Do you have a "mind's eye"?

[CurlewKate]

I was just listening to a podcast where someone said they have no mind's eye- they can't visualise things in their heads. Apparently, some people can visualise something in colour and 3d, some in colour and 2d, some in black and white 2d, some just as a hazy image and some not at all-no image at all, just words. I realise that now I can't think about which I might be....I THINK I'm 3d colour, but I don't know! You?

This. when I can't sleep sometimes I visualise I'm on a beach watching the sea coming in and feeling the sea breeze. If I can't stop ruminating I visualise a brick wall to stop the thoughts.

My mined is like a slide show nothing stays still.

@Iloveeverycat as a child I was told to 'count sheep' to go to sleep, and really struggled with it, for now obvious reasons!

This is how I am! I sort of think I'm picturing it but I'm not sure I am seeing it or if it's the words popping into my head telling me what it looks like!

I can’t picture anything in my mind. I think about the words but there’s no picture. I only realised a few years ago that this wasn’t normal and that the rest of my family can see pictures! Except my dad who is same as me.
I blame that on why I’m rubbish at describing what someone looks like as I can’t actually picture them.

I did until I was 20, then it disappeared.

My image is very fuzzy and difficult to catch.
My DH and I couldn't quite figure out why we kept falling out when doing our house up. Turns out he has a very clear image and can see plans and colours and I can't. He couldn't figure out why I was struggling to see his vision.

I just tried this, because I was testing with real world things before. I can sort of see the tree but it's off to my right - I can't get it into view. I know the cat is there. I know it's pink. But i can't look at the tree to see the damn cat in it!

Since we have figured it out though he has been brilliant at mocking things up. When planning the kitchen he set up boxes where everything would be in the plan so I could stop how it would look and work.
He also understands my need for tester pots 😁

This sounds like me. It's fleeting and off to the side almost out of reach.

Very, very hazy minds eye in b&w. If I concentrate I can zoom in a detail for a moment, but it’s very tiring. I can call up a quick flash of my loved ones faces, but a few weeks after my df died his vanished. And photos of him seem flat and empty - I’m not sure if that’s connected

I have a minds ear, nose as well as touch and taste.
As a child I could playback conversations accurately, and remember school lessons word for word. I can read a menu and have a very accurate idea of what things will smell and taste like - just like getting a wee spoonful of each dish. Just no visuals. It makes giving and receiving directions difficult.

I find the whole topic of aphantasia fascinating. I only found out that some people don't have a mind's eye fairly recently too. I have the whole monologue, descriptive words in my head when I'm out and about and a fully realised 3D animated mind's eye. Sometimes I think it's not a good thing - I would be an extremely bad witness, for example, as I would fill in with imagination what I didn't see for myself and convince myself I'd seen it. I'm also fantasy-prone, so can create a 'woo' situation out of the perfectly normal!

I live in dread of having to describe dh or one of the dc as a missing person to a police artist 😂 😂😂

”can you describe your husband for me?”
”well eh, uhm he’s- eh. No”

Me too 😂

No, nothing.

This is exactly how I feel! Deep, rich minds eye and constant inner monologue, sometimes even visually “seeing” the words in my head. However sometimes I question visual memories I have and wonder if I’ve just made them up.

No, nothing at all.
Best i can do if im trying to recall a memory is to pull up a quick "snapshot" of an image or a face, but i cant play a film in my head or see anything in 3d etc.

@Blobbitymacblob hahaha oh god another thing to worry about! I hadn't thought of that 🤣

Yes I do, although I hadn't really thought about it until now. I also have very vivid and very visual dreams, I can describe places I've seen in my dreams really vividly even though they are not real.

Another thing is that I see shapes. For example if I am thinking about the months of the year they are in a shape a bit like circle, with Jan at the left (in 9pm position on the clock) then working round. It's really hard to explain but when I think of a date or a month it's a visual experience.

This is blowing my mind! My inner monologue dictates everything to me, and I can't understand how people other than babies can think without having one. The minds eye thing, I also thought everyone had, or am I understanding it correctly? So if you can't visualise things, how do you recall your memories? When I remember something, I'm there watching it

Oh and thanks to the earlier suggestion ("imagine a pink cat in a tree"), I've now got a pink cat stuck up a Scots Pine and refusing to come down despite the machinations of an entire Fire brigade. Some of whom are quite good looking.

Someone give me something else to think about, quick!

Exactly!
I guess this means we don't have it?!

Im fascinated that some people can't see things. I thought everyone did. I see visuals all the time and have a constant monologue in my head. It's mind blowing to think we're all seeing things differently.

I was assessed and received a diagnosis of Autism last year in my 40's.
One of the things the Clinician asked me to do was close my eyes and visualise an Elephant.
It still freaks me out that I can't see an Elephant when I close my eyes.
No matter how much I try to visualise.
I do have a never ending monologue running in my head.
To get to sleep I have to say one word over and over again.

I never could and struggled to draw from memory too. Then I started doing more art based things and I began to find that I could picture stuff much more in my mind. Because I couldn’t do it well before I enjoy the experience and consciously try to do it more - so you can change your brain! It also coincides with me doing my exercise and therefore something that stops me endlessly thinking so much - I feel this has maybe given my brain a bit of space to be more creative.