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’m exactly the same.
Ive been stopped by people in the street with no idea who they are.
It might become obvious as they speak that they know my kids, so are they from school, football…I have no idea. And why can they remember all my families names but I have no clue who they are other than a vague memory of, I know I’ve seen you somewhere before.
I assumed I just had a terrible memory for faces but now I’m realising it’s probably not that. It’s actually looking a little more refreshing.

I’ve read similar threads before where people who can visualise think those that can’t are just misunderstanding words. There are two main types of evidence that that’s not what’s going on

I think that is partly what’s going on though, as evidenced by the number of people on this thread who seem to believe having a mind’s eye means seeing images literally in front of you when you close your eyes, as if you’re watching a screen. That is not what ‘mind’s eye’ means - no one has a cinema screen inside their eyelids. I think the number of people claiming to have aphantasia would reduce if this misconception was cleared up.

We're not stupid. I don't think any of us think others look at the equivalent of a screen projection on their actual eyelids.
I imagine we all know the difference between minds eye 'seeing' and physical vision seeing.

Bookworm14 I do have essentially a “cinema screen” view (and audio) of what I’m imagining! Often overlaying reality, although I can swap between the images…
don’t you get that when you read? Technically you’re looking at a page, but you don’t see words on the paper, just the images the text describes… I find I don’t hear what’s happening in the room with me when I read dialogue or the text is describing ie a thunderstorm, as it seems to drown out reality unless I deliberately keep the volume down.

don’t you get that when you read?

Yes, but in my mind, not in front of my eyes!

This is the same for me!

Sadly, a 1.

I find it hard to recognise faces and have a terrible sense of direction.

If I try to picture my kids, I can only sometimes fathom a very vague image of them.

My memory is quite poor for events.

I'm dreadful at art and have no interest in fashion.

Despite all of this I'm very successful academically (both a scientist and a linguist) and was always top of my year in exams.

When I dream I see things "normally".

I can't imagine how you 'imagine an image' without it being visualisation?

Re the pink spotted dragon, quick as a flash I see a dragon with pink spots, head tilted slightly she is wearing a hat with a pink flower and clutching a bag with some knitting protruding from it. Her personality will be along shortly. Can you tell I am a roleplayer? 😂

Also re textures and smells, yes to those too. Makes it easier for online shopping, I can immediately 'see' myself in an outfit and know whether it will suit me or not. I get a whiff of the fabric or can feel it, so know whether I would like to wear it.

Same here, I was reading the thread and imagining the star at the same time. I got a 6. I don't see anything if I close my eyes, there is no image projected onto the inside of my eyelids. It's not visual in that sense.

Bookworm14 · Today 14:09

don’t you get that when you read?

Yes, but in my mind, not in front of my eyes!

Ah, I see! As soon as I start to concentrate on an image I’m imagining, it’s like my mind goes, “yep you’re looking at that”, and pulls it out and puts it in front of me. And so it’s exactly like I’m really seeing it. With big scenes, it’s like if you hold something very close and focus on it, so that everything behind goes fuzzy and indistinct. I know reality is right behind it, but I need to refocus to see it properly again instead of the thing I was imagining.
so if I “think of” an elephant in a hat it’s in my head, but when I concentrate it comes out and walks in front of the sofa I’m really looking at…

I make a model.
Do a drawing
I tend to design by making up a story. So for example

designing a boathouse I’m thinking

a dragon lands by the water after being hit by a meteorite and dies. Only his bones and fragments of the meteorite are left and my boathouse will encompass the spaces they make.
The wings house the boats, the body the heart of the building as meeting space etc and the head or tail, I haven’t decided will be the entrance.( Not keen on walking in through the bum though ). The meteorites will be like geodesic domes and house artefacts from the rowing world.
The only visualisation there is that I know what a dragon looks like, my kids love how to train a dragon 🤣. The rest is just imagination.

Wow. I love it! 😍

6, but only because it's such a simple image. I don't have a very clear or vivid 'mind's eye', especially for complex images. I'm primarily a very words-based person (my job is all about that). When I'm reading a book I don't really picture things. I can to a certain extent if I try though.

If you can't visualise things (minds eye) how do you dream?

My dreams are like films, vivid and amazing and totally in colour and I remember them years later. However as I have face blindness, people don't have faces (but not in a scary way) so if I'm dreaming about my dead mum, I know it's here but can't see her face. If that's makes sense?

I rarely dream.
I don’t see images when I dream though, it’s a story running through my head. There’s never any visual detail.

Most people with aphantasia do have visual dreams. I have always been fascinated by dreams and hypnogogic imagery, as it’s the only way I do get to visualise

I imagined a big red star like what you would put on a Christmas tree type Of thing but with rubies etc.

I can visualise changing it to something else, like another colour or I can see it in my mind morphing into a different colour or completely different shape etc.

I can see the photo you put up also in my minds eye at the same time.

I do this without thinking about it when I am reading so I am reading but I can see it in my minds eye and add things to the images as the story progresses. Like if the story said she made a cup of tea, I would see her how I imagined her making a cup of tea. Mugs colour, kettle, what I imagine the kitchen to look like etc.

I'm quite prone to day dreaming and I usually make up situations in my head I'd like to dream about so it sort of carries on, but with much less control. Sometimes no control but I know I'm dreaming even though I am asleep.

My mum describes it like that. She says it's like watching it on a TV at a minimum and physically reliving it including all sensory inputs when she gives it all her attention.

I can't understand that at all. It seems like actual magical powers are involved. 😂. I think she and others who can do the same must be incredibly rare.

It was only a few years ago I discovered that not everyone can do it. No wonder I’ve never been particularly interested by tv or computer games, and child me was always getting told off for excessive day dreaming! If I’m reading I go pretty much deaf to what’s around me, and the experience is so vividly real I have great, often word perfect, recall of what I read, just like when you remember a conversation you’ve had. (Actually frequently better I can ignore things/people who bore me and retreat into my own worlds whilst nodding politely.)

I'm a 6, don't have to close my eyes to visualise clearly but have mild prosopagnosia too! Plus terrible at directions - can't visualise routes or directions.

But that's exactly what it can be. For example if someone asks me for directions, I can close my eyes and 'walk' or 'drive' the route in front of me - much more quickly than it would take, but I'll see the shop on the corner where they need to turn, or recall the bit of new tarmac on the lane opposite the driveway as if I was turning my head to look at them. It's like watching a tv screen of the journey sped up. That's how I do it if I need to be very precise with something and give details, but I can also keep my eyes open and see fragments of the directions, the functional pieces, the left at the junction, the roundabout where they go straight on as 'flashes' in my mind more than something in front of my eyes.

No 6 too. I'm a very visual learner and good with recognising faces too. I have deja vu a lot and very vivid dreams like an fast paced action movie even if things dont make a lot of sense in it.

6 for me. I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos recently on aphantasia and those without an inner monologue too. Fascinating stuff!

I'm a 6. I find it fascinating that some people don't have a mind's eye but always forget to ask on these threads what happens when you dream if you don't have a visual imagination.

I am a 1 I see absolutely nothing but I already knew I have aphantasia. I have a great imagination and have very vivid dreams, i definitely see things in my dreams, and unlike some pp I am very quick to recognise people, even if they are disguised (on tv) or whatever. It mainly affects me when I am driving, directions are pretty much useless to me. For example if someone says you know that left turn after the church, I can't picture the church or the turn, so that information means nothing to me until I get to the church and see the turn for myself, if that makes sense.