@@imaginarychip4916 In my brain an apple is a bunch of descriptions, so words basically. But a lot of it is intuitive. I don't actually think of the words to describe an apple in detail since it is so common and simple. I know it when I see it in real life, smell it, etc. Not a lot of thought goes into it. If I'm trying to imagine a person I care about there are a lot more words in my head to describe my connection and emotions towards them.
I was 57 years old when my wife told me that she can picture things in her mind. My immediate response was "That is just a figure of speech, nobody actually really pictures anything". I've lived 57 years having no idea that people really pictured images in their Mind's Eye. Oh, wait, what? That is why it's called the Mind's Eye! Wow! Mind blown. It must be really wonderful to conjur up images in one's mind. I am so sad that I cannot do this (all I see is black, nothing but black). I cannot even picture a simple red dot! By the way, something really odd: I dream, night after night, in vivid, beautiful, images full of colors. But only in my dreams - the moment I awake the images are gone. **** Read further down this thread to see a list of seven surprising ways that aphantasia can impact one's life ****
Not You I experience the same thing as him and for me it’s hard for me to remember the dream. I have to remember concepts and situations and things and people that were there and fill in the blanks, i also lucid dream often but when I awake I can never recall any exact details from the dream
i too have it, i can imagine the shape of things without the colours, but can't connect to it, , no feelings come to my mind, when i think something, is that what u feel? it seems to me that i am someway in between.
I'm kinda depressed since I know that I have aphantasia I love imagining things and I never really noticed that I see nothing 🤷🏿♀️ and when I really wanted to see someones face in detail I couldn't see it I know how it looks but I can't actually see it. I feel like a part of my life is gone or just dont makes sense.
You must have memory pictures - try to see them with your eyes open, not closed. It is like having a mental photo album, that you can go trough. I can - unless I did not concentrate and have no memory stored. Then I would not have any idea, how the person looked like
I'm 73. It wasn't until about 2 years ago that I discovered this about myself. It doesn't matter to me one bit, since I've never known any other way....but it is fantastically interesting. :)
I just found out about this a few months ago myself and I am 31. I can't remember jack sense wise and I was born without a sense of smell. Which, when I tell people that, they are baffled. "So you don't know what flowers smell like." or anything else that I guess smell good. But I have also seen people get physically ill from smelling bad soooooo. Screw that. I am not missing anything! lol I would rather not know what things smell like. I think the bad out weights the good. And of course, how can you miss something you have never experienced as you said. But, it is indeed interesting just to know random useless information.
yes. i would love to be able to picture stuff. i have never EVER seen anything while being awake. i think in words. i bet this is why memorizing stuff is harder for me
@@fxstreamer238 before I took duloxetine which is an snri I actually was able to clearly image things perfectly and I used it for my writing career quite often... Afterwards now it's hard to maintain an image I was able to actually like create spaces and move about them while they held firm just like real life or more like a video game being able to have a free camera. Now they Mitch's kind of fade and flickering are hard to maintain and it's extremely frustrating I miss my ability to just come up with entire other worlds and go into them.
Yes!!! Since months now I’m actually really devastated some times thinking about it. Life can still be beautiful, but how sad I can’t remember beautiful views and faces I love. I definitely feel with you ❤️
Every time I learn something new about this condition it explains more and more things about myself and the way I experience the world. I had never connected my aphantasia to the fact that I couldn't remember what people had worn previously - I just assumed I didn't care about fashion and clothing choices as much as they did! I can't wait for more studies to be done on this condition - I hope they can learn even more about the strengths we aphants possess that we can leverage to our advantage to make up for some of the areas we are missing out on.
Wow that’s a trait I have too and I assumed the same thing that it was just a lack of interest in the material aspect of what a person had. But no, I just couldn’t picture it later lol
I’m a digital beginning cartoonist/artist with aphantasia and my friends keep asking me how do I know what do draw...it’s hard to explain I think in ideas, and facts rather than images😂😂
Not having an emotional connection to past experiences is not part of aphantasia. But the broader experience is very similar for me. I was 55 when I discovered that other people could see images in their head. Its a breathtaking, profound realization.
I thought "imagine in your mind" was a figure of speech. I enjoy guided mediation but always thought to myself "why do they go into so much detail when you can't actually see it. They should include pictures of the images they want us to "see/imagine" Guess I'm a dumb dumb. I just didn't know! I guess or assumed that I think like everyone and everyone thinks like me. Mind blowing to discover we don't. I do have an inner monologue but NO IMAGES. Zero. People may say something like "image a box. It can get bigger or smaller, it can float, turn, come closer, or go further away" and I JUST CAN'T. There's nothing there! I know what a box looks like, and so on but there is NO image in my head. Another thing is the only time I visualize is when I dream. My dreams are in vivid colors, and details. I'm just now realizing that's probably the reason I remember them so well. To see them makes it so real but unfortunately when I'm awake I cannot conjure up anything. Lastly, I'm so jealous of everyone with a mind's eye. I feel almost cheated by nature or less evolved in some way. I'd love to see images, or watch memories. Those lucky duckers! Lol Maybe someone can explain this to me; Why is Aphantasia called a condition?
You hit the nail on the head. i have such difficulty imagining things, especially when being retarded story or listening to guided sleep meditation. I am very similar to you that I only visualize when I dream, and with that being said I have some pretty crazy eccentric dreams so I think it’s quite a juxtaposition how I cannot visualize with my mind, but when it enters a deep sleep I could sometimes have three dreams a night.
@daisy belle I would think aphantasia makes it easier to meditate since the goal of meditation is to clear the mind of thought. I struggle to meditate because thoughts and pictures continuously go through my mind. I find ppl with aphantasia fascinating since I am at the other end of the spectrum. To me you guys have a superpower I wish I had.
Yeah, exactly. I would hear things like "imagine yourself on a sandy beach. Imagine the waves. Imagine a drink by your side." All this stuff. I never got the point. I also used to wonder what the point was of so much description in books. I never knew why it mattered.
Captain Frosty for me, meditation is excruciatingly difficult, my mind has to conciously "build my thoughts" or "describe the scene" I'm being told to visualise, I can't just magically have the image of a beach appear In my mind, I can't see the bloody waves crashing on sand or imagine a crackling fireplace, i can not see purple smoke drifting from a crystal ball, I'm sat there trying to "draw the scene " in my mind, or piece together what few memories i have from similair experiences and kinda just guess what that guided meditation experience "/would/ look like right now" if I were /actually/ seeing what was being said to me 😂. It's super frustrating, and exhausting, and I prefer full body scans because i can acrually think about how it feels in different parts of my body without needing to visualise it, I can feel my toes or my heart beat or my hair growing but I can't for the life of me imagine what a red apple looks like 😂🥳
I have to ask people if I've met them before so I don't repeat introductory questions. I don't have any facial recognition until I've interacted with a person several times. Schools need to educate teachers to be aware of why some students may not excell at mental imagery tasks.
Michael Mcdonald agreed this is a huge thing for me, i always did really well at assignments and papers and failed tests, especially ones with diagrams on them. I couldn’t figure out how studying worked, so I stopped studying, and then I blamed my bad grades on the fact that I didn’t study, but truth is study or not study I did the same grades. It is a small learning disability and it can really suck to realize it as an adult that you just learn different than other people. I want this to be more publicly understood and more aware because teachers could recognize this in kids and help them study the same way a teacher would hopefully recognize dyslexia.
Absolutely. There are so many modes of mental operation that teachers need to be aware of and trained to recognize, but not just teachers...parents and families even.
This is actually another condition called prosopagnosia, which is an inability to recognize faces. This is not the same as not being able to picture things in your mind's eye. I also have a degree of prosopagnosia and topographical agnosia, where I can't recognize places, even if I've been there before, and I can't remember how to get from A to B until I have done a trip dozens of times, and even then, if I don't do that trip for six months, I completely forget and have to start from scratch.
That has nothing to do with aphantasia. What you described is called Prosopagnosia. I have zero problems being able to recognize people. I just can't imagine them in my head. No picture or image shows up. But I can still describe what they look like.
I have no trouble with this at all despite having no visual memory, in the real world everything clicks into place but in my mind peoples faces I haven't seen in a long time become blurry and vanish, not that I can see them at all anyway but the Memory of last time I saw them is gone, hard to explain
OMG, I never knew there was a word for this and everyone has always told me that I was crazy when I would tell them I have no imagination. This is life-changing, I told my therapist that I just did not recall things that happened to me if I imagined them and that I would just forget the past as long as I could remember and she told me that it was just not interesting enough for me to remember. Thank you for giving this a name for me1
It is not about remembering, it is about imagining. Those are two different things. Let's say, I have never been in the amazon forest but I can imagine myself in it, from ground level. And I can describe what I see in perfect details. I can also draw it if I want to. That is imagination....You on the other hand might be suffering from dementia if you don't remember most of the stuff that happened to you. Or maybe they were simply not interesting enough for your brain to keep. I am somewhat similar to you. I can imagine things in perfect detail but cannot remember most of the moments that I have been in. It is quite weird
I am unable to picture things in my head, I cannot imagine sound, taste or smell, I can no recall ability, if I try and think of what a dog sounds like, I just hear my own voice say woof or bark - the actual word is said in my brain.
times N not really, usually I know how I should feel about something, logically, like if I think about something sad that happened I know I should feel sad, but I don’t, mostly i can feel a nostalgic feeling wishing I could feel what I know I felt in different moments.
@@samantharose2971 that's very new to me. You and Tom not having the ability to recall with an emotional connection is not a particular attribute/quality of Aphantasia. And to me is really shocking. I apologize if i am being too upfront about this. I just couldnt help but hear Tom mention no emotional recall connection to his inner thoughts.
times N with no visual or auditory connection I think it would be difficult to create an emotional connection. Like he said were not reliving any moments. Memories are more like stories that was once read or told to us, I can feel certain ways about a story, I can feel happy about a happy story etc but there’s no strong emotional connection. I hope this makes sense.
I found out about four or five months ago I had aphantasia on a random RUclips recommendation. I thought all my life, "picture this" was a metaphor. It took me about a month til I finally asked my boyfriend if he saw things in his head while we were vacationing. I asked him to describe how he sees things, what it's like, etc. I can't believe I've spent quite nearly 30 years as an artist and can't picture my own work before I create it. In any case, if there's someone who needs people in America (or just accept people in America online) as like a test subject if you will, I'm so very wanting to help figure out what all of this is and how it works. This absolutely fascinates me the more I learn about it and see the correlations in my own life, and to learn how it works for people that can see things in their head.
Could this be why I can't do mental math. I can't seem to hold the numbers in my head but give me a piece of paper I do just fine. I also have problems with visually arranging a room. I have to actually move the furniture around. I can't think of what to wear because I have to put the clothes on and look in the mirror first . Spell check has been a godsend . This is starting to make sense. I did well in school except in math and art. Crazy!
I have been going down the Aphantasia internet rabbit hole obsessively the last few days. I am so baffled like many others to find out that people can ACTUALLY VISUALIZE IMAGES!? I always thought that was a figure of speech... And when people would ask me to imagine something I would just recall what it is and know what it is but not actually see it... I thought that was what everyone did. I cannot visualize anything. Blackness. No matter how hard I try! ... Well that is unless I am dreaming. I have seen many comments about those with Aphantasia still able to dream... That is what led me to believe that I might have a Aphantasia in the first place. The realization that the vivid images I see in my dreams are what people can conjure up in their minds consciously. I am gonna need some processing time.
I find it interesting that you don’t have an emotion attachment to you memories. I can’t picture things in my head, but I have a lot of emotional reaction to memories. Even though I couldn’t picture it I would be able to tell you that the girl had the same clothes on. So interesting how aphantasia effects is differently
This is another subset of total aphatasia called Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory (SDAM). They've done fMRI scans of brains and sensory recall and imagination comes from the same region. Whether visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, tactile, kinesthetic, emotion. And many even extends to dreams. I won the lottery and have all. The aphantasia network has some good research on SDAM along with total aphantasia. It's basically the same thing. While aphantasia is on a spectrum, some people only lack visual sensory experiences. But others lack all.
I'm 51 and just learned about this. I never knew people could see "images" like they were looking at a photo. When I close my eyes, I see the inside of my eyelids and that's it. My parents are rapidly approaching the end of their lives and it's tearing me apart that I won't be able to remember them because I can't now, but I can still talk to them and see a picture and think of them. I always wondered why I didn't get homesick when I moved out of country to be with my husband.
I have Aphantasia... but I can file my memories via smell, words, and a sense of things ... like the ambiance of a scene or a person. My imagination or memories are fine, just not in picture form. I just use a different path to it in lieu of the minds eye. My brain uses main points like a bulletin point to file everyday things. I use the darkness when i close my eyes in two ways. One is a big warm blanket (not a picture of, rather a feeling) that feels safe. Two: The blackness is a doorway to wherever i want to go in life. Words mean a lot to me. I can't remember the details or faces of people, but i can remember how they made me feel. I can't remember verbal conversations unless it connects with an emotion or they touch me physically. But a written conversation i remember verbatim. I remember memories but not in pictures more data. I detach ... they become a record only of the facts that have happened and the associated ambience. Very very difficult to explain. I do disagree now, upon reflection, with the comments below, I DO make a good and reliable witness because I don't have an image to manipulate, I store cold hard facts, especially if it's in word form. Doesn't mean I don't care ... my empathy for others is profound, but in the moment. I love to draw, but I do not have the ability to compose a scene or manipulate an image into something artistic. But i can copy photos. I enjoy the feeling drawing gives me, but I don't remember the images I draw, but I know I've drawn them. This is a revelation to many, but it's a good thing if you can train yourself to use a different path to your memory base. I love being me now, because I understand me .... others probably don't but I can't change that. I am me and I am unique and I love life.
Over the years I've noticed while driving new sections of road in countryside. That I would listen to recordings of lectures, podcasts, or music although the images not really visible in my mind at the time. But later could be many years travel down some of those same roads and I hear that story or podcast again in my head. Sometimes it'll be so specific that I know exactly what portion of a song was playing while I drove that section of road.
This is amazing! I'm 27 years old and always wondered how the hell someone can draw a picture of something from memory. I have always been so bad at drawing because I struggled to visualise anything, and anything I visualise would always be incredibly cloudy, blurry and vague. Now I have a name for the problem. Thanks for this video
Bach Photography yes! It was always so frustrating to me in elementary and middle school when I had art class and I could never excel like I did other things and everyone acted like it was ridiculous how bad I was😂
this is interesting because i am an artist with aphantasia and i can draw stuff off the top of my head anytime. i like to draw characters and im pretty accurate when redrawing them without reference, though i gotta say it mostly only applies to characters ive designed myself. coming up with poses isnt a difficult process for me either, i know techniques like the line of action and what shapes to use when constructing the human body. its just a big puzzle to me. i guess i just "know" things and subconsciously connect the dots
Yesterday I was on tiktok where a girl talked about it, I realized people actually saw things, I only think the thoughts. I didn't know it was a real picture in the mind and now I'm trying to figure this out more to understand why im like this. I loved your video it really helped
My wife thought I was adorable as I always 'listened' to what she was saying. Smalltalk never interested me, neither does cosmetic surgery nor fashion. I prefer to consider myself as Zen, not too worried about future nor past. University of Sydney is currently researching Aphantasia for a more academic perspective
I also just found out about this via Tik Tok! (Yesterday actually, 28 march) And i was like... hey, thats Odd bc when i reaearched it a bit more here on RUclips I think I might have it, but I’m not gonna self diagnose
Britney Pennington Yes this is the reason I’m going crazy, I study art and I just thought it was crazy people could just think of something and draw it exactly the same, funny thing is, I thought imagining this mean, thing of what might happened or did happen and the voice in my head would guide me through, but no I’m just weird
@VoidVector the trauma was more from not understanding how other experience the world and people not accepting that we experience the world slightly different. I see nothing at all and use a sequence of events or check off lists when remembering things. Try being a kid in math class during a test where scrap paper is not allowed and you can't even picture the problem in your head to solve the equation. Then the teachers assume you are just stupid or something. All at the same time you don't even know something is wrong because you only have your own perspective of the world.
@@danielamunoz6126. Just because we can picture things it doesn't mean we can draw that mental image exactly the same though. I can picture images and scenes as clear as photos or videos but I find drawing frustrating because I don't have the skills /talent to draw what I've visualized, the result is always very disappointing compared with my mental image
I’ve been trying to do guided meditation and just cannot- even as a child I could never “picture” or “imagine” anything in my mind! I literally thought something is clearly wrong! But this video makes me feel much better that I’m not the only one!!
Today was the first day that I realised I wasn't alone. I wasn't aware that it was a condition and it was called, aphantasia. Completely relate to this video and feel over the moon. Welcome everyone who experiences the world differently
Not alone at all! In this video, he calls the condition "rare", but as I've been watching many videos on the subject and reading the comments it seems that there are many, many people who think in this manner.
Fascinating! This prompted a new thought in my head: if something works in a certain way, there can be a way in which it doesn't work, such as the subject of this video. The brain still has mysteries to be found.
@@stanprogressstanyang different isn't necessarily defective, maybe there's a reason why not everyone has it, maybe there's an advantage of some kind for certain activities
@@phosphenevision , sure, that's true too! -- but defectiveness is also something that happens. so, if some people are born without fingers (just to give a really surface example), then _maybe_ there's some evolutionary reason for that, but of course there doesn't need to be. -- and i didn't mean to imply that aphantasia is necessarily a defect. whatever the case though, i think we probably all have one defect or another. a person might not have aphantasia, or might be born with all 10 fingers, but just think of how many things there are (not just for the brain, but the entire body) that need to be certain ways in order for things to work. chances are no given individual got lucky in every single respect. so we're probably all defective, just not always with some fancy latinate name to label ourselves with.
Cool, but I'd point out as an Aphant myself, that the idea we generally don't have emotions tied to our memories is a bit misleading. A lot of us do find we experience less intensity on that front without the sensory element of memory, we don't tend to 'relive' things as much. But while I can't see it or for that matter taste food in my memory, i well remember bad meals!! Also breakups, especially when I was younger, were pretty rough! I may have been helped in getting over them by having less visual and sensory recall of my exes, but some of the bad ones took me months to get over so it's not really a given. I do suspect we have an edge with things like PTSD, but even there i've had some intense traumatic experiences that took me a good year or so to recover from. Aphantasia is very much a spectrum thing, for many it's not a handicap at all, just a different way of living in the world. Others have more profound memory deficits that aphantasia is just one part of, there's a high instance of SDAM, Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory. But it would be important not to assume if you know someone with Aphantasia, exactly what their experience is without asking.
I agree. There are multiple levels of continuum’s or sliding scales. I do feel emotions but they aren’t tied to a visual. I can remember faces and voices and details like what someone wore a year ago because my mind files all the details like attributes.
I also find I've no problem remembering faces or voices though I see or hear neither in memory, names though are a problem for me but that's a seperate issue i think. I'm dyslexic and have transient anomic aphasia as well.
Thats exactly what i was thinking. Tom in this video says he has. (Minus -) Imagery (Minus -) Emotions associated (Positve +) conceptual Idea. Me - Imagery + Emotions Associated tho + Conceptual Idea
I'm confused because sometimes this happens when I close my eyes, but only sometimes. I can imagine some things for a split second, but then they get all distorted and lose shape. It only happens to me rarely though.
I have aphantasia as well. I'm 30 and found out I was different than most in that way at 29. It took me awhile of "You can't really see in your mind...?" to realize, others actually could and they weren't just being overly-literal and I was the one that was different. I've come to love having aphantasia. Sure it has it's cons but it also has it's pros and it's the only way i've ever known. I guess it would be different for someone who could visualize and then lost that ability but for me I don't ever remember being able to visualize. And my husband who can visualize tells me it isn't all it's cracked up to be, with bad memories. It's odd for me to think about dreaming now though. I dream vividly. All the senses. I've even felt physical pain in my dreams. Sound, color, emotions, all of it as vivid as waking life. But awake I have nothing. I thought for 29 years everyone else was the same. Now I realize people can have that in their minds when awake...and that's normal? It's mind blowing!
I think it is natural to wish for that what we don't have but I think you are wise to love your condition. I think it helps keep me in the moment instead of dwelling on the past or thinking to much about the future.
Fleeting pictureless thoughts/conversations that are gone as quickly as they occur. That's my dreams. I don't remember any of them. I can hum the next few notes of pretty much any song. Quote the next word of a play/movie. Tell if someone is lying. But absolutely can't create an image of anything in my head. Period. Fish gotta swim, monkey gotta climb :)
I would trade anything in the world for the ability to visualize, I don't feel human like this, i am missing part of what it means to be a human, I feel like I can lose myself super easy like this.
I think dreams are more vivid than awake imagery, visualizing a lot of different things happening requires concentration, dreams can be really complex and vivid without any voluntary effort. I think I have a pretty high visualizing ability, I'll sometimes have still images pop in very vividly, but I don't play a whole movie in my head unless I'm only concentrating on it, and it's still not as detailed as a vivid dream. I sometimes just listen to music and imagine stories to it, plan out whole music videos visually, I'm an artist so I can draw some inspiration from these moments, but I'll also draw without visualizing any particular thing and just experiment on the page. It can be very counterproductive if I let myself just daydream instead of actually doing things and experimenting, as things don't often turn out the way I visualize them, which can be very frustrating.
@@simfimpim What's the difference? People say to close your eyes and imagine *insert whatever*, yet I can't see nothing or imagine, whatever. I literally just see blackness when my eyes are closed and when open, I see what my eyes see. Imagining something is seeing something that isn't physically there. Some people it is so vivid that it seems very real. I don't get anything. I can try all I want, like trying to see a red apple. Nothing. I know that it's kinda roundish and when I see the color red, I know what it is. I can't "see" what so ever without it physically being in front of me. Also, definition number 2C of see is to form a mental picture. Soooooooo. Seeing and imaging is the same thing very much depending on the context. To which, Tyler used the correct context.
Check his aphantasia network on the website/patreon, the /r/aphantasia subreddit, the "Imagine That!" aphantasia podcast. You're not alone! It's difficult to process but all of us with the condition are feeling the same way.
The University of Sydney (Australia) is looking at Aphantasia. I think they're the only academic body doing so, at the moment. We are academically invisible to date. Neither Dr's, teachers nor philosophers writ large know where/how we could possibly exist, but we clearly do. I wonder, are there enough of 'us' to require 'awareness' in the wider community? Indigenous peoples are approx 2% in my country, so are Aphants.
@@cozy_ for me it's difficult to process because it explains so many things I didn't understand about myself and my life prior to learning about this. It makes so much sense, but I didn't even know this existed because it's my norm.
I am just a few days into knowing this term, and realizing that it is and always has been a significant aspect of my experience. I am and have been reflecting on all the phrases and advice from a lifetime that never made sense. Support tools design for students who can visualize the aids they're trying to memorize. Support tools for depression that focus on visualization techniques. Traditional advice on how to go to sleep, that focuses on visualization techniques. Feeling embarrassed to admit that no you don't remember what your child's birth look like, but you do remember it happening and the emotions of the event. I know I was scared because the doctors were worried about my wife bleeding but it don't remember what that looked like. I wish I could turn off my internal monologue and just relax visualizing a calm image, but closing my eyes leaves only black and the residuals of light effects on my rods and cones. When I close my eyes I have a brief static image of what I was last looking at that fades away. Much like the image on a CRT television. Like spots in your eyes from seeing a bright light. The image follows the direction my eyeballs point, and the duration is proportional to the intensity of the lighting and duration of exposure and is negative in lighting effect. Essentially my only perception of visualization with my eyes closed results from my physical eye not my mental eye. When I think of something, in my mind it is in the foreground, center of my attention. I don't actually see anything so I've never felt a need to close my eyes to envision a solution. Essentially problem solving by intuition and experience without rendering an image in my mind.
For years I’ve only been able to see pictures in my mind right before sleep, as far as my awake mind is concerned. I know I see (usually non colorful) images as I dream, but I recall dreams more in terms of emotions and somehow, there being this sixth sense/knowing of what is happening in dreams when I can’t see them.
I read that they estimate 1% of the population has this but I think it's way more. It bugs me that they call it a condition because it's just a difference in the way our brains work. I have a very vivid imagination and a strong memory. Maybe there are degrees of severity or something because I have no problem remembering an outfit. I just don't do it as a picture in my head I do it as a knowing.
Thank you for that explanation. I’m 76 and just discovering what I’m missing. Friends have been asking me questions about how I think if I don’t see pictures. A knowing. That’s exactly right.
Not sure why some people are upset about not having the ability to 'see'. Nothing's changed for you since finding out so what is there to be sorry about. We process in different ways. We don't 'see' things. Is this a case of the fear of missing out? I don't feel any different, other than I now know that other people just 'see' things differently than I can. Maybe it's a gift rather than a disability. Put a smile on your dial guys and be happy you can see at all.
I’m the same as you except I have STRONG emotions tied to memories. I can feel energy very easily and that’s what I remember, not anything visual but the feeling associated with the memory
I’m literally just figuring out this a thing lol. I had no idea that people possessed the ability to legitimately visualize things. If I’m thinking of something, I CAN evoke an image of sorts, but it’s extremely vague and feels very far removed from myself- I guess the best way I could describe it would be that it feels like the fleeting remnants of a dream that you can just barely remember. It’s as if it’s there, but just beyond my reach. I figured that this was the case for everyone else, too. It’s strange because if I close my eyes I see nothing but black, but I can “see” glimpses of the thing in a far-off realm. Sound is very much the same way. I guess that explains my fascination and borderline obsession with making music; I’m on a constant quest to physically manifest the sounds that are ever-dancing around my head, yet ever so slightly unobtainable. It’s torturous in ways- and so frustrating that I’m not entirely capable of bringing it to fruition yet- but the journey towards being able to fully express my inner-workings (and, in essence, my soul) has also been incredibly rewarding. I’m not quite there yet, but the vision is becoming more and more clear as I continue to trudge along. My only hope in life is that I’ll live to realize the potential that I know exists within me. I doubt anyone will actually read this lol; I mainly used this comment for some introspection. However, if anyone does happen to, feel free to lemme know if you can somehow relate! Dueces ✌🏼
This is so, so fascinating. I can't picture things in my head. Not one detail visually, no imagination. Yet I can recall sounds perfectly. I have a constant inner monologue, I have to put a concept together with the ideas of that concept (i.e an apple. an apple is a round, red fruit, but i have no visual of an apple, only the idea of an apple). I can also recall voices, songs, words, etc. In their exact voice, like there is a recorder in my head. It seems like aphantasia comes in multiple forms, or can be paired with multiple menta processes
Yup I can't imagine sounds either, and don't recall faces till I've met people many times, also get confused even with people I know if they change hairstyles or are in side profile
If asked to imagine An oak tree in a Meadow For example - In my memory I have the concepts of 'oak tree' and 'meadow' and a description of all i know of them. No picture, just the description and an 'idea/concept' (Like an 'object' in code that i can use. The objects properties are accessible but not apparent) I conceptualise the scene by thinking 'oak tree in meadow' If asked to add a boy under the tree, I would do so by adding to the description therefore, if then asked 'what colour is the boy wearing?', I couldn't just tell you from my mental image. I would have to first update my narrative to include such information. Eg. ' Boy in blue T-shirt sits under tree in Meadow This seems to put me into the aphantasic category I never knew there was an alternative. I have some trouble placing faces, and if I was asked to help a forensic artist draw someone I'd fail. I am tone deaf. Recognising a cars model is hard. I need to visit somewhere multiple times to learn directions. I would be fascinated to hear if any of these things are common to other Aphasiacs because I can see how they may be interrelated I did quite well academically and my iq is around 140 so I don't think I am negatively impacted by this condition.
Recently found I had aphantasia. The scariest thing is now realizing how poor my communication skills are/have been. Since I can’t “picture” how the person I’m talking to is thinking/feeling. So carrying a conversation is impossible.
I'm your complete opposite. I have a vivid visual/ photographic memory. I can remember crazy details about some people and marked events. My wild imagination exhausts me sometimes. I remember people's faces, looks, our discussions what they like... most of the time it is not reciprocated, even embarrassing to seem like "I care a lot" where it was unintentional.
I am curious to know if anyone who has this has ever been diagnosed with ADD? I am 49 and was diagnosed with ADD over 25 years ago, and explained a lot of my childhood. Now that I know I have this, I’m not sure that I have or have ever had ADD. I did extremely well in school, and never had to study even during college studying nursing. I tended to get in trouble as a child when I was told to have quiet time. This is probably easy for someone who can daydream or visualize things, but very difficult when you can’t. I have been described sometimes as being “cold”, but I do have strong emotions about things I’m close to. I am glad I’m not the only one who thinks like this! I can also read a book and watch a movie simultaneously, and keep up with both. Trying to look for positives, since I feel like I’m really missing out!
I saw a random RUclips video on the subject about 6 months ago, I'm 50 and it does explain quite a lot, especially the ability to distance myself from negative memories, I still know it happened, but it's a lot easier then if i were picturing it as well, that said I that also means that I can't picture my children or set a visual goal to aim at.
I've always thought that during classes when the teacher would say imagine an island and people would describe there's in such perfect deatil that they were just explaining it and that no one could acctually imagine stuff. i can't even begin to fathom acctually visualizing things! it must be nice :)
Isaq, We have our strengths. I've worked in jobs requiring face to face interviews (welfare, taxation, policing) and I can 'hear' deception. In customers/clients and with colleagues. I'm 47 and had considered myself an "auditory processor". I've since realised that Aphants are a bit more special than that. We really do have alien thought process' to "normal" people. I've had career success where face to face interviews were part of my job as I could 'hear' deception (like a texture). Since discovering Aphantasia, I realised our learning style wasn't represented during my school years and subsequently have enrolled in teaching. We represent (approximately) 2% and our learning style is absolutely not catered for. Try learning chemistry where it's symbols (pictures) added to symbols (pictures). Find your strength and use it to your advantage.
I have vivid dreams in colour; I am an empath and feel my and others' emotions; I'm a musician and voice teacher and I know what my students are doing with their tongues, throats, abdomens, and larynxes without looking at them because I "feel" what they're doing in my body; I have a gift for communicating with animals. Alas, I have no ability to visual. Total darkness. I can't navigate. I can't rotate objects in my head. I read the same books every year and I don't recognize the story. When I read, I have no images in my mind, but I respond to emotions and connect up details in the book with other details I know. I don't remember films after I see them. I have a chainsaw in my hallway (because I've never put it away, haha) that I'm always surprised to see. I can't picture loved one's faces. I realize now (after finding out 3 days ago that I have aphantasia) that I navigate the world by language-ing everything, and also by remembering sounds. So I look at a phone number and can't "see" it afterwards, but if I say it, I can play back the sounds. I'm reevaluating my whole life's experience now that I know that I have aphantasia. I wish I could be chill about it, but I feel jealous of folks who can visualize. It would help so much in life to be able to do that.
seeing the phone number after you look at it oof my guy thats not how it works we cant remember things like that phone numbers have very complex and meaningless long line of shape so we memorize phone numbers by concept not image. but after we memorized it we can put the shape of numbers next to each other in our head. I dont know how it looks like to not recognize a story you have read before or not to imagine a scene of a movie you just watched one hour ago
I am confused about whether or not I have it. I can picture something and know what it would look like, or create an image from just words (such as when I'm reading). I can picture it pretty vividly, but I don't actually see anything. At least I think I don't. I'm not really sure, but I'm just really confused about this. Does anyone know what I'm talking about, or if I have aphantasia or not? Thank you so much. Edit: spelling
I think I understand what you mean, and I don’t think you have aphantasia at all. Visualization doesn’t mean you actually “see” things, like with your eyes, but you picture things in your mind and create images like you said. People do this to different degrees, some more vividly than others, but people with aphantasia can’t do this at all. Another article I read from an aphantasiac said that they can’t even picture a story when reading.
Lina Jesilow I have the same thing. If someone says imagine a red apple like yes I know what that looks like but I can’t see it like I can see a physical picture of an apple. Aphantasia is a spectrum and I think people like this are around a 5 on a scale of 1-10
i have just discovered i have aphantasia and i am so confused about it. the agony i feel when i try to picture things is huge. i have never realized i couldn’t do it until now and my mind is blown. i can’t remember the face of my grandpa who passed away last year but if i see a picture of him i know who he is. if i try to hear the voice of someone i know in my thoughts i just can’t. same for smells or tastes. i gotta say i feel weird but i am soooo confused by how people CAN do those things lol
I have visual memories of my mom bathing me as a baby and I'm 21. I remember the smell of my dad's cologne from childhood. Do you remember what you look like when you're not looking in a mirror?
Orange Blossom omg i wish i could do that as well and no iv tried to but without looking at the mirror or a picture nothing comes to my mind. it’s like i’m blind inside my head
Guys: you don’t have aphantasia just because you can’t close your eyes and see something like you’re looking at a screen. Picturing something is different than seeing it with your actual eyes. People with aphantasia can’t picture it. I seem to think there’s confusion in the comments and 600+ people think they have this when they probably don’t.
I only recently discovered I have aphantasia after a discussion with my partner then afterwards all of my family. I had no idea that people actually see things like a picture or a movie that they can control. All I see when I close my eyes and try to visualise is pure blackness but I dream vividly in full colour and I never ever forget a face even recently someone I briefly went to primary school with and had not seen for 30 years, I only saw a flash of half of their face in a crowd but knew instantly. There are advantages I think, I realised I don't really grieve over people I have lost as I don't 'see' them in my mind and if I'd gone through anything traumatic, I assume it wouldn't bother me as much as other people because I wouldn't be able to recall/re-live it at all. Not great at all to have aphantasia but a few possible benefits. I don't miss 'seeing' things because I have never been able to but it would be so cool to experience it
Just found out I have this...this is literally so weird to me that people can like actually picture things (the best I have as I can picture pictures... kinda) , I also have a severe case of misophoneia.
I’m 57 years old and my nurse daughter calls me today and says, dad can you picture an apple in your mind? I said yeah, I know what an apple looks like, she said no, do you see a picture of an apple? I said, like a Polaroid? Nobody does that. She said yes they do and you and I can’t. Twelve hours down the rabbit hole and I see I’m missing something I never knew anyone had. I don’t know how to feel. How can I have lived a half century and not know what everyone else sees in their mind? I feel cheated. I feel sad. My life has changed and so many things that were hard for me in my life, suddenly make sense. I’m not the same person I was this morning. Wow!
I have it too. I can’t imagine seeing things in my mind. How can you trust anything you see? What if you think it was real because you saw it in your mind? I don’t feel like it’s a bad thing, there are a lot of things I don’t want to visually relive. I hate guided meditation with visualization, but other than that I’m fine with it.
"What if you think it was real because you saw it in your mind?" - The minds eye visual is usually just a blur but still a pretty good recollection of the past or future. So it looks considerably different than what we currently see in the present with our actual eyes.
I always thought only a few percent actually really could see a picture or hear a song in their head. Now I finally understand that I am different than most other people. I always wondered how people could draw paintings out of their head. I thought by really practicing it a lot or maybe a unique gift. I was never able to jam with other musicians without trying what the wright tone would be. Although I can write own songs, I always need to hear the sounds first before I can compose and then I can be very creative. I only hear my innervoice sing the song, but I can not hear music at all in my mind. Colours or patterns from flags I have to learn in words. I can never remember faces of movie stars, actually I can not draw of describe my own face at all without seeing it, just recognize I did so many exercises to improve my memory, but only associations in words work. The result is that I have a innervoice whole day describing the things I see and think about, because I can not imagine sounds, pictures or smells. In dreams I sometimes can visualize vague images.
I have aphantasia too, one silver lining is that I have ptsd but it doesn't affect me as bad as some because I don't have visual flashbacks or other types of sensory flashbacks (no auditory, touch, smell etc. type playback), sights sounds and smells I encounter in a day can trigger emotional response but I have no instant replay so to speak.
I had a lady friend, perhaps 15 or so years ago, who told me, while we were on the phone, that she would know me when she saw me but couldn't tell me right then what I looked like. She said she couldn't see faces in her head. I thought it was an odd thing. I accepted it as a mental quirk of some kind, but she was a great friend, good person and an intelligent human being, so I paid it no attention. I'm not even sure if she told me it had a name.
I found out just last year that people see visually and was like wait what , you can. I was dumbfounded and felt stupid like I was alienated. I'm a photographer and I doodle with art . Although I can't visually see what I'm trying to make in my head I just know what it's supposed to look like and I usually aim towards that.
Have always been told that I see things differently. I tend to solve problems with a intuitive nature. I consider myself artistic, have invented and constructed a variety of things completely from my own imagination over the years. I'm never really sure if I'm done until it's there, because I know what I expected it to be or do from the start and now I have it. One of my favorite doodle exercises in my younger years was to simply draw a squiggly line, and follow it by a series of squiggly lines that were very close like a fingerprint but did not touch. Eventually like clouds in the sky my mind would see something growing from the image, and then I would start to manifest what my mind sensed and adjust as I went along. I never knew what the image was going to be, and sometimes it wasn't anything, but it was enough to focus on this detailed repetitive task that was so so soothing.
Sorry for my bad English (I’m italian) I can’t visualize memory images, but this doesn’t allow me to recreate the emotional atmosphere and feelings about the episode and to identify myself in the character of my narrations... he said that he can’t do that. I don’t think afantasia and empty emotions during narrations are necessary correlated, maybe it could dipende even by characteristics of his psychological functioning (?)
So recently i‘ve read an article about aphantasia. There was a group of scientists in 2015 who figured out two main types of aphantasia. First type: complete blindness (I think it was sth as “absolute Aphantasie” -was a German article) Second type: only able to “see” sth if someone is relaxed and doesn’t force their mind to create an image (willentliche Aphantasie)
I feel that due to black mind eye ,I am not able to think logics in mind ,require lots of trail and error with paper to solve anything..and only remember facts regarding my learning,I have to repeat learning freshly due to no image in brain of what wli learn ..and felt bit hard to know even unable to imagine simple my kids face also..any one overcome this same issues ..how your tackling this facts in day to day life .
I really enjoyed these random sound effects throughout the video. As someone with aphantasia I found them to be a good replacement for my lack of imagination. They helped accentuate the information as a kind of audio feedback to fill the otherwise blank and empty space that is my head and it's logical processes.
That's so funny. I just told my son that counting sheep meant literally counting one sheep, two sheep, and so on. I see no sheep jumping as he described it to me.
I just search "how to picture thing in your mind", this show out as first result, and now I just know that I have aphantasia. I think it is normal for people to not able to see things in their mind. I can see things when I dream though.
@@mikesmithz I'm not sure that I have aphantasia or not, I didn't get any check from doctor or something. When I think of something it is like I know what it will look like but not able to see image in my brain. I can imagine what purple whale do a backflip will look like but I can't see the in my brain.
I know I USED to be able to visualize things. I have no idea when it stopped. This video describes what I experience closet than anything I have come across before. It's 85% spot on
if you used to be able to do it, then at least you know that you weren't born without that part of your brain working or something like that., and if you have no idea when it stopped, then that might indicate that you just kinda stopped using it. (i'm guessing that a person who was in the habit of using their mind's eye regularly would notice if they one day suddenly lost the ability. so if you didn't even notice its disappearance, then it sounds like you weren't using it very much.) maybe it's like a muscle then, that can atrophy if not used. can you not start small and maybe retrain your brain to be able to do this again?
@@stanprogressstanyang hey sorry for a year late reply. Yeah I have tried. The weird thing is the harder I try the less it works. And or the flip side the opposite is true: When I'm NOT trying to visualize I CAN see an image for a very very very brief moment.
@@yungberlo5279 last time I did any research on this (which was probably a year ago when I made the original comment) studies showed that most cases were linked to a blow to the BACK of the head. I can remember two specific incidents where this happen to me. Both were to do with falling backwards. This was as a child. Not idea what age. And my awareness of my past abilities to visualize things was from that era. Probably was from one or both of those falls
This has been very helpful Tom. For years when I participated in personal development trainings that required visualization exercises all I saw was black, darkness. Even to this day it's the same. Does this prevent my dreams from manifesting because I can't participate in the full experience of seeing anything let along in color?
I Discovered I had this half a year ago and still have so much questions sometimes I feel so lame for knowing people can image for instance their past vacations and passed away loved ones and I can’t but I need to remind myself I lived without it before I only just know right now. If anyone knows a platform or something where I can talk to others I’d love to hear
I’m honestly somewhat sad I can’t experience this. I never realized most people could imagine things with their mind. I’ve always thought in ideas, descriptions and feelings.
Are you reading Q cards? I was aware I had it about 5 years ago. I tell people like this.....I have no idea what it's like to be heartbroken because the minute the other person is gone....everything about them is gone. I dont have cravings because you need to be able to imagine what food tastes and smells like. I dont remember the feeling of being younger than the 44 years of age I am right now. I dont remember my 21 year old daughter younger than she is now. In normal people. ...your memory and imagination work together to give you the sense of the past and its imagination only for the future. I can just remember in words only. There is absolutely no emotion to anything I'm not physically looking at. Its like a super power in one way like not remembering any kind of pain after the fact but it's a con when it comes to death. No matter how important someone is....when they die.....everything is gone. I cant remember what it was like to be with that person or hear their voice. Without photos....I wouldnt even know what I looked like younger than what I see in the mirror. My grandmother passed 4 years ago and I remember having to kind of pretend I was hurt over the phone when my mom told me. Now I can feel feelings when I'm directly looking at something emotional....I just dont have feeling after it's over. So I didnt feel anything when my mom said my grandmother died. I wouldve felt something when I saw her in the casket at the funeral but on my way from Houston to Texarkana TX my fuel pump went out so I missed the funeral and I never got to feel sadness for her because I didnt physically see her. That's my experience with this but I dont know any different. Oh and when I told my mom I was like this she said "That's probably why you never played with toys" I have no idea what it's like to ride an emotional rollercoaster. Seeing all the ups and downs of emotions people go through makes me never want to change anything
I'm not any kind of doctor or psychiatrist, but I feel like you probably have another condition along with Aphantasia. It sounds like you have a disconnect with emotions and memory, or your processing of emotions and memory is very short potentially so that you don't retain it? Just a thought. It's very interesting, thank you for sharing!
Your comment is exactly what I'm feeling right now, I'm being consumed with feeling that I'm not all human, I'm missing what it means to be human. I have no real memories at all, all my friends and family downplay it and I can't help but think about how they would feel in my position. .
I have it but my experience of remembering or imagning is quite different than his. I cannot see anything in picture format. I can relive moments to a degree if I chose to think back and pull the memory. I have emotions, physical sensations, sounds, smells, and if there was something of particular visual interest than I may recall it and describe it but I don't close my eyes and see it in my minds eye. That's just black, no matter how quiet or how focused I try but I know my visual sense of memory is not to the degree of others and it's quite hard to explain how I conjur the memory of something to describe how it looks if I haven't seen it in a long time but I can for some things. But no, I can't close my eyes and see a "red star" as one of the tests goes, or see my dead grandmother. I know what she looks like, I could pick her out of a lineup, I could try and describe her features but I don't close my eyes and see anything.
If you have aphantasia, no matter how old you are, you must try Image streaming exercises (for at least 10 minutes a day for at least 10, 20 days), it helped many people permanently fix aphantasia and it even helps people without aphantasia to improve their visualization further. If you have an eye condition like strabismus (like me) or convergence insufficiency, amblyopia and others that may also affect your aphantasia, then there's still chance, do vision therapy. Most eye doctors until recently thought that strabismus can't be fixed, but vision therapy can fix it and both image streaming and vision therapy work in the same way, by using brain's plasticity to reprogram it. I only started doing vision therapy recently, but I can say already that I have improvements with both my eyes (I used to alternate between my eyes, seeing things with one or the other, but never with both at the same time, now I can actually keep both images from both eyes for a longer time) and my mind's eye can give me somewhat better pictures (flashes of vague imagery that last longer, but still better than what I had before, which was blackness for most of the time) I could get images in my mind's eye my entire life, but they always lasted for 1 or 2 seconds at most and I couldn't manipulate them, I couldn't imagine an exact thing I want to and so on. When I finally got to imagine a flag that I wanted to imagine, it was the best feeling ever, even though it lasted for seconds, it still meant that I had some progress.
Fail. Really? I'm not trying hard enough? You may have good intentions but telling a person without legs that they're not trying hard enough to walk...
I don't have aphantasia... but I'm interested in it. And I thought I would just note that if you have aphantasia, the present day is the best time in human history to have it... because you're not really missing out. Computers are sort of an artificial imagination now. Throughout history, if you wanted to see a dragon blowing up an army or something... you would need to use your imagination. But today you can go watch a movie or photoshop it or whatever.
Now I get why I was so bored during 'Visualization sessions' in any random lesson in primary scrool. Because while most of people around me were having a 4k virtual reality experience, I was staring at a black hole while trying to attach the words to places teacher asked me to and remember all of those words that were mentiond. Cause I still see black just now my brain is in a tongue twister of random words.
Personally I think it's a strength in it own way . People with this can do better emotionally in some ways . They can move on faster from painful experiences because they aren't getting mental images . They don't suffer as much if they have a terrible experience that would cause PTSD.. Also they are mainly the people in scientific fields .
This makes me feel a lot better about things. I've always had this issue too. My mechanic dad always tell me to visualize all the pieces in the engine while working but I can't do that. Reading isn't fun for me because I can never see the world the author is creating, I can understand everything described but seeing it is a no. I'm auditory though. Maybe that's why I have such a strong draw to music? I've been playing for years and I can hear all the parts of a song in my head with good clarity on a good day. Anyways, this is exciting to know that I'm not the only person.
I don't feel like this is purely aphantasia. The absence of emotions is not something I see as related. I have plenty of emotions and memories related to past experiences. I just have no visual memory associated with events.
Visual memory must be separate from being able to see things in your mind's eye. If it wasn't, you wouldn't be able to recognize people or things. Also, since I know/remember what things look like, I can describe them without actually picturing them. As a writer with aphantasia, I do this all the time. Without being able to visualize, I can't give you every detail, but I can describe something enough that you'll know what I'm talking about. If I say, "A six-foot long, highly polished mahogany dining table," you should be able to know what I'm talking about if you know what each of those words mean. I've heard that aphantasics might have a kind of faulty wiring between the visual and visual memory part of the brain (located at the back of the head in the most primitive part of our brain) and the cerebral cortex (the newest part of human brains, located in the neocortex, and which deals with creativity, reason, problem solving, etc.).
@@mikesmithz Wow! That must make things difficult. Do you have to explain your condition to people? Yes, it IS difficult to describe aphantasia to other people. If they don't have it, they just can't wrap their heads around it. I like your metaphor of the optical illusion. I recently made a friend who has aphantasia and will share what you said with him.
Also there are degrees and the brain works by habit too I can't remember people's faces till I've met them many times and I find them interesting or important enough I also often get confused by side profiles or if someone changes their hair, even if I know them
I also have aphantasia. I do dream quite vividly though. If I try to explain how it is for me, I would have a mile long message. I do have a lot to say but it’s far too much for me to even try to condense it. I tried twice and had to delete. It was too long. I tend to go on and on. I’ll tell you about one thing: I’ve been working on writing a novel and until I learned about this, that it’s an actual condition, I couldn’t understand why my descriptions of my characters were almost nonexistent. I struggle with this terribly. No matter how hard I try, I cannot pull out a detailed enough description of people without being too bleak. At this time I’ve come to the point of creating my characters in the Sims. NO JOKE. And a house so that I have something to reference to. I can describe the scene and things going on like a movie , but if you ask me describe a person for a sketch artist I’d be of no help. And yet when I read over the text, I have a lot of context, but it’s lacking to me. My descriptions are emotional, physical and detailed. That is of the surroundings and context of the story and thoughts, but in trying to break down what these people look like, I cannot do it beyond hair, eye color and frame because I made those general decisions prior. But just like my drawings, I need a reference because without one I’m terrible. So in no way do I feel silly in using a game, but in this case a TOOL, to overcome my struggle. See what I mean about going on too long? Lol. And that up there is nothing. If you are truly interested in hearing more, please let me know. I’d love to participate is some kind of survey or study if you are still doing that. I keep discovering more and more unusual things about myself and aphantasia is just one of them.
That's what is so frustrating for me, because I have vivid visual dreams, so there is some part of my brain that can reproduce images that I am not actually seeing. So why can I only do it when I'm asleep and not when I'm awake?
So there is also different styles of aphantasia. As i can have images of memories. But i can’t just imagine an object infront of me. Like i can close my eyes and drive to my work. As its a memory in my mind. But i couldn’t imagine a random sheep on the road as it has never happend to me. And i don’t really know if i can see color in it. I asume i can but when i try to focus on it i just see black or when i do it with my eyes open but zoned out. I start seeing what is actualy infront of me instead of the memory.
Is it just me that finds it extremely annoying when others refer to Aphantasia as a condition? Maybe because the general assumption is that a condition means something wrong or something that can/may be cured or fixed. It's not a condition for me, it's normal! Sure, we are a small % subset of humans, making us abnormal, but we are not inferior or debilitated in ANY meaningful way. Maybe I am over-reacting 🤔
I have Aphantasia with SDAM. It’s just black in my mind’s eye. But if I see someone with the same clothes again, I often know and remember that it’s the same outfit even though not being able to visualise it. Same with a place I’ve been to as a child, if I come back as an adult I always know I’ve been there. Something about the angles and how everything lines up.
I thought everybody can't visualize image clearly, because all I see is black when I close my eyes. This is so fascinating.
Wait so u cant imagine lets say an apple if u want to?
It’s the same thing with me I can only think in words
Do you also not remember feelings associated with memories like the guy in the video said???
@@imaginarychip4916 In my brain an apple is a bunch of descriptions, so words basically. But a lot of it is intuitive. I don't actually think of the words to describe an apple in detail since it is so common and simple. I know it when I see it in real life, smell it, etc. Not a lot of thought goes into it. If I'm trying to imagine a person I care about there are a lot more words in my head to describe my connection and emotions towards them.
@@spring7643
Wow, thats weird i imagine in vivid photos and that seems weird to me , so would you say its like how a computer code works?
I was 57 years old when my wife told me that she can picture things in her mind. My immediate response was "That is just a figure of speech, nobody actually really pictures anything". I've lived 57 years having no idea that people really pictured images in their Mind's Eye. Oh, wait, what? That is why it's called the Mind's Eye! Wow! Mind blown.
It must be really wonderful to conjur up images in one's mind. I am so sad that I cannot do this (all I see is black, nothing but black). I cannot even picture a simple red dot!
By the way, something really odd: I dream, night after night, in vivid, beautiful, images full of colors. But only in my dreams - the moment I awake the images are gone.
**** Read further down this thread to see a list of seven surprising ways that aphantasia can impact one's life ****
Wow...
You're not alone!!
Not You I experience the same thing as him and for me it’s hard for me to remember the dream. I have to remember concepts and situations and things and people that were there and fill in the blanks, i also lucid dream often but when I awake I can never recall any exact details from the dream
My dreams are in black and white and not so vivid, often blurry
Same here! I remember with other senses though. This guy in the video however seem to not remember sound, feelings or smells! :o
just found out today that I have it, and I'm currently binging all the videos available about this topic
Me, too. Found out 2 days ago.
Me too
Do you also not remember feelings associated with memories like the guy in the video??
i too have it, i can imagine the shape of things without the colours, but can't connect to it, , no feelings come to my mind, when i think something, is that what u feel? it seems to me that i am someway in between.
I just found out Today ..can't believe it ,,,
I'm kinda depressed since I know that I have aphantasia I love imagining things and I never really noticed that I see nothing 🤷🏿♀️ and when I really wanted to see someones face in detail I couldn't see it I know how it looks but I can't actually see it. I feel like a part of my life is gone or just dont makes sense.
I feel the same way. I feel sad and cheated.
I feel cheated as well. Ughh I’m so sad right now
flip side, all I do all day is daydream and I can never get stuff done
You just have a different experience of life, and I'm sure there are upsides about it too.
People like us can usually not be hypnotised
Imagine having to describe a suspect to the police. I could never
I have actually had to describe what happened to the police before and luckily my cusion was their and saw the guy get hit by lighting to
I never used to understand how people were able to give such detailed descriptions of someone's face.
Could you describe someone you love? I don't see images but I "know" what they look like.
You must have memory pictures - try to see them with your eyes open, not closed. It is like having a mental photo album, that you can go trough. I can - unless I did not concentrate and have no memory stored. Then I would not have any idea, how the person looked like
This has always been my worst fear!! Luckily now I know I have an excuse lmao
I'm 73. It wasn't until about 2 years ago that I discovered this about myself. It doesn't matter to me one bit, since I've never known any other way....but it is fantastically interesting. :)
I just found out about this a few months ago myself and I am 31. I can't remember jack sense wise and I was born without a sense of smell. Which, when I tell people that, they are baffled. "So you don't know what flowers smell like." or anything else that I guess smell good. But I have also seen people get physically ill from smelling bad soooooo. Screw that. I am not missing anything! lol I would rather not know what things smell like. I think the bad out weights the good. And of course, how can you miss something you have never experienced as you said. But, it is indeed interesting just to know random useless information.
Does anyone else feel this..feeling of extreme frustration because you feel like you're missing a huge part of living that everyone else has?
Its not like a clear image in you head anyways you are not missing much
@@fxstreamer238 so I don’t have it I got scared. Even tho I day dream and think a lot
yes. i would love to be able to picture stuff. i have never EVER seen anything while being awake. i think in words. i bet this is why memorizing stuff is harder for me
@@fxstreamer238 before I took duloxetine which is an snri I actually was able to clearly image things perfectly and I used it for my writing career quite often...
Afterwards now it's hard to maintain an image I was able to actually like create spaces and move about them while they held firm just like real life or more like a video game being able to have a free camera.
Now they Mitch's kind of fade and flickering are hard to maintain and it's extremely frustrating I miss my ability to just come up with entire other worlds and go into them.
Yes!!! Since months now I’m actually really devastated some times thinking about it. Life can still be beautiful, but how sad I can’t remember beautiful views and faces I love. I definitely feel with you ❤️
Every time I learn something new about this condition it explains more and more things about myself and the way I experience the world. I had never connected my aphantasia to the fact that I couldn't remember what people had worn previously - I just assumed I didn't care about fashion and clothing choices as much as they did! I can't wait for more studies to be done on this condition - I hope they can learn even more about the strengths we aphants possess that we can leverage to our advantage to make up for some of the areas we are missing out on.
Wow that’s a trait I have too and I assumed the same thing that it was just a lack of interest in the material aspect of what a person had. But no, I just couldn’t picture it later lol
I can remember dresses my gf wore on many occasions clearly tho, it's just that it's not an image image
I’m a digital beginning cartoonist/artist with aphantasia and my friends keep asking me how do I know what do draw...it’s hard to explain I think in ideas, and facts rather than images😂😂
Not having an emotional connection to past experiences is not part of aphantasia. But the broader experience is very similar for me. I was 55 when I discovered that other people could see images in their head. Its a breathtaking, profound realization.
Yeah, I didn't relate to that part...
I was wondering about that too. Even though I have aphantasia, I do have emotional connection with my ideas and memories.
Remembering past events can certainly evoke feelings for me, but I think I have fewer memories in general than someone without aphantasia.
@@BadGirlFan 100% agree
I thought "imagine in your mind" was a figure of speech. I enjoy guided mediation but always thought to myself "why do they go into so much detail when you can't actually see it. They should include pictures of the images they want us to "see/imagine" Guess I'm a dumb dumb. I just didn't know! I guess or assumed that I think like everyone and everyone thinks like me. Mind blowing to discover we don't. I do have an inner monologue but NO IMAGES. Zero.
People may say something like "image a box. It can get bigger or smaller, it can float, turn, come closer, or go further away" and I JUST CAN'T. There's nothing there! I know what a box looks like, and so on but there is NO image in my head.
Another thing is the only time I visualize is when I dream. My dreams are in vivid colors, and details. I'm just now realizing that's probably the reason I remember them so well. To see them makes it so real but unfortunately when I'm awake I cannot conjure up anything.
Lastly, I'm so jealous of everyone with a mind's eye. I feel almost cheated by nature or less evolved in some way. I'd love to see images, or watch memories. Those lucky duckers! Lol
Maybe someone can explain this to me;
Why is Aphantasia called a condition?
You hit the nail on the head. i have such difficulty imagining things, especially when being retarded story or listening to guided sleep meditation. I am very similar to you that I only visualize when I dream, and with that being said I have some pretty crazy eccentric dreams so I think it’s quite a juxtaposition how I cannot visualize with my mind, but when it enters a deep sleep I could sometimes have three dreams a night.
@daisy belle I would think aphantasia makes it easier to meditate since the goal of meditation is to clear the mind of thought. I struggle to meditate because thoughts and pictures continuously go through my mind. I find ppl with aphantasia fascinating since I am at the other end of the spectrum. To me you guys have a superpower I wish I had.
Yeah, exactly. I would hear things like "imagine yourself on a sandy beach. Imagine the waves. Imagine a drink by your side." All this stuff. I never got the point. I also used to wonder what the point was of so much description in books. I never knew why it mattered.
Captain Frosty and we feel the same way - you seeing things is a gift we just don’t have. 🥺
Captain Frosty for me, meditation is excruciatingly difficult, my mind has to conciously "build my thoughts" or "describe the scene" I'm being told to visualise, I can't just magically have the image of a beach appear In my mind, I can't see the bloody waves crashing on sand or imagine a crackling fireplace, i can not see purple smoke drifting from a crystal ball, I'm sat there trying to "draw the scene " in my mind, or piece together what few memories i have from similair experiences and kinda just guess what that guided meditation experience
"/would/ look like right now" if I were
/actually/ seeing what was being said to me 😂.
It's super frustrating, and exhausting, and I prefer full body scans because i can acrually think about how it feels in different parts of my body without needing to visualise it, I can feel my toes or my heart beat or my hair growing but I can't for the life of me imagine what a red apple looks like 😂🥳
I have to ask people if I've met them before so I don't repeat introductory questions. I don't have any facial recognition until I've interacted with a person several times. Schools need to educate teachers to be aware of why some students may not excell at mental imagery tasks.
Michael Mcdonald agreed this is a huge thing for me, i always did really well at assignments and papers and failed tests, especially ones with diagrams on them. I couldn’t figure out how studying worked, so I stopped studying, and then I blamed my bad grades on the fact that I didn’t study, but truth is study or not study I did the same grades. It is a small learning disability and it can really suck to realize it as an adult that you just learn different than other people. I want this to be more publicly understood and more aware because teachers could recognize this in kids and help them study the same way a teacher would hopefully recognize dyslexia.
Absolutely. There are so many modes of mental operation that teachers need to be aware of and trained to recognize, but not just teachers...parents and families even.
This is actually another condition called prosopagnosia, which is an inability to recognize faces. This is not the same as not being able to picture things in your mind's eye. I also have a degree of prosopagnosia and topographical agnosia, where I can't recognize places, even if I've been there before, and I can't remember how to get from A to B until I have done a trip dozens of times, and even then, if I don't do that trip for six months, I completely forget and have to start from scratch.
That has nothing to do with aphantasia. What you described is called Prosopagnosia. I have zero problems being able to recognize people. I just can't imagine them in my head. No picture or image shows up. But I can still describe what they look like.
I have no trouble with this at all despite having no visual memory, in the real world everything clicks into place but in my mind peoples faces I haven't seen in a long time become blurry and vanish, not that I can see them at all anyway but the Memory of last time I saw them is gone, hard to explain
OMG, I never knew there was a word for this and everyone has always told me that I was crazy when I would tell them I have no imagination. This is life-changing, I told my therapist that I just did not recall things that happened to me if I imagined them and that I would just forget the past as long as I could remember and she told me that it was just not interesting enough for me to remember. Thank you for giving this a name for me1
It is not about remembering, it is about imagining. Those are two different things. Let's say, I have never been in the amazon forest but I can imagine myself in it, from ground level. And I can describe what I see in perfect details. I can also draw it if I want to. That is imagination....You on the other hand might be suffering from dementia if you don't remember most of the stuff that happened to you. Or maybe they were simply not interesting enough for your brain to keep. I am somewhat similar to you. I can imagine things in perfect detail but cannot remember most of the moments that I have been in. It is quite weird
I am unable to picture things in my head, I cannot imagine sound, taste or smell, I can no recall ability, if I try and think of what a dog sounds like, I just hear my own voice say woof or bark - the actual word is said in my brain.
Ditto
But do you have an emotional connection to your inner monologue regarding past things?
times N not really, usually I know how I should feel about something, logically, like if I think about something sad that happened I know I should feel sad, but I don’t, mostly i can feel a nostalgic feeling wishing I could feel what I know I felt in different moments.
@@samantharose2971 that's very new to me. You and Tom not having the ability to recall with an emotional connection is not a particular attribute/quality of Aphantasia. And to me is really shocking. I apologize if i am being too upfront about this. I just couldnt help but hear Tom mention no emotional recall connection to his inner thoughts.
times N with no visual or auditory connection I think it would be difficult to create an emotional connection. Like he said were not reliving any moments. Memories are more like stories that was once read or told to us, I can feel certain ways about a story, I can feel happy about a happy story etc but there’s no strong emotional connection. I hope this makes sense.
Same. Just now finding out at the age of 52. I’m actually relieved because it explains so many things for me.
when i close my eyes, i can think back of the memory and try to remember how it looked but i cant see it
same i just see black but i can remember how it looks
@@zedstrox2698 yes! Very confusing. It's like I see it but not literally. I know that makes no sense but that's what it is.
I found out about four or five months ago I had aphantasia on a random RUclips recommendation. I thought all my life, "picture this" was a metaphor. It took me about a month til I finally asked my boyfriend if he saw things in his head while we were vacationing. I asked him to describe how he sees things, what it's like, etc. I can't believe I've spent quite nearly 30 years as an artist and can't picture my own work before I create it. In any case, if there's someone who needs people in America (or just accept people in America online) as like a test subject if you will, I'm so very wanting to help figure out what all of this is and how it works. This absolutely fascinates me the more I learn about it and see the correlations in my own life, and to learn how it works for people that can see things in their head.
Could this be why I can't do mental math. I can't seem to hold the numbers in my head but give me a piece of paper I do just fine. I also have problems with visually arranging a room. I have to actually move the furniture around. I can't think of what to wear because I have to put the clothes on and look in the mirror first . Spell check has been a godsend . This is starting to make sense. I did well in school except in math and art. Crazy!
Just discovered I had this and I actually do great in Art AND Math very crazy
Word problems are a no go tho, literally just breaks my brain
I have always been good in math, physics, and anything that requires logic. But didn't do well in art or anything that requires use or imagination.
@@henrygarcia1699 I’m good at still life and yk things that don’t take imagination 😂
i don't know, i believe I am pretty good at mental math and word recognition
I have been going down the Aphantasia internet rabbit hole obsessively the last few days. I am so baffled like many others to find out that people can ACTUALLY VISUALIZE IMAGES!? I always thought that was a figure of speech... And when people would ask me to imagine something I would just recall what it is and know what it is but not actually see it... I thought that was what everyone did. I cannot visualize anything. Blackness. No matter how hard I try! ... Well that is unless I am dreaming. I have seen many comments about those with Aphantasia still able to dream... That is what led me to believe that I might have a Aphantasia in the first place. The realization that the vivid images I see in my dreams are what people can conjure up in their minds consciously.
I am gonna need some processing time.
I find it interesting that you don’t have an emotion attachment to you memories. I can’t picture things in my head, but I have a lot of emotional reaction to memories. Even though I couldn’t picture it I would be able to tell you that the girl had the same clothes on. So interesting how aphantasia effects is differently
same
This is another subset of total aphatasia called Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory (SDAM). They've done fMRI scans of brains and sensory recall and imagination comes from the same region. Whether visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, tactile, kinesthetic, emotion. And many even extends to dreams. I won the lottery and have all. The aphantasia network has some good research on SDAM along with total aphantasia. It's basically the same thing. While aphantasia is on a spectrum, some people only lack visual sensory experiences. But others lack all.
@@AndreaBakacs interesting. I will have to look at that.
I'm 51 and just learned about this. I never knew people could see "images" like they were looking at a photo. When I close my eyes, I see the inside of my eyelids and that's it. My parents are rapidly approaching the end of their lives and it's tearing me apart that I won't be able to remember them because I can't now, but I can still talk to them and see a picture and think of them. I always wondered why I didn't get homesick when I moved out of country to be with my husband.
I have Aphantasia... but I can file my memories via smell, words, and a sense of things ... like the ambiance of a scene or a person. My imagination or memories are fine, just not in picture form. I just use a different path to it in lieu of the minds eye. My brain uses main points like a bulletin point to file everyday things. I use the darkness when i close my eyes in two ways. One is a big warm blanket (not a picture of, rather a feeling) that feels safe. Two: The blackness is a doorway to wherever i want to go in life. Words mean a lot to me. I can't remember the details or faces of people, but i can remember how they made me feel. I can't remember verbal conversations unless it connects with an emotion or they touch me physically. But a written conversation i remember verbatim. I remember memories but not in pictures more data. I detach ... they become a record only of the facts that have happened and the associated ambience. Very very difficult to explain.
I do disagree now, upon reflection, with the comments below, I DO make a good and reliable witness because I don't have an image to manipulate, I store cold hard facts, especially if it's in word form. Doesn't mean I don't care ... my empathy for others is profound, but in the moment.
I love to draw, but I do not have the ability to compose a scene or manipulate an image into something artistic. But i can copy photos. I enjoy the feeling drawing gives me, but I don't remember the images I draw, but I know I've drawn them.
This is a revelation to many, but it's a good thing if you can train yourself to use a different path to your memory base.
I love being me now, because I understand me .... others probably don't but I can't change that. I am me and I am unique and I love life.
Over the years I've noticed while driving new sections of road in countryside. That I would listen to recordings of lectures, podcasts, or music although the images not really visible in my mind at the time. But later could be many years travel down some of those same roads and I hear that story or podcast again in my head. Sometimes it'll be so specific that I know exactly what portion of a song was playing while I drove that section of road.
I've discovered that I have aphantasia yesterday. My mind is running crazy now that I know that people can actually see images in their mind. 😮
This is amazing! I'm 27 years old and always wondered how the hell someone can draw a picture of something from memory. I have always been so bad at drawing because I struggled to visualise anything, and anything I visualise would always be incredibly cloudy, blurry and vague. Now I have a name for the problem. Thanks for this video
Bach Photography yes! It was always so frustrating to me in elementary and middle school when I had art class and I could never excel like I did other things and everyone acted like it was ridiculous how bad I was😂
I have aphantasia but I can draw well if I have references!!
@@spring7643 ye but he is talking drawing from memory. Like look at an apple for 5 minutes then draw it. How much detail can you recall?
this is interesting because i am an artist with aphantasia and i can draw stuff off the top of my head anytime. i like to draw characters and im pretty accurate when redrawing them without reference, though i gotta say it mostly only applies to characters ive designed myself. coming up with poses isnt a difficult process for me either, i know techniques like the line of action and what shapes to use when constructing the human body. its just a big puzzle to me. i guess i just "know" things and subconsciously connect the dots
Yup I can draw very intricate and accurate drawings that people appreciate but ask me to draw from memory and I couldn't
Yesterday I was on tiktok where a girl talked about it, I realized people actually saw things, I only think the thoughts. I didn't know it was a real picture in the mind and now I'm trying to figure this out more to understand why im like this. I loved your video it really helped
My wife thought I was adorable as I always 'listened' to what she was saying. Smalltalk never interested me, neither does cosmetic surgery nor fashion. I prefer to consider myself as Zen, not too worried about future nor past.
University of Sydney is currently researching Aphantasia for a more academic perspective
I also just found out about this via Tik Tok! (Yesterday actually, 28 march) And i was like... hey, thats Odd bc when i reaearched it a bit more here on RUclips I think I might have it, but I’m not gonna self diagnose
Britney Pennington Yes this is the reason I’m going crazy, I study art and I just thought it was crazy people could just think of something and draw it exactly the same, funny thing is, I thought imagining this mean, thing of what might happened or did happen and the voice in my head would guide me through, but no I’m just weird
@VoidVector the trauma was more from not understanding how other experience the world and people not accepting that we experience the world slightly different. I see nothing at all and use a sequence of events or check off lists when remembering things.
Try being a kid in math class during a test where scrap paper is not allowed and you can't even picture the problem in your head to solve the equation. Then the teachers assume you are just stupid or something. All at the same time you don't even know something is wrong because you only have your own perspective of the world.
@@danielamunoz6126. Just because we can picture things it doesn't mean we can draw that mental image exactly the same though.
I can picture images and scenes as clear as photos or videos but I find drawing frustrating because I don't have the skills /talent to draw what I've visualized, the result is always very disappointing compared with my mental image
I’ve been trying to do guided meditation and just cannot- even as a child I could never “picture” or “imagine” anything in my mind! I literally thought something is clearly wrong! But this video makes me feel much better that I’m not the only one!!
Yo what’s ur digits? Ur bad
Today was the first day that I realised I wasn't alone. I wasn't aware that it was a condition and it was called, aphantasia. Completely relate to this video and feel over the moon. Welcome everyone who experiences the world differently
Not alone at all! In this video, he calls the condition "rare", but as I've been watching many videos on the subject and reading the comments it seems that there are many, many people who think in this manner.
Fascinating! This prompted a new thought in my head: if something works in a certain way, there can be a way in which it doesn't work, such as the subject of this video. The brain still has mysteries to be found.
and presumably there's something defective in all of us.
@@stanprogressstanyang different isn't necessarily defective, maybe there's a reason why not everyone has it, maybe there's an advantage of some kind for certain activities
@@phosphenevision , sure, that's true too! -- but defectiveness is also something that happens. so, if some people are born without fingers (just to give a really surface example), then _maybe_ there's some evolutionary reason for that, but of course there doesn't need to be. -- and i didn't mean to imply that aphantasia is necessarily a defect. whatever the case though, i think we probably all have one defect or another. a person might not have aphantasia, or might be born with all 10 fingers, but just think of how many things there are (not just for the brain, but the entire body) that need to be certain ways in order for things to work. chances are no given individual got lucky in every single respect. so we're probably all defective, just not always with some fancy latinate name to label ourselves with.
Cool, but I'd point out as an Aphant myself, that the idea we generally don't have emotions tied to our memories is a bit misleading. A lot of us do find we experience less intensity on that front without the sensory element of memory, we don't tend to 'relive' things as much.
But while I can't see it or for that matter taste food in my memory, i well remember bad meals!! Also breakups, especially when I was younger, were pretty rough!
I may have been helped in getting over them by having less visual and sensory recall of my exes, but some of the bad ones took me months to get over so it's not really a given.
I do suspect we have an edge with things like PTSD, but even there i've had some intense traumatic experiences that took me a good year or so to recover from.
Aphantasia is very much a spectrum thing, for many it's not a handicap at all, just a different way of living in the world. Others have more profound memory deficits that aphantasia is just one part of, there's a high instance of SDAM, Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory.
But it would be important not to assume if you know someone with Aphantasia, exactly what their experience is without asking.
I agree. There are multiple levels of continuum’s or sliding scales. I do feel emotions but they aren’t tied to a visual. I can remember faces and voices and details like what someone wore a year ago because my mind files all the details like attributes.
@@laleaevans likewise, not always what people ware but details I'm attentive to for sure.
I also find I've no problem remembering faces or voices though I see or hear neither in memory, names though are a problem for me but that's a seperate issue i think. I'm dyslexic and have transient anomic aphasia as well.
Thats exactly what i was thinking. Tom in this video says he has. (Minus -) Imagery (Minus -) Emotions associated (Positve +) conceptual Idea. Me - Imagery + Emotions Associated tho + Conceptual Idea
I do relive things over and over. I feel deeply, I have PTSD, and I'm 100% aphant.
I would think there are extremes and degrees of this ability, like photographic memory being one extreme and aphantasia is another.
I'm confused because sometimes this happens when I close my eyes, but only sometimes. I can imagine some things for a split second, but then they get all distorted and lose shape. It only happens to me rarely though.
I have aphantasia as well. I'm 30 and found out I was different than most in that way at 29. It took me awhile of "You can't really see in your mind...?" to realize, others actually could and they weren't just being overly-literal and I was the one that was different. I've come to love having aphantasia. Sure it has it's cons but it also has it's pros and it's the only way i've ever known. I guess it would be different for someone who could visualize and then lost that ability but for me I don't ever remember being able to visualize. And my husband who can visualize tells me it isn't all it's cracked up to be, with bad memories.
It's odd for me to think about dreaming now though. I dream vividly. All the senses. I've even felt physical pain in my dreams. Sound, color, emotions, all of it as vivid as waking life. But awake I have nothing. I thought for 29 years everyone else was the same. Now I realize people can have that in their minds when awake...and that's normal? It's mind blowing!
I think it is natural to wish for that what we don't have but I think you are wise to love your condition. I think it helps keep me in the moment instead of dwelling on the past or thinking to much about the future.
@@allenbrown8899 Dude, that's me too. But it irks my wife. She says I have no vision! (She has hyperphantasia). I like to consider myself Zen.
Fleeting pictureless thoughts/conversations that are gone as quickly as they occur. That's my dreams. I don't remember any of them.
I can hum the next few notes of pretty much any song. Quote the next word of a play/movie. Tell if someone is lying.
But absolutely can't create an image of anything in my head. Period.
Fish gotta swim, monkey gotta climb :)
I would trade anything in the world for the ability to visualize, I don't feel human like this, i am missing part of what it means to be a human, I feel like I can lose myself super easy like this.
I think dreams are more vivid than awake imagery, visualizing a lot of different things happening requires concentration, dreams can be really complex and vivid without any voluntary effort. I think I have a pretty high visualizing ability, I'll sometimes have still images pop in very vividly, but I don't play a whole movie in my head unless I'm only concentrating on it, and it's still not as detailed as a vivid dream. I sometimes just listen to music and imagine stories to it, plan out whole music videos visually, I'm an artist so I can draw some inspiration from these moments, but I'll also draw without visualizing any particular thing and just experiment on the page. It can be very counterproductive if I let myself just daydream instead of actually doing things and experimenting, as things don't often turn out the way I visualize them, which can be very frustrating.
With aphantasia it's much easier to be present in the moment. After the initial shock I consider this more and more of a blessing every single day.
I've never been able to visualize images in my mind. I remember always being confused when people said picture "x" in your mind.
Wow I just figured out a lot about myslef and why I was always confused when people said just imagine it. I just see black when I close my eyes.
You don't need to close your eyes though to imagine something in your head. It's not really "seeing" something it's imagining it.
@@simfimpim What's the difference? People say to close your eyes and imagine *insert whatever*, yet I can't see nothing or imagine, whatever. I literally just see blackness when my eyes are closed and when open, I see what my eyes see. Imagining something is seeing something that isn't physically there. Some people it is so vivid that it seems very real. I don't get anything. I can try all I want, like trying to see a red apple. Nothing. I know that it's kinda roundish and when I see the color red, I know what it is. I can't "see" what so ever without it physically being in front of me. Also, definition number 2C of see is to form a mental picture. Soooooooo. Seeing and imaging is the same thing very much depending on the context. To which, Tyler used the correct context.
I just learned from another RUclips video that I have Aphantasia. I am 21 years old and I am looking for resources and answers.
Check his aphantasia network on the website/patreon, the /r/aphantasia subreddit, the "Imagine That!" aphantasia podcast. You're not alone! It's difficult to process but all of us with the condition are feeling the same way.
The University of Sydney (Australia) is looking at Aphantasia. I think they're the only academic body doing so, at the moment.
We are academically invisible to date.
Neither Dr's, teachers nor philosophers writ large know where/how we could possibly exist, but we clearly do.
I wonder, are there enough of 'us' to require 'awareness' in the wider community?
Indigenous peoples are approx 2% in my country, so are Aphants.
@@meanwhileincanada why is this difficult to process?
@@cozy_ for me it's difficult to process because it explains so many things I didn't understand about myself and my life prior to learning about this. It makes so much sense, but I didn't even know this existed because it's my norm.
I am just a few days into knowing this term, and realizing that it is and always has been a significant aspect of my experience. I am and have been reflecting on all the phrases and advice from a lifetime that never made sense. Support tools design for students who can visualize the aids they're trying to memorize. Support tools for depression that focus on visualization techniques. Traditional advice on how to go to sleep, that focuses on visualization techniques. Feeling embarrassed to admit that no you don't remember what your child's birth look like, but you do remember it happening and the emotions of the event. I know I was scared because the doctors were worried about my wife bleeding but it don't remember what that looked like. I wish I could turn off my internal monologue and just relax visualizing a calm image, but closing my eyes leaves only black and the residuals of light effects on my rods and cones. When I close my eyes I have a brief static image of what I was last looking at that fades away. Much like the image on a CRT television. Like spots in your eyes from seeing a bright light. The image follows the direction my eyeballs point, and the duration is proportional to the intensity of the lighting and duration of exposure and is negative in lighting effect. Essentially my only perception of visualization with my eyes closed results from my physical eye not my mental eye. When I think of something, in my mind it is in the foreground, center of my attention. I don't actually see anything so I've never felt a need to close my eyes to envision a solution. Essentially problem solving by intuition and experience without rendering an image in my mind.
im so frustrated and angry and sad that i cant picture things in my mind. it seems like such a cool thing to do
I was diagnosed with aphantasia and I can’t help but think what it is like to see these things
For years I’ve only been able to see pictures in my mind right before sleep, as far as my awake mind is concerned. I know I see (usually non colorful) images as I dream, but I recall dreams more in terms of emotions and somehow, there being this sixth sense/knowing of what is happening in dreams when I can’t see them.
I have it! It is nice knowing I’m not alone!
I read that they estimate 1% of the population has this but I think it's way more. It bugs me that they call it a condition because it's just a difference in the way our brains work. I have a very vivid imagination and a strong memory. Maybe there are degrees of severity or something because I have no problem remembering an outfit. I just don't do it as a picture in my head I do it as a knowing.
Same thing with most "mental health disorders"
Thank you for that explanation. I’m 76 and just discovering what I’m missing. Friends have been asking me questions about how I think if I don’t see pictures. A knowing. That’s exactly right.
Not sure why some people are upset about not having the ability to 'see'. Nothing's changed for you since finding out so what is there to be sorry about. We process in different ways. We don't 'see' things. Is this a case of the fear of missing out? I don't feel any different, other than I now know that other people just 'see' things differently than I can. Maybe it's a gift rather than a disability. Put a smile on your dial guys and be happy you can see at all.
I’m the same as you except I have STRONG emotions tied to memories. I can feel energy very easily and that’s what I remember, not anything visual but the feeling associated with the memory
I’m literally just figuring out this a thing lol. I had no idea that people possessed the ability to legitimately visualize things. If I’m thinking of something, I CAN evoke an image of sorts, but it’s extremely vague and feels very far removed from myself- I guess the best way I could describe it would be that it feels like the fleeting remnants of a dream that you can just barely remember. It’s as if it’s there, but just beyond my reach. I figured that this was the case for everyone else, too. It’s strange because if I close my eyes I see nothing but black, but I can “see” glimpses of the thing in a far-off realm. Sound is very much the same way. I guess that explains my fascination and borderline obsession with making music; I’m on a constant quest to physically manifest the sounds that are ever-dancing around my head, yet ever so slightly unobtainable. It’s torturous in ways- and so frustrating that I’m not entirely capable of bringing it to fruition yet- but the journey towards being able to fully express my inner-workings (and, in essence, my soul) has also been incredibly rewarding. I’m not quite there yet, but the vision is becoming more and more clear as I continue to trudge along. My only hope in life is that I’ll live to realize the potential that I know exists within me.
I doubt anyone will actually read this lol; I mainly used this comment for some introspection. However, if anyone does happen to, feel free to lemme know if you can somehow relate! Dueces ✌🏼
This is so, so fascinating.
I can't picture things in my head. Not one detail visually, no imagination. Yet I can recall sounds perfectly. I have a constant inner monologue, I have to put a concept together with the ideas of that concept (i.e an apple. an apple is a round, red fruit, but i have no visual of an apple, only the idea of an apple). I can also recall voices, songs, words, etc. In their exact voice, like there is a recorder in my head.
It seems like aphantasia comes in multiple forms, or can be paired with multiple menta processes
Yup
I can't imagine sounds either, and don't recall faces till I've met people many times, also get confused even with people I know if they change hairstyles or are in side profile
If asked to imagine An oak tree in a Meadow For example -
In my memory I have the concepts of 'oak tree' and 'meadow' and a description of all i know of them. No picture, just the description and an 'idea/concept'
(Like an 'object' in code that i can use. The objects properties are accessible but not apparent)
I conceptualise the scene by thinking 'oak tree in meadow'
If asked to add a boy under the tree, I would do so by adding to the description therefore, if then asked 'what colour is the boy wearing?', I couldn't just tell you from my mental image. I would have to first update my narrative to include such information. Eg. ' Boy in blue T-shirt sits under tree in Meadow
This seems to put me into the aphantasic category I never knew there was an alternative.
I have some trouble placing faces, and if I was asked to help a forensic artist draw someone I'd fail.
I am tone deaf. Recognising a cars model is hard. I need to visit somewhere multiple times to learn directions.
I would be fascinated to hear if any of these things are common to other Aphasiacs because I can see how they may be interrelated
I did quite well academically and my iq is around 140 so I don't think I am negatively impacted by this condition.
I have a cube in space and I cut it in half . I pick one half. how many sides does it have?
Recently found I had aphantasia. The scariest thing is now realizing how poor my communication skills are/have been. Since I can’t “picture” how the person I’m talking to is thinking/feeling. So carrying a conversation is impossible.
I'm your complete opposite. I have a vivid visual/ photographic memory. I can remember crazy details about some people and marked events. My wild imagination exhausts me sometimes. I remember people's faces, looks, our discussions what they like... most of the time it is not reciprocated, even embarrassing to seem like "I care a lot" where it was unintentional.
2 weeks in since I worked out that this is me. I feel sad and cheated.
I am curious to know if anyone who has this has ever been diagnosed with ADD? I am 49 and was diagnosed with ADD over 25 years ago, and explained a lot of my childhood. Now that I know I have this, I’m not sure that I have or have ever had ADD. I did extremely well in school, and never had to study even during college studying nursing. I tended to get in trouble as a child when I was told to have quiet time. This is probably easy for someone who can daydream or visualize things, but very difficult when you can’t. I have been described sometimes as being “cold”, but I do have strong emotions about things I’m close to. I am glad I’m not the only one who thinks like this!
I can also read a book and watch a movie simultaneously, and keep up with both. Trying to look for positives, since I feel like I’m really missing out!
I haven’t been diagnosed with ADD but this things you’re saying relate to me so much and i didn’t notice! you’re not alone
I have aphantasia but I can relive the emotions of past experiences. Very intensely.
I saw a random RUclips video on the subject about 6 months ago, I'm 50 and it does explain quite a lot, especially the ability to distance myself from negative memories, I still know it happened, but it's a lot easier then if i were picturing it as well, that said I that also means that I can't picture my children or set a visual goal to aim at.
I've always thought that during classes when the teacher would say imagine an island and people would describe there's in such perfect deatil that they were just explaining it and that no one could acctually imagine stuff. i can't even begin to fathom acctually visualizing things! it must be nice :)
Isaq,
We have our strengths. I've worked in jobs requiring face to face interviews (welfare, taxation, policing) and I can 'hear' deception. In customers/clients and with colleagues. I'm 47 and had considered myself an "auditory processor". I've since realised that Aphants are a bit more special than that. We really do have alien thought process' to "normal" people. I've had career success where face to face interviews were part of my job as I could 'hear' deception (like a texture). Since discovering Aphantasia, I realised our learning style wasn't represented during my school years and subsequently have enrolled in teaching. We represent (approximately) 2% and our learning style is absolutely not catered for. Try learning chemistry where it's symbols (pictures) added to symbols (pictures).
Find your strength and use it to your advantage.
I have vivid dreams in colour; I am an empath and feel my and others' emotions; I'm a musician and voice teacher and I know what my students are doing with their tongues, throats, abdomens, and larynxes without looking at them because I "feel" what they're doing in my body; I have a gift for communicating with animals. Alas, I have no ability to visual. Total darkness. I can't navigate. I can't rotate objects in my head. I read the same books every year and I don't recognize the story. When I read, I have no images in my mind, but I respond to emotions and connect up details in the book with other details I know. I don't remember films after I see them. I have a chainsaw in my hallway (because I've never put it away, haha) that I'm always surprised to see. I can't picture loved one's faces. I realize now (after finding out 3 days ago that I have aphantasia) that I navigate the world by language-ing everything, and also by remembering sounds. So I look at a phone number and can't "see" it afterwards, but if I say it, I can play back the sounds. I'm reevaluating my whole life's experience now that I know that I have aphantasia. I wish I could be chill about it, but I feel jealous of folks who can visualize. It would help so much in life to be able to do that.
You need to add color to your mind's eye, because what allows us to imagine is the color difference
seeing the phone number after you look at it oof my guy thats not how it works we cant remember things like that phone numbers have very complex and meaningless long line of shape so we memorize phone numbers by concept not image. but after we memorized it we can put the shape of numbers next to each other in our head. I dont know how it looks like to not recognize a story you have read before or not to imagine a scene of a movie you just watched one hour ago
I was explaining what my lack of mind's eye was like to my son, I found out he has aphantasia too !
I am confused about whether or not I have it. I can picture something and know what it would look like, or create an image from just words (such as when I'm reading). I can picture it pretty vividly, but I don't actually see anything. At least I think I don't. I'm not really sure, but I'm just really confused about this. Does anyone know what I'm talking about, or if I have aphantasia or not? Thank you so much.
Edit: spelling
I think I understand what you mean, and I don’t think you have aphantasia at all. Visualization doesn’t mean you actually “see” things, like with your eyes, but you picture things in your mind and create images like you said. People do this to different degrees, some more vividly than others, but people with aphantasia can’t do this at all. Another article I read from an aphantasiac said that they can’t even picture a story when reading.
Arianna C but that’s the point... people actually do visualize and see it in their head, it’s not just a figure of speech.
Lina Jesilow I have the same thing. If someone says imagine a red apple like yes I know what that looks like but I can’t see it like I can see a physical picture of an apple. Aphantasia is a spectrum and I think people like this are around a 5 on a scale of 1-10
If you close your eyes and can't see a red apple, you have aphantasia. That's pretty much it :) Hope it helps!
Brenna Williams yeah that’s what I meant... if she can picture things in her mind, aka see it in her head, she doesn’t have aphantasia.
I have this condition but only realised it was a thing a few weeks ago I thought everyone couldn't see things in their thoughts. Its blown my mind!!
i have just discovered i have aphantasia and i am so confused about it. the agony i feel when i try to picture things is huge. i have never realized i couldn’t do it until now and my mind is blown. i can’t remember the face of my grandpa who passed away last year but if i see a picture of him i know who he is. if i try to hear the voice of someone i know in my thoughts i just can’t. same for smells or tastes. i gotta say i feel weird but i am soooo confused by how people CAN do those things lol
Do you have an audible inner voice when you think? It seems a lot of aphants lack that as well.
EloquentlyEse yes! apparently that’s the “only thing” in my head. and this voice is my own voice
I have visual memories of my mom bathing me as a baby and I'm 21. I remember the smell of my dad's cologne from childhood. Do you remember what you look like when you're not looking in a mirror?
Orange Blossom omg i wish i could do that as well and no iv tried to but without looking at the mirror or a picture nothing comes to my mind. it’s like i’m blind inside my head
I'm only missing the visual part, the other senses are really strong especially hearing accurate sounds in my head.
I was today years old when I found out ‘minds eye’ isn’t just a figure of speech
Guys: you don’t have aphantasia just because you can’t close your eyes and see something like you’re looking at a screen. Picturing something is different than seeing it with your actual eyes.
People with aphantasia can’t picture it.
I seem to think there’s confusion in the comments and 600+ people think they have this when they probably don’t.
I only recently discovered I have aphantasia after a discussion with my partner then afterwards all of my family. I had no idea that people actually see things like a picture or a movie that they can control. All I see when I close my eyes and try to visualise is pure blackness but I dream vividly in full colour and I never ever forget a face even recently someone I briefly went to primary school with and had not seen for 30 years, I only saw a flash of half of their face in a crowd but knew instantly. There are advantages I think, I realised I don't really grieve over people I have lost as I don't 'see' them in my mind and if I'd gone through anything traumatic, I assume it wouldn't bother me as much as other people because I wouldn't be able to recall/re-live it at all. Not great at all to have aphantasia but a few possible benefits. I don't miss 'seeing' things because I have never been able to but it would be so cool to experience it
Just found out I have this...this is literally so weird to me that people can like actually picture things (the best I have as I can picture pictures... kinda) , I also have a severe case of misophoneia.
I’m 57 years old and my nurse daughter calls me today and says, dad can you picture an apple in your mind? I said yeah, I know what an apple looks like, she said no, do you see a picture of an apple? I said, like a Polaroid? Nobody does that. She said yes they do and you and I can’t. Twelve hours down the rabbit hole and I see I’m missing something I never knew anyone had. I don’t know how to feel. How can I have lived a half century and not know what everyone else sees in their mind? I feel cheated. I feel sad. My life has changed and so many things that were hard for me in my life, suddenly make sense. I’m not the same person I was this morning. Wow!
I have it too. I can’t imagine seeing things in my mind. How can you trust anything you see? What if you think it was real because you saw it in your mind? I don’t feel like it’s a bad thing, there are a lot of things I don’t want to visually relive. I hate guided meditation with visualization, but other than that I’m fine with it.
"What if you think it was real because you saw it in your mind?" - The minds eye visual is usually just a blur but still a pretty good recollection of the past or future. So it looks considerably different than what we currently see in the present with our actual eyes.
I always thought only a few percent actually really could see a picture or hear a song in their head. Now I finally understand that I am different than most other people.
I always wondered how people could draw paintings out of their head. I thought by really practicing it a lot or maybe a unique gift.
I was never able to jam with other musicians without trying what the wright tone would be. Although I can write own songs, I always need to hear the sounds first before I can compose and then I can be very creative. I only hear my innervoice sing the song, but I can not hear music at all in my mind.
Colours or patterns from flags I have to learn in words.
I can never remember faces of movie stars, actually I can not draw of describe my own face at all without seeing it, just recognize
I did so many exercises to improve my memory, but only associations in words work. The result is that I have a innervoice whole day describing the things I see and think about, because I can not imagine sounds, pictures or smells.
In dreams I sometimes can visualize vague images.
I have aphantasia too, one silver lining is that I have ptsd but it doesn't affect me as bad as some because I don't have visual flashbacks or other types of sensory flashbacks (no auditory, touch, smell etc. type playback), sights sounds and smells I encounter in a day can trigger emotional response but I have no instant replay so to speak.
I had a lady friend, perhaps 15 or so years ago, who told me, while we were on the phone, that she would know me when she saw me but couldn't tell me right then what I looked like. She said she couldn't see faces in her head. I thought it was an odd thing. I accepted it as a mental quirk of some kind, but she was a great friend, good person and an intelligent human being, so I paid it no attention. I'm not even sure if she told me it had a name.
I found out just last year that people see visually and was like wait what , you can. I was dumbfounded and felt stupid like I was alienated. I'm a photographer and I doodle with art . Although I can't visually see what I'm trying to make in my head I just know what it's supposed to look like and I usually aim towards that.
Have always been told that I see things differently. I tend to solve problems with a intuitive nature. I consider myself artistic, have invented and constructed a variety of things completely from my own imagination over the years. I'm never really sure if I'm done until it's there, because I know what I expected it to be or do from the start and now I have it. One of my favorite doodle exercises in my younger years was to simply draw a squiggly line, and follow it by a series of squiggly lines that were very close like a fingerprint but did not touch. Eventually like clouds in the sky my mind would see something growing from the image, and then I would start to manifest what my mind sensed and adjust as I went along. I never knew what the image was going to be, and sometimes it wasn't anything, but it was enough to focus on this detailed repetitive task that was so so soothing.
Sorry for my bad English (I’m italian) I can’t visualize memory images, but this doesn’t allow me to recreate the emotional atmosphere and feelings about the episode and to identify myself in the character of my narrations... he said that he can’t do that. I don’t think afantasia and empty emotions during narrations are necessary correlated, maybe it could dipende even by characteristics of his psychological functioning (?)
So recently i‘ve read an article about aphantasia. There was a group of scientists in 2015 who figured out two main types of aphantasia.
First type: complete blindness (I think it was sth as “absolute Aphantasie” -was a German article)
Second type: only able to “see” sth if someone is relaxed and doesn’t force their mind to create an image (willentliche Aphantasie)
I feel that due to black mind eye ,I am not able to think logics in mind ,require lots of trail and error with paper to solve anything..and only remember facts regarding my learning,I have to repeat learning freshly due to no image in brain of what wli learn ..and felt bit hard to know even unable to imagine simple my kids face also..any one overcome this same issues ..how your tackling this facts in day to day life .
I really enjoyed these random sound effects throughout the video. As someone with aphantasia I found them to be a good replacement for my lack of imagination. They helped accentuate the information as a kind of audio feedback to fill the otherwise blank and empty space that is my head and it's logical processes.
I just found this out about myself recently. No wonder counting sheep seemed like such a pointless exercise.
That's so funny. I just told my son that counting sheep meant literally counting one sheep, two sheep, and so on. I see no sheep jumping as he described it to me.
I just search "how to picture thing in your mind", this show out as first result, and now I just know that I have aphantasia.
I think it is normal for people to not able to see things in their mind. I can see things when I dream though.
@@mikesmithz I'm not sure that I have aphantasia or not, I didn't get any check from doctor or something. When I think of something it is like I know what it will look like but not able to see image in my brain. I can imagine what purple whale do a backflip will look like but I can't see the in my brain.
@@mikesmithz For me its all the same, I may get the flash of image but I can't keep that image in my mind.
The worst part is that there is no cure, no fix, not even hoping somerhing will come in near future to help overcome this.
I know I USED to be able to visualize things. I have no idea when it stopped.
This video describes what I experience closet than anything I have come across before. It's 85% spot on
if you used to be able to do it, then at least you know that you weren't born without that part of your brain working or something like that., and if you have no idea when it stopped, then that might indicate that you just kinda stopped using it. (i'm guessing that a person who was in the habit of using their mind's eye regularly would notice if they one day suddenly lost the ability. so if you didn't even notice its disappearance, then it sounds like you weren't using it very much.) maybe it's like a muscle then, that can atrophy if not used. can you not start small and maybe retrain your brain to be able to do this again?
yes me too!!! And now i have issues with visualisation meditations.. I don't get how i got this so suddenly
@@stanprogressstanyang hey sorry for a year late reply. Yeah I have tried. The weird thing is the harder I try the less it works. And or the flip side the opposite is true: When I'm NOT trying to visualize I CAN see an image for a very very very brief moment.
@@yungberlo5279 last time I did any research on this (which was probably a year ago when I made the original comment) studies showed that most cases were linked to a blow to the BACK of the head. I can remember two specific incidents where this happen to me. Both were to do with falling backwards. This was as a child. Not idea what age. And my awareness of my past abilities to visualize things was from that era. Probably was from one or both of those falls
This has been very helpful Tom. For years when I participated in personal development trainings that required visualization exercises all I saw was black, darkness. Even to this day it's the same. Does this prevent my dreams from manifesting because I can't participate in the full experience of seeing anything let along in color?
I Discovered I had this half a year ago and still have so much questions sometimes I feel so lame for knowing people can image for instance their past vacations and passed away loved ones and I can’t but I need to remind myself I lived without it before I only just know right now. If anyone knows a platform or something where I can talk to others I’d love to hear
I’m honestly somewhat sad I can’t experience this. I never realized most people could imagine things with their mind. I’ve always thought in ideas, descriptions and feelings.
Are you reading Q cards? I was aware I had it about 5 years ago. I tell people like this.....I have no idea what it's like to be heartbroken because the minute the other person is gone....everything about them is gone. I dont have cravings because you need to be able to imagine what food tastes and smells like. I dont remember the feeling of being younger than the 44 years of age I am right now. I dont remember my 21 year old daughter younger than she is now. In normal people. ...your memory and imagination work together to give you the sense of the past and its imagination only for the future. I can just remember in words only. There is absolutely no emotion to anything I'm not physically looking at. Its like a super power in one way like not remembering any kind of pain after the fact but it's a con when it comes to death. No matter how important someone is....when they die.....everything is gone. I cant remember what it was like to be with that person or hear their voice. Without photos....I wouldnt even know what I looked like younger than what I see in the mirror. My grandmother passed 4 years ago and I remember having to kind of pretend I was hurt over the phone when my mom told me. Now I can feel feelings when I'm directly looking at something emotional....I just dont have feeling after it's over. So I didnt feel anything when my mom said my grandmother died. I wouldve felt something when I saw her in the casket at the funeral but on my way from Houston to Texarkana TX my fuel pump went out so I missed the funeral and I never got to feel sadness for her because I didnt physically see her. That's my experience with this but I dont know any different. Oh and when I told my mom I was like this she said "That's probably why you never played with toys" I have no idea what it's like to ride an emotional rollercoaster. Seeing all the ups and downs of emotions people go through makes me never want to change anything
How are you able to miss your daughter when she's not around? Don't you miss anybody?
I'm not any kind of doctor or psychiatrist, but I feel like you probably have another condition along with Aphantasia. It sounds like you have a disconnect with emotions and memory, or your processing of emotions and memory is very short potentially so that you don't retain it?
Just a thought.
It's very interesting, thank you for sharing!
Sounds like you are living in the present moment
Your comment is exactly what I'm feeling right now, I'm being consumed with feeling that I'm not all human, I'm missing what it means to be human. I have no real memories at all, all my friends and family downplay it and I can't help but think about how they would feel in my position. .
What you the describing is not aphantasia.
I have it but my experience of remembering or imagning is quite different than his. I cannot see anything in picture format. I can relive moments to a degree if I chose to think back and pull the memory. I have emotions, physical sensations, sounds, smells, and if there was something of particular visual interest than I may recall it and describe it but I don't close my eyes and see it in my minds eye. That's just black, no matter how quiet or how focused I try but I know my visual sense of memory is not to the degree of others and it's quite hard to explain how I conjur the memory of something to describe how it looks if I haven't seen it in a long time but I can for some things. But no, I can't close my eyes and see a "red star" as one of the tests goes, or see my dead grandmother. I know what she looks like, I could pick her out of a lineup, I could try and describe her features but I don't close my eyes and see anything.
I just found out I have this today and I'm shocked people can go without knowing what they have
If you have aphantasia, no matter how old you are, you must try Image streaming exercises (for at least 10 minutes a day for at least 10, 20 days), it helped many people permanently fix aphantasia and it even helps people without aphantasia to improve their visualization further. If you have an eye condition like strabismus (like me) or convergence insufficiency, amblyopia and others that may also affect your aphantasia, then there's still chance, do vision therapy. Most eye doctors until recently thought that strabismus can't be fixed, but vision therapy can fix it and both image streaming and vision therapy work in the same way, by using brain's plasticity to reprogram it. I only started doing vision therapy recently, but I can say already that I have improvements with both my eyes (I used to alternate between my eyes, seeing things with one or the other, but never with both at the same time, now I can actually keep both images from both eyes for a longer time) and my mind's eye can give me somewhat better pictures (flashes of vague imagery that last longer, but still better than what I had before, which was blackness for most of the time)
I could get images in my mind's eye my entire life, but they always lasted for 1 or 2 seconds at most and I couldn't manipulate them, I couldn't imagine an exact thing I want to and so on. When I finally got to imagine a flag that I wanted to imagine, it was the best feeling ever, even though it lasted for seconds, it still meant that I had some progress.
Can you send any links about this? Where do we start, do we need to go to an eye doctor, or a psychologist? Thanks!!
Fail.
Really? I'm not trying hard enough?
You may have good intentions but telling a person without legs that they're not trying hard enough to walk...
lmfao this guy thinks not having legs and redirecting neural pathways are the same thing
only will work if you have bad visual abilities. not if they are not there.
i just now realise that i cant remember my brother's face, not my mom's not my dad's, not my own not even my favorite artist
I don't have aphantasia... but I'm interested in it. And I thought I would just note that if you have aphantasia, the present day is the best time in human history to have it... because you're not really missing out. Computers are sort of an artificial imagination now. Throughout history, if you wanted to see a dragon blowing up an army or something... you would need to use your imagination. But today you can go watch a movie or photoshop it or whatever.
That's an amazing point, maybe explains why I'm so drawn to screens when I want to get lost in my head. I have aphantasia btw 😂
Now I get why I was so bored during 'Visualization sessions' in any random lesson in primary scrool. Because while most of people around me were having a 4k virtual reality experience, I was staring at a black hole while trying to attach the words to places teacher asked me to and remember all of those words that were mentiond. Cause I still see black just now my brain is in a tongue twister of random words.
I found out to day i have aphantasia i feel sad finding out that have this condition i feel like I’m missing out on a big part of my life…
Personally I think it's a strength in it own way . People with this can do better emotionally in some ways . They can move on faster from painful experiences because they aren't getting mental images . They don't suffer as much if they have a terrible experience that would cause PTSD.. Also they are mainly the people in scientific fields .
This makes me feel a lot better about things. I've always had this issue too. My mechanic dad always tell me to visualize all the pieces in the engine while working but I can't do that. Reading isn't fun for me because I can never see the world the author is creating, I can understand everything described but seeing it is a no. I'm auditory though. Maybe that's why I have such a strong draw to music? I've been playing for years and I can hear all the parts of a song in my head with good clarity on a good day. Anyways, this is exciting to know that I'm not the only person.
I don't feel like this is purely aphantasia. The absence of emotions is not something I see as related. I have plenty of emotions and memories related to past experiences. I just have no visual memory associated with events.
Visual memory must be separate from being able to see things in your mind's eye. If it wasn't, you wouldn't be able to recognize people or things. Also, since I know/remember what things look like, I can describe them without actually picturing them. As a writer with aphantasia, I do this all the time. Without being able to visualize, I can't give you every detail, but I can describe something enough that you'll know what I'm talking about. If I say, "A six-foot long, highly polished mahogany dining table," you should be able to know what I'm talking about if you know what each of those words mean. I've heard that aphantasics might have a kind of faulty wiring between the visual and visual memory part of the brain (located at the back of the head in the most primitive part of our brain) and the cerebral cortex (the newest part of human brains, located in the neocortex, and which deals with creativity, reason, problem solving, etc.).
@@mikesmithz Wow! That must make things difficult. Do you have to explain your condition to people?
Yes, it IS difficult to describe aphantasia to other people. If they don't have it, they just can't wrap their heads around it. I like your metaphor of the optical illusion. I recently made a friend who has aphantasia and will share what you said with him.
Also there are degrees and the brain works by habit too
I can't remember people's faces till I've met them many times and I find them interesting or important enough
I also often get confused by side profiles or if someone changes their hair, even if I know them
I also have aphantasia. I do dream quite vividly though.
If I try to explain how it is for me, I would have a mile long message. I do have a lot to say but it’s far too much for me to even try to condense it. I tried twice and had to delete. It was too long. I tend to go on and on.
I’ll tell you about one thing: I’ve been working on writing a novel and until I learned about this, that it’s an actual condition, I couldn’t understand why my descriptions of my characters were almost nonexistent. I struggle with this terribly.
No matter how hard I try, I cannot pull out a detailed enough description of people without being too bleak. At this time I’ve come to the point of creating my characters in the Sims. NO JOKE. And a house so that I have something to reference to. I can describe the scene and things going on like a movie , but if you ask me describe a person for a sketch artist I’d be of no help.
And yet when I read over the text, I have a lot of context, but it’s lacking to me. My descriptions are emotional, physical and detailed. That is of the surroundings and context of the story and thoughts, but in trying to break down what these people look like, I cannot do it beyond hair, eye color and frame because I made those general decisions prior. But just like my drawings, I need a reference because without one I’m terrible. So in no way do I feel silly in using a game, but in this case a TOOL, to overcome my struggle.
See what I mean about going on too long? Lol. And that up there is nothing.
If you are truly interested in hearing more, please let me know. I’d love to participate is some kind of survey or study if you are still doing that. I keep discovering more and more unusual things about myself and aphantasia is just one of them.
That's what is so frustrating for me, because I have vivid visual dreams, so there is some part of my brain that can reproduce images that I am not actually seeing. So why can I only do it when I'm asleep and not when I'm awake?
So there is also different styles of aphantasia. As i can have images of memories. But i can’t just imagine an object infront of me. Like i can close my eyes and drive to my work. As its a memory in my mind. But i couldn’t imagine a random sheep on the road as it has never happend to me. And i don’t really know if i can see color in it. I asume i can but when i try to focus on it i just see black or when i do it with my eyes open but zoned out. I start seeing what is actualy infront of me instead of the memory.
This video was put together very well. Thank you.
Just found out this week. I’m 59.
Is it just me that finds it extremely annoying when others refer to Aphantasia as a condition?
Maybe because the general assumption is that a condition means something wrong or something that can/may be cured or fixed.
It's not a condition for me, it's normal!
Sure, we are a small % subset of humans, making us abnormal, but we are not inferior or debilitated in ANY meaningful way.
Maybe I am over-reacting 🤔
I have Aphantasia with SDAM. It’s just black in my mind’s eye. But if I see someone with the same clothes again, I often know and remember that it’s the same outfit even though not being able to visualise it. Same with a place I’ve been to as a child, if I come back as an adult I always know I’ve been there. Something about the angles and how everything lines up.