To ask if you see pictures in your "mind's eye"?

[MakeItRain]

I was reading about "aphantasia" and realised that it applies to me to a large extent. It's when you have no visual pictures going on in your head. So if someone says "imagine a beach, what can you see?" I was shocked to realise that some people can see the whole beach with colour and detail. Where even is this picture? I get a sort of vague sense of sand and waves, but no detail or colour. I realised it's probably linked to my appalling ability to recall faces.
What do you see if you're asked to "imagine a beach?"

Now I'm terrible at recalling names, places, anything actually useful in life BUT I have a great imagination. I can imagine myself in any place and see it all very clearly.

I posted something similar to this yesterday.
That when I read text (can be a thread on MN or a news article or a book) that, along side imagining the book very vividly- I simultaneously imagine myself in a place that I know very well that isn’t at all connected to what I am reading. For example, I was reading ‘Catch and Kill’ by Ronan Farrow (great book, btw) and whilst imagining the events in the book, I was also stood under a railway bridge near my house. Very vividly imagining the weather and the sound etc. Weird.

Also - I have physical reactions to memories so if I recall a time I was embarrassed - I will replay the memory in my head - I can remember where everyone was in the room... where they were sitting... what I said and then I get hot and start blushing and get a knot in my stomach.

Also have the space time synesthesia thing too I think.

Also - when I read a thread on MN I picture all of you as actual people and how I think you all look

Bloody hell. I just tried it ...... and nothing! I know what a beach looks like, but I have no picture. Never realised it before...... I've no mind's eye. None. Thus is freaky. Lots of internal dialogue. None stop natter in my head, but no pictures. I consider my myself a visual person - I learn by seeing and doing. Can't learn by listening - can't even follow an audio book.
People and places need to be in context. I walk past friends in the street. If I get driven to somewhere I usually walk, I don't recognise it. I have no internal map at all, I have to go the same route or I get lost.

This is a revelation. I didn't realise other people had pictures in their heads. I'm off to do research!

People don’t think in a monologue?? Whaaaat?

On thèse threads i visualise posters but only this who I pause (or go back) to read username. Actually I more see a shape and colour and texture And sometimes hear what voice might be (not hear voices exactly ) - not an actual person’s face. I also see a laptop or desktop being used. Never a mobile which is odd because I only ever use a mobile on here.

Those where I just read the content are blank as far as any visualising goes.

Isn’t the brain fascinating!

LovePeonies my recall of yesterday is almost identical to how you do it. I have blocks of memory and associated with each block will be a single vague "image" which I can't quite hang on to. So we went on a walk. I have a hazy "memory" of the place we stopped. If I try I can recall other bits in quick snapshot memories. My son dropped his water bottle and I can "see" his hands holding it, but I can't see "fingers". I can't really describe it. I wonder if you can get better with practice like people have said. I might try it now!
My "thinking" is an internal monologue. For example right now (when I stop writing on this thread) I'm saying "right I need to get up and do xyz".
It sounds like I don't have true aphantasia, as I do have vague images, and sound - well the monologue at least. I can recall music too but not in massive detail. Just snapshots again but clearer than my images I think. I couldn't begin to imagine tastes! I never imagined that was possible! I just "know" chocolate is sweet.

Visualising can be really important for me at criminal bar. Have to visualise eg acts of violence etc to understand oddities and whether things hang together or Male any sense. Constantly having to live an event and ‘see it’ as described by different witnesses then try to help jury ‘see it’. I became aware that not everyone can visualise - my closing speeches changed.
Others will have similar eg doctors being told symptoms and visualising things, all in social care, deffo police etc.

My understanding is that ‘aphantasia’ refers to visual images only. And that research identified a big range in what people ‘see’.

Not sound, monologue etc.

Haven't rtft but I'm just like you OP. My DH is very visual so he finds it hilarious strange that I can't draw things from memory because I can't picture what they look like. Also, when I read a book I make no attempt (consciously or sub-consciously) to picture what a character looks like. It's helpful with film adaptations because I never think the casting is 'wrong' (not visually, anyway). I also have a very poor long term memory, and I'm convinced the two things are related. If I think of my secondary school, all I get is a dim image of the outside. DH can picture what individual classrooms and teachers looked like, who sat next to whom in biology, etc. However, I have a constant internal monologue through my day. I also often dream and imagine/fantasise in words not pictures (ie like a written story).

@Ethelfleda

People don’t think in a monologue?? Whaaaat?

I know!! They are clearly borgs!!

I have full on blown conversations

And definitely a yes to books running as films in my head. I really just assumed that everyone did this. Doesn’t reading seem a bit flat?

I find once the movie is up and running my mind can weave in and out the characters,creating sub plots etc.

Same thing if I’m debating something in my head, I picture two characters having a conversation.

When I listen to music, I often have a film in my head of a totally made up music video or concert.

Maybe it’s because, or the reason why, I’m an introvert, the film in my head is usually a lot more interesting than what’s happening outside.

Thinking about it I literally see everything, even words I imagine in a visual written form

I was thinking about this further last night, specifically dreams.
My dreams are not visual - I am there and I hear the sounds and am living the dream physically but I don't see the landscape, people etc.

I have an internal monologue. If I am thinking about going to have a shower I will think the words in my head. My inner monologue never shuts up - I find meditation impossible because I cannot empty my mind. If someone asks me to do that my inner self begins a monologue along these lines
" Right, empty mind. Ok, got to stop thinking. So, no thinking then. Don't think about the crappy day at work. Oh, shut up brain! NO thinking. How do other people do this? So, no thinking. No thoughts." and on it will go.
While writing this I am 'listening' to a song I use in the classroom I work in. I can hear my on buttering his toast and my brain is tell me that I can hear DS buttering his toast.

Just asked DS to picture a beach in his head and he doesn't see the pictures either. He has an ASC.
DD, however, also with an ASC can 'see' in her mind as can DH (also an Aspie). DH can look at furniture and visualise how it will go in a room which I think is magic! I have no clue.

No, reading doesn't seem flat at all. I read a lot, and particularly love descriptive passages. For me, the words themselves have power - they don't need to create an image. So if an author writes a beautiful passage about crimson poppies in a golden cornfield, then those words create a very strong and resonant sense of the scene, including the emotions I would feel if I were standing looking at it, without there needing to be a picture of it in my head.

I see loads of things in my mind's eye. If I'm listening to a sports commentary on the radio, or a story I see it in my head, same if reading. Or just thinking about something really!

Maybe it’s because, or the reason why, I’m an introvert, the film in my head is usually a lot more interesting than what’s happening outside

This!

I can see things very vividly. I also visualise things in shapes - for example if I'm thinking of months in the year they are in particular positions. The same with days of the week but I see them in a different shape. It's hard to describe and I didn't realise that everyone didn't visualise things in this way until recently.

In real life I'm not creative at all.

I have a very visual mind’s eye and can conjour up anything. I am very creative BUT I have virtually no memory to rely on. I can pretty much only remember things from my past if someone reminds me. If they do that, I know I was there and I know what they are saying is true but I am unable to bring back only a very limited amount of my own memory. I only just started realising that this isn’t normal.

I can't get my head around this. I don't see pictures with my eyes closed. I didn't think anyone did. But I do see things very vividly when I dream. Is that what people who see pictures see when they close their eyes? I'm fascinated by this.

I can see pictures ‘on demand’ with my eyes closed but also with them open whilst looking at something else - I just think of it and there it is in my mind’s eye! I never thought anything of it and presumed everyone else was the same??!

I probably think I pictures

If someone is looking for something, I can visually see where it is on a shelf or box. I’m known for finding things at work.

I should add, when they think I’m thinking where I’ve seen something, I’m actually scanning a picture in my head.

When people tell me a story or something that has happened. I can picture it in my head and depending on if I know the people or thing the person is speaking about it can sometimes feel like I've been there. This is especially hard if someone is telling me something sad as I feel like I'm going through it also and I find it hard to hold in emotion anyway!
Yes I can picture a beach and right now I can see one in Cornwall in my head.