Aphantasia - I have it and have questions for people who don’t!

[Aphantasia]

For anyone who doesn’t know what aphantasia is, it’s not being able to mentally visualise imagery. I only recently found out that 99% of people can actually see things in their minds eye, I can’t, at all! I always thought it was just a figure of speech when people said things like ‘picture this’ or that when people meditated they could actually close their eyes and see beaches and sunsets or whatever. I have never been able to see anything when I close my eyes, just blackness, can’t see my loved ones faces or relive any memories visually. I imagine in concepts and can feel the shape of things and remember details that I can describe in words but not see.

But… here’s my question. I’m an artist, and I can sit down and draw from my imagination pretty much anything I want but why, if you can see things in your minds eye, can’t the 99% of the population that can visualise not sit down and draw things perfectly accurately from memory? My husband is crap at drawing, like if I said, draw a giraffe, he’d draw some god awful looking creature that looks like it should be put out of its misery!

When you imagine imagery in your minds eye, is it complete? Can you see every detail or are there blurry bits to fill in for the details you never quite noticed before?

I can see things so clearly in my minds eye and can play imaginary films, tweak a scene, go back and play it out again. Actually as a young teenager I spent hours making films in my head like this, usually romances! I can picture anything you ask me to with lots of detail.

But I cant draw because I dont understand how to create depth and perspective on the page and I cant control my hand to replicate what I'm seeing. Actually I took a week of drawing classes and "got it", came away with some realistic drawings. But I'm not a natural, it's too laborious to apply those techniques, it's not instinctive at all for me.

I have a question for you though OP: do you dream in images? If so surely it must be the same process?

@Porfre

I dont actually see things though.

So if I close my eyes its black.
But if I wanted to think about something like my kids. I could imagine what they look like. But my eyes are actually still seeing black but I'm "seeing my kid" somewhere else like in the back of my head.

But you can do with your eyes open, so I can imagine what my kids face looks like and can "see it" at the same time as looking at your post. How clear or crisp the image is depends on how vivid the memory is.

But you can imagine anything.
So you can see a fish flying in the sir, it's just images in my mind but I'm not seeing with my eyes. So with eyes open you can see what you're imagining as well as what is in front of your eyes.

This is what I always thought the mind's eye was.. deep in my head I have memories of pictures, I don't see pictures behind my eyelids that's usually a kaleidoscope of colours.

@Valeriane

I have a question for you though OP: do you dream in images? If so surely it must be the same process?

No, I don't.

@Chakraleaf I find this fascinating. How do you dream, do you wake up and just get a sense of what you dreamt of? Concepts rather than images? My dreams are like watching a film I’m partaking in. Do you get sounds or smells?

I find it hard to explain because I'm so used to it and can't comprehend that people have full on visual images!

[quote dropitlikeitsloth]@Chakraleaf I find this fascinating. How do you dream, do you wake up and just get a sense of what you dreamt of? Concepts rather than images? My dreams are like watching a film I’m partaking in. Do you get sounds or smells? [/quote]
My dreams are like movies too, with a central character who is often not me. They are very vivid and i can remember some from years ago, yet i can't picture anything when i am awake.

[quote Aphantasia]@Charley50 what line of work are you in, I’m fascinated by you line I can create strong visual imagery for others with words[/quote]
I'm in education. Part of my role is teaching English and creative writing. But just generally I can create a scenario speaking or writing which is visually dramatic and exaggerated. Same as I can create a visually striking picture or room. Maybe those of us without a 'mind's eye' have an urge to be creative?

@deadringer Yes! I can remember dreams from my teenage years, and could retell/recall them as if I was telling someone the plot of a film.

I used to keep a dream journal and sketch some of the dreams too, I guess that helped in the remembering. If I don’t think about the dream when I wake up it just faded and fizzles out into a feeling of the odd image but then it’s gone forever.

@Chakraleaf

I find it hard to explain because I'm so used to it and can't comprehend that people have full on visual images!

Yes I get that. I imagine it’s hard to explain. It’s like the internal monologue thing where some people hear their voice in their head when they are thinking and others just have abstract thoughts. It’s so interesting.

@Valeriane

I can see things so clearly in my minds eye and can play imaginary films, tweak a scene, go back and play it out again. Actually as a young teenager I spent hours making films in my head like this, usually romances! I can picture anything you ask me to with lots of detail.

I think the making a film in your head is maladaptive daydreaming. Not sure whether that's connected to hyperphantasia, I seem to have both and only found out on MN about the day dreaming - I used to think everyone had a made up film running in their head.

Still wondering if people who enjoy violent or scary films all have aphantasia, as they don't get the scenes imprinted on their brains for "eternity" (as a pp said!). I'm still traumatised by the method of Lisa Faulkner's death on Spooks years ago!

DH and I used to fall out about watching the TV and it wasn't until a couple of years ago I found out why. He has hyperphantasia and I have aphantasia . He cannot watch anything violent or scary!

@wolfstarling

DH and I used to fall out about watching the TV and it wasn't until a couple of years ago I found out why. He has hyperphantasia and I have aphantasia . He cannot watch anything violent or scary!

I’m like your DH, didn’t realise there was a word for it.

@wolfstarling

That's the exact recent that I'm curious to know! DH and I struggle with TV choices, now I can't wait for him to get back to ask him. 26yrs we've been married and this could be a revelation!.
Also think my Dad might be the same, he gets cross with my Mum struggling to sleep because she worries, he always says you just shut your eyes and that's that 🤔

@NotThatHomer

Still wondering if people who enjoy violent or scary films all have aphantasia, as they don't get the scenes imprinted on their brains for "eternity" (as a pp said!). I'm still traumatised by the method of Lisa Faulkner's death on Spooks years ago!

No, I like some scary and violent films. I can recall scenes from films with vivid clarity, but only at will, they don't just pop up as I'm making a brew.

Nope DH hadn't got aphantasia, so that scuppers that theory!

No, I like some scary and violent films. I can recall scenes from films with vivid clarity, but only at will, they don't just pop up as I'm making a brew.

They do a bit with me, not necessarily when I'm making a brew though.😆

Still trying to understand what it must be like to be able to visualise things; For those of you who dream vividly and can visualise whilst awake: are they the same sort of experience or different?

I also skip over passages in books that describe imagery - it’s dull and flat to me.

Yes dreams and the visualisations I can conjure up are very similar. As a pp said, I can make up stories involving real life people and run them like a movie in my head.

@BlackSwan

Still trying to understand what it must be like to be able to visualise things; For those of you who dream vividly and can visualise whilst awake: are they the same sort of experience or different?

I also skip over passages in books that describe imagery - it’s dull and flat to me.

Different. My dreams are more surreal.

My 'minds eye' pictures can be real e.g. a memory - it's as though I'm seeing it again. Or can be a realistic imagining of something which is usually a patchwork of things I've seen either in real life or on TV. Or it can be a cartoon/ drawing/ watercolor etc. Depends what it is really.

My son can't recall images. I am apparently blonde hair. His sister is a smile. He has posters of his favourite places on the walls as otherwise he cannot recall them.

I wonder if synesthesia is then exclusively experienced by those with strong visualising ability?
My son has explained to me a few times that certain numbers are always certain colours for him but it never really made sense to me as I can’t even see a number in my head, colour or no colour!

I don't think synaesthesia has to include colour. It's the most common form we know about, but you can get taste associated with some words (that might not be a good thing always,) so it doesn't have to include sight. And being aphantasic does mean you can't see at all, so I would assume it depends when the different senses get wired up. I would assume colour blindness could have some effect on colour-based synaesthesia, though. (I have no idea, I haven't read anything about this, let alone study it as an academic.)

I mentioned upthread that i don't have an internal 'map' either so i find it almost impossible to follow directions unless they are very detailed, and i have just remembered another one, i cant recall which country is where in relation to each other in europe for example, no matter how much i study the map, apart from easy ones like france and Italy that are on the outside.

Wow, I don't see things images either, just black when I close my eyes, I thought that was normal !!

I know what things look like but I could not conjure up an image, as another poster said, I can't conjure up an image of my kids or my dad who just recently passed away.

So do people see images as if they were looking at a photograph ?

I'm blown away by this !