For the longest time i couldn't understand that people COULD vividly see things in their minds. I thought everyone was exaggerating

Laylaaa when I close my eyes I see like.. just black. I can’t see colors. I can’t see shapes. I can see the lighting like a white but idk. I remember being in kindergarten and we were supposed to imagine a spider, I didn’t know we actually COULD imagine things in our mind

I can create taste, smells and physical sensations in my mind too

I have aphantasia and I can imagine taste, sounds and smell just fine, but I can't for the life of me visualise an actual image in my mind, I see absolutely nothing, I mean I have vague distant memories of what I've seen before in real life but I can't just create an image in my head to /look/ at hahaha. However i can imagine the taste of custard or smell of lavendar or sound of fireworks just fine, I just can't play back a video of those objects in my head to look at. I suppose imagine experiences in my mind, like a blind person would experience things in first person on a daily basis, i thought we were all blind when we weren't actually looking at something, I've always been so mesmerised by videos and movies because i get to dive into a visual world for a moment, pictures and photos are so sentimental to me because I can't just imagine a memory or person in my head to see them without the actual person or photograph in front of me to look at.😂

Are your dreams filled with pictures and action? Do you dream in color?

exactly 😂

I thought it was a metaphor! Haha

It was a little disappointing to find out people weren't as skilled with metaphors as I had thought.

Cherries and Coconuts me too... It’s upsetting. I wish I could see things that sounds amazing!

Have you ever dreamed? Some aphants can still have visuals while they're unconscious. It's basically the same as dreams, but it doesn't emotionally pull you in as much.

@A Evans Short explained I would say: You can't see your memorys, you just remember the facts about it.

I guess I have a very high degree of aphantasia. I can't visualize even when dreaming. I also have little to no inner monologue. I guess I always assumed that being able to visualize things clearly was the rare skill and that I was completely normal. I heard something recently suggesting that aphantasia is estimated to only effect 2% of people so if that's true then i was way off lol. I always did very well in school with 99th percentile test scores in standardized tests and i work as a psychologist currently so I have no trouble learning or remembering things. If I were to guess an analogy, to me it seems like visualizing things would feel more like a disk drive where as my brain feels more like a solid state drive. I don't need to a visual memory to remember something the information is just there immediately when it is relevant and i need it. I realized also that since I store my memories essentially as descriptions similar to a written paragraph in a novel that I often cannot retain fine details of visual objects but I make up for it with a huge vocabulary I guess. Essentially I always thought things like meditation and spirituality seemed a little silly to me but I guess people are actually experiencing things and the "minds eye" isn't just a metaphor. Lol I feel like I'm stuck in Plato's cave

me too :(

Yes, this made me chuckle but I get this.

Yes!!! Same

Same 💀

My invisible table was long so it rolled off the edge lol

my invisible table was squareish but i think that’s because i was sitting at a squareish table

I'm 38 and just found out this year that "picture this" is not a metaphor. I can still make up what I want to see and I can feel it or conceptualize it but I was never SEEING anything.

I’m almost 60 and only just found out I’m _weird_ because I don’t see things. I know exactly what I’m seeing, but without actually ‘seeing’ anything. If that makes sense.

I'm 32 and just found out about all of this two weeks ago. Spent my entire life thinking all the "picture this..." "imagine you're in a place" etc etc was all just a figure of speech. It still boggles me that people can essentially hallucinate at will.

@@fawn46n2 Exactly! I can conceptualize things, but I can't see them. Like I think about how it feels to draw a star and what pattern I'd need to follow but I can't see it. I didn't realize until recently that other people didn't just have a list of attributes like me but could actually see it.

This. Right here. I always thought it was a metaphor and it blew me away when I learned it wasn't.

I remember reading about remembering things by tying them together in a sequence with a bit of wool. For example, if you need oranges, cheese, and bread from the store, you imagine a bag of oranges tied to a block of cheese tied to a loaf of bread, and then you'll remember all three. Since I could never see anything, it just seemed to me that this method required me to do MORE remembering, rather than less.

Same!!

Yesssss same!!!

Same dude I’m constantly singing the songs stuck inside my head

SAME

Me too. I have to literally mentally sing a different song if it turns to a really annoying song. Really annoying.

I really wonder how many do, though. I don't have aphantasia. I can imagine imagery. However, it's not visually vivid at all. It's much more abstract and doesn't come anywhere near as detailed as a photograph. Colors are especially non-vivid.

What confuses me, as a highly visual person, is what is going on in the brains of people of people who aren't? Do you hear sounds in your mind? Is it all words? Is it emotion based? If there are no pictures, that what is going on in there? Obviously there is just as much going on, just in a different data format. I'm here using .png and .obj files, are you using .txt & .doc ? or maybe .wav or .mp3? Maybe it's completely different operating systems?

@@peterbelanger4094 We are using .txt :) I dont see images and have no inner monologue. Basically just thoughts and talking to myself but not outloud. Its quiet tho

@@greekmotivation589 wait what? Is talking to yourself not the inner monologue?? I found out just today that I have aphantasia

@@peterbelanger4094 in my case txt and mp3 mostly, I can remember songs almost perfectly (not just lyrically, musically), but try to make me visualize an apple and we're gonna be sitting there til Christmas comes

People have constantly occuring internal monologues? Like a second voice in their head?

​@@socksamazingchannel I am always talking to myself in my head. It's crazy to me that other people don't, like it's just peace and quiet? Sounds like it could be quite nice actually, lol.

Wow I just realised how constant my internal monologue is when my mind was full on playing a song whilst also reading your comment. No wonder I never get any peace lol

@@socksamazingchannel not a voice but a hole conversation we understand not hear

Can't stand being around people like him. Overt displays of irrational behavior are NOT an endearing character trait for me. Unpredictable behavior from people is NOT something I actively seek out.

Oh yeeeees! I just talked about this to my friend yesterday, it is so frustrating. In my head its mostly shapes and movements and I think my mind can visually think, but when its possible it tunes it down to only the necessary structures. Nice to know I am not alone!

Same!!! I have to really concentrate to hold a clear image in my mind, and I only ever think in words when hearing a quote or figuring out wording. I often end up gesturing or making sounds that make sense to me but not to anyone else really. Sometimes to find a word I have to gesture the concept/vibe of the word until I remember it or find a close enough word to use a thesaurus.

I still can't visualize things - at least, not when I'm awake. I swear I see things when I'm asleep and dreaming, but the moment I wake up - nope. Back to black. Inner monolog is similar. I've always explained my inner "dialogue" more as just an inner concept cloud. (and that phrase doesn't even do it justice.) For me, words and ideas have a 'feeling' to them. I don't have to have the words actually go through my mind to understand the idea or concept of what I'm thinking. It's all jumbled up. But if I need to convey what I'm truly thinking? It's like trying to reach into that cloud and grab at words that are dancing around like fish in a pool, darting away from shadows, and hoping the words you do get a hold of will actually make the same sense to others as it does to you. And then constantly apologizing that "no, I wasn't meaning this word in that sense. You're putting too much emotion onto it and I'm strictly talking about it in an unemotional context..."

Same, except my inner monologue often becomes external as well, because speaking the words out loud makes it easier to process my thoughts sometimes.

Yep like that girl with the blue hair said her inner voice was pointing at different things... my brain can’t focus on that much at once

Same, when I watch UKposts too I comment on the video out loud. It's weird.

@@melododie so then y'all have to read everything out loud? Wuuutt

@@anabhousen7159 yeah, but only sometimes, I hear it in my head like I'm speaking most of the time though

I have whole idea of animation movie in my head and a style and character in my head. I haven’t had time to write down in notebook.

And last I brought a Drawing tablet and animation software to bring my idea to live.

I imagine entire scenarios in my head too, but it's never visual. I also don't have an internal monologue. Any thoughts I have are concepts. But I'm very good at descriptive writing weirdly enough, possibly because that's the way I think (a description/idea).

@@louisa1514 we all experience things differently and that's amazing. As the ability to share our experiences with each other. And I appreciate that you shared yours with me.

@@louisa1514 one time I went African Americans museum. I saw civil right movement, where police brutality happened. Just looking at the picture. I get this video in head. Where police beating African Americans people.

Mines very very weak . After learning about this I spent 1 hour trying to visualize anything and I was able to clearly see a person riding a carosel with colors in a tiny "window" for about 5 seconds. It was weird because I didn't choose to think of that. But it makes me sad to realize I'm unable to see these images

You can work on improving it! Look up image streaming for tips on how to improve it :)

@@DrCottes did not know that!Thanks:)

I'm similar

Another aphantasia here - I feel you on the marching band music. My only saving grace for that was I have an incredible pattern recollection. Legit - songs became the pattern of the order of which key presses I had to do and the length of each note and when to play was strictly linked with hearing the rest of the band. In the same vein, if you ask me to spell a word - I can't see it in my mind so instead I ghost type it as if I have a keyboard in front of me because ever since I had learned how to type properly, every word became a key stroke pattern. Ask me a word - I air type it. I also have to air write numbers to comprehend them. I definitely echo the sentiment of just needing to find a way of thinking that works for you. Grats on the coloring books!

I think I have hyperphantasia and I do art and it is def not a cheat for me! My mind is so active it changes design like those videos of ai art but in my head lol. I love art but its so hard to get my ideas on something since the idea runs away lmao!

My family member struggled in grade school because of that sort of thing & was told they were not a good student & shouldn’t expect to get into a college. Now: aerospace engineer - literally a rocket scientist.

@@alisagilboy6012 My teachers were idiots that underestimated me as well... Computer scientist now specializing in bioinformatics. It really annoyed them that I would think outside of the box and not stick to their rigid assignments.

No wonder some of us struggled at school. The system only caters for one kind of human!

You know what is weird, I can totally do that without seeing anything. The concepts are there, It's just that the images don't show up

That’s so crazy. I have neither abilities. That sounds exhausting to always hear and or see things in your mind. I have thoughts but there is nothing there, just blankness and silence.

I found out today that I have aphantasia. Knowing others actually can visualise images in their minds eye is like peeking in on an alien world 😮

I had a Lucid Dream on the 20th of March, but in the past week and a half I haven't been able to recall any dreams.

@@Cyqnide how's it going now?

Sometimes it's me but like me several times and they're having a conversation lol usually it's just 2 and one is meaner and the other is like stop it that's dumb. As a kid I pictured whole audiences reacting but they were also kind of...me?

The way I describe mine is this. "It's your own voice played back at you like a recording."

Exactly this

These people are in hyperphantasia, I am just like you and they confused me for once

What I get is a constantly morphing 3D scene of all the possible variations of the concept of 'apple'. Not just all the types of apples (red, gree, yellow, big, small), but apple computers and images of Steve Jobs. And then an extensive mesh of connections to everything else, like a giant map. The main point is that the 'image' is usually in perpetual flux, the more that is unknown about the 'apple'. Now if you say 'golden delicious', I get a stable image is a nice, juicy yellow apple that I can rotate around, smell, taste, & feel. Not only can I imagine that golden delicious apple, I can bite into it and taste it, because I have a memory of the experience. Mention a fruit I have never eaten or touched and it won't be like that. Others have described me as having a 'photographic memory'. But it's not just a 'photo', it's a full sensory scan in more than 2 dimensions. I don't really 'picture' things in my mind, I ''sculpt' and 'model' them.

Mine tends to flat, I can’t really imagine an apple with like three curves. Couldn’t tell you a thing about the skin of it. It’s automatically red, but I don’t necessarily see the red. Red just goes with apple. Weird.

I cant imagine multiple colours on things, like the ball was slightly red but the table and background are black and white.

Same the Apple flashes by almost instantly, no time for colours, textures, tables etc

@@peterbelanger4094 Has your mind always worked like this? or have you trained your brain to achieve this level of immersion in visualization?

I'm the same with the inner monologue! I talk to myself all the time inside my brain, as if I'm explaining or telling things to myself, and often the inner monologue becomes external cause it's easier (if no one is around to hear me talking to myself). I can also imagine conversations and scenarios that have never happened, even with people I have never met.

Dude i do that too! But sometimes when a song is in my head and i forget part of it, it just starts looping up intil the part i cant remember and i can't make it stop

Not only do I have an inner monolog in my own voice, I can accurately replicate voices of other people I can remember how their voice goes. Have you ever been woken up by the voice of someone calling your name out and you know that person can't have done that?

@@david2869 that replicate voices part also happens to me, also the monolog in my own voice, but i dont get woken up by voices of someone

I m jealous

some people can't picture it at all. like their imagination is just visually blank. no one who pictures things actually SEES things (unless they are hallucinating, or maybe hyperphantasic), but some people do not have the ability to visually imagine things, or they can only imagine things in shades of grey, etc. I think it's a spectrum. So for the people who picture something like 1 or 2 on that star grid when they are told to picture a red, 5 point star, what they do is think of the concept of a red star but not a visual representation in their mind. They conceptualize without a visual component, and for each person that's different. For example, some might simply imagine the words (with no visual component) "red, 5 pointed star." People with this type of brain would probably function really well if they had to adjust to being blind - because they don't think visually anyway.

If you can imagine you’re fine, if you can see you’re abnormal

SAME

Ditto

SAME! It was so cute and funny 😆

Ikr i dont even know who that is, but it was so cute the way he spoke

Sam Delacruz same it's like I'm trying to think the thoughts or ideas into existence whereas others can just effortlessly see things in their minds without having to think about it or narrate the concept to themselves 😂

I understand if it's a struggle for you, but maybe you are actually more in touch with real life than other people because you don't have visualization and internal monologue in the way. people are constantly struggling to be "present" and you get to do that without years of training yourself not to get caught up in your imagination. I'd argue that you haven't been robbed of your life - maybe you've even lived your life more fully than most people because you're not lost in daydreams all the time.

thank you so much!

Same - this describes my inner monologue experience very closely.

"more than half of the time" ? i can't even really think of a single time in my entire life there's been NO music in my head

Yesss! I can only get a vague image of my Grandma. I miss her so much, but I don’t unless I’m thinking about her.

I feel at a disadvantage in some ways as it relates to recall of information for academics and I don't like that BUT I agree that this is what I would say truly bothers me. I really love photos, always have, and I wonder how much this has played apart in that. When you think about a fire and the first things you'd want to retrieve (other than living people first, of course) my photo albums are one of the primary items. However, I can recall their voices and other sensations/feelings about them so I don't know if I should feel so bothered by the image part. However, since I've realized others can, it does bother me.

For me it helps if you try to remember looking at a picture of the person or a single snap shot. Not just what the look like in general but, what did they look like in that moment where you were sitting together talking about how much you love each other. Where were you? What was the sun like? I can't always picture everything but if I consciously think about the details I can get a pretty complete picture.

I am pretty sure I have somewhere along the lines of the highest degree of aphantasia and I also did really well in school all the way through a master's in behavioral psychology. School always seemed easy to me so I don't know if visualizing things necessarily would make it easier for me. Not that yours didn't help you. I'm sure it did a lot. Just interesting to point out that it can be done equally well just with a different method with aphantasia

I find that quite interesting! I have aphantasia and can't picture anything in my head, not even if I stare at it for a minute first to 'save' the information. In dreams I have an idea of what things look like but I don't know if I'm building the image description or actually seeing it - the same way I build an image in my head if someone asks me to picture a beach... I build it with words, not images, and I can only hold on to a few things (so if I'm asked to imagine a person walking on the beach, the whole beach is gone because I have to build the idea of the person). So weird finding out a while back that other people actually do picture things. I'm trying to teach myself to do it now! No idea if that's possible, but I'm working on it and wondering if I can build up that brain power to make it happen... I guess I'll find out some day.

wait so you used to associate faces with particular days? like how those with synestesia associate colors with different concepts? or am i misunderstanding? as a total aphansatiac this is so fascinating to me

@sailorr I'm actually quite surprised that some people don't see mental images in their mind when they imagine things. This entire subject fascinates me because I never knew it existed until recently.

Yep, when I picture things, I can see them VERY vividly. Like, I can even impose my imagined thoughts like a hologram over reality. If I am thinking of new furniture for a room, I can look at a blank space and just picture different kinds of sofas against a wall, and they are almost real to me.

@@robertgronewold3326 Projecting imagination is prophantasia which is different.

I think I can imagine things just very weakly. I think I can see colours but also I’m really not sure 🤷‍♂️

i do this too but not visually, i just remember really well where everything is in the grocery store. not too detailed though, it’s just the “sections” that i know of where they are and what would be there. (like, if i remember the section at the fruits it reminds me that i might get some apples)

in most cases if i “imagine” things it’s just recalling a memory of a time i was there, usually the most recent one. i was at the store today so if i had to imagine something about it it’s just remembering what it looks like

another thing about internal dialogue, I always have control over it. Like for example, as I'm writing this I'm just repeating the words I'm typing in my head. my internal dialogue never says anything by itself.. hm wait, now that i think about it, i has done it sometimes, and it's usually disturbing thoughts like "what if you stabbed yourself with that knife over there" or just saying mean things about myself. it's seriously odd.

I'm interested as they study this more, just how frequent those with aphantasia do not dream in pictures or as some report, they say they don't dream at all, or cannot remember them so they assume they aren't dreaming. I have aphantasia in waking life but not when I dream. My dreams are like my real life or a movie in their clarity and vividness and I lucid dream quite often.

most people don't close their eyes and "See" anything other than the back of their eyelids, but they can vividly imagine images. Just like imagining a song/getting a song stuck in your head but not actually "hearing" it out loud

@@braesidebikes4344 fax, they are in hyperphantasia ( I was confused at the beginning ngl)

this makes me wonder if there are people who have no mind's ear, nose etc

Exactly! When I read a novel, I stop seeing the words and can't hear people talking to me. My husband has to come poke me to get me attention.

Yes, same to me. Like I ascend to a higher plane when I am reading books, and everything around me vanishes until someone calls out loudly or poke. 😂

Like augmented reality?