Can you see actual images in your head?

[pontipinemum]

Sorry not really an AIBU but I wanted the voting buttons.

I was watching a reel earlier and they were joking that their dad cannot see images in his head.

I can't see images in my head. When I close my eyes it's black (or red if it's bright!) DH said the same.

I know what things look like, and when I am asked to visualise a beautiful beach, I can remember places I have been but I don't 'see' them in my head. I can get a good 'sense' of what it is like in a book but I don't see the characters.

I'm not sure I am explaining this right at all.

YABU - I can actually see the things I am visualising in my head
YANBU - I see black

I can only visualise a little bit - so mostly I don't, but if I really think about it I can cobble together a fleeting, dark picture of maybe one object, but I couldn't do the background at the same time. I also have a terrible sense of direction, get lost easily and took ages to learn to drive, and I think the two things are connected!

I've been googling, it said to look a this horse. Then try visualise it in your head. From what others have said up thread I am no longer expecting to see it with my eyes like I do a horse IRL but to 'see in my mind'. Can some of you actually see this horse in your mind? I know I am thinking of a horse, I can describe the horse. I know what I horse looks like and I could draw it (very very badly) but I cannot see anything in my mind.

It's actually starting to make me quite sad now that I'm not able

So people who aren't able to see things 'in their mind's eye'; how are you able to create say, a painting/needlework/pottery etc?

Do you do it on the fly, as you can't create in your mind before starting it physically?

My husband couldn't see turquoise-according to the shade, it was either green or blue. I can carry colours in my head, and match them in the shop.

@pontipinemum I can't do that horse, but if there was a really familiar horse I might be able to manage brief glimpses of horse #5, but not the background at the same time.

@BrioNotBiro I am quite good at drawing, and choosing colours and furniture. But I don't know how people who can visualise things do it. If drawing from life, you do have the thing in front of you, but otherwise I think you can have a good sense of how much space you have on the paper, what shape things are, etc. without having to see them.

I never realised it was so marked or so frequently occuring!
I guess it must work with other senses .... eg. I can imagine the smell of something really vividly - like actually smell it in my imagination, enough to make me gag when pregnant.
And easily with music, which I guess is comminplace (Baby Shark.... and other ear worms).

I have a photographic memory. I can look at something for a few minutes and then conjure up the image in my head afterwards. It served me very well when I was at school as I could almost literally re-read the list of French vocabulary for tests without actually learning them at all. I can therefore read French quite well but can't actually speak much!

I see blackness when I close my eyes but then the image forms and it replaces the blackness. Whether it's my unconscious mind taking over and over riding the (lack of) vision I can't actually pin down.

Sadly it doesn't work as well as it used to now I'm getting older.

I can see that horse, I can make it move and I can put a person on it to ride it, etc.

I can see black and flashing white lights when I close my eyes. If I think of different things images of them pop up and I can see those.

Yes I can see the horse. If I close my eyes I see six images of increasing clarity of a horse. I never knew there were people who couldn't visualise things in their head (except maybe people born blind who wouldn't have a reference).

When I was studying for exams in the past I remembered things how they were written on the page. As in, I didn't remember the words in abstract, but how they were laid out on the page. I still remember the dates of the Kings and Queens of England/United Kingdom because when I was a child I had a wooden ruler with them printed on the back. If I "need" to remember when King John died, I "look" at the ruler in my mind.

It's not the same as having a photographic memory. I can't just look at a page once and remember it. I need to study it for the image to become embedded in my mind.

I can see things in my minds eye.

When I was studying for exams in the past I remembered things how they were written on the page. As in, I didn't remember the words in abstract, but how they were laid out on the page. I still remember the dates of the Kings and Queens of England/United Kingdom because when I was a child I had a wooden ruler with them printed on the back. If I "need" to remember when King John died, I "look" at the ruler in my mind.

My revision strategy for exams was very visual. I would create topics maps in different colours and could clearly picture them in my head during the exam.

Like others, I can easily create a ‘film’ in my head complete with different characters, scenery, objects etc. My dreams are like that too.

The visual is even stronger when linked with music too. I also used to have whole Fantasia like scenes when listening to classical music…glad it’s not just me. 😀

@Dotjones I think I had that ruler! Penny just dropped that they were on a ruler.....

Same. And yes I can look at the horse and then visualise it myself. I read lots, and I’m always visualising what’s happening as I read.

Do you see images when you dream?

What I can "see" in my mind is about the same as the 2 on that scale you posted, OP. But only for very familiar people and things. Including dreams etc.

I can't easily recognise people "out of context", say someone from work, I won't immediately recognise if I see them in the supermarket.

I skip over descriptive passages in books because it conjures nothing up - I can never tell you what colour the main character's hair is, or if they're tall or short.

I never understood the police portrait thing and when there are pictures of criminals or missing persons circulated, I used to get really confused as there is no way I would recognise someone from a photo I've seen! There's a FB group for artists with aphantasia.

To the PP who asked about art, I am actually a part-time artist, but I can literally only paint something that's in front of me or something from a photo. I have no idea what the painting will look like when I start. But it helps with perspective and proportion, as I don't get clouded with what it should look like. But if you ask me to draw a daffodil, without a reference, it will look like a child drew it.

I only really understood how different we are when I saw a TV thing about aphantasia a few years ago! It explained a lot 🙃

@pontipinemum now I have seen those images of that horse, I can recall pretty much exactly the photos you posted as an image of the mumsnet page as it appears in real life.

If you randomly asked me to imagine any horse I would likely “see” my own horse either in her own stable or field or me
riding her.

I’m not sure I explain it well but for example I just went upstairs to strip DD’s bed. Just as I thought about doing it I also saw myself doing it in my head. I then remembered I have two birthday cards to write and post and as I thought it there was a sort of video in my head of me doing everything that entails as it is in my house (eg where the cards and at stamps are, where the village postbox is - not a random card or post box).

The more I think about it most of the images in my head are moving ones and usually with sound.

I can picture things really clearly if I'm 'in the zone'. I can daydream, eyes open, and whatever is around me ceases to exist and I can see it (and hear it!) to the exclusion of all else. Not always on purpose!

If I actively try to imagine things, then sometimes I just get snippets, so the horse: I see the colour, the way the mane is flicking up, the white blaze, the green of the grass. But not necessarily all at once.

But, if I'm trying to remember something or somewhere familiar then I can close my eyes and walk there. Any of the places I've lived, for instance, I could draw a detailed floorplan by closing my eyes and walking around, to remind me where a cupboard was or how far from the corner the window starts.

But I don't actually see it. Or at least I do. But it's still black with my eyes shut, but I can see the thing I'm imagining aswell.

A bit like imagining music in my head while sitting in a silent room (can you do that, I don't know if it's the same thing as images?) I can hear the music, but I also know it's silent. Both things are true at the same time. I don't know how else to explain it.

I didn't realise it was unusual until trying visualisation techniques in therapy. I can't 'see' my late parents, I envy those who can.

Now this is interesting because I can absolute visualise all of the objects but when you said about the person coming into the room and picking up the ball I struggled with that, my brain struggles to visualise actual movement. I had never notice that before but I can easily picture memories and objects as images but movement just doesn't come easily to me, my memories are like a series of photographs but not a film

My visual recall is patchy, I can’t exactly remember what my children look like, for example.

I do, though, have really good aural recall. I can remember conversations, word for word, and it’s like I can hear them playing in my head, with tone/accent etc exactly. I also have to write speeches at work, and as I write them I can hear the person’s voice in my head, so I know if it sounds like something they would say.

Yes. Our eldest can’t.

Everything inside my head is visual, whether it's planning on doing a task as described by AlltheFs above, planning for a future event e.g. an interview, having an imaginary conversation with a celebrity, or thinking over recent or distant past events. They are all clear images and also the sound is there too, to the extent that I can remember the exact tone of voice someone used.
Not so pleasant when it's a memory of a sarcastic teacher or similar.

I can still see the horse after 10 minutes and imagine giving its head a little scratch. The only thing I struggle with is faces - people I love and know well, I can see their faces as still images and can't add movement. Every one else's face is just very blurry in my head.

I have a friend with this condition. She only recently realised it. If you tell her to think of a tree she doesn't see a picture of a tree. I don't know what she does see though. i must ask her.
I see things in my mind like a photograph

It is strange, I can see things in my minds eye but my DS can’t. He is very good at art and did GCSE in it. I can’t understand how you can be good at art but unable to visualise but he is much better than me so it must work somehow. Although he does think that it’s a disadvantage in regards to his art. He also has a lot of autistic traits, never been referred, and a sibling with ASD.