Видео

Ah wel-a-day! what evil looks Had I from old and young; Instead of the Cross the Albatross About my neck was hung.

Great video

Great video

Great video

That Black Friday scenario was spot on! When I go to bed and know I am going to have a long stressful day my brain just feels “heavy” or “full” so it makes it harder to fall asleep. But when I think tomorrow will be a good day my mind feels light and empty and I fall right to sleep. In both scenarios I may be “thinking”of things as I fall asleep but no sound or visions. Just dark noiseless environment and those thoughts are just “knowing” things.

Great video

In regards to the teapot I just know

Great video

The more I listen you explain the silent brain perfectly. Thank you for this. I am 48 and have always heard about inner dialogue and never knew people actually heard words in their head or saw actual pictures, I thought they just had silent thoughts and knowing things like me. When I found out last week people heard communications verbally in their head and I was the minority it blew my mind. I can’t imagine having audio convesarions in my head on all the thoughts I’m having, it sounds exhausting.

The “knowing” is the best way to put it. It is hard to describe how I think. I just “know”.

That’s how i feel about audio books…may need to go back…

Yes! We can’t picture your situation!

I recently found out about this and it blows my mind about no inner dialogue and aphantasia!!

It's called partial enlightenment! Meaning-you're fortunate. Neg thoughts and thought-forms are part of the ego-disease of human beings.

I don't have an inner monologue. I often find myself rambling when chatting to people. Does anyone else get this?

So, I have hyperphantasia (I’m pretty sure). It’s the other side of that spectrum. There’s pros and cons. Pros: very creative, better at problem solving, more empathy, better dreams, etc. cons: very distracting/annoying, difficult to remember/know what’s a memory and what is just my brain projecting images/video, way too much input than what’s comfortable. Internal monologue is literally unending. It does not stop.

For me I don’t need a picture attached to a word. I can think words without pictures but I have pictures pop up for whatever but not always. I can make the images appear anytime but they don’t have to be there for the words and I can try to suppress the images if I want (which I only do when they are upsetting and sometimes can’t completely control that). It’s like an automatic google image search that’s going all the time and only picks and chooses what gets searched for to bring up images. The words are there most of the time and my mind repeats the words sometimes and then randomly brings up images, or brings them up if I choose to bring them up. What I’m not understanding is how do you make decisions on things that you have to “think” about first? Like what’s your favorite ice cream? I would need to bring up memories of ice cream flavors I have had in the past and focus on flavor name and remember my thoughts about it captured at the time I ate it. Most of the time that comes through my head like a movie with narration or with director commentary turned on where I’m analyzing what I was experiencing at that time. So if you don’t have that to pull up images and you don’t have words how do you choose? Do you just know without knowing why until after your brain automatically chooses? I am really confused about that. You don’t “think through” things silently?

I wonder if people with Aphantasia are people that didnt experience trauma during their childhood… I know for me I got into daydreaming when I was a kid as an escape from my reality because I was being emotionally hurt by those around me. I was forced to lean into myself, using my imagination mixed with the hope of eventually growing up and being independent.

don't "want" to lie. hm ... so how does one weigh the option to lie or not? how does one to role play? that is to say, if i am deciding on what to tell a person, i think about what i want to tell them, think an opposing narrative, and select which i say out loud. does all the decision making happen incognito made in your brain of you have Aphantasia? you jsut say the line, and feel/know if it was a lie or truth?

You’re perfectly describing how I think, “hear” and “see” in my brain! The way you narrate is amazing

You’re describing so perfectly! Like i try to explain to my friends, but it’s just so hard to put the feeling into words

I was sure my toddler could see images in his head when he couldn't sleep because "The dinosaur is looking at me!"

I have same situation here. Quite mind and aphantasia

You remember facts. I went to X College. I had dinner with my dad may 3rd at Chilli's. Not the actual sequence of events like a movie.

Just think urself lucky your not colour blind or even fully blind, the human experience is incredibly diverse! Sometimes I even get annoyed with how adhd my brain is, so there really isnt one universal human experience

I too have no inner monologue and Phantasia. I’ve never understood this combination is not common or was even a thing. So, here I am scrolling desperately through these comments to find another person like us.

My wife has aphantasia. Your video was afantastic description of how it works. In regard to intensity of memories, for me and my wife, the vast majority of memories have equivalent intensity. Some have more intensity but most are stored more as a reference than a ‘relivable’ experience. I believe aphantasia has a sufficient evolutionary basis to persist. Life used to be much harder throughout history and trauma of various degrees were unfortunately widely distributed. I am not saying aphantasia can help make trauma easy, I am saying it can make it less hard and intense. If I had an option to see or not see pictures and video of trauma, I know what I would choose. Also, it should be easier to focus on tasks without the ability to daydream. I have a better ability to visualize than others I have spoke to about this. When it comes to doing some future task, I can visually walk through the whole thing. Whether I have to pick up something or duck down or look around a wall to see something, I can do it all in maybe 10x speed. You might think I can then visualize it and take care of it. It should work like that. Usually, I run through it many many times and think of variations that could happen so I can make sure and have everything ready and do it perfect. 90% of tools and supplies I bring to do a home repair project are ‘just in case’ items that don’t get used. My wife was about 45 before she became aware of her uniqueness. All of this to say, I think there is a balance to it all. Otherwise, it wouldn’t take decades to realize there was a difference.

What happens when you read a novel? I am both hearing my own voice reading the book, I hear the different characters voices, AND I see pictures of what's described in the book..

I was embarrassingly over 50 before I realized that other people see actual pictures and see things while dreaming😮 I hear myself and can think things, but no other sounds and no images.

I have constant inner monologue and my thoughts never quiet. I do mean NEVER. I don't know what it's like to have a quiet moment in my mind. I have racing thoughts, multiple thoughts, pictures, movies. But I can't meditate bc I can't keep any of my thoughts quiet for long enough. It's like being in a prison cell with 80 kindergartens and preschoolers...it's that chaotic. I have intrusive thoughts that pop up out of nowhere, and they are very disturbing. I would love to go one day with no inner monologue and no pictures in my head. I'd love to fall asleep to complete silence and not these multiple thoughts which have nothing to do with each other, that zoom through my brain. My husband says he can just sit there and think of NOTHING. (Look for the video of the stand up comic for The Nothing Box)....that is fascinating and completely foreign to me that anyone can even do that.

If I believed in evolution I would say not being able to speak and think in your mind would be a left over trait of animals who live off strictly off instinct and emotions. Like imagine being in a quiet place and not being to think.

The fact that you gesticulate so much I find interesting. When you said “card” your hands suggested the shape of holding a card. Seems to me like you’re imagining a card when you say “card”. No?

Do you have dreams? Is it visual? Just curious. I don’t have an inner monologue but I can picture things in my mind & I dream VERY VERY VERY vividly.

My internal monologue is the same as yours. But my visuals are vivid.

Wait, I thought everyone thought like this, guess I'm the same!

I dont understand... Like... You don't see people or yourself falling in your dream.. you dont see them chasing you?? I cant picture myself or my kids in my head either... That's hard.. but can you picture blue eyes staring at you or words being written down on a paper? Can you see a basic triangle or shape make it's way into your head? I seriously dont get how this is a thing... When I do the "test" I see the pictures everywhere; I can push them all around and change things/add things if I concentrate. Can you practice and force things to come?

Thank you for sharing! Its been so insightful and helpful!

These are the rantings of a mad woman. She doesnt daydream, does not have an inner voice, nor see image, but somehow can "imagine" that she was princess Leah....

4 years after this video released, thank you for not deleting. The way you described your feelings finding out of us “inner monologue/visualization” people, the cry, the overwhelming feeling, the urge to fix yourself, thats the way I feel by listening you. I would trade my constant inner monologue alongside with severe adhd to your silent mind in a heartbeat. In other words so jealous to those who are “completely in reality”.

The real issue that people with an inner monologue are so astonished by is not that you're not picturing an example of the word you're reading, that's not really what we do; we CAN imagine a scene that's described in a passage in a book, but it's not necessary, and individual words would not necessarily cause an image to arise. The real head-scratcher is the knowledge that you're "reading" without the words "sounding out" in a voice in your head. Without that inner narrator (it can be any voice we choose btw, a famous person, a different accent etc). The closest I can conceptualise what's going on for aphants is like a digital reader, passing over the words in turn, extracting the meaning but with no intermediate process (the voice in our head), without that, it seems like a shortcut from looking at a word, to understanding it, that we could never achieve. I can imagine it would take enormous concentration and training to read a sentence and *not* hear it in my head.

The most confusing aspect of this was at 12:50 , the idea that you "feel" you have "thoughts running through your head" but their are no "conscious" thoughts. Trying to imagine what that must feel like is hard, that feeling (for someone with an inner monologue) is literally your inner voice racing, jumping from subject to subject, not allowing you time to process the information coming at you, and if you try to deal with one issue, others intrude and distract you. For you I'm imagining this experience is like seeing a jar full of bees, they're all flying around in there, they're making lots of buzzing sounds in there, but if I look away from them they are easy to put out of my mind, I'm guessing you are just unable to put the jar outside of your awareness, you're stuck with it. The question I have is: how do you process that feeling away? How can you consciously deal with the turmoil of a racing mind, not letting you get rest, when you're not conscious of the details and can't talk your way through them? or are you doing that, just subconsciously?

Do you struggle with memory?

Yep i see endless types of imagery in my head. I even see things that do not exist in reality. Music really helps me jog this ability. I’m a creative person, I am a graphic designer and an artist. So I think it helps me in that sense. I also have an inner monologue. I speak to myself in my head. So I have both. I can also shut It all off like a switch. I can just think or see nothing. Idk if that’s common. But yeah that’s my brain.

What about music? Can you hear music?

confirmed my suspicions within the first minute. i get why they can tell you to inject poison and most of the country jumps on board now.

So, you’re an NPC.

Aphantasia with adhd is hardcore hahahhahahahahahha

My world fell apart the day I discovered that people SEE things in their heads, it's crazy, but I feel like there are a lot of us.

My inner monolog is all day every day. I long for your quieter experience.

Maybe you are very lucky. People meditate for years to get rid of the inner talk and the visual images, the phantasms that are constantly arousing them.