I have aphantasia, as well as my daughter and my dad. I didn't discover that this was a thing until my daughter told me about it. I was over 50. I don't get a list of words, I'm able to recreate the feelings or sensations of a visualization. So, with a bicycle, I don't visualize the bicycle, but I imagine what it feels like to ride it, the feeling of freedom, the wind in my hair, and the burn in my legs as I pedal.
Oh wow! That would be so cool. I have five sense aphantasia and this is a perfect example of what I can't do. I can't feel what wind would feel like in my hair in my mind. I can intellectually break it down and say, it'd probably feel cool, with the hair flapping and possibly getting annoying in my face, but I can't bring any sensation of that experience in my mind. So very cool you can experience this! 😀
Did not know about aphantasia and hyperphantasia until you talked about it. Thank you for helping me find a nice term for it! I know now that I have hyperphantasia. It can be quite overwhelming.
i was watching one of my favorite RUclipsrs today when he started explaining to his friends that he had aphantasia. I've heard the term before and never thought of it as applying to me, but then when he explained it, I started realizing, "wait, hold on, we're supposed to *see* something?" so all day today I've been going around researching different videos and websites and what I've found is that i mighttttt just have aphantasia. thank you for explaining it more, now I understand more about it!
You're so welcome! Yes, when I first heard about aphantasia at 38 I was so surprised that most people can see images in their minds! Welcome to the club. 😊
4 months late but I'm glad I found your comment. I could describe my experience just the same as yours. I'm actually sad that I am missing something. I actually used to call myself a visual person as I love art and often find the beauty in something that is not initially apparent. I have no problem with spacial orientation and 'visualisation' exercises, it's just that there is no actual vision. I describe it as being in a room with an object or scene with the lights off. I just have a perception that something is there and the relationship of the parts. Is this just a compensation for a lack of a normal ability? Interesting stuff. All new to me.
I discovered I have aphantasia years ago due to my inability to visualize on command, I can’t see anything that I try to selectively recall or visualize. However, I recently started working on a project that I’m deeply passionate about and unprompted had a whole commercial for this app project play in my mind. I actually ended up writing it down after because it was so good. The mind is a very peculiar thing. It actually feels like it’s another part of my mind, other than the one I have autonomy over, that visualized it. Ive read about left/right brain dominance and how in some medical studies they determined that the other side of the brain actually had its own thoughts separate from the dominating faction that controls motor movement 🤯.
I have hyperfantasia and bipolar disorder so when I am stable I could watch a movie in my head and understand that it's a movie when I'm depressed I visualize painful stuff and I feel it like it's happening to me when I am manic I can see the entire universe and where stars are placed in the sky I could feel music I could taste an apple it doesn't exist. It's very interesting.
I get this too! Vision, sounds, emotions, physical sensations and taste are all so vivid. I've used this so often to take me out of painful or scary situations. People wonder why I'm not bored just sitting and staring into space but it's because I'm not; I'm fantasising, listening to music in my head or watching my favourite scene from a movie 😄 Can unfortunately also lead to overwhelm and burn out 🙄
I don't have full aphantasia, but I was today years old when I realized other people can visualize things in a much more detailed manner than I can. It was an aha moment when I realized why meditation is so hard for me. I don't have a problem turning off my mind. I have a problem seeing anything at all. I'm jealous of people who supposedly can see objects they're thinking about in 3D with their eyes open. If you ask me to visualize a red vs green apple I can, but I have to have my eyes closed and I have to really try. Otherwise I'm just running through a list in my head about what I know to make a red apple different from a green one like the taste difference, pores on the skin of one vs the other, possibly the shape... but nothing concrete like a lasting image of either. Now that I know this, I can try to adjust my understanding of why it's hard for me to picture something and draw it from memory or whatnot. My brain is set up more like a service manual where I have a series of steps to insert tab A into slot B and so on and so forth.
If someone says like "close your eyes and imagine an apple" I've got nothing. But if I lay down, close my eyes and relax I can imagine in color, with sounds and movement big scenes with many figures and move the viewpoint and everything.
I see everything in moving pictures. No matter what it is. When someone is talking to me about anything, I can see it play out in my head. When I watch a video guide on how to make anything, I can see myself making things from a first person perspective, but combing ideas from other videos to make something different. I have to make lists and notes of the ideas I get, or I get overwhelmed. Same thing when I read a book, or listen to an audio book, its like a film in my head, and I can see the characters, very clearly, "acting" it out. I thought everyone was like this. I'm also late diagnosis (march this year) autistic. I'm 50F, and only learned about hyperphantasia a couple of days ago.
I have watched a million RUclips videos and I definitely have my favorite RUclipsrs, but you are the FIRST one I have ever felt moved to subscribe to. I have known all my life that I could not visualize, but I didn’t know until about a year ago, that it was an actual thing with a name. I don’t think it has ever held me back; there are simply things that I cannot do, like visualize a route to destinations I have been to many times, and I have to find workarounds. I think in a way this has made me more creative, not less. I’m a pretty good cartoonist, but I don’t know until I start what it’s going to end up being. That said, it was fun to find out that aphantasia was a real thing, and that other people have it. You are so great at explaining this to other people. I look forward to seeing more of your videos. PS: if you would ever like to see some of my digital cartoons, I would be delighted to share them with you, if you’ll tell me how I can do that.
You can DM me on Instagram, I don't get a chance to respond to all DMs but I try. Same user name. I appreciate you subscribing, I'm glad you enjoy my channel 😊❤️
I found your channel regarding asd/adhd but i find aphantasia so fascinating! I am guessing I am "hyper" phant/artistic but I think it also might vary depending on how well I am, energy, inflammation etc. Like varying from 360p to 4k screen resolution.
I’d heard that counting sheep was a good way to get to sleep. I never had much to do with sheep, but counting recalcitrant sheep in dipping pond just didn’t do it for me.
I'm curious about music. Assuming you can not visualize items, places, etc., does that align with music also? If someone asked me my favorite song, I can "hear" it without it playing AND know the lyrics, "Hear" them as well (as long as I know them by heart, lol). Knowing or not knowing the artist and/or title is moot for me as well. How does that work for you? Do you need to wait for whenever it plays to know that's your fave song and other than that, you don't recognize it in your mind? Or do you know the title and/or artist and just say that and hope others know what song you're referring to? This is all so interesting to me and I'm SO glad you have this channel. It's been a super help to me. You're so kind and helpful, and you explain all of this so perfectly.
You're right! I have total multisensory aphantasia, so I can't experience any sense in my mind. Some people with aphantasia are only effected by not being able to visualize. I think this is part of the reason music has never been an art form that I appreciate to its fullest. I cannot hear tunes in my head. I do sort of get "earworms" of a song, but it's only a short phrase of the song (not even a whole line usually) and it just is more like a chant but not really because no sound in my head. Just the thought of the line over and over.
Interesting, I can visualize "ideas" in my head as abstract entities with options and fuzziness as described in this video but I can hear music in my head really, really well. I am constantly humming and singing as a stim because I always have music in my brain. 😂
I have a great feeling that I have aphantasia, when someone asks me to visualize (let's say) an apple, I know what an apple looks like but I don't see an apple in my mind's eye. All I see is like colored static (black, white, grey, some yellow, orange, etc.) from a tv or complete darkness but not the apple itself.
When i tell you i never understood why i ALWAYS use references for drawing and my mouth dropped open when u mentioned the reference image i never felt so understood in my life. I can almost vosualize a bike, but i have to think VERY hard, and there is barely no color, and i have to visualize the individual parts one by one, as its too hard to imagine a entire bike. So youre telling me prople who have a vivid minds eye jist naturally can remember more, and draw better? I never thought about this, thank you@
I can generate images even motion but my only complaint is that it doesnt come as primary its only secondary and its very low resolution, low brightness and almost transparent is this just low intensity?
When you talk to most people (since people with aphantasia are in the way minority) they can't even fathom the idea we have no images in our mnd. It blows my sister who is hyperphantasia's mind (She can see incredible 3d rendered movies that she can manipulate in her mind.)
If I think of a bike I think of all the possibilities abit like Google slideshows but instead of my brain picking one it picks all of them merged together so it's fuzzy and almost impossible to become a complete image, e.g if j think of a bike, I can see a pedal, in every volour at the same time, then a wheel in every form at once. I can't see the pedal and the wheel and any other part together tho. Only at different times
Even though I can "see" things, I still relate to this experience because I at best can see something for a split second, & I'd actually relate it to the way a partially blind person sees. I can't see or absorb the entirety of what I'm seeing, & I have essentially no creative freedom over it. I tend to think in concepts a lot, & most of the time, my brain will *feel* a word rather than visualize it, I have to really go out of my way to even get past concepts & into images because "seeing" something feels like it adds absolutely nothing to my concept of it. For me it is pointless. I don't know how other people experience feeling with words but for me it's like every word is a different colour on a colour wheel. They all have a personality of sorts - an impression & that feeling they bring me is all I need to "picture" them. I remember never knowing what animals actually looked like as a kid especially because I couldn't see them in my head, but I think that blindness really increased the feeling I have towards, well, everything. I very likely have autism too & I wonder how much of things being really simplified in my brain is because I default to thinking in a way that is less overstimulating for me. The way I think about it too though also reminds me of the way ADHD makes me think about every hobby I pick up - "I could become really good at this" followed by me immediately dropping it upon feeling like I've therefore "completed" it. I know I *could* picture an apple, so why would I actually go out of my way to picture it? lol. I just never actually wanted to develop this skill enough to obtain it.
Hi, teacher. I know that I cannot create mental images clearly. Which one is the correct way of visualization? I would like to solely focus on the correct one that you use. 1. We create a mental TV screen on the wall right in front of us and then see the pictures running there? Is it the correct one? 2. We just directly form a mental image running in the brain. Is it the correct one? For example, I want to see Messi, Ronaldo and I play for the same team together? Should I create a mental TV screen in my room right in front of me and then see us playing on that TV? Or I just form a mental video without create a mental TV? For me both ways, the images and videos are not clear and easily to forget the picture or video I picture? So, which one is the right one? I want to direct my attention and focus on your suggestion. Any help is extremely and whole-heartedly appreciated
Must be hard living with Aphantasia, I do almost everything in my life by visualizing. I cant even imagine how to live without my viulisationability. Is Hyperphantasia more common in NT oder Neudivers people. Never heard that term.
i think it depends where your from as well here in aus i always read it as A-phan-tasia but your right we adapt to suit but also when birn with aphantasia you know nothing different so when people say they can see a horse or can imagine a taste or a smell its like what is that a thing cause i cant do any of it ...as for mindfullness i cant do it because i gets frastrating that people dont understand and then say stupid things like your just not trying hard enough ..i sat here for a hour the other day trying to imagine a apple and the taste and how to cut it ect and all i got was darkness for a hour there was nothing i can describe how to do it but thats it .....alot of people dont know about it so its hard for them to understand one could say its hard for them to imagine what its like not to imagine and see images
I can visualize. And yet, still, i feel that a life with visualizations is weirder than a life without one. It's so weird that we have these"inner senses" it's the same with the voice in your head, and the ability to remember or think about other certain sensations, tastes and smells, and such. The brain is so facsinating.
Wait, people with normal phantasia can't make movies in their heads? I've been doing that since I was 3. I loved Barbie and often times while going to bed i would just create new Barbie movies that I would "watch"
People with aphantasia can't make movies in their head. Most people visualize on a scale from what I've learned. I'm zero, no images at all. Some people have a fuzzy sort of picture, some a clear picture and some people can make movies in their minds. I think hyperphantsia is when you can make a movie in your mind and manipulate and interact with the elements in your head. This is my understanding, I might not have it exactly right. It's nearly impossible for me to even imagine visualizing in your mind at all.
For me its ... Fuzzy colors in the general shape. Its hard for me to imagine people n stuff like sheep. But if it's something ive seen in video like a tv show i can picture static images of that show. The visual is faded like uf you put the transparency up on a black background. I cant like...smell things in my minds nose though and tastes as well. If im trying to rmbr a classroom i teach in its Very fuzzy and the shapes of students are not even rlly ppl shaped. When im thinking about family i think about pictures of them.
Sometimes i just listen to music and let cool fictional scenarios just play out in my head I'm not claiming to have hyperphantasia by the way I just thought it would be nice to share
@@i.am.mindblind I have heard some people's experiences about hyperphantasia and I'm sure it's not the same. I think it's more my hyperactivity or ADHD
Great video! Do you still dream with full visual clarity? It is interesting to think about, how everything we see with our eyes, Is just a projection. In our minds eye or in the visual cortex. And dreaming with dreaming and sight, clearly our brain has the ability to see, visualize, picture. Yet like many of our brains abilities it limits our use and access of it.
Thanks! I have a video that goes into more detail on my dreams. I can visualize in my dreams but I don't do it (or wake up remembering) my dreams very often. But apparently the dreaming part of the brain is different than the awake visual part!
Glad I'm not the only one on that pronunciation issue. It's going to take some time to switch. As for the channel name, I just decided I wanted it to match my instagram which is i.am.mindblind. I was debating about adding the periods or keeping it as separate words! Even still, I plan to keep the content about neurodivergences and disability pride, inclusion, etc. not just Aphantasia (implied by the MindBlind.) Aphantasia was the first word I had for realizing I wasn't neurotypical, so it's near and dear to me.
It's a long a, (a-fan-tay-zhuh) the A is a prefix that means Not and it's a long A as in Atypical, Apolitical, Atheist, etc. I thought it was a soft ah originally too. In the end, it doesn't matter as long as communication happens! 😊
I think your sister may just be normal, I can also do that but not hyperphantasic. The odds are very low you have aphantasia 1%, but then your sister also has another rare form 5% hyper, if it is genetic she would be likely to have your version but not the other
We're both Autistic and I think it relates to that. Autism often has remarkable differences in how the brain processes. That's where the word spectrum comes in. For instance I'm hyposensitive to sounds, but many autistic people need music all day to help stay regulated. Just a theory. But my sister used to get lost in her innerworld because she can visualize whatever she wants to such amazing hyperrealistic details. And me, I've got zip. Also, now scienceists estimate aphantasia at 3%. Still a small amount of the population, but more than when they originally "discovered" ir
@@i.am.mindblind Makes more sense now if you are both autistic and it is associated with that will make it more likely. I just thought before it is so unlikely to have two random people have opposite types of it, but I take back my opinion.
This is exactly how I found out just now! I tried meditating for the umpteenth time and finally went on google to learn how to clear my mind enough to see imagery. That’s funny. All this time I thought I had a ‘bad memory’. I also write poetry but I do much better with abstract writing and piecing together concepts 🤔
Just curious, did my video pop up on a Google search? If so that's so cool! Yeah, the day I learned I had aphantasia and most of the world was actually visualizing instead of just using metaphors... Whoa.
I have aphantasia, as well as my daughter and my dad. I didn't discover that this was a thing until my daughter told me about it. I was over 50. I don't get a list of words, I'm able to recreate the feelings or sensations of a visualization. So, with a bicycle, I don't visualize the bicycle, but I imagine what it feels like to ride it, the feeling of freedom, the wind in my hair, and the burn in my legs as I pedal.
Oh wow! That would be so cool. I have five sense aphantasia and this is a perfect example of what I can't do. I can't feel what wind would feel like in my hair in my mind. I can intellectually break it down and say, it'd probably feel cool, with the hair flapping and possibly getting annoying in my face, but I can't bring any sensation of that experience in my mind. So very cool you can experience this! 😀
Did not know about aphantasia and hyperphantasia until you talked about it. Thank you for helping me find a nice term for it! I know now that I have hyperphantasia. It can be quite overwhelming.
Until I started hearing about aphantasia, I did not know people really could "picture in your mind."
Me too, so wild.
i was watching one of my favorite RUclipsrs today when he started explaining to his friends that he had aphantasia. I've heard the term before and never thought of it as applying to me, but then when he explained it, I started realizing, "wait, hold on, we're supposed to *see* something?" so all day today I've been going around researching different videos and websites and what I've found is that i mighttttt just have aphantasia. thank you for explaining it more, now I understand more about it!
You're so welcome! Yes, when I first heard about aphantasia at 38 I was so surprised that most people can see images in their minds! Welcome to the club. 😊
4 months late but I'm glad I found your comment.
I could describe my experience just the same as yours. I'm actually sad that I am missing something. I actually used to call myself a visual person as I love art and often find the beauty in something that is not initially apparent. I have no problem with spacial orientation and 'visualisation' exercises, it's just that there is no actual vision.
I describe it as being in a room with an object or scene with the lights off. I just have a perception that something is there and the relationship of the parts.
Is this just a compensation for a lack of a normal ability?
Interesting stuff. All new to me.
I discovered I have aphantasia years ago due to my inability to visualize on command, I can’t see anything that I try to selectively recall or visualize. However, I recently started working on a project that I’m deeply passionate about and unprompted had a whole commercial for this app project play in my mind. I actually ended up writing it down after because it was so good. The mind is a very peculiar thing. It actually feels like it’s another part of my mind, other than the one I have autonomy over, that visualized it. Ive read about left/right brain dominance and how in some medical studies they determined that the other side of the brain actually had its own thoughts separate from the dominating faction that controls motor movement 🤯.
I have hyperfantasia and bipolar disorder so when I am stable I could watch a movie in my head and understand that it's a movie when I'm depressed I visualize painful stuff and I feel it like it's happening to me when I am manic I can see the entire universe and where stars are placed in the sky I could feel music I could taste an apple it doesn't exist. It's very interesting.
I get this too! Vision, sounds, emotions, physical sensations and taste are all so vivid. I've used this so often to take me out of painful or scary situations. People wonder why I'm not bored just sitting and staring into space but it's because I'm not; I'm fantasising, listening to music in my head or watching my favourite scene from a movie 😄 Can unfortunately also lead to overwhelm and burn out 🙄
I don't have full aphantasia, but I was today years old when I realized other people can visualize things in a much more detailed manner than I can. It was an aha moment when I realized why meditation is so hard for me. I don't have a problem turning off my mind. I have a problem seeing anything at all. I'm jealous of people who supposedly can see objects they're thinking about in 3D with their eyes open. If you ask me to visualize a red vs green apple I can, but I have to have my eyes closed and I have to really try. Otherwise I'm just running through a list in my head about what I know to make a red apple different from a green one like the taste difference, pores on the skin of one vs the other, possibly the shape... but nothing concrete like a lasting image of either. Now that I know this, I can try to adjust my understanding of why it's hard for me to picture something and draw it from memory or whatnot. My brain is set up more like a service manual where I have a series of steps to insert tab A into slot B and so on and so forth.
If someone says like "close your eyes and imagine an apple" I've got nothing. But if I lay down, close my eyes and relax I can imagine in color, with sounds and movement big scenes with many figures and move the viewpoint and everything.
That's really interesting
I have never conjured images in my mind.
I have no inner voices in my head.
I have always looked with suspicion on those that claim such abilities.
Most of the population can see in their mind. It does sound incredulous, but to them the fact we can't blows their minds
I can see in my mind and I hear voices of people I think of. I can't imagine not being able too
I see everything in moving pictures. No matter what it is. When someone is talking to me about anything, I can see it play out in my head. When I watch a video guide on how to make anything, I can see myself making things from a first person perspective, but combing ideas from other videos to make something different. I have to make lists and notes of the ideas I get, or I get overwhelmed. Same thing when I read a book, or listen to an audio book, its like a film in my head, and I can see the characters, very clearly, "acting" it out. I thought everyone was like this. I'm also late diagnosis (march this year) autistic. I'm 50F, and only learned about hyperphantasia a couple of days ago.
I have watched a million RUclips videos and I definitely have my favorite RUclipsrs, but you are the FIRST one I have ever felt moved to subscribe to. I have known all my life that I could not visualize, but I didn’t know until about a year ago, that it was an actual thing with a name. I don’t think it has ever held me back; there are simply things that I cannot do, like visualize a route to destinations I have been to many times, and I have to find workarounds. I think in a way this has made me more creative, not less. I’m a pretty good cartoonist, but I don’t know until I start what it’s going to end up being. That said, it was fun to find out that aphantasia was a real thing, and that other people have it. You are so great at explaining this to other people. I look forward to seeing more of your videos. PS: if you would ever like to see some of my digital cartoons, I would be delighted to share them with you, if you’ll tell me how I can do that.
You can DM me on Instagram, I don't get a chance to respond to all DMs but I try. Same user name. I appreciate you subscribing, I'm glad you enjoy my channel 😊❤️
I thought everyone could basically play a movie in their head, no wonder I’m always daydreaming
I can't even begin to imagine! 😊
I found your channel regarding asd/adhd but i find aphantasia so fascinating! I am guessing I am "hyper" phant/artistic but I think it also might vary depending on how well I am, energy, inflammation etc. Like varying from 360p to 4k screen resolution.
That's interesting your "picture quality" changes!
Definitely it varies depending on lots of factors! I also have hyperphantasia.
I’d heard that counting sheep was a good way to get to sleep. I never had much to do with sheep, but counting recalcitrant sheep in dipping pond just didn’t do it for me.
I have hyperphantasia plus autism. I was the only student in my chemistry class who didn't need to use models. Thanks for this video.
The brain is amazing. I know the more I practice visualizing images, the easier and better the images become.
But people with aphantasia don't have the ability, it isn't something we can learn. It's been studied and tried by many.
I'm curious about music. Assuming you can not visualize items, places, etc., does that align with music also? If someone asked me my favorite song, I can "hear" it without it playing AND know the lyrics, "Hear" them as well (as long as I know them by heart, lol). Knowing or not knowing the artist and/or title is moot for me as well. How does that work for you? Do you need to wait for whenever it plays to know that's your fave song and other than that, you don't recognize it in your mind? Or do you know the title and/or artist and just say that and hope others know what song you're referring to?
This is all so interesting to me and I'm SO glad you have this channel. It's been a super help to me. You're so kind and helpful, and you explain all of this so perfectly.
You're right! I have total multisensory aphantasia, so I can't experience any sense in my mind. Some people with aphantasia are only effected by not being able to visualize. I think this is part of the reason music has never been an art form that I appreciate to its fullest. I cannot hear tunes in my head. I do sort of get "earworms" of a song, but it's only a short phrase of the song (not even a whole line usually) and it just is more like a chant but not really because no sound in my head. Just the thought of the line over and over.
Interesting, I can visualize "ideas" in my head as abstract entities with options and fuzziness as described in this video but I can hear music in my head really, really well. I am constantly humming and singing as a stim because I always have music in my brain. 😂
I have a great feeling that I have aphantasia, when someone asks me to visualize (let's say) an apple, I know what an apple looks like but I don't see an apple in my mind's eye. All I see is like colored static (black, white, grey, some yellow, orange, etc.) from a tv or complete darkness but not the apple itself.
Sounds like aphantasia to me!
When i tell you i never understood why i ALWAYS use references for drawing and my mouth dropped open when u mentioned the reference image i never felt so understood in my life. I can almost vosualize a bike, but i have to think VERY hard, and there is barely no color, and i have to visualize the individual parts one by one, as its too hard to imagine a entire bike. So youre telling me prople who have a vivid minds eye jist naturally can remember more, and draw better? I never thought about this, thank you@
I have to like draw out the shapes if you will, and build up the image most the time, in order to see something
I can generate images even motion
but my only complaint is that it doesnt come as primary its only secondary
and its very low resolution, low brightness and almost transparent is this just low intensity?
I'm still trying to get used to the idea that some people literally see images in their minds. It sounds fake to me. 😧 Pretty sure I have Aphantasia.
When you talk to most people (since people with aphantasia are in the way minority) they can't even fathom the idea we have no images in our mnd. It blows my sister who is hyperphantasia's mind (She can see incredible 3d rendered movies that she can manipulate in her mind.)
@@i.am.mindblind Your videos are so helpful and comforting to me! Thank you!
You're welcome, this makes me so happy to hear.
It's real man. I have hyperphantasia, and it's blowing my mind that I think this way, and others are the complete opposite.
What now is the question ❓
If I think of a bike I think of all the possibilities abit like Google slideshows but instead of my brain picking one it picks all of them merged together so it's fuzzy and almost impossible to become a complete image, e.g if j think of a bike, I can see a pedal, in every volour at the same time, then a wheel in every form at once. I can't see the pedal and the wheel and any other part together tho. Only at different times
Even though I can "see" things, I still relate to this experience because I at best can see something for a split second, & I'd actually relate it to the way a partially blind person sees. I can't see or absorb the entirety of what I'm seeing, & I have essentially no creative freedom over it. I tend to think in concepts a lot, & most of the time, my brain will *feel* a word rather than visualize it, I have to really go out of my way to even get past concepts & into images because "seeing" something feels like it adds absolutely nothing to my concept of it. For me it is pointless.
I don't know how other people experience feeling with words but for me it's like every word is a different colour on a colour wheel. They all have a personality of sorts - an impression & that feeling they bring me is all I need to "picture" them. I remember never knowing what animals actually looked like as a kid especially because I couldn't see them in my head, but I think that blindness really increased the feeling I have towards, well, everything.
I very likely have autism too & I wonder how much of things being really simplified in my brain is because I default to thinking in a way that is less overstimulating for me. The way I think about it too though also reminds me of the way ADHD makes me think about every hobby I pick up - "I could become really good at this" followed by me immediately dropping it upon feeling like I've therefore "completed" it. I know I *could* picture an apple, so why would I actually go out of my way to picture it? lol. I just never actually wanted to develop this skill enough to obtain it.
Hi, teacher.
I know that I cannot create mental images clearly.
Which one is the correct way of visualization?
I would like to solely focus on the correct one that you use.
1. We create a mental TV screen on the wall right in front of us and then see the pictures running there? Is it the correct one?
2. We just directly form a mental image running in the brain. Is it the correct one?
For example,
I want to see Messi, Ronaldo and I play for the same team together? Should I create a mental TV screen in my room right in front of me and then see us playing on that TV? Or I just form a mental video without create a mental TV?
For me both ways, the images and videos are not clear and easily to forget the picture or video I picture?
So, which one is the right one? I want to direct my attention and focus on your suggestion.
Any help is extremely and whole-heartedly appreciated
Must be hard living with Aphantasia, I do almost everything in my life by visualizing. I cant even imagine how to live without my viulisationability.
Is Hyperphantasia more common in NT oder Neudivers people. Never heard that term.
Thanks this was great.
i think it depends where your from as well here in aus i always read it as A-phan-tasia but your right we adapt to suit but also when birn with aphantasia you know nothing different so when people say they can see a horse or can imagine a taste or a smell its like what is that a thing cause i cant do any of it ...as for mindfullness i cant do it because i gets frastrating that people dont understand and then say stupid things like your just not trying hard enough ..i sat here for a hour the other day trying to imagine a apple and the taste and how to cut it ect and all i got was darkness for a hour there was nothing i can describe how to do it but thats it .....alot of people dont know about it so its hard for them to understand one could say its hard for them to imagine what its like not to imagine and see images
I think it is really difficult to try to imagine what visualizers can see so I guess the opposite is true and they can't imagine not seeing anything!
I can visualize. And yet, still, i feel that a life with visualizations is weirder than a life without one. It's so weird that we have these"inner senses" it's the same with the voice in your head, and the ability to remember or think about other certain sensations, tastes and smells, and such. The brain is so facsinating.
Wait, people with normal phantasia can't make movies in their heads? I've been doing that since I was 3. I loved Barbie and often times while going to bed i would just create new Barbie movies that I would "watch"
People with aphantasia can't make movies in their head. Most people visualize on a scale from what I've learned. I'm zero, no images at all. Some people have a fuzzy sort of picture, some a clear picture and some people can make movies in their minds. I think hyperphantsia is when you can make a movie in your mind and manipulate and interact with the elements in your head. This is my understanding, I might not have it exactly right. It's nearly impossible for me to even imagine visualizing in your mind at all.
For me its ... Fuzzy colors in the general shape. Its hard for me to imagine people n stuff like sheep. But if it's something ive seen in video like a tv show i can picture static images of that show. The visual is faded like uf you put the transparency up on a black background. I cant like...smell things in my minds nose though and tastes as well. If im trying to rmbr a classroom i teach in its Very fuzzy and the shapes of students are not even rlly ppl shaped. When im thinking about family i think about pictures of them.
Sometimes i just listen to music and let cool fictional scenarios just play out in my head
I'm not claiming to have hyperphantasia by the way I just thought it would be nice to share
Aphantasia/hyperfantasia are self dx, so it's okay to claim it if you think it's how you experience the world.
@@i.am.mindblind I have heard some people's experiences about hyperphantasia and I'm sure it's not the same. I think it's more my hyperactivity or ADHD
Am i the only one who can just play music in my head and visualize?
I've heard that quite a few of Disneys artists have aphantasia
Yep, you can be an artist and still have aphantasia. We are still creative, just can't visualize.
Great video!
Do you still dream with full visual clarity?
It is interesting to think about, how everything we see with our eyes, Is just a projection. In our minds eye or in the visual cortex.
And dreaming with dreaming and sight, clearly our brain has the ability to see, visualize, picture. Yet like many of our brains abilities it limits our use and access of it.
Thanks! I have a video that goes into more detail on my dreams. I can visualize in my dreams but I don't do it (or wake up remembering) my dreams very often. But apparently the dreaming part of the brain is different than the awake visual part!
Omg. That’s me. I thought. See what in meditations? Omg 😱
Yeah! It was always weird but I just still never put it together that some people were seeing things instead of just thinking them.
I read aphantasia the same as you 😆
New channel name, I see! Will you address the change in a video?
Glad I'm not the only one on that pronunciation issue. It's going to take some time to switch.
As for the channel name, I just decided I wanted it to match my instagram which is i.am.mindblind. I was debating about adding the periods or keeping it as separate words! Even still, I plan to keep the content about neurodivergences and disability pride, inclusion, etc. not just Aphantasia (implied by the MindBlind.) Aphantasia was the first word I had for realizing I wasn't neurotypical, so it's near and dear to me.
36 seconds in, i came here for hyperphantasia
I have the opposite of hyperfantsia.
I think its ah fant asia pronounced in my opinion
It's a long a, (a-fan-tay-zhuh) the A is a prefix that means Not and it's a long A as in Atypical, Apolitical, Atheist, etc. I thought it was a soft ah originally too. In the end, it doesn't matter as long as communication happens! 😊
I think your sister may just be normal, I can also do that but not hyperphantasic. The odds are very low you have aphantasia 1%, but then your sister also has another rare form 5% hyper, if it is genetic she would be likely to have your version but not the other
We're both Autistic and I think it relates to that. Autism often has remarkable differences in how the brain processes. That's where the word spectrum comes in. For instance I'm hyposensitive to sounds, but many autistic people need music all day to help stay regulated. Just a theory. But my sister used to get lost in her innerworld because she can visualize whatever she wants to such amazing hyperrealistic details. And me, I've got zip. Also, now scienceists estimate aphantasia at 3%. Still a small amount of the population, but more than when they originally "discovered" ir
@@i.am.mindblind Makes more sense now if you are both autistic and it is associated with that will make it more likely. I just thought before it is so unlikely to have two random people have opposite types of it, but I take back my opinion.
This is exactly how I found out just now! I tried meditating for the umpteenth time and finally went on google to learn how to clear my mind enough to see imagery. That’s funny. All this time I thought I had a ‘bad memory’. I also write poetry but I do much better with abstract writing and piecing together concepts 🤔
Just curious, did my video pop up on a Google search? If so that's so cool!
Yeah, the day I learned I had aphantasia and most of the world was actually visualizing instead of just using metaphors... Whoa.