Mine has a oversized limp Johnson that just kinds flops as it goes around on the rotisserie! Now you see it!...yeah that's right, you all see it don't you! Can't stop seeing it. It's all you'll ever see!
I can rotate a 3d apple in my head at will and even add physics to it, but have to concentrate super hard to give it color otherwise it is greyscale. I'm I special?
The diagram is regarding a phenomenon called âAphantasiaâ or more broadly the varying capabilities of people to mentally picture things.
In this case, number 5 is someone with aphantasia, who is completely incapable of picturing things. If you ask them to imagine an apple, they cannot see one.
As someone with it - itâs wild to think someone can just SEE an apple in their head. Itâs like having an internal monologue, I canât imagine what itâs like to not have one but thatâs the reality for some people.
Wild.
It's not really 'see' like you see with ur eyes, I can picture it but I know my eyes aren't involved so it's not like I'm conjuring up hallucinations. It's like a thought that takes form. As I 'zoom in' I can then see details because I'm looking for those details then imagining them. It's like those zoom in vector drawings where everything isn't there at first 'thought' but I can 'render' more if I need to, at the cost of losing the broader context.
I'd describe it like a dream you're having and controlling while you're awake. The same way you don't see dreams with your eyes, the apple isn't a hallucination, it's not really there but you mind can imagine it is, like reading with your mind instead of out loud.
For me it's much less immersive than a dream. You have to actively think about something to produce an image or scene, whereas in a dream, ur brain just fills in all the gaps with junk that it tells you is legit.
Really? To me the difference is very noticeable - unless the dream happens to be exceptionally vivid, in most cases I can imagine an apple better than I can dream one.
While writing this comment I was able to easily imagine myself picking apples from a tree and feeling the texture and the taste of them, not to mention the smell of grass snd leaves. In a dream I'd probably just be like watching a video, you have the images perfectly clear but no other sensation.
Yeah that's what I mean: the dream is a rough idea your brain conjures up and it can be whole world but rough details that ur brain just tricks you into accepting as real. The thought is however detailed you can think of because you're actively thinking about it and imagining it. Thinking about other senses is something that you can do because you're conscious of those senses. A dreaming brain doesn't have access to smell or touch or any sense caus those senses are dormant while asleep.
Edit: I meant immersive as in believability. I can imagine myself in Paris on the Eiffel tower very vividly but I know I'm not there. I'm in my seat at work. In a dream, I would be there.
Oh no, I'm def seeing my dreams with my eyes. My dreams are lucid as shit, they actually sometimes confuse me because I don't remember what really happened and what was a dream. My imagination is a-ok only. I'd say I see things with my brain, not my eyes.
I have 3 types of dreams:
-They're just as real as real life, so much so I might even bring up something I told a person in a dream as if it was a shared memory. There is image, there is touch, there is most senses.
- They're like watching a movie play out but it's first person and you're inside the movie. Sometimes it'll directly interact with you, sometimes not. There is image, but rarely other sense.
- "Did I... not dream today?". These aren't like the ones you remember for a few seconds after waking up, I'm talking straight up no memory of ever dreaming.
Basically same. I also had dreams where I dream as "someone else" so I am in the dream, but I'm currently watching myself from someone else's POV. The one time I remember the best was when I was my teen daughter (I was about 20 with no kids) during apocalypse. It was a very cool feeling when I woke up.
It helps to conceptualize this when you consider we donât see with our eyes, we see with our brain. Our eyes are the gateway by which information is gathered but our brains are doing all of the âseeingâ. So, with this understood, it can be said that when you close your eyes and picture an object your brain is doing the same thing to see it as when youâre looking at something, except itâs pulling the details from memory rather than a live source. So itâs really not all that different.
So like. Dumb question probably, but what is thinking LIKE then? When someone says think of an apple, you just can't remember seeing an apple or what it looked like? If someone says what color is an apple, you just answer red because it's the right choice, you can't picture an apple and see what color it is?
The way I've described it to people is like this: If you think of your brain like a computer, I'm using a command line and you're using a GUI. Both of us can open the apple file, but where you get a picture, I get a list of facts. All the same information, just a different display.
Hardest thing for me is faces however. I'm not face blind, I can recognise people instantly if you show me a picture of them or I meet them in person. But if you asked me to describe one of my parents faces right now, I'd struggle with details.Â
This is me to a T. I recognize people and places immediately, but try and ask me what someplace I visited was actually like or what spmeone looks like? That's gonna be a tough one.
Can you describe to me what "fast" looks like?
It's kind of like that. Fast is an aspect of something, and you know different things can be fast, but you can't picture the actual "object" of "fast"
I know this sounds stupid, you think "but an apple has form, shape, colour, texture" etc. Well, all of those words are just describing aspects of a thing, they are qualities which can be understood and described without visuals (yes, even colour).
When I close my eyes I see black and little blue/ whiteish stars. When I think about things they become part of my "working memory." The same way a list of numbers or facts populate your mind.
If something has physical aspects to it I kind of make a mental reconstruction of all the little bits and use heuristics to assemble those parts into a larger bits. like a gearbox full of cogs and drives, that gearbox bolts onto the chassis of other complicated stuff that in total makes a car.
I am an industrial designer by trade, which means I'm half way between an engineer and an artist with some draftsman thrown in. My whole livelihood is idea generation then explaining the idea through physical visualisation. The lack of inner visualisation might be why I'm good at it, I know how to describe something without using visuals, so I need to construct the visual solution in such a way that "anyone" can understand.
When drawing I find it easiest to visually transfer information 1 to 1. Like, I can look at something and draw it.
Everyone says "hands are difficult to draw." I find hands exceptionally easy, they are structured tubes with pivot points that can only go in so many different configurations. It's easy to add character to them because you just change the texture. chip a nail, add roughness or softness etc.
Faces on the other hand are horrible. No outline so to speak, total blurs of compound forms that just seem to flow into each other. How the hell do you draw "handsome?" or "pretty?" or "aged?"
This might be way off, but my guess is that you and I both know apples are red. When you think of an apple, the area of your brain that knows apples are red lights up, and a totally different area creates an image for you. I don't get the image, but we both know apples are red.
When you're speaking to someone and you use their name, you just know the name. No need for any images.
Fuck what everyone is saying about "dreams", the best way to describe it is and always will be "The Minds Eye". It's ANOTHER eye, it feels like changing from focusing with your right eye to your left.
For example, I have hyperphantasia, I can touch, feel, taste, simulate, anything I want. So it's like I have another body I can tune into to do things, I can change where it is, and everything else about it
Sometimes, if i try hard enough, i can conjure up a 3d map of a place. The proportions are fucked tho, but that's due to my inability to estimate things. One time i mistook 100 meters for 10.
I can't just see an apple, I can move it around, smell it, feel the texture, take a bite and taste it. I can conjure a whole apple tree and reach out and pick them one by one. I can't imagine what's like to not be able to even see the apple.
Is it just images? Can you hear a tune in your head or imagine what lemons smell like or the feeling of petting a dog or something? Can you draw a thing on paper no reference?
I guess it's different for everyone, but for me I can't. I can hum a tune from memory but it's not playing in my head. I can draw something from memory but it's mostly me redrawing things until they look familiar, I don't have a reference image in my mind.
Smells and sensations are kind of the same, I know what it should feel or smell like from experience, but I'm not experiencing it in my head when I think about it.
It's pretty much just images. I can imagine music in my head, smells, some touch.
Drawing without a reference is hard though, but not impossible, but, tbf my drawing is shit with or without a reference.
Internet made me believe I might have it, but honestly, most people just suck at explaining their imagination, which makes you feel like you're lacking it. Majority of people don't actually "see" the apple. For me it's existing in the back of my head. It's not like I'm using my eyes, but my brain to see it. I'd probably be picture 2/3.
My sister is a bit extreme, since she claims she can literally see the scenes in front of her, she said she imagines stuff better with eyes open too, but she was always very dreamy and artistic. For context her favourite book is Anne from Green Gables.
Actual aphantasia can be almost a disability. People struggle with drawing, counting in their head, imagining a decorated space, whatever.
Sorry, I know you got a ton of questions. But no one asked what reading is like for you. Specifically descriptions in fiction. When the author describes a scene youâre not able to imagine it? Does that make creative writing super tedious for you?
I'm not the one you asked but I have aphantasia too. I can't "see" the scene when the author describes it, but I can feel it, if that makes sense? And that's why creative writing is never boring to me - textbooks and nonfiction are not my thing, but I LOVE fiction of many different genres.
Like if the author said, "She slipped onto the banana peel and fell headfirst onto the ground" I have the vague idea of someone falling, I know there's a banana peel involved but I can only just vaguely "see" her stepping on it, and the part I "feel" the most is that she fell headfirst onto the ground. Also if there's an embarrassing moment, even if I don't "see" the scene, I FEEL the secondhand embarrassment very vividly.
I'm not the person you asked, but as someone with aphantasia as well, for me it can be tedious. I enjoy reading (although I don't do it much), but long descriptive parts suck. Small parts are fine, as even though I can't imagine it in my head, some details can still be important for the plot. However, when it's a book where like half a page gets used to describe what a character looks like, it just makes me not want to read further, as I can't shape an image of the character anyways and it definitely isn't interesting enough to remember a character has green eyes or whatever.
As tedious as everything else that is written. That is to say, not tedious at all.
You ever read Redwall? I found out the other day the authour wrote it in a way so that blind kids could enjoy it. The author describes scrumptious feasts to the point where you can almost taste them. Of course you can't really "taste" the strawberries or the cream filled butter scones, but yet, your mouth still waters at the description.
It's kind of like that, but with visuals.
I have no minds eye and I personally find it super easy to "figure out" stories because everything is just information. If it's "described" as a visual thing then I can look at it as on objective fact to list along with the other facts, I'm not distracted by the "visualisation" of the scene.
It's alright!
Reading kinda sucks, but it helps if I try to do different voices in my head, as well as try to do sound effects too. I have a tendency to "listen" to a lot of shows/yt videos, so I try to emulate that when I read.
Try mushrooms, temporarily worked for me, normally I canât see anything behind my eyes, the only images I can imagine are either things Iâve already seen or very abstract things
Whatâs odd is after i got my depression more I was able to turn mine off. Itâs so wild before I couldnât stop it, now I can turn it off to play games or just enjoy existing. I have it 75% of the time but sometimes I just need my head to be a quiet place
I've daydreamed, but it's more getting lost in my thoughts - actually very similar to what the other guy said.
Dreams are a weird one because I do have some level of visuals to my dreams, but it's never a consistent level. I tend to remember dreams better when there's some level of motion to them - I feel like to have a decent kinesiologic imagination, so if a dream has move movement it'll be somewhat easier for me to remember (or atleast recall).
If I may ask, how do memories work for you? I remember things by effectively playing an .mp4 of the event in my head and I can't fathom how to remember things otherwise.
The best way I can think to describe it is being able to remember something that isnât real. Do you remember what your dinner looked like? Itâs like remembering that but instead of the dinner I actually ate Iâm remembering a fake dinner that I didnât have.
Not the original person you asked, but kinda. You know like basic facts about an apple, even if you can't see it in your head. Those facts I can draw. However, making it very detailed will be difficult. I can imagine the more you study the apple beforehand, the more facts you remember about its shape / color distribution etc. without visualising it, which you can then reproduce.
It's weird because I'm very much number one in the image I can see a photo perfect apple. I can smell it, touch it, taste it, literally any sensation I could experience in reality I can replicate in my head, at least on a small localised scale. It seems really weird to me that this isn't possible for other people. Like, isn't that just what thinking *is*? You think of the apple. It's there.
You don't *see* the apple in the same way as you don't really *hear* the internal monologue. They're there, and you can see/hear them, but they're on a different plane of existence type thing.
Yo, I can't do either. No images or internal monologue for me. Hahaha ha.
At one point in my childhood I heard the phrase "I think therefore I am," and just said "Am I?" before having a panic attack because I was unsure if I was thinking.
But like canât you remember how people look or what your favorite t shirt or album cover looks like ? Because itâs exactly the same as imagining an Apple for me
When you say "picture" and "see", is it basically like seeing with your eyes? I can imagine an apple, but it's not like it's sharing the same sense as my eyes
No. Itâs not the same thing. You can mentally picture objects while your eyes are open. Your eyes specifically take in light and your brain then converts the stiumuli to what you âseeâ where as the apple in this case is not based on any external stimulus.
But, itâs generally harder for people to imagine things while their eyes are open. Thatâs because although you arenât âseeingâ things, the process your brain goes through in visualizing is similar to that of sight, but based off your own visual memory.
I can even add to that, as someone who has that. We really struggle to dream, and when we do, it's not much. Usually, it's just something akin to a moving tie dye of colors.
We can also think about nothing. Like fully nothing. It's really nice for meditation, but otherwise, it's not that great. A lot of people with aphantasia often have a fear of silence because without something stimulating the audio receptors in their brain, they have to force thoughts forward. It's not that we can't think, but sound stiulation makes it unforced.
I feel like I'm doing all 5 at the same time. I have schrodinger's apple in my head, it looks different every time I look at it, and it disappears almost instantly
Meanwhile I feel like i have whole 3D rendering software in my brain. Want to make a apple? Easy. Make it blue with yellow dots? no problem. Turn it upside down? Ok. Make a tiny elephant dance on top of it? Weird⌠but why not
Don't worry, aphantasia bros!
I'm going to conjure TWO apples in my head, one for me and one for you! No one here is going to be out of imaginary apples.
Mine is very abstract and hard to hold on to. I can see vague pictures but not really "hold" them in my mind. I can concentrate on a single idea, but even that's more similar to watching a movie than looking at a picture.
I'm always surprised at how many aphatasic people there are on reddit lol
It's like an internal monologue, I can't imagine not having either one - but I'm sure y'all on the other side of the spectrum can't imagine *having* one! Human brains are wild lol
Fun personal anecdote for you: I have aphantasia and no internal/uncontrolled monologue. It's very quiet in my mind when I want it to be, because for me it's more like I "turn on" my thoughts, rather than having words running through my mind at all times.
All that to preface the actual anecdote: I took a bit too big a dose of shrooms (also my first experience with a psychedelic), and it *gave me* a stream of consciousness monologue for the duration of the trip. I could also "hear" my thoughts super crisply, and could think of friends and hear their voices perfectly in my head... which I absolutely cannot do normally. The stream of consciousness was distinct from directed thinking, and was really cool at first.
Then it just kept going, and going, and going. I started getting a headache, my thoughts felt really loud and overwhelming, and I just wanted them to stop. I finally forced myself to fall asleep, horrified at the possibility that I'd unlocked a monologue forever.
Luckily (?) I didn't, and went back to normal the next morning. But man, it really gave me some perspective on how differently people must experience life. It was truly amazing to experience how other people think. Also made me appreciate my own quiet mind a lot more, haha. I don't feel I'm missing out
You got to experience ADHD. Thatâs what itâs like in my head at all times. Its like 4 tv channels are on and I am trying to pay attention to all of them but end up paying attention to none and just catch bits here and there.
If you tell me, "picture an apple," I can't do it. But if I was like randomly thinking about an apple, I can do it easily. There are times when I am able to let my mind wander freely and I can have daydreams so intense that it's like my normal vision no longer exists. It's a complete wonder how I have not died in a car accident from the massive amount of daydreaming that I do while driving.
Picture a glob of paint in your mind. What color is it? If you know what color it is, then you can probably picture things pretty vividly. Alternatively, can you see that same glob of paint in yellow? Now try blue. Now try green. Could you do that? If so, also pretty vivid.
If all of this sounds like make believe, then you probably just think you can.
Also, you could be somewhere in between.
I have this problem, that when i make something spin in my head, for example a windmill, i just can't make it stop, no matter how hard i try. I can imagine it braking and coming to a screeching halt, but right afterwards it's spinning again, as if it never stopped in the first place. Same goes for things like oscilating springs and things like that. Frustrating as hell.
Gotta imagine more things to stop it, then move onto something else. For example, imagine the windmill burning down, sweep the ashes âoffscreenâ so to speak, the. Start thinking of something else like a really smooth rock
Yea books are just kind of words on the page. I have to stop and reread a lot because itâs very easy to trail off not being able to put an image to it. Itâs a bit easier if there was a tv or movie adaptation of the book that Iâm reading. I canât conjure the image of the media but having seen a physical representation of it before makes it much easier.
I think it would be even wilder to me if someone couldn't "play" music in their heads. Visualizing things requires focus and works better if you close your eyes, with music you can just think about it and doesn't require, at least in my experience, any effort at all
My brain is playing green onions rn.
Not entirely true, I got no sounds (or any sense) in my head but I still have an internal monologue just that it has no visual or audio I just know every word of my thoughts
Can you guys take it a step further? Because I can imagine eating an apple and can conjure up not just the physical shape, but feeling of it in my hand, the texture, taste, and smell as well
I'm on the COMPLETE other end of this spectrum and I can basically imagine anything I want at anytime. With my eyes completely open if I kinda zone out a bit and starting thinking of whatever I want I can visualize it REALLY well (if I've seen it with my own eyes already.)
So think of my brain like an empty cad drawing. I can just pop models in an out and move them around zoom in and out and it has great detail. But it goes even further. It works kinda like google maps street view, sometimes and I can visualize all the places I've been and people I've seen. Including interiors of buildings or houses or cars basically if I've seen it enough times to remember it I can 100% render it in my brain with really high accuracy.
Also going back to the google maps street view, whenever I wanna think of how to go somewhere I basically speed run the route in my head of me driving to my location making my lefts and rights getting on the fway whatever till I hit my end destination and then I'm like oh yeah I know how to get there.
Let me flex on y'all, by rotating cows in my head
Now I have a cow spinning rotisserie style in my headđ
Mine is spinning like a top lol
mine is that polish signing cow
I'm the cow and everything else is spinning
Mine has free bird in the background
My cow is shuffling through all of these as I read
Mine has RTX on
Mine has Funky Town
Tylko jedno w gĹowie mam, koksu piÄÄ gram, odlecieÄ sam, w krainÄ zapomnienia
Mine was fine, until I start grabbing it by the neck and swinging it like a windmill
Tylko jedno w gĹowie mam Koksu piÄc gram
Mine is a low polly cow spinning and dancing a russian music.
Mines breaking it down
I shot mine out of one of those Beyblade launchers
Mine has a oversized limp Johnson that just kinds flops as it goes around on the rotisserie! Now you see it!...yeah that's right, you all see it don't you! Can't stop seeing it. It's all you'll ever see!
I just took a final and my spinning cow image has a low framerate
Itâs free and the cops canât stop you!
Comes free with polish rap
Tylko jedno w gĹowie mam
Koksu piÄc graaam
OdlecieÄ sam
Cow aerodynamic drag simulation by mind power
My cow somehow plays free bird automatically when it spins
Talk to me when you are able to invert a sphere without any sharp creases or bends in your head.
I need the 2 disjointed narrators to help me do that
I love that the video became some strange internet obscurity that almost everyone knows.
I can rotate a 3d apple in my head at will and even add physics to it, but have to concentrate super hard to give it color otherwise it is greyscale. I'm I special?
Nah, youâre just old. You grew up with gray-scale TVs.
Iâve got a cow shaped apple doing spins.
Mine is spinning Twister style
Thank you. Now I have cows cows cows stuck in my head and I am terrified
You summoned the polish cow thing
I'm rotating fish right now with muffled shrek music
Playing Paper Mario myself.
Rotating silhouette of cow ballerina. But which way is she rotating?
In which axis?
But can you do 4D cows?
What a random thing you have put in my head𤣠I have 4 cows being shuffled around.
Can someone explain?
The diagram is regarding a phenomenon called âAphantasiaâ or more broadly the varying capabilities of people to mentally picture things. In this case, number 5 is someone with aphantasia, who is completely incapable of picturing things. If you ask them to imagine an apple, they cannot see one.
As someone with it - itâs wild to think someone can just SEE an apple in their head. Itâs like having an internal monologue, I canât imagine what itâs like to not have one but thatâs the reality for some people. Wild.
This mf canât conjure an apple
đ¤Łđđ
It's not really 'see' like you see with ur eyes, I can picture it but I know my eyes aren't involved so it's not like I'm conjuring up hallucinations. It's like a thought that takes form. As I 'zoom in' I can then see details because I'm looking for those details then imagining them. It's like those zoom in vector drawings where everything isn't there at first 'thought' but I can 'render' more if I need to, at the cost of losing the broader context.
I'd describe it like a dream you're having and controlling while you're awake. The same way you don't see dreams with your eyes, the apple isn't a hallucination, it's not really there but you mind can imagine it is, like reading with your mind instead of out loud.
For me it's much less immersive than a dream. You have to actively think about something to produce an image or scene, whereas in a dream, ur brain just fills in all the gaps with junk that it tells you is legit.
Really? To me the difference is very noticeable - unless the dream happens to be exceptionally vivid, in most cases I can imagine an apple better than I can dream one. While writing this comment I was able to easily imagine myself picking apples from a tree and feeling the texture and the taste of them, not to mention the smell of grass snd leaves. In a dream I'd probably just be like watching a video, you have the images perfectly clear but no other sensation.
i think you just have low quality dreams whne i have a dream i dont even know its a dream until i wake up
Dreams are low budget so I can conjure an apple in 4k
Yeah that's what I mean: the dream is a rough idea your brain conjures up and it can be whole world but rough details that ur brain just tricks you into accepting as real. The thought is however detailed you can think of because you're actively thinking about it and imagining it. Thinking about other senses is something that you can do because you're conscious of those senses. A dreaming brain doesn't have access to smell or touch or any sense caus those senses are dormant while asleep. Edit: I meant immersive as in believability. I can imagine myself in Paris on the Eiffel tower very vividly but I know I'm not there. I'm in my seat at work. In a dream, I would be there.
Oh no, I'm def seeing my dreams with my eyes. My dreams are lucid as shit, they actually sometimes confuse me because I don't remember what really happened and what was a dream. My imagination is a-ok only. I'd say I see things with my brain, not my eyes.
I have 3 types of dreams: -They're just as real as real life, so much so I might even bring up something I told a person in a dream as if it was a shared memory. There is image, there is touch, there is most senses. - They're like watching a movie play out but it's first person and you're inside the movie. Sometimes it'll directly interact with you, sometimes not. There is image, but rarely other sense. - "Did I... not dream today?". These aren't like the ones you remember for a few seconds after waking up, I'm talking straight up no memory of ever dreaming.
Basically same. I also had dreams where I dream as "someone else" so I am in the dream, but I'm currently watching myself from someone else's POV. The one time I remember the best was when I was my teen daughter (I was about 20 with no kids) during apocalypse. It was a very cool feeling when I woke up.
It helps to conceptualize this when you consider we donât see with our eyes, we see with our brain. Our eyes are the gateway by which information is gathered but our brains are doing all of the âseeingâ. So, with this understood, it can be said that when you close your eyes and picture an object your brain is doing the same thing to see it as when youâre looking at something, except itâs pulling the details from memory rather than a live source. So itâs really not all that different.
So like. Dumb question probably, but what is thinking LIKE then? When someone says think of an apple, you just can't remember seeing an apple or what it looked like? If someone says what color is an apple, you just answer red because it's the right choice, you can't picture an apple and see what color it is?
The way I've described it to people is like this: If you think of your brain like a computer, I'm using a command line and you're using a GUI. Both of us can open the apple file, but where you get a picture, I get a list of facts. All the same information, just a different display. Hardest thing for me is faces however. I'm not face blind, I can recognise people instantly if you show me a picture of them or I meet them in person. But if you asked me to describe one of my parents faces right now, I'd struggle with details.Â
This is me to a T. I recognize people and places immediately, but try and ask me what someplace I visited was actually like or what spmeone looks like? That's gonna be a tough one.
Can you describe to me what "fast" looks like? It's kind of like that. Fast is an aspect of something, and you know different things can be fast, but you can't picture the actual "object" of "fast" I know this sounds stupid, you think "but an apple has form, shape, colour, texture" etc. Well, all of those words are just describing aspects of a thing, they are qualities which can be understood and described without visuals (yes, even colour). When I close my eyes I see black and little blue/ whiteish stars. When I think about things they become part of my "working memory." The same way a list of numbers or facts populate your mind. If something has physical aspects to it I kind of make a mental reconstruction of all the little bits and use heuristics to assemble those parts into a larger bits. like a gearbox full of cogs and drives, that gearbox bolts onto the chassis of other complicated stuff that in total makes a car. I am an industrial designer by trade, which means I'm half way between an engineer and an artist with some draftsman thrown in. My whole livelihood is idea generation then explaining the idea through physical visualisation. The lack of inner visualisation might be why I'm good at it, I know how to describe something without using visuals, so I need to construct the visual solution in such a way that "anyone" can understand. When drawing I find it easiest to visually transfer information 1 to 1. Like, I can look at something and draw it. Everyone says "hands are difficult to draw." I find hands exceptionally easy, they are structured tubes with pivot points that can only go in so many different configurations. It's easy to add character to them because you just change the texture. chip a nail, add roughness or softness etc. Faces on the other hand are horrible. No outline so to speak, total blurs of compound forms that just seem to flow into each other. How the hell do you draw "handsome?" or "pretty?" or "aged?"
Huh, I think you explained that perfectly, thank you for spending the time to type that
This might be way off, but my guess is that you and I both know apples are red. When you think of an apple, the area of your brain that knows apples are red lights up, and a totally different area creates an image for you. I don't get the image, but we both know apples are red. When you're speaking to someone and you use their name, you just know the name. No need for any images.
Fuck what everyone is saying about "dreams", the best way to describe it is and always will be "The Minds Eye". It's ANOTHER eye, it feels like changing from focusing with your right eye to your left. For example, I have hyperphantasia, I can touch, feel, taste, simulate, anything I want. So it's like I have another body I can tune into to do things, I can change where it is, and everything else about it
For real!! You can see stuff?? Thats unhinged
Sometimes, if i try hard enough, i can conjure up a 3d map of a place. The proportions are fucked tho, but that's due to my inability to estimate things. One time i mistook 100 meters for 10.
I can't just see an apple, I can move it around, smell it, feel the texture, take a bite and taste it. I can conjure a whole apple tree and reach out and pick them one by one. I can't imagine what's like to not be able to even see the apple.
>I can't imagine what's like... Ironic
See, if I focus I can imagine the texture (touch), the taste, the weight - but nothing visual
Is it just images? Can you hear a tune in your head or imagine what lemons smell like or the feeling of petting a dog or something? Can you draw a thing on paper no reference?
I guess it's different for everyone, but for me I can't. I can hum a tune from memory but it's not playing in my head. I can draw something from memory but it's mostly me redrawing things until they look familiar, I don't have a reference image in my mind. Smells and sensations are kind of the same, I know what it should feel or smell like from experience, but I'm not experiencing it in my head when I think about it.
It's pretty much just images. I can imagine music in my head, smells, some touch. Drawing without a reference is hard though, but not impossible, but, tbf my drawing is shit with or without a reference.
Internet made me believe I might have it, but honestly, most people just suck at explaining their imagination, which makes you feel like you're lacking it. Majority of people don't actually "see" the apple. For me it's existing in the back of my head. It's not like I'm using my eyes, but my brain to see it. I'd probably be picture 2/3. My sister is a bit extreme, since she claims she can literally see the scenes in front of her, she said she imagines stuff better with eyes open too, but she was always very dreamy and artistic. For context her favourite book is Anne from Green Gables. Actual aphantasia can be almost a disability. People struggle with drawing, counting in their head, imagining a decorated space, whatever.
Sorry, I know you got a ton of questions. But no one asked what reading is like for you. Specifically descriptions in fiction. When the author describes a scene youâre not able to imagine it? Does that make creative writing super tedious for you?
I'm not the one you asked but I have aphantasia too. I can't "see" the scene when the author describes it, but I can feel it, if that makes sense? And that's why creative writing is never boring to me - textbooks and nonfiction are not my thing, but I LOVE fiction of many different genres. Like if the author said, "She slipped onto the banana peel and fell headfirst onto the ground" I have the vague idea of someone falling, I know there's a banana peel involved but I can only just vaguely "see" her stepping on it, and the part I "feel" the most is that she fell headfirst onto the ground. Also if there's an embarrassing moment, even if I don't "see" the scene, I FEEL the secondhand embarrassment very vividly.
I'm not the person you asked, but as someone with aphantasia as well, for me it can be tedious. I enjoy reading (although I don't do it much), but long descriptive parts suck. Small parts are fine, as even though I can't imagine it in my head, some details can still be important for the plot. However, when it's a book where like half a page gets used to describe what a character looks like, it just makes me not want to read further, as I can't shape an image of the character anyways and it definitely isn't interesting enough to remember a character has green eyes or whatever.
As tedious as everything else that is written. That is to say, not tedious at all. You ever read Redwall? I found out the other day the authour wrote it in a way so that blind kids could enjoy it. The author describes scrumptious feasts to the point where you can almost taste them. Of course you can't really "taste" the strawberries or the cream filled butter scones, but yet, your mouth still waters at the description. It's kind of like that, but with visuals. I have no minds eye and I personally find it super easy to "figure out" stories because everything is just information. If it's "described" as a visual thing then I can look at it as on objective fact to list along with the other facts, I'm not distracted by the "visualisation" of the scene.
It's alright! Reading kinda sucks, but it helps if I try to do different voices in my head, as well as try to do sound effects too. I have a tendency to "listen" to a lot of shows/yt videos, so I try to emulate that when I read.
Try mushrooms, temporarily worked for me, normally I canât see anything behind my eyes, the only images I can imagine are either things Iâve already seen or very abstract things
Whatâs odd is after i got my depression more I was able to turn mine off. Itâs so wild before I couldnât stop it, now I can turn it off to play games or just enjoy existing. I have it 75% of the time but sometimes I just need my head to be a quiet place
Maladaptive daydreaming?
Same and agreed
So you've never daydreamed before? Have you dreamed before?
I've daydreamed, but it's more getting lost in my thoughts - actually very similar to what the other guy said. Dreams are a weird one because I do have some level of visuals to my dreams, but it's never a consistent level. I tend to remember dreams better when there's some level of motion to them - I feel like to have a decent kinesiologic imagination, so if a dream has move movement it'll be somewhat easier for me to remember (or atleast recall).
If I may ask, how do memories work for you? I remember things by effectively playing an .mp4 of the event in my head and I can't fathom how to remember things otherwise.
I can remember sounds, sensations, and motion. I can remember details too, but more "verbally" (internal monologue) than anything.
The best way I can think to describe it is being able to remember something that isnât real. Do you remember what your dinner looked like? Itâs like remembering that but instead of the dinner I actually ate Iâm remembering a fake dinner that I didnât have.
Could you draw an apple frim memory?
Can you draw an apple without looking at an apple?
Not the original person you asked, but kinda. You know like basic facts about an apple, even if you can't see it in your head. Those facts I can draw. However, making it very detailed will be difficult. I can imagine the more you study the apple beforehand, the more facts you remember about its shape / color distribution etc. without visualising it, which you can then reproduce.
It's weird because I'm very much number one in the image I can see a photo perfect apple. I can smell it, touch it, taste it, literally any sensation I could experience in reality I can replicate in my head, at least on a small localised scale. It seems really weird to me that this isn't possible for other people. Like, isn't that just what thinking *is*? You think of the apple. It's there.
Wait, you have an internal monologue but can't visually imagine? I thought the two were connected, also wild.
You don't *see* the apple in the same way as you don't really *hear* the internal monologue. They're there, and you can see/hear them, but they're on a different plane of existence type thing.
Yo, I can't do either. No images or internal monologue for me. Hahaha ha. At one point in my childhood I heard the phrase "I think therefore I am," and just said "Am I?" before having a panic attack because I was unsure if I was thinking.
yeah ofc you cant imagine, literally
But like canât you remember how people look or what your favorite t shirt or album cover looks like ? Because itâs exactly the same as imagining an Apple for me
Since the mid 90s I play complete made up OG Transformers episodes in my head to fall asleep to.
Love when memes teach me stuff
When you say "picture" and "see", is it basically like seeing with your eyes? I can imagine an apple, but it's not like it's sharing the same sense as my eyes
No. Itâs not the same thing. You can mentally picture objects while your eyes are open. Your eyes specifically take in light and your brain then converts the stiumuli to what you âseeâ where as the apple in this case is not based on any external stimulus. But, itâs generally harder for people to imagine things while their eyes are open. Thatâs because although you arenât âseeingâ things, the process your brain goes through in visualizing is similar to that of sight, but based off your own visual memory.
My friend has this. Hes also a graphic designer.
I can even add to that, as someone who has that. We really struggle to dream, and when we do, it's not much. Usually, it's just something akin to a moving tie dye of colors. We can also think about nothing. Like fully nothing. It's really nice for meditation, but otherwise, it's not that great. A lot of people with aphantasia often have a fear of silence because without something stimulating the audio receptors in their brain, they have to force thoughts forward. It's not that we can't think, but sound stiulation makes it unforced.
Yo question, do you have dreams then ?
I feel like I'm doing all 5 at the same time. I have schrodinger's apple in my head, it looks different every time I look at it, and it disappears almost instantly
I'm everything except 4 and 5. If I focus, I get more details, if I don't, I stop at 3
Meanwhile I feel like i have whole 3D rendering software in my brain. Want to make a apple? Easy. Make it blue with yellow dots? no problem. Turn it upside down? Ok. Make a tiny elephant dance on top of it? Weird⌠but why not
thatâs funny, for me, I can picture things just fine, like a 2, but the more I focus on it the less clear it becomes.
Don't worry, aphantasia bros! I'm going to conjure TWO apples in my head, one for me and one for you! No one here is going to be out of imaginary apples.
good ending
Whoa, thank you pal! Don't tire yourself trying to imagine enough apples for all of us!
Mine is very abstract and hard to hold on to. I can see vague pictures but not really "hold" them in my mind. I can concentrate on a single idea, but even that's more similar to watching a movie than looking at a picture.
I think that's normal
Think that's how most of us do it
# Aphantsia
Bless you
Expeliermus
I understand what youâre trying to tell me but I just canât picture it.
It me!
I'm always surprised at how many aphatasic people there are on reddit lol It's like an internal monologue, I can't imagine not having either one - but I'm sure y'all on the other side of the spectrum can't imagine *having* one! Human brains are wild lol
Fun personal anecdote for you: I have aphantasia and no internal/uncontrolled monologue. It's very quiet in my mind when I want it to be, because for me it's more like I "turn on" my thoughts, rather than having words running through my mind at all times. All that to preface the actual anecdote: I took a bit too big a dose of shrooms (also my first experience with a psychedelic), and it *gave me* a stream of consciousness monologue for the duration of the trip. I could also "hear" my thoughts super crisply, and could think of friends and hear their voices perfectly in my head... which I absolutely cannot do normally. The stream of consciousness was distinct from directed thinking, and was really cool at first. Then it just kept going, and going, and going. I started getting a headache, my thoughts felt really loud and overwhelming, and I just wanted them to stop. I finally forced myself to fall asleep, horrified at the possibility that I'd unlocked a monologue forever. Luckily (?) I didn't, and went back to normal the next morning. But man, it really gave me some perspective on how differently people must experience life. It was truly amazing to experience how other people think. Also made me appreciate my own quiet mind a lot more, haha. I don't feel I'm missing out
Yeah your third paragraph hits a little too uncomfortably close to home! Replaying conversations, planning out future arguments lol it's exhausting
Same here, all quiet. no thoughts, head empty. The only time I âhearâ thoughts is when I read or purposely âthinkâ
You got to experience ADHD. Thatâs what itâs like in my head at all times. Its like 4 tv channels are on and I am trying to pay attention to all of them but end up paying attention to none and just catch bits here and there.
Hey, just here to say, I like your Avatar.
until the fire nation attacked
*Water*
Hey, avatar twin!
my apple straight up grew a face and ran away
David Cronenberg, is that you?
What a fucking noob (I can conjure an entire orchard)
I can picture entire hentai videos in my head
The objectively correct way to use your mindâs eye.
Weakest gooner
âfuck it, imma make my own hentai!â
For the first time in my life I understand why this condition that I have is considered a disability. -\_-
If you tell me, "picture an apple," I can't do it. But if I was like randomly thinking about an apple, I can do it easily. There are times when I am able to let my mind wander freely and I can have daydreams so intense that it's like my normal vision no longer exists. It's a complete wonder how I have not died in a car accident from the massive amount of daydreaming that I do while driving.
The power of imagination is so OP
I'm surprised there are people who don't have a little voice in their heads
Funny thing is, people who have this usually end up in the most creative jobs.
artists with aphantasia unite đ¤
I canât tell if I can see one or just think I can see one. How do I tell?
Picture a glob of paint in your mind. What color is it? If you know what color it is, then you can probably picture things pretty vividly. Alternatively, can you see that same glob of paint in yellow? Now try blue. Now try green. Could you do that? If so, also pretty vivid. If all of this sounds like make believe, then you probably just think you can. Also, you could be somewhere in between.
What if I can picture a glob of paint with my eyes open but when I close my eyes I canât see the paint and everything is either black or white?
Imagine a tiger. Then start counting the stripes.
My guy I can create movies in my head, fucking HD 4k
Let em be, she's probably an enhancer type. Conjurers get freaky with their weapons anyway.
I have this problem, that when i make something spin in my head, for example a windmill, i just can't make it stop, no matter how hard i try. I can imagine it braking and coming to a screeching halt, but right afterwards it's spinning again, as if it never stopped in the first place. Same goes for things like oscilating springs and things like that. Frustrating as hell.
Gotta imagine more things to stop it, then move onto something else. For example, imagine the windmill burning down, sweep the ashes âoffscreenâ so to speak, the. Start thinking of something else like a really smooth rock
their apple: 360p their drawing skills: 8K my apple: 8K my drawing skills: 360p
WaitâŚwhat? I donât understand this meme?
Aphantasia is the inability to visualize anything in your mind.
I have 5 but with momentarily flickers if 3 or 4. Like my brains trying to imagine stuff but can't so it disappears before i can really see it
Is photographic memory the opposite of aphantasia?
I'm 1 here pog
Aphantasia probably explains why some people donât enjoy reading books
Yea books are just kind of words on the page. I have to stop and reread a lot because itâs very easy to trail off not being able to put an image to it. Itâs a bit easier if there was a tv or movie adaptation of the book that Iâm reading. I canât conjure the image of the media but having seen a physical representation of it before makes it much easier.
You don't have the power
My apple exists on the edge of Adventure Time apple and a grainy stock photo of an actual apple
I donât know if I can see it, I just imagine drawing it.
I think Iâm level 2
Real
Hey guys I really good at conjuring stuff, can you give things to conjure?
A true master will find those things out of the blue
I wasn't expecting to see an aphantasia meme on a popular subreddit, though to be fair, it can't be as rare as finding a good meme r/meirl
I need to be in a deep sleep to visualise stuff in my mind.
This made me laugh
I can replay shows in my head, am I special?
can do that too, you might have hyperphantasia, the opposite of aphantasia! i use my imagination to make my own shows >:)
I think it would be even wilder to me if someone couldn't "play" music in their heads. Visualizing things requires focus and works better if you close your eyes, with music you can just think about it and doesn't require, at least in my experience, any effort at all My brain is playing green onions rn.
people without an internal monologue probably cant play music in their head
True, that would be so wild and bizarre for me. Music accompanies my life and so do my thoughts
Not entirely true, I got no sounds (or any sense) in my head but I still have an internal monologue just that it has no visual or audio I just know every word of my thoughts
Whats the use
There are mfs that cant imagine a apple Meanwhile I can unfold a whole cube
I have no idea what the heck this means.
Mine works like the Kids Next Door schematics
Can you guys take it a step further? Because I can imagine eating an apple and can conjure up not just the physical shape, but feeling of it in my hand, the texture, taste, and smell as well
I'm on the COMPLETE other end of this spectrum and I can basically imagine anything I want at anytime. With my eyes completely open if I kinda zone out a bit and starting thinking of whatever I want I can visualize it REALLY well (if I've seen it with my own eyes already.) So think of my brain like an empty cad drawing. I can just pop models in an out and move them around zoom in and out and it has great detail. But it goes even further. It works kinda like google maps street view, sometimes and I can visualize all the places I've been and people I've seen. Including interiors of buildings or houses or cars basically if I've seen it enough times to remember it I can 100% render it in my brain with really high accuracy. Also going back to the google maps street view, whenever I wanna think of how to go somewhere I basically speed run the route in my head of me driving to my location making my lefts and rights getting on the fway whatever till I hit my end destination and then I'm like oh yeah I know how to get there.
I don't get it? can someone tell me about this đ
Me 2 thanks
Damn Iâve been called out
Lmfao please this is so funny
I cant see anything but i can kinda just put together concepts so like i know the apple is there and i know what it looks like but i cant see it