Curious about Aphantasia

[SusanLR]

When I was little, I had a photographic memory that helped me with spelling bees. I could see the word in Times New Roman font scrolling in front of my eyes. I later learned to spell using general rules which helped with words that I had never seen before (like "acquiesce").
Misspelled words still do not "look" right to me, though.

This is the same way I can remember words and spelling.
I see them as a photo in my mind just like on paper.
It also comes in handy if I want to remember things that were talked about.
I see them as pictures in my mind.

I do have an almost photographic memory and they are sharp and in color.
Just like looking at a photograph. Manipulation of the object is easy also and
my dreams are vivid and in color. Easy to remember.
Also, I can remember things vividly like pictures in my mind back to infancy.
I don't know what part of the brain is responsible for this ability, but it is the one part that works very well in mine.

 

[autism-and-autotune]

last night i had a very interesting conversation with some friends, and i found out that when some people say "vizualize an object" or "picture in your mind's eye" they actually see the thing as if they were looking at it!

i've always just closed my eyes and thought about the thing, but just seen staticky black, and i thought thats just how people talked about thinking, but apparently not!

what is you all's experience? do you see pictures in your mind? do you see them clearly or fuzzy? or do you not see anything?

I cannot imagine not being able to use my mind's eye. Pictures are crystal-clear in my mind.

 

[Misery]

Extremely vivid/colorful and easy manipulation of the images. Anything I imagine though tends to be at least a bit distorted/surreal though. Not really for any specific reason, that's just how I tend to visualize things. Realism is boring.

I will say though I cannot visualize faces much (yet I have no problems with facial recognition) and for whatever reason I also cannot hold onto images of text or numbers. Those very specific things just dont work. Have you ever seen what happens when you try to get one of those AI art generator things to create a photo-realistic image of a sign with some words on it? Yeah, that's what happens if I try to do the same thing mentally.

Yet when it comes to art, lettering is my specialty. Try making sense of that one.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

last night i had a very interesting conversation with some friends, and i found out that when some people say "vizualize an object" or "picture in your mind's eye" they actually see the thing as if they were looking at it!

i've always just closed my eyes and thought about the thing, but just seen staticky black, and i thought thats just how people talked about thinking, but apparently not!

what is you all's experience? do you see pictures in your mind? do you see them clearly or fuzzy? or do you not see anything?

OMG. It was only recently that I realized other people see actual pictures in their “mind’s eye.” I always thought that was an exaggeration.

Of all the things I have learned once I found out I was autistic, this is the first one that hit me as a real loss.

It's really hard to explain, in all honestly. Like if you were to ask me to remember something like some colored shapes with my eyes closed, I can remember them but I can't picture them, if that makes sense. Say if one of the shapes was a red circle, I can easily remember that it was a red circle but I can't actually picture a red circle in my mind. It just doesn't happen.

Same thing with remembering what people look like, I know what my mom looks like and if I see a photo of her, I can recognize her as being my mom, I know that's what she looks like. Same with my grandpa and my late grandma and my late dad. But I can't actually picture what she (or anyone else I know) looks like in my mind.

It's like the knowledge of what something is supposed to look like is still a thing that I have but I just can't actually picture it if I to think about it or remember it.

This is a very good explanation of how it appears to me.

I am also face blind. I can recognize people I know in photographs, but not in person. Once, in an airport, I did not recognize my adult son.

 

[N2k12]

last night i had a very interesting conversation with some friends, and i found out that when some people say "vizualize an object" or "picture in your mind's eye" they actually see the thing as if they were looking at it!

i've always just closed my eyes and thought about the thing, but just seen staticky black, and i thought thats just how people talked about thinking, but apparently not!

what is you all's experience? do you see pictures in your mind? do you see them clearly or fuzzy? or do you not see anything?

i mostly see black. when i try to imagine things, i sort of can get a picture sometimes. its like really faint, distant. kind of like looking at a painting from really far away. i dare say thats why meditation never worked for me lol.

 

[Ed#]

Aphantasia is characterized by being unable to voluntarily visualize images in one's mind

I have trouble with this. For example, I have repeatedly tried to use visualization-based guided meditations, in order to help relieve stress, but I always have difficulty picturing the scenario the narrator is describing. I can sort of get a vague sense of it, but never anything precise or clear.

 

[bluhmaster]

i have aphantasia too! i always thought only a few ppl could visualize but then BAM!! it never really impaired my creativity so i dont really mind it

 

[MildredHubble]

I have trouble with this. For example, I have repeatedly tried to use visualization-based guided meditations, in order to help relieve stress, but I always have difficulty picturing the scenario the narrator is describing. I can sort of get a vague sense of it, but never anything precise or clear.

This is exactly my problem! I was enthusiastically encouraged to do guided meditations/mindfulness stuff, back when I was having extreme episodes of anxiety. It was a dismal failure because all I could do was remember something similar and that may link to something unpleasant.

I can't conjure up an image of a beach for example. But I can remember a beach, one in particular most of all.

Create some generic beach in my head? Nope, just won't happen. Think of a giant rabbit? That will be the painting of the Pukka in the (absolutely wonderful) Jimmy Stewart movie "Harvey".

I can't imagine things in the truest sense of the word. All I can do is recall things visually. I don't know what this means as far as Aphantasia goes.

Like other people have mentioned, I can "see" and rotate 3D objects, like the engine in my car. But the other thing about this is that it's like a series of snapshots, it's more like I sense where things are and the snapshots keep things in sync.

But dream up something novel? I just can't do that visually. At best if someone told me to imagine Santa riding a motorcycle backwards, I get a flash of a picture of Santa I have seen and a picture or memory of a motorcycle, but the images are insanely brief and won't easily join up into the desired image.

I kinda feel like after all these years, it turns out my brain was tricking me into thinking I could "imagine" things when all it was doing was serving up memories.

 

[bluhmaster]

for me, i can barely see anything in my minds eye, yet i dream very vividly! all i see is a void and a little bit of prisoners theater

 

[MildredHubble]

for me, i can barely see anything in my minds eye, yet i dream very vividly! all i see is a void and a little bit of prisoners theater

What is prisoners theatre?

 

[Crossbreed]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner's_cinema

 

[bluhmaster]

prisoners theatre is when you see a "light show" of incomprehensible colors when you close your eyes.

 

[Ed#]

[...] I kinda feel like after all these years, it turns out my brain was tricking me into thinking I could "imagine" things when all it was doing was serving up memories.

Yes. I can recall images of things I've seen before, but I have difficulty creating them from scratch. If you ask me to imagine my "happy place," I will recall a place I have been to before -- most likely somewhere in the woods or mountains. But if you ask me to visually create a happy place I have never been to -- for instance, an old-fashioned Victorian room with a large, comfortable chair, natural lighting, and shelves of books -- I can only get a vague picture, nothing detailed.

I can feel things very well, though. If you ask me to imagine the feeling of being in a place like that, boom, no problem. But to imagine the image with any specificity is difficult.

Apparently this is pretty common, because you'll hear it mentioned by people who do the guided visualizations. They say, if you can't visualize, that's okay, just get the feeling of it. I can do that pretty easily.

 

[MildredHubble]

Yes. I can recall images of things I've seen before, but I have difficulty creating them from scratch. If you ask me to imagine my "happy place," I will recall a place I have been to before -- most likely somewhere in the woods or mountains. But if you ask me to visually create a happy place I have never been to -- for instance, an old-fashioned Victorian room with a large, comfortable chair, natural lighting, and shelves of books -- I can only get a vague picture, nothing detailed.

I can feel things very well, though. If you ask me to imagine the feeling of being in a place like that, boom, no problem. But to imagine the image with any specificity is difficult.

Apparently this is pretty common, because you'll hear it mentioned by people who do the guided visualizations. They say, if you can't visualize, that's okay, just get the feeling of it. I can do that pretty easily.

That's interesting! None of the guided meditations said try to "get the feeling of it". They seem firmly stuck on me having to imagine it unfortunately. I might try as you suggested and concentrate on the feeling.

The difficulty for me is that these guided meditations usually involve beaches or places with water. This is a problem for me as it brings back memories of me being on a beach as a kid. I was very scared of the sea, it was so loud and angry sounding. Basically how a beach is in the winter in the UK.

It brings back one of the very few fond memories I have of being with my mother. Which then triggers memories like falling dominos, and it all gets worse as the memories shift forward. It's not pleasant. I also nearly drowned once, so I feel a little nervous around large bodies of water. Not very relaxing!

The only mindfulness stuff that helps me is the deep breathing kind, like the Wim Hof method. Before I discovered that, I had randomly downloaded hypnosis and mindfulness mp3s from filesharing networks as part of a university project. I had them in my iTunes library, and one played one day randomly that was different, it focused on breathing.

No beaches, blue skies, lakes, 6 foot tall bunnies, nothing!

I think it worked for me because, like the Wim Hof method, it involves basically hyperventilating (not to be recommended unless you are following a safe method) and that triggers all kinds of physiological responses that create a relaxed sensation.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I visualize processes in my head not in detail just sort of how it all fits together. my dreams are very realistic.