What you can see in your minds eye

[namcybotwinbloom]

There was a thread a while ago, I can't find it for love nor money but it was about visualising things in your head.

It was basically you can either see a picture of it in your head or you can't you can just use words to know what it looked like.

I tried this with my DD 7 just now and she's blew my mind.

She said it totally different if her eyes are open are closed.

So if I said can you imagine a green apple, yes she can and she can see it in her mind and describe it but it's different depending on whether he leaves eyes are open or closed!

I always wonder about this now and about people's dreams. Not everyone dreams in colour. Some people can control some of their dreams or wake up and go back to a dream by thinking about it.

I can do this, I've always done it.

Just wondering what everyone else is like?

I dream in colour, have sound, can control most things but not everything and I can see things on my minds eye.

If you read, like me a lot is this because you do this, ie imagine it all in your head like I do and is it linked to how you dream?

That's interesting. I'm autistic and it's the first time I've heard of a link between the two conditions.

I have aphantasia. I'm not autistic but my mother and DS are. I have ADHD.

I don't think DS has aphantasia and I've never asked my mum! I'm curious now...

nashvillequeen Re visualising someone who has died. I am a ‘visualiser’ in the sense this thread is understanding that word. This includes visualising memories and past events. Without any conscious effort. It is just how it is.

My mum died a few years ago. I can visualise her but more than with anything else I have to really concentrate in order to do so.
Interestingly I stumbled on an older deleted voicemail from her the other day (upsetting and lovely all in a mix to hear her ask how I was doing!). As I heard her I visualised her no problem.

I cannot visualise the last time I saw her at all and that’s upsetting she was simply waving me off from her front steps but I can’t summon it up.

Wonder if there is very deep émotional filter of some sort at play. I’d like to reset it, if so !

I can't visualise anything - complete aphantasia. I don't have any co-existing conditions such as autism.

I don't relate to the guy at all in the bbc article, I love reading and I actually quite like my uncluttered brain. I'm able to focus incredibly well, I'm great at problem solving and process things very quickly.

I'm rubbish at art though and I would make an extremely poor eye witness!

I also just get a fleeting image. In this case, a splash of green floating through blackness.
I also have no sense of direction, can’t picture where things are, don’t recognise faces out of context and I’m not creative at all.

I do see pictures in colour when I dream though but they’re lost soon after the dream. I used to be able to change my dreams sometimes if I didn’t like how they were going but I don’t think I can now. I don’t really dream very often.

DD was on the pathway for a HFA/ASD diagnosis with our GPS support & we can definitely see it in her now we know more about HF girls. She scored much higher than expected on the AQ10 & is only not diagnosed because she decided to stop the process.

She has an extremely visual memory & ability to see things in her minds eye a level of smelling/hearing colours (brain blip on the term)
So much so we used drawings of words to help her remember tricky spellings & it worked

I don't know whether I have aphantasia or not. I don't have a strong minds eye but if I think of some not in my immediate vicinity, I can sort of picture it, I know what it looks like but it is kind of in the back of my mind, not like I am really looking at it.

On the other hand an interesting one that for me seems to have become stronger lately is hypnagogic. It is the state between wakefulness and sleep and during that time I see the most vivid images as if they are real. I see mostly faces but also sometime scenery and the images as more vivid than I could ever imagine when awake. They are new too, nothing I can consciously remember seeing before. I don't remember them well afterwards though and I sometimes think I wish I could see those images voluntarily. If I could I think I could become an artist and capture them. I love seeing them, is so relaxing, then my body starts feeling weightless and I know I'm falling asleep. After sleep I just remember bits of the experience.

I asked my DC at lunch.

DS who's autistic was baffled - he was like "what do you mean people have pictures in their heads?!". So, yes, aphantasic like me.

DD, who doesn't have ASD can conjure up images in her head.

DP (their father) is also aphantasic.

So, our very small sample shows it's possible for two aphantasic people to have a child who can see images in her mind - but maybe, possibly a genetic component? And link to ASD?

I found an interesting test online. Try to count the windows in your house in your head.

How do you do this?

I tried this with the DC and it was interesting to see the different ways we all attempted it.

DD simply saw an image of the house in her mind and counted what she could see.

I could conjure up a faint image of the house, enough to count them (although I got it wrong!)

DS (who has aphantasia & is autistic) found the very idea of doing this preposterous! How could he count the windows in his head? He couldn't see them! Although when encouraged he gave it a go. He interpreted the question asw about window panes although knew he had 2 panes in the windows in his room he couldn't remember how many in the other bedrooms in the house and guessed (incorrectly).

@DumpyDonkey - interesting what you say about decorating. I was helping DP to decorate his house. I described what I planned and he looked totally blank. So I took a photo of the room and then painted onto it to show how it would look with the new colours/furnishing etc - and he still couldn’t really imagine it in his own house . He just kept saying I can see what you’ve done there but I can’t imagine it in my actual house. When it was done it looked exactly how it had in my head (and my painting!) but he was just happily surprised by it!

We worked out last year that DD2 (11) has aphantasia (after reading about it on here). She has bad anxiety and I kept getting blank looks when trying various visualisation/relaxation techniques.

She is currently being assessed for ASD, interestingly.

It sounds weird but I want to really imagine something I kind of switch my eyes 'off' so my vision goes very blurred. I'm a full Dolby surround sound 4K dreamer (taste, smell, temperature, rain / snow / sun, texture etc), lucid dreams too - I know I'm dreaming & can change what's happening. I remember old house layouts, smells of things - like Quink ink, Gloy glue, PVA glue, grandparents' house etc.

I can't see anything if I close my eyes and try to imagine something.
It's hard to explain. I know what it looks like but I can't see it in my head. Everything is just black but not like a flat black screen.
Its like space.

I think I have a very strong visual memory. On the test about windows in your house mentioned above i immediately recalled my house as I last saw it this afternoon before I went out, in sunshine.

At school I realised if I made notes in a really colourful vivid way, then in an exam I could remember the page and ‘read’ my notes - almost like cheating and taking them in with me. But in my head.

I’ve also got a weirdly strong auditory memory. If I rehear part of a podcast I can instantly remember exactly where I was when I heard it the first time and I see an image of it.

I think all this is amazing.

@shesellsseacats have you got a link please

Thank you to those who have shared their experiences. A part of me wanted you all to say that there was an exception for especially important people but I know that's ridiculous. It's good to know that you still remember those lost even though it's not in the same way as it is for me.

I think I have aphantasia.
I certainly can't visualise things - I don't see pictures in my mind at all. If asked to imagine a beach I KNOW what a beach looks like but I don't SEE the beach IYSWIM.
I have absolutely no spatial awareness, my sense of direction is non existent and I can't imagine how a room would look if we moved furniture around. I always feel as if the 'picture' I seek is just out of sight. I would love to paint and draw but am rubbish at it.
Interestingly I really struggle with self hypnosis, relaxation etc.
I do, however, love to read. I know what I expect characters to look like and can tell if film versions are 'wrong'. I describe things to myself 'out loud' but inside my brain and I can 'hear' music if I think of a song but I can't read music or play anything.
What I do seem to be able to do is practice physical things like dances and sign language in my head by remembering how the muscles feel linked to words.
Dreams wise I have very vivid dreams but they are not visual.
FWIW I am not NT - I don't know what kind of not NT I am, possibly ASC or ADD.
(DF, DS and DD all have ASCs and DD has ADD)

With the windows in house I see an image of the house and I rotate it like a 3D model.

With the windows in the house thing I would talk it through in my head. My inner monologue works overtime.

I haven't seen the link but I can imagine the front and back of my house from wherever I have seen it. I can see three current curtains, the old curtains and blinds. And imagine what new blinds and curtains would look like. As a pic in my mind, it's the same with my eyes open or closed and I can imagine different scenarios ie if it was bright, raining, windy etc. I can clearly see in my head all options.

Maybe that is why I like day dreaming.

I can clearly see things I haven't seen before also. I just conjure up a scene at will and it's live, ie I can think of a beach, see the waves moving etc.

Before o go to sleep if o think of something for a few days for long enough I will dream about it. I can't always control it because it's either a meme pry when I wake up or I am in the dream of you like. If I am in it I can control it to some extent.

I don't have to close my eyes. As I was reading about the windows in my house I can see my house in my mind including everything surrounding it from any angle whilst still reading and typing on here. I'm going to ask the dc's tomorrow and see what they say. So interesting.

@Monr0e I'm the same, my Dd is the same as is my DH.

It's like if something is in the grill and I think it need another ten mins I can imagine what I think it will look like in ten mins!

I'm not always right but I can literally imagine in my head minute by minute how "done" it is.

This is very interesting, it never occurred to me that people might not be able to visualise things in their head.
I went through a phase of not being able to get to sleep and as I got more agitated I couldn't stop myself visualising a big ferris wheel rotating clockwise, I really wanted to visualise it stopping then going anticlockwise but couldn't and it drove me mad.
I can do it right now when I'm not wound up but it was like part of my brain was deliberately annoying me when I had insomnia.