining to Dp anything to do with imagining what something will look like if we took a wall down etc

Didn’t known there was a word for it.

I’ve never heard of this but feel quite disturbed now that others can properly visualise stuff and I clearly can’t. I guess it’s why I can never recall what people (new or unfamiliar) look like when I’m asked. If I force myself to think of my children’s faces I get a feeling of them and sometime can think of a photo of them but I never ‘see’ them.

Sorry don't know where Chewbacca came from ! predictive text !

My son has it and hates reading because of it, I didn't know it was so common.

Aphantasia is the suggested name for a condition where one does not possess a functioning mind's eye and cannot voluntarily visualize imagery.[1] The phenomenon was first described by Francis Galton in 1880[2] but has since remained largely unstudied. Interest in the phenomenon renewed after the publication of a study in 2015 conducted by a team led by Professor Adam Zeman of the University of Exeter,[3] which also coined the term aphantasia.[4] Research on the condition is scarce. Further studies are planned.[5][6]