Do you have a minds eye

[PlantingTreesAgain]

A bit of fun here to see how many MN have Aphantasia. I’ve posted in competitions as I’m guessing people who enjoy them might find this interesting.

This is the ability to see images in our minds.
To simply test this.
Close your eyes and imagine a red star.
Can you see one and to what extent,
Post here which image you see numbers 1-6 as you imagine that star .

Please note there is nothing wrong if you can’t see a star about 2-3% of the population can’t either.

Im also doing AIBU to get a quick tally
AIBU - what star? Can people see a star?
IANBU - I see a star can’t everyone ?

I’ve wondered before if it’s partly a choice we made early in development. I remember as a child being quite freaked out by ‘seeing’ something I had imagined during a game, and wondering how I could know what was real and what wasn’t. I also have a bit of a tendency to intrusive thoughts, and I think if I could visualise that would be a lot worse! Maybe some people aren’t well suited to visualising and so we don’t pay it attention, or even repress it, and so don’t develop it?

No picture and no inner monologue here. I have thoughts but I don't see or hear them. I don't really understand tbh .

I am a 1.
I only realised when I was buying a new porch. With my husband we chose the door and frame for the front and then I asked him what we were going to do with the sides. Husband said we don’t have sides to our porch - salesman looked at me as if I was an alien and asked how long I had lived in the house. My answer was 25 years!
in my head a porch has 3 sides.
when I got home and looked at ours it fits flush with next door and our garage hence it only has a front.
that was the day I realised I was different

I can only sort of visualise things if I have thought about them first - so if I meet someone and I notice a feature then when thinking about them I will think oh Ann with the nice curly hair. If I haven’t thought anything (even if they have a striking feature) I can’t recall anything
our minds are very strange places

But as an architect it’s not something I would want to repress.
Even as a child I was always drawing right up to A level art.
I think we have it or we don’t.
Im wondering if it’s genetic

No one can literally see it if their eyes are closed because it’s not there! If you can picture it in your head it’s a 6. You don’t need to close your eyes to picture things either, that’s why it’s your ‘mind’s eye’ not your actual eye!

I'm a1. Can't see anything.

It's like Red Star Belgrade in my head.

our minds are very strange places - ain't it the truth 😂

To throw in another ingredient, for most of my life I have 'seen' speech running like a printed tape through my mind. After I developed ME-CFS it stopped (could be the antidepressants or the illness, I don't know). I now find it very hard to follow speech and have to have subtitles on the telly!

Some people have this in so much detail that their imaginary tape includes everything they hear, other people talking in the background, dogs barking, traffic the lot! That must be quite confusing.

I think you're right and OP has interpreted the brief too literally.

Apparently not . People can see the image even with their eyes closed.
As a 1. I don’t get it.

i can understand what you’re saying though. ie that you don’t need to close your eyes to see something that’s not there.
The test I’ve posted is one used to test for Aphantasia and in it they ask you to close your eyes.

Though I am really good at visualising things (just try not thinking of an elephant) I am so bad at 2D to 3D, so maps and plans are mostly squiggles on a page. Street maps are not so bad, whereas OS maps - LOL.

I'm very good with colour though and at the weekend came home with three paint shades which were all the same as stripes in the bedroom curtains, just from what was in my mind's eye about the curtains.

Im just looking at the tests and results that are used and people say they ‘literally’see the image.
All my family have confirmed they can aswel
, with their eyes closed, see a clear star in the colour red.

Only a very small % see nothing according to stats so far.

I have aphantasia, I didn't realise until I was an adult that other people can picture things. I think in words, not pictures, so I can describe things but can't see them in my mind. For me, this means that I also can't estimate distances or sizes/volumes nor recognise people out of context. I am autistic and I do wonder whether it's linked. I also have a form of synesthesia, I associate things and people with colours and numbers

I just tried to think what colour the curtains in my bedroom are (been living here a year). I thought maybe beige, although not sure of the exact shade or of the colour was flat or speckled. Just came upstairs to check - dark grey!

I think people often misunderstand each other on this topic. Your mind’s eye is exactly that - in your mind. It’s not that you close your eyes and see images projected as if they’re on a cinema screen. I am a 6 on this scale because I have an extremely vivid mind’s eye - I can see detailed images (and experience what things feel/taste/smell like), but they are in my mind, not floating in front of my closed eyes.

1 for me. Although just as I'm about to fall asleep I can see black and white shapes. I also dream in colour. I just can't picture any image at all in my mind when I'm awake.

Here’s an article
apologies the first page is posted twice and I can’t delete it

I dream in the sense of touch/pain as well. Once I was stung by a bee on my thumb in a dream and woke up, and the sting hurt for several minutes.

Do you see shapes floating in front of your eyes. Like bit of fluff on your lens

Falling asleep and waking up stuff are called hypnagogic/hypnopompic images. And indeed hallucinations.

I get that, @PlantingTreesAgain, I just suspect the interpretation of 'seeing' is broader than it sounds. My mind can readily create a pink spotted elephant wearing a hat or a whole herd of them with different coloured spots. If you tell me to picture a spring meadow, I picture one. It's really not like seeing, though.

Dreams can be like seeing, but dreaming when awake is hallucinating. "Picturing in your mind" is more abstract: it's a thought given shape.

I often go the wrong way when driving. It's quite annoying. But I have a lot to think about. 🫣

I have a picture memory, tho it's not always reliable - I can 'see' where I last put something, for instance, but it might be that I out it there a week ago and have moved it since. I also see words and numbers in my head, if someone asks me to spell a word I 'look' at it as I'm spelling it.

My imagination isn't expansive, though, I find it difficult to create a sensory landscape in my mind when meditating (feel the sun on your skin, sand between your toes, hear the waves crash on the beach sort of thing). I also find it difficult to imagine anything when trying to draw, even as a child.

It really is for practical uses only. I'm adhd if that makes any difference.

@PlantingTreesAgain I suppose in a way yes, but once the shape comes in to focus it disappears. Or the other one is a random face but the faces change constantly until they disappear.