You don't have to be actually seeing it with your eyes. You're seeing it in your mind. That's why it's called your mind's eye.
@OGimouse1
Жыл бұрын
But a- is without? Without seeing the image? Wait, Google exists: "Aphantasia is the inability to visualize. Otherwise known as image-free thinking. People with aphantasia don't create any pictures of familiar objects, people, or places in their mind's eye. Not for thoughts, memories, or images of the future. We lack this quasi-perceptual “picture-it” system completely." So, it's nothing? They can only think in concrete *terms* and cannot abstract from what they've seen? It's like aphasia but...for eyes?
@lexwithbub
Жыл бұрын
@@OGimouse1 I'm specifically referring to people THINKING they have aphantasia because they're not seeing an ACTUAL image. If you're seeing it in your mind's eye, then you don't have aphantasia.
@DeathnoteBB
Жыл бұрын
But what does that MEAN
@jas.per.25
Жыл бұрын
@@DeathnoteBB think of when you press on your eyelid and see colors. you are SEEING colors, you can't stop thinking of it to make it go away. that's visual. when you "see" the horse, you can picture that horse and "see" it, but it's not on the inside of your eyelids or flashing parts of your cornea. Aphantasia is the inability to do that. so unless someone had a horse shaped stamp pressing on their eyelid, they can't see it. is that helpful?
@denawagner360
Жыл бұрын
Well put. Thank you.
@Trintron46
Жыл бұрын
I have aphantasia and see absolutely nothing. When I think of things I get a list of facts that come to my mind about it. Like I can "think of a black horse," but it will just be me thinking "horse" "black."
@zesstra4587
Жыл бұрын
This is my hubby. No mental images in his brain. Period.
@poloparker0420
Жыл бұрын
That's a thing....for real? Shitty. I can't even imagine what that would be like.......I can't picture it. 😂🤣😁 I think it's safe for me to say I believe it would suck.
@sil_mang
Жыл бұрын
@Polo Parker I share your shock everytime I'm reminded this is a thing. I can't imagine how much harder it is to learn that way, too. So many times, I have remembered a diagram or a picture to help me learn. Or imagine how boring reading must be without mental imagery. What about day dreaming? It's really wild the more you think about it.
@gsfriends5340
Жыл бұрын
Wait like you mean the words only not the actual image of a horse?
@poloparker0420
Жыл бұрын
@@sil_mang Yes. So don't continue please... stop finding more reasons to think about it. 🤔 I just heard today, I might still not even believe it even though the facts are there, like when someone trusted betrays you or your best friend dies....It is just something that has to settle within as is. My mind is blown, but it's eye remains unscathed. Daydreams are like 42% of my life. It would be pointless to read because of your point and also when I need to reach in for knowledge retained from a book I actually see it...like on the page I read it from, it's location/position, etc.... It's how I have always done math...with a piece of chalk on blank mental board....I can see faces of people who have been gone for years...not just memorized photos but different expressions, outfits, etc...as well as hear their voices with accent and tones. I hated it for most my life due to childhood trauma and flashbacks that were sometimes crippling....in hindsight (no pun intended) it was the driving factor for seeking treatment into recovery from them. I feel blessed.....wildly. I can't stop thinking about reasons to be just from this one seemingly small aspect.
@MichaelJohnson-kq7qg
Жыл бұрын
If you are asked to describe that horse, and your brain feeds you a list of characteristics that describe a horse - but you can't construct or recall an image in your mind, you might be aphantasic.
@VincentMothling
Жыл бұрын
I can only picture things if I’m half asleep or if im not activly trying if I try to pitire something on perpos my head just hurts
@AllanaRace
Жыл бұрын
@@VincentMothling do you have a really vivid auditory/sensational memory? I have aphantasia, like I've participated in studies with a local university. I remember sounds smells and FEELINGS really really well. Like I can replay a scene in my head and its like being there again just with my eyes closed, I hear it so well.
@VincentMothling
Жыл бұрын
@@AllanaRace I remebr thouse to well to the point where due to my autsim if I have a touch I don’t like soemtimes I ahve to just scream for a Minuit straight to make it stop repeating We ahev now bought me wool gloves so I can handle the wrongs with our screaming
@mmeellem
Жыл бұрын
Well, I don't actually 'see' things (like a picture), but I am aware of an impression of the object and could vividly describe it and tell you if a picture of it was correct or not. Is that aphantic?
@AllanaRace
Жыл бұрын
@@mmeellem one of the greatest misrepresentations of aphantasia is it being a "you have it or you dont" but like most things to do with out brains its more of a spectrum. Id say yeah, you probably are on it. I've meet people who feel like they have a picture for a second and its gone. Ultimately their experiences are closer to mine then to someone who doesn't have aphantasia so maybe. A lot like Autism in that way, where often times feeling like "hey maybe I'm autistic?" Is, in itself, a sign you have autism because you wouldn't wonder if you didn't relate to the described experience.
@lycaonpictus_
Жыл бұрын
As someone who is definitely aphantasic, listening to people describe their, “mind’s eye,” simultaneously fascinates and totally baffles me.
@Kittysews
Жыл бұрын
When I discovered that people could actually "see" stuff and it wasn't just a metaphor my mind was completely blown🤣
@kellyosullivan990
Жыл бұрын
Right?!
@katieegan6097
Жыл бұрын
@@KittysewsME TOO!!!!’
@waltzforweirdos
Жыл бұрын
Can you imagine other senses? I have a friend with aphantasia, but they have no trouble imagining touch. It was really helpful in explaining how the minds eye is like seeing but at the same time not.
@jesarablack1661
Жыл бұрын
So many meditation techniques etc as a kid rely on "imagine a room" etc and I would be like, that Must be a metaphor... okay, I have the concept of a room... oh you want a table in the room, noted... Like I could apply details on request, but at the absolute best we're talking Atari graphics, just enough to encapsulate the concept. Oddly enough though, when I Dream (actual asleep dreaming, not half-asleep, daydreaming, etc) it is full sensory immersion.
@Mandalaaxo
Жыл бұрын
I figured out my daughter has this from a young age, before being influenced by the aphantasia explosion. This was probably about 5 years ago and I remembered faintly hearing about people who can't see with their mind's eye. We were reading books out loud and she kept asking questions that I thought were strange and she always wanted me to show her a picture of everything. Now that she is old enough to explain, she said it's more like she has a hard time keeping a picture in her head, she can see it faintly, but she can't keep it there. It's fleeting. She has a sense of how something should look, but can't see it clearly. I know there's a spectrum, but I think her experience is probably the middle of the road. As someone on the complete other end of the spectrum where I can see anything I want at any time in extreme detail, aphantasia fascinates me
@OGimouse1
Жыл бұрын
Whoa. It sounds like the mirror of prospagnosia. Except, instead of being unable to see the face in front of you, you can only remember if you saw a face
@kylaluv8453
Жыл бұрын
@@andromedaspark2241 I am not sure if I have this or not, but I don't really see images in my head. The best I can describe it is I have an outline that isn't there. Like I caught a glimpse from the corner of my eye but when I turn to look there is nothing there. I consciously tell myself it is red, but I don't see red. But I can also sit in my head and puzzle out how to build something but I still need to draw it on paper to make sure it will work. I am absolutely horrible with directions and constantly getting list in my own neighborhood. My body insist North is east, East is south, South is west, and West is north. I wish I can explain it, I consciously know Flagstaff is North of me, but my brain insists if I keep driving in that direction I'll end up in New York. I also recently discovered that I am really bad at faces. A change in facial hair, hair style, even lighting can cause me to not recognize someone. I can't tell the Hollywood Chris's apart at all. I also don't really have an internal monolog either. I kind of whisper to myself when I think or read. Yet, despite all that I love reading.
@samanthakennedy121
Жыл бұрын
That description is exactly what I experience. I also thought that picturing something was a strange metaphor that I didn't understand. I also have no control over what really faint pictures show up. There's nothing most of the time.
@samanthakennedy121
Жыл бұрын
@@andromedaspark2241 it takes me a while to recognize people, and it's usually contextual. It's not full on face blindness, but I am bad at remembering people. My sense of direction is also non-existent. I can memorize routes but I have no clue how stuff connects if it's not on a grid system.
@humanebeing6230
Жыл бұрын
My daughter came to me to tell me a word she’d learned, and all of a sudden had a way of knowing it’s not just her, and being able to tell us about it. It truly is fascinating.
@problematic_frog
Жыл бұрын
"I can envision the vision without actually seeing it with my vision" is such a mood. I don't have aphantasia and I don't really know what it is but that's still hella relatable.
@progressiveGal73
Жыл бұрын
😂I have it and I love your response
@hannahc5115
Жыл бұрын
Aphantasia is when you don’t have a minds eye. If you have it, then when you think of a horse, you can list details about a horse, you know it’s brown, and has four legs, but you can’t envision it. It’s like your brain is a computer that works perfectly, but the screen is broken. (From what I understand, anyway.)
@problematic_frog
Жыл бұрын
@@hannahc5115 Ohh, ok! Thank you for explaining it! I still don't think I have it, I struggle a lot with visualization but it's not impossible for me.
@Tasha22Bella
Жыл бұрын
WHAT YOU SAID!!!!!
@hannahc5115
Жыл бұрын
@@problematic_frog That’s how I am too! I can’t always do it on command, but I definitely do it sometimes. Though I don’t think my visualizations are as vivid as most people’s
@katieegan6097
Жыл бұрын
I only heard of aphantasia a few years ago, but it explained SOOOO MUCH!! I have never been able to see anything with my mind’s eye. I thought everyone else was like me and they just liked to SAY they could “picture” something in their mind when, really, they were just closing their eyes and trying to remember. In other words, I assumed it was just a question of semantics. I was STUNNED to learn people could actually “see” things in their mind!!!
@jacksmith-vs4ct
Жыл бұрын
yeah same I'm jsut so happy I learned how to lucid dream lol makes up for it controlling your dreams hell yeah only issue is you can't get too into the dream or you will wake up lol
@altnarrative
Жыл бұрын
Same. And during guided meditations when the voice says something like "picture yourself on a beach", I just thought it was "think about yourself on a beach". I of course also had that sad moment of realising eventually that people were actually seeing the image behind their eyes. I thought what I was doing was normal.
@naughtynurse8216
Жыл бұрын
I listened to a pod cast “Other people’s lives”. They had someone on there with this. She said she couldn’t even envision her mothers face. She wouldn’t be able to describe it. She recognizes her but she couldn’t tell someone what she looked like. Fascinating.
@alarcon99
Жыл бұрын
Lol. That’s me
@jacksmith-vs4ct
Жыл бұрын
yeah I could probably give it a shot but basically yeah thats how it is for some though I will admit I don't spend a lot of time looking at peoples faces.
@qine6559
Жыл бұрын
And with herself. I have it. So even our own face.. I don't know it until I recognize it in the mirror every day. If I didn't have a mirror and hadn't studied my face in or to my memory, I would not remember it and concept would be the same
@am-lo1pz
Жыл бұрын
I only recently heard about this and it blew my mind that it's not normal. I can tell you my mother has short grey hair and green eyes because I know that, but I can't picture her. Maybe for a fraction of a second I can recall a specific picture of her but it's literally like someone very quickly holding up a picture then pulling it away - you might get a glimpse but can't really parse it.
@naughtynurse8216
Жыл бұрын
@@alarcon99 No way! That’s too cool. What are the odds you’d see my comment. Lol.
@hyperfocusworkshop
Жыл бұрын
I have aphantasia and can't even pretend to tell you what something looks like when it's not there. I know my sister's horse is brown, but I can't picture him the way that I "hear" a song that's stuck in my head right now. This is a very big reason why I can't tell people apart, too. I have recollections of how they move, what they sound like, etc., but only the vaguest notion of what they look like: and that memory is stored in words.
@jellojackalopes
Жыл бұрын
That's pretty much exactly how I roll too. My memory is nothing but words. And just like note taking in class, if I didn't specifically register a description, I could not ever tell you what it looked like. But if I do go out of my way to describe a visual, I can remember that for a very long time. Even now I can remember the dumbest things. Like that one room in a college tour had a gray fridge with two sticky notes saying the same thing. That tour was seven years ago and we were in that room for only a few minutes. I remember a lot of incredibly irrelevant things like that.
@piggieria
Жыл бұрын
What I find ironic is I see almost photographic images of things. But it is rare that I can turn that image in my mind into a good description or even drawing and I am pretty good at drawing.
@byusaranicole
Жыл бұрын
Face blindness and aphantasia are not the same thing. I'm great with faces. When I see them, I know who they are or at least that I've seen them before. But with my eyes closed, I can't picture them at all.
@JessicaDarling2
Жыл бұрын
I am realizing now my lack of visual memory likely greatly impacts my ability to place faces and names. Hm. 🤔
@roguewolf7053
Жыл бұрын
@@piggieria I have similar issues. With people I can meet them once & will remember them for years. But to remember someone’s name can take months & if I don’t hear or especially see their name for a few months I will forget it! Similarly I’m horrible at directions using actual street names or orientation directions such as north, south, etc. However I *can* give detailed directions by describing everything you can see along the way. But this means I can easily become lost if things are dramatically changed along a route(even 1 taken often!)or if I have to travel to a location at night for the first time. Thankfully GPS based map apps now save me from having to stop to try & ask for directions! This also applies for finding things in my environment. Which is why I hate if someone else tidies or cleans my space. I have a proven near photographic memory for things I see/read & to only a slightly lesser degree things I hear. But I sometimes have trouble getting what is in my mind out into words. I wish I could draw or paint but I always become discouraged when I try bc nothing I am able to create comes close to what I see in my mind. 😕
@Strega_del_Corvo
Жыл бұрын
I got into this argument on a FB thread once and it was literally driving me insane. I was desperately trying to get someone to understand that I don’t actually see the apple (or horse in your example) with my eyes. I don’t hallucinate an image but I see it in my brain. You know how hard that is to explain to someone who can’t do that?! 😂
@AG-iu9lv
Жыл бұрын
My eyes closed reality is the same as my eyes open reality. I can see the green apple, smell it, turn it around, cut it, eat it. All in my mind, just like it was real.
@AnthonyDStaton
9 ай бұрын
I have noticed the same with me. What messes me up is that I can “imagine” something better with my eyes open rather than closed. That staring into space feeling and actually having scenes run through my mind with no images but at the same time very vivid. If that even makes sense. If I close my eyes and try to picture something, the blackness will kind of distract me. Just the blackness with whatever light through eye lids is all I see.
@pattonlyabsurd2807
Жыл бұрын
As someone who has aphantasia, I think the best way to describe it is that you know what something looks like, but you can’t get a detailed image in your head. Like I know what a horse looks like, but without a picture or a horse near by I can’t get a detailed image. It’s like a very vague silhouette at best. It’s like not having a reading voice but for images. (I think, I also do not have a reading voice or like any voice for my thoughts so I could be wrong abt that analogy)
@stevendorries
Жыл бұрын
You have no internal monologue?
@sabrinaheizenrader5635
Жыл бұрын
Aphantasia wouldn’t even have a vague outline. Visualisation is a spectrum and aphantasia is only the complete lack of any visualisation, not just being on the low end of the spectrum.
@davidtaylor142
Жыл бұрын
Does that make it hard to read books and stuff? Because when I read, a movie basically plays in my head. Is that not something you can do?
@jesarablack1661
Жыл бұрын
@@davidtaylor142 I Love reading, especially fantasy and sci-fi, and I get no visuals out of it, more just acknowledgement of features, sometimes a sense of relative position for action scenes etc.
@aquiamorgan2416
Жыл бұрын
@@stevendorries I don't have aphantasia, but I also don't have an inner monologue. Of course, I can hear my voice or others intentionally, same as with images, but my thoughts are generally unsymbolic. No words or images, just meanings.
@Time.and.Spoons
Жыл бұрын
I've a friend who thought it was all a metaphor. He literally can't envision anything in his mind.
@lycaonpictus_
Жыл бұрын
I thought that before I realised I have aphantasia too.
@xaisat
Жыл бұрын
Same here. I only learned a couple years ago (I'm 42) that it isn't just an expression, it's a real thing. It blew my mind that it was a real thing, people can actually envision things with their brains!?! I just take loads of pictures so I can remember the way a thing looked.
@firstaidowl
Жыл бұрын
I told my sister that I assumed when teachers and parents said to picture what was happening in books, i thought it was a metaphor lol
@kartos.
Жыл бұрын
Do you dream?
@taylorjade6918
Жыл бұрын
The best description I've found for it.
@Kaotiqua
Жыл бұрын
My partner suffers from aphantasia. I showed him this video, and he says: "I literally see nothing- I mean, there's no visual picture, and no mind picture. If I saw a horse, and you asked me to describe what I saw, I can describe what I saw, but I don't experience seeing it while I'm describing it."
@anivijudi
Жыл бұрын
I came to understand what people with aphantasia feel like when I started thinking about other senses than the visual one. I can envision things in detail in my mind easily so it baffled me that some people couldn't at all. But then I had a chat with a friend talking about how much comfort they got from remembering their grandmother singing songs to them, and how soothing their voice is. I can remember what people have said to me, but I cannot call to mind the sound of people's voices, I will know my parents voice when I hear them in a crowd of hundreds, but 5 minutes after talking to them I will be completely unable to recall the sound of their voice. I think Aphantasia is like that.
@dag1704
7 ай бұрын
Yeah, thats a good analogy
@Sc4r4byte
Жыл бұрын
Aphantasics aren't only people missing a mind's eye - maybe they are missing a mind's tongue/nose/skin/ear... - it's not unusual for them to have several of these senses unattached to memory, but the eye one is probably the most discussed one since it's easier to describe it with visuals than the other senses. Like, can you hear "Hey Vsauce, Michael here" ?
@Willow_Sky
Жыл бұрын
Wait wait wait wait WHAT!?!?!?! Is this why I can't describe flavors or tell you what I think something being cooked needs to taste better/just right?
@SaraHinata
Жыл бұрын
DAMN!!! I read that with his voice! Your comment makes so much sense! I'm still baffled that some people can't visualize in their heads... If I can't pictured it in my mind, I will not understand what the f*ck you're trying to teach me. That's probably why math is so f*cking difficult past a certain level for me.
@katfoster845
Жыл бұрын
Interestingly, I don't have a minds eye. I have a near perfect mind's ear, like I can reproduce songs in my brain. Not just the vocal line, the full song. I can play the full Nutcracker suite in my brain. No reference to sheet music or anything. I know hundreds of songs by heart. It's ridiculous. I have (when I'm wearing my glasses) perfect eyesight, but I've lost about 2/3 of my hearing. Tell me how tf that works.
@tiffanym1108
Жыл бұрын
@@katfoster845 when you lose your senses, you're brain over compensates your other senses. Mayne your brain is trying to recreate what it thinks it's hearing?
@OGimouse1
Жыл бұрын
I'm NGL, I didn't realize I was taking sense memory for granted Do they dream?
@heartofdawnlight
Жыл бұрын
the more i focus on "seeing it" the less i see it, cause i just kinda get the impession or feeling of seeing what im supposed to be seeing and trying distracts me
@AndreaLikesMusic
Жыл бұрын
I made up and got lost in entire worlds as a kid. Usually during class, but hey- I was exercising my mind’s eye!
@sabrinaheizenrader5635
Жыл бұрын
I did that too but I wasn’t seeing any of it!
@ChrisD23
Жыл бұрын
Mooood; childhood paracosm gang!
@TeganThrussell
Жыл бұрын
My father has aphantasia, and he described it very well to me. It started when I mentioned it as a condition I had to know about back when I was studying to be a teacher a few years ago. He asked what it was, and I have him a very loose, general description of it. Nothing too detailed. He got a funny look and went away to research it himself (he's very good at researching and sifting through the bullshit online). A week or two later he brought it up again and said that everything made so much more sense to him now, because his entirely life he had struggled to understand the idea of imagination. People would say "Imagine a field" and he could certainly think about a field, but he couldn't just come up with one. I can think of one, and it had a river, a few trees and some sheep grazing. I can see it with my eyes open. My dad just thinks of it as a fact, instead of a vibe. There's no mood or aesthetic to it. He knows what a field is, but he can't see it. So his entire life he was struggling with art, writing descriptively of things he couldn't actually see, and even meditation. Meditations tells you to picture things, and he simply can't. He described it like this. Say you've been told to imagine an apple. You can do that. It might be red, pink, green, maybe a leaf and a funny little worm sticking out of it. He can THINK about the apple he ate for lunch. He knows what an apple looks like. He just can't SEE it. It's weird to think about, but now that he knows what's different about him, he's actually been able to improve in those fields, cause he's not trying to do something he can't, without even understanding it. He now accepts it and finds visual prompts and references to compensate. So instead of trying to imagine a field, he will find a photo or painting of a field to think about, and achieve the same thing. I hope that helps some people understand it. He certainly helped me understand it a lot better than a textbook did.
@TheKayaLM
Жыл бұрын
Thank you, before this video I haven't thought of it like as a thing. But I think things too, and visual art is just meh to me.
@samanthakennedy121
Жыл бұрын
This is a really good description.
@nenah-33
Жыл бұрын
My mind's eye or inner voice does not ever rest - it's like a constant narration with film reels. I've realised since this debate took the internet over, life would be so strange without it because it's all I've known. I have disappeared into my own worlds in my head since I was little. It continues on my dreams which are often lucid and scary AF. With a severe dose of parasomnia and some sleep paralysis thrown in. My Dad has all the sleep stuff yet is the complete opposite when conscious - he has no mind's eye or inner voice. He dreams in pictures though. Neither of us can quite imagine what the others waking internal life is like as it seems so alien.
@toothless3835
Жыл бұрын
My inner voice likes to be a novel sometimes. I'll have prose and dialogue without the dialogue tags ("so-and-so said" is a dialogue tags, fyi). But it's also sort of like movie clips. It's a mix. Very strange. Haha
@chikenLindaloo
Жыл бұрын
Oh you have just put my life into words! I was always told I had an over-active imagination, but I was at least in my late 40s before I able to dial it down when I needed to "be present" in a real situation.
@Nikki_Midnight
Жыл бұрын
My bf has aphantasia to the point where he doesn’t have facial recognition. There’s been times we’ve met up at a place after I’ve drastically changed my hair, where it took a few moments of him looking directly at me while I was walking up to him for him to realise it was me. The day he found out what aphantasia is and that he has it he was so glad because it meant that he could pinpoint what it all was about and adapt accordingly instead of trying to do things the way everyone else can
@qwandary
Жыл бұрын
Is that linked? I'm facially blind but that's distinct from my limited minds eye. Although it kinda works in similar ways I guess. To imagine something visually I have to mentally list traits and I try to put them together. I might get an outline (like imagine a black background with grey lines outlining an apple, and some redish swirls inside to represent colour), but if I have to add more details I can't focus on them all at once to combine them. It means reading detailed descriptions of characters in books without a picture is kinda tiring and pointless. However facial blindness is pretty different for me. I don't really know how to explain that but facially blind folks use a different part of the brain to process faces, we process them more like objects. It doesn't just impact how we imagine them but also how we see them in real time. How we differentiate faces in front of us, and how well we are at seeing faces upside down (to the point we're better at seeing them upside down than regular folk, because our face mapping process doesn't account for 'eyes on top'). So it's not as simple a case of us being 'bad' at faces but using a totally different system to categorise them. I don't think that's the case with aphantasia though...
@Magnum0097
Жыл бұрын
Yes having a diagnosis for something really helps one feel not alone and more able to cope.
@mindyenglish5305
Жыл бұрын
I've never been able to recognize or describe faces. When I lived with my aunt for a couple of years, she came into my work to see me one day. She walked right up to me, smiled at me, and I said, "Excuse me, ma'am," and I walked around her. I was trying to go to lunch. She got upset, and when I heard her voice, I had to play it off like it was a joke. I've always thought it was because I didn't bother looking at people's faces when I was young and very shy. And as an adult, I didn't look at people's faces because I was arrogant and I just didn't care about them as people. I've always just thought it was subconscious but still deliberate on my part. Over the years, I've found other ways to identify people I know. But I spend a little more time looking at their faces to try to remember everything I could. My son is approaching adulthood. He does the same thing. I've told him I was the same way, that he has to force himself to look at faces and don't be shy. I always thought it was a lack of effort on our parts. It never occurred to me that it's an actual condition
@qwandary
Жыл бұрын
@@mindyenglish5305 I had someone upset I did that on the bus to them. And I asked if they called my name and they said no, and I was like 'Ah that's probably why'. And neither of us could tell why the other was confused by the situation. They thought I should recognise them, I thought it kinda made sense I might not in an unfamiliar setting if they just caught my eyes for a split second and didn't say anything to me. I don't know why I was rude for not talking when they chose not to talk, surely they'd be equally rude. But I guess the blank stare and looking away probably discouraged them lol Once I learned about facial blindness I told my family then bumped into my brother, who I lived with, in the local store, and he kept watching me from around the store waiting for me to recognise him. He literally shoulder bumped me on purpose but just kept a straight face and when I said sorry, walked away and looked up a few times seeing him look at me, he kept a straight face. When I finally recognised him I told him I thought he was just a creep and I KNEW I was facially blind. The fact I told my family once I got home and no one was surprised tells me they might have been doing this for yrs lmao awks. At least they accept me.
@qwandary
Жыл бұрын
@@mindyenglish5305 He doesn't have to look at faces if he doesn't want to, neither do you. If you find it easier to connect to people that's great but just communicate how you like. I recognise people from the colours they pick normally for clothing and hair. Beards of glasses if they're statement pieces. I don't look at their faces when I talk as it's distracting but I STARE when they talk (unless they use too many facial expressions, because that's also distracting). That's because I'm autistic, and my eye contact is both too little and too much at the same time. I don't force myself to look at a face if I don't want to. Sometimes people pause what they're saying to check I'm listening and I tell them it's like how listening to music with your eyes closed sometimes helps you process it better, I sometimes look other ways to process better. And they carry on. I recognise people better now I stop trying to focus on facial recognition, as I'm not as good at that as I am at recognising them for their gait and colour schemes. I'm not sure why you became arrogant and why that made you not look at faces, but it if your son isn't making that mistake, let him find other ways to communicate and express his communication style. If he's possibly autistic too, he might find face observation uncomfortable, and it's just pointless being uncomfortable IMO. I doubt you'd push him to do it if it made you both uncomfortable, but I just wanted to cover that base /just in case/. :) Anyway, I'm glad you found ways to work with your neuro-divergent way of processing faces and communication and can help your son with it too. Good for you.
@udubeats4543
Жыл бұрын
It's actually that they can't see at all or very little with their mind's eye. I have hyperphantasia which is the exact opposite where I can vividly see the image as though it were real life. It's a scale and it can be tested. Did it as part of a friend's project in college.
@JhadeSagrav
Жыл бұрын
I remember trying to explain that i even have "touch" memory: i remember the texture of my college desk, and can feel the weight of the kitty i had years ago.
@shanon4768
Жыл бұрын
@JhadeSagrav oooh me too, aside from being able to vividly see things with or without my eyes closed, I can feel and imagine various sensations. I can vividly remember tastes and textures I've experienced but I can also imagine things I haven't, one that I do every now and then is imagining having wings and flexing and moving the muscles in them and in my back even though I'm not actually moving a single muscle
@theaniacz
Жыл бұрын
Same here heeyy gang 😅😁
@SnickerDoodleBug05
10 ай бұрын
@@JhadeSagrav it confuses me how people without aphantasia can't touch memories
@DeathnoteBB
9 ай бұрын
I have aphantasia and this blows me away. All I can do is imagine. Except not like, with actual images. Just blurry ideas of stuff
@invisiblechicken
Жыл бұрын
I really do have aphantasia. It is extremely difficult to picture anything in my head even if I have just been looking at it and I could have been looking at whatever it is for hours. It is incredibly frustrating and it means that it is hard for me to notice visual changes in real life. It doesn’t help that I also have ADHD, which affects my working memory. Aphantasia is linked with Autism. I am also Autistic. My experience with reading doesn’t involve any sort of mental pictures. If it is adapted into a show, I can look up pictures which allows me to remember the voice of the character, or their general manner. Honestly, I don’t know how I can love reading so much when my experience is so boring compared to other people. 😂
@invisiblechicken
Жыл бұрын
@@avian6026 that’s the thing. Apparently it’s not an effort? I mean, I describe something gross to my mum and she reacts like she is being forced to see it? 😂 also, people complain about characters not looking like how “they imagined”? I just don’t get it.
@ChrisD23
Жыл бұрын
@@invisiblechicken Lol, so on that last part, basically, whenever I read a book, I often make a mental scene, like a movie, of what's going on, with the characters and environment and actions and all; so when an actual movie of the book comes out and the characters or other things are not as they appeared in my mental movie, it's very awkward and offputting lol
@invisiblechicken
Жыл бұрын
@@ChrisD23 well, just so you know, that is basically magical thinking to me. My way of thinking is so different as to make that sound completely unreal.
@ChrisD23
Жыл бұрын
@@invisiblechicken haha, it's both interesting and funny how much the lack or presence of the ability to do a singular thing between different people can lead to such an effect on their individual lives and minds in comparison to each other
@nio804
Жыл бұрын
I can sort of visualize something? But I have to force myself. When reading, I tend to prefer less descriptive texts and focus more on what the characters are saying, thinking and feeling.
@ParisEllen
Жыл бұрын
I've had this conversation with my husband because our brains work very differently and it's always fascinated me to see the differences between us. Intellectually, he knows what the horse looks like, but is not able to mentally visualise it. He has no 'imagination' so to speak and can't 'picture' things. While I can imagine things and visualise things but they aren't in 'high def'. My sister-in-law can imagine things in high def, she can picture anything she can think of and can have the full experience down to the textures and smells and sounds. The human brain is a crazy thing.
@jacksmith-vs4ct
Жыл бұрын
yup
@firstaidowl
Жыл бұрын
I have aphantasia (box 1, empty) and for me personally, it impacts a lot of my life. If someone or something is not directly in front of me, i cant remember what they look like. I can vaguely describe features maybe. But i cant remember faces without photos of them. I love profile pics for my phone and stuff cuz otherwise i have basically the feeling of texting with a mystery screen human. Its weird. I think it definitely needs explained better than the "do u see box 1 or 6?" But for me, just knowing aphantasia was a thing helped me better understand why other people can imagine things I cannot.
@natt.power22
Жыл бұрын
Same here, it can be a struggle
@MichaelJohnson-kq7qg
Жыл бұрын
The biggest impact it had on me was any time there was a 'IQ test' type activity at school (or later, at work). Given my education and general intelligence, I would constantly get asked why I would do so well on three out of four sections and then do so badly in the fourth category. I didn't have an answer until I found out aphantasia is a thing. The 'spatial reasoning' model is entirely based on the assumption you can generate and manipulate mental images.
@HLBear
Жыл бұрын
@@MichaelJohnson-kq7qg This is so true! We know everyone learns differently and yet we don't widely acknowledge why. Brains are unique - learn, process, and recall uniquely. IQ tests don't capture the full range of human intelligence.
@invisiblechicken
Жыл бұрын
@@MichaelJohnson-kq7qg wow. I never really thought about my aphantasia and spatial reasoning before. Will be thinking about this more now.
@MichaelJohnson-kq7qg
Жыл бұрын
@@invisiblechicken you've probably learned the same coping skills I learned (literally teaching yourself how basic shapes present after certain types of orientation) so you can usually answer the questions... It's just not how other people might do it. It's just one more little obstacle to have to cross.
@franklynboiling2347
Жыл бұрын
Aphantasia is hard to describe because having it means you have no idea what it's like to see images thus you can't describe how it's different, but not having it means you have no way to consider how it might be to not be able to see images in your head. For me, I can only picture very faint and fleeting images and the vast majority of my thoughts is just my own internal monologue, accompanied by no sound nor picture at all (not even one that isn't painted on my eyelids)
@Helen247
Жыл бұрын
I never heard of this until my husband and I were having a conversation and I said something to the effect of 'what do you picture' and I couldn't believe it when he said that he doesn't.... Sounds so terrifying!
@invisiblechicken
Жыл бұрын
Fortunately for us, it actually isn’t terrifying at all. It is frustrating and inconvenient and we have to meditate differently, but when you grow up with that as your normal then that’s what it is.
@emersonpropst2886
Жыл бұрын
When it's all you know it's not particularly frightening. It can be sad not to be able to remember what loved ones look like, but now I just take pictures and that works. It actually sounds far more horrible to me to have things that can't be unseen - if I find an image unpleasant or disturbing all I have to do is stop looking and it's gone forever
@imintheraindripdripdrop
Жыл бұрын
I had a roommate with aphantasia. And he and I had this conversation several times. What he would tell me I that he had no minds eye whatsoever, no idea of even how to go about picturing something in his mind. I tried to teach him the rotating cow trick, but if it wasn't in front if his eyes, he wouldn't be able to see it.
@katieegan6097
Жыл бұрын
I’m pretty good at sketching something I see. But if I try to draw something from memory, the drawing looks like a 1st grader’s work.
@jacksmith-vs4ct
Жыл бұрын
you know its weird I guess I just have a really good memory for detail and good intuition as I never get turned around in video games but I can't remember that map in my head not as such.
@qine6559
Жыл бұрын
Omg. Like asking a colour blind to see a rainbow by focusing at one colour at the time 😅
@albc2979
Жыл бұрын
No I literally can not picture anything in my head. I also can not hear an inner voice. I get that other people can see and hear things in their head , but I do not have pictures or sounds in my imagination.
@kartos.
Жыл бұрын
This is wild to me because while I read your comment, I was hearing it in my head. 😂
@albc2979
Жыл бұрын
I think the worst part is unless I am looking at a picture I can not describe what someone looks like. I literally can not tell you what my mom looked like because she died years ago. A couple general impressions but no details because I can not imagine her in pictures.
@beep3242
Жыл бұрын
Yeah. In theory, if I were totally blind, I would still be able to see things in my mind's eye. I don't generally see things behind my eyelids.
@crystalm4324
Жыл бұрын
What if I shine a light at your eyelids? Would you see red or veins/capillaries? OR is it because you roll your eyeballs upwards or downwards and aren’t actually looking at the back of your eyelids?? Cause there’s definitely nothing to see back there….😂
@jacksmith-vs4ct
Жыл бұрын
@@crystalm4324 lol the minds eye not what your eyes actually see pretty sure you don't actually need eyes for it.
@crystalm4324
Жыл бұрын
@@jacksmith-vs4ct psst I was being facetious 😂
@elisabeth5111
Жыл бұрын
The examples like that one are a simplified, visual example of what ones mind's eye would visualize. It has nothing to do with what you would be physically seeing. I always use the example of asking someone to visualize or imagine an apple. Then, can they describe it's color etc etc. It's such a simple thing that so many people take for granted, but that simple internal visualization is something I cannot do. Do I know what an apple is could I describe an apple in a general sense? Sure, but I can't visualize one in my head.
@kcjr2323
Жыл бұрын
I felt this way when I found out that some people don't have an "internal voice" that has different voices, traps song lyrics in a loop in the background of the rest of your thoughts that all have their own fractal worlds.
@toothless3835
Жыл бұрын
Yeah, I forgot that someone people don't have that. I can hear my voice in my own head when I think. It's probably why I confuse some of my friends. I sometimes have part of our conversation in my head.
@kcjr2323
Жыл бұрын
@@toothless3835 I DO THE SAME THING! It has lead to my husband laughing and rolling his eyes at me and asking me to have the whole conversation with him this time. 😆
@kcjr2323
Жыл бұрын
@@andromedaspark2241 that is a fascinating thought study. I was telling my husband that singers that have lost their sight have some of the most beautiful, pure, interesting singing voices and I wonder if they are all interconnected.
@lightning4744
Жыл бұрын
@@toothless3835 WHAT? YOU CAN HEAR YOUR OWN VOICE WITHOUT ACTUALLY SPEAKING? I have full aphantasia, like I don’t see with my mind, can’t simulate voices, smells nor tastes. Until 2 days ago I thought that this was the normal, but now I see that I’m the different one. That’s why I don’t feel attached to things. I don’t even know how I look like without a mirror or a picture, I can pinpoint characteristics like a bullet list, but seeing? Not at all
@LordHonkInc
Жыл бұрын
Yes, that's what people are talking about. If I ask you to imagine a horse, and then you can't answer when I ask which direction is it looking, that's (visual) aphantasia. Of course there's more to it and different kinds and classifications, like myself for example, I can imagine the _concept_ of a horse, y'know "four legs, a head, neighs and eats hay", stuff like that, but if I just imagine "think of a horse", like… it doesn't have a color or relative size that I could tell you. I know of the _concept_ of color, y'know, brown, white, orange, striped; I know there's small ponies and large thoroughbreds… but it feels like a superposition of all possibilities, and yeah, I couldn't tell you what color the horse is, just what it could be, y'know. Damn, aphantasia is hard to describe, I totally get all the confusion about it xD
@ShawnaScott
Жыл бұрын
My wife has aphantasia, and se literally sees nothing. Her records of what things “look like” when she can’t see them are essentially bullet pointed text lists. It’s to the point that if I change my hair or put in a jacket, she’ll sometimes be unable to and me in n stores of we’ve split up.
@mack-about
Жыл бұрын
Ok, let me explain. Imagine you crashed at your friends house after getting pretty drunk. They just moved, you've never been there before. You're woken up by a lightning storm. It's pitch black, power must be off. The curtains are closed, so you only get a flash of diffused light every now and then. Slowly you orientate yourself, but as you try waking between the lightning flashes, you seem to drift left or right. So over and over, you think you're going straight towards the door, but then the light flashes and you see a TV (obviously also off) right in front of you - but there's reflections in it, so it takes your mind a moment to realize what's in front of you and what's reflected in the TV. Sometimes your mind gets it wrong and makes you think you saw a person. That's my experience with visual imagination. There are flashes, but by the time you're parsing them, you get confused by the unexpected shapes and your mind's jumping to conclusions. The memory of the flash gets mixed up with the afterimages and misinterpretations. So most of the time my imagination works like a text-only origami instructions - you can remember and understand them, including the relationships between different steps, but they're not enough to let you imagine what the outcome will look like. I hope I managed to make it more relatable...
@Delicate_Disaster
Жыл бұрын
My sister had aphantasia, which is really cool because she is an artist that comes up with things I'd never come up with. We were raised together and we are both artists, but in 100% different ways. She lost her mind when she found out I had an image of an apple in my mind and she didn't 🤣 I love her
@vinadevdutt4542
Жыл бұрын
I'm kinda interested. What kind of artwork your sister creates?
@mickeym5010
Жыл бұрын
I'm an artist and I think I also have some degree of aphantasia. I'd love to see your sister's art. I struggle with making things that are not realism with a reference or completely abstract, because it's hard for me to imagine what things look like.
@ellisburton8733
Жыл бұрын
Actually you summed it up perfectly. Made perfect sense Prof 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
@SeaFan1310
Жыл бұрын
I have nothing that I would say could be regarded as an image in my head. at best it's a vibe that invokes memories of places that I think look similar to. I never thought that when people say they can see it that it was as if an image was on their eye lid, but that an image (of verying detail levels) was in what ever the minds eye is. I don't fulling under stand it as "the mind's eye" was a metaphor for me until I learned that people could actual see in their minds.
@fanime1
Жыл бұрын
You probably have aphantasia then
@ohboof
Жыл бұрын
The way you described it was exactly how I see these sorts of things, but I also sometimes get it in words.
@blueyindustries8503
Жыл бұрын
Like being able to talk inside your head, or something else?
@aperson2024
Жыл бұрын
Yeah. Exactly. Say I'm thinking of an apple, I can't see an apple at all, but I know I'm thinking of an apple. People with an imagination see an actual image in their mind, colour and all.
@aperson2024
Жыл бұрын
Side note I don't know why I never thought this was strange until finding out about aphantasia. Idk about the kids that have it and grew up reading books, I could never visualise characters and focused a lot more on the dialogue and I just thought it was normal. I tried writing when I was younger and similarly I couldn't create landscapes very well at all.
@aperson2024
Жыл бұрын
Side side note: the one I think is REALLY interesting is that there are people who don't have an inner monologue
@Kai-rq7hn
Жыл бұрын
No it was incredibly helpful. I over think everything and you just confirmed that I can, in fact, imagine things in my “minds eye” I thought people could like see see the things. Almost like a hallucination. But what you’re saying makes so much more sense
@osheridan
Жыл бұрын
I don't have the best visual imagination, which as an artist can suck, but it's not automatically aphantasia. Side note: I thought she meant most people can only see 3-6 with their eyes open and was genuinely concerned
@awfuldynne
Жыл бұрын
I assumed my cruddy visual imagination would get better if I started doing art. Unfortunately, either my imagination in general is cruddy or I'm really prone to choice paralysis (not like those are mutually exclusive...); either way, it feels like I can't even do creative things well enough to have a basis for practice.
@rebeccasatterley1542
Жыл бұрын
Yeah, I have an issue with remembering and picturing the colors of things. And then I'm bad at remembering people and recalling their faces until I've seen them multiple times. Maybe my problem is just my memory, after all.
@broregard1924
11 ай бұрын
I think I have aphantasia, and nothing is more perplexing to me than you describing your experiences and how you “see the horse.” I think it’s perplexing both ways when looking at the other side.
@Msfr1sby
Жыл бұрын
When I look at the static picture of the horse, then close my eyes, not only can I envision the horse, but it starts walking slowly, bobbing its head, twitching flies away and I can hear wind riding grass and leaves from a tree behind me. Like, vivid.
@Goodwomanbadlady
Жыл бұрын
Yes! Like the complete opposite! Not only can you envision something, but it becomes animate! Once got sick when someone was reading "where the red Fern grows" to our small group and the scene description of the brother dog. Actually passed out from it.
@Willow_Sky
Жыл бұрын
I think this is aphantasia, but maybe I'm wrong. Idk. Sorry, I know this is super long but it's hard to describe It was always frustrating in English class as a kid when we'd get to the end of a chapter in a book and the teacher would ask us to write about the visuals we pictured in the scene. I don't have like a little movie going on in my head. If you ask me to envision a house and then ask me what I saw I could not tell you. I literally don't know how to put into words the little bit that I do kinda see. Characters don't have an appearance to me, they are their names. I could tell you their character description, but unless someone else has created an image, be it an illustration or someone playing that character in a show, I don't have a face or body for them. I have a slightly easier time when it comes to making myself envision a scene, but only with certain things. Scenes set in castle yards in books, especially Game of Thrones, are easiest for me because I can mentally build a top-down blueprint of what the yard should look like and have the mental equivalent of a token down on that blueprint that symbolizes characters. The biggest reason they're so easy though is that I play Skyrim a lot, and there are a lot of castles and forts in that game. I know how those things should look, even if I can't see them
@Strega_del_Corvo
Жыл бұрын
Fun fact: I thought synesthesia only meant you actually saw sound as colors etc. like, hallucinated colors in front of your actual eyes and other similar experiences. I didn’t realize there were different types of synesthesia and that I actually have it. I associate letters, numbers and words with colors. Those colors stay the same and have always been that way. Monday is blue, Tuesday is yellow, Wednesday is blue, Thursday is orange, Friday is a blue purple, Saturday is a salmon color and Sunday is white.
@ladyfox7193
Жыл бұрын
My little sister and I have this too. We frequently argue over whose colors are "correct" 😂
@ChrisD23
Жыл бұрын
@@ladyfox7193 haha, one of my friends has synesthesia and one time we were arguing with each other about the colours of numbers
@olfaithful2461
Жыл бұрын
I have this condition. I am unable to remember what my mum’s face looks like, what my favorite food tastes like, what my friends voice sounds like without hearing it again. I close my eyes and I can know the attributes of what a horse is. I know it has four legs, two ears, and four hooves. I see nothing in my head and I forget everything unless I see it right in front of me.
@Shadow1Yaz
Жыл бұрын
So, what you described, envisioning the horse even with your eyes open, *is* what they’re talking about. I have partial aphantasia and I envision very vague and dark images, even with my eyes open, like they’re blurred and have the opacity lowerred. They’re not talking about seeing the actual horse (similar to a hallucination) it’s about envisioning it. Which some people legit cannot do. Hope this helped! 😊
@AllanaRace
Жыл бұрын
I actually have aphantasia, and my mind has to work really differently. When I "invision" something, its more like I'm remembering traits of that object. Describing it to myself almost like I'm doing a descriptive exercise for a writing class, not a whole paragraph just meandering thoughts about the thing. My memory of sound, smell, and touch is very intense though. Like I remember a time a dude who couldn't take no slapped me in a bar, and I can hear the crack and the sound of the bar going quiet. I feel my fiance grabbing my shoulders to get between us, my cheek tingles, my teeth feel like I've been gnashing them and I feel like I want to close my left eye. Not nearly as bad of course but I FEEL that.
@rissabiagi1570
Жыл бұрын
I literally see NOTHING. No matter how hard I try. I always thought that people saying they could see it in their head was just a figure of speech. When I found out that people can actually see things when they’re thinking about them I was completely shocked. It is still like 😮😮😮 that others can imagine things in that way. And it’s not that I don’t imagine things it’s just that I don’t see anything when I do. It’s sort of difficult to explain but hopefully you kind of get me!!
@tazza3918
Жыл бұрын
This was helpful! The way it gets explained on the internet these days absolutely had me convinced some people were having actual images projected onto their closed eyelids. I just figured if I wasn't seeing that, I was lower on the spectrum than them 😂
@alexcarboniart2091
Жыл бұрын
My girlfriend closes her eyes and she can see shapes, colors and detailed stuff. I need to keep my eyes open and I see quick moments of the picture I'm imagining. We're both artists. There are a ton more variations than just how clear the picture is when you close your eyes.
@aareavis
Жыл бұрын
Like those magic eye pictures. I couldn't 'see' them for years because I didn't know what I was supposed to be seeing.
@alarcon99
Жыл бұрын
when i was little and i would get separated from my mom in the store, i would get freaked out 'cause i could not picture her face in my mind, so how would i find her? i would always recognize her when i saw her, but i can't see her (or anybody) in my minds eye.
@Willow_Sky
Жыл бұрын
I'd been with my partner for like 6 months when I realized I couldn't picture his face, and I thought I was a bad girlfriend until I realized I can't picture anyone
@alarcon99
Жыл бұрын
Aphantasia also explains why I HATE horror movies but have no problem reading horror.
@undefinederror40404
Жыл бұрын
This was helpful, thank you! You managed to put it into words and that was kinda challenging already. Saved me the trouble :p
@MsFeline81
Жыл бұрын
I agree that you don't have to see an image of something in your mind's eye in order to grasp the concept of it. That's not what aphantasia is about. Aphantasia is most noticeably when you try to follow a guided meditation or an imagination exercise and someone tells you to "picture a beach" in your mind. Without referencing material like looking at pictures of beaches first or remembering a specific picture of a beach you once saw, people with aphantasia in fact see nothing in their mind's eye. Ever. It stays black when they close their eyes. Now does this prevent them from becoming artists? Heck no! Like you said, the concept of an image can still be understood. ppl with aphantasia just lack the ability to produce inner pictures on demand. They always need referencing material. They can't picture their ideal beach on demand in their head. Hope that clears things up
@jacksmith-vs4ct
Жыл бұрын
people with 100% aphantasia do just see black they know what a beach is or whatever but they only have the idea not the image thats the point so you are kinda wrong outside of dreams I can't see anything even if you put the picture next to me it will never show up in my mind if anything it shows up in my inner text monologue lol which not everyone has either.
@KaylaMarie_
Жыл бұрын
I see just black like in the first square but i can still imagine a beach
@lanfae9353
Жыл бұрын
I don't have aphantasia, but I think I'm lower on the spectrum, because I can _remember_ visual images to a degree, especially if they're very recent or very familiar, like my old house, but I can't imagine _new_ things. I can't construct a mental image very well in my mind if someone explains something. In my head, every setting in every book has to take place in a mish-mash of buildings I've actually been in because I can't imagine a new building. I can recall the picture of the stars, but I've already forgotten the color, and I can't imagine it with a new color to replace the one I forgot.
@blueyindustries8503
Жыл бұрын
One really cool thing I’ve noticed is when I make myself sleep deprived, when going to sleep, I can actually visually see and hear stuff in my “minds eye”. This is usually not in my control but there is definitely a noticeable difference.
@piggieria
Жыл бұрын
That is hallucinating. Hypnagogic and hypnogogic hallucinations they are common with sleep deprivation.
@Skystarry75
3 ай бұрын
When I think about a forest stream, I imagine the pebbles on the bottom, and the way the water reflects and refracts the light. I can even imagine the dappled shadow of the trees above, the loose leaves that fell in flowing by. I can pick up the sounds too, the flowing water, the wind in the leaves, the birds singing and the insects buzzing. If I just close my eyes I do legitimately only see darkness. It's more like I'm focusing on something else.
@athormaximoff4634
Жыл бұрын
My mental horse is tap dancing, what is that supposed to mean?
@shegeek5559
Жыл бұрын
The flamingo left for the evening.
@embracingvulnerability
Жыл бұрын
I did not need this living rent free in my head. Thank you for that.
@toothless3835
Жыл бұрын
That's what that means. The condition is unable to visualize an image at all. Not just closing your eyes. It's how clearly you can imagine the image. Like I can't visualize clear as if it were real. I see out of focus and in color. This is likely because my true vision is very bad without glasses and my formative years, I grew up with about a -3 near sided vision. And thought I've had glasses for over 15 years, my mind never really adjusted (this is just me guessing honestly.) I hear and remember things as if it were a novel being read with prose without the dialogue tags a lot of the time. I also can not imagine something I have not seen before, so drawing from memory or drawing something new isn't something I can do without having seen it before. But someone with this condition can not visualize/imagine something at all. They have no mind's eye so to speak. I don't know exactly how they think, but I know it's not visually. A friend of mine explained it because she has it, but I'm not qualified nor remember how to explain it properly.
@tannemin6758
Жыл бұрын
My minds Eye works pretty similar to yours. Out of focus and in colour + imagining details is more difficult and I can't keep multiple details in the picture. I have always had pretty good eyesight though. Most of my thoughts are entire conversations sprinkled with the occasional blurry image flashing through :D
@anangoohns
Жыл бұрын
My cousin has aphantasia! (That side of the family, nearly all the cousins have some form of neurodiversity--mostly ADHD, but some autism and others.) We had a really fascinating conversation about it last time I saw him! And while he doesn't have a visual "mind's eye" he does have near pitch perfect spacial awareness He can't "envision" visuals but he can accurately judge distances between objects and things like that and conceptualize 3D space like its second nature Brains are amazing! Neurodiversity is amazing!
@mrmidnight8975
Жыл бұрын
Envision is the correct word speech Prof👌👌👌 See , all people see dark when we close our eyes , it's the envisioned image that our mind hints at when we think about something.... Thanks prof, for a long time I was trying to explain this idea in words and today you helped me express it in words. Thanks 😊
@JadedAF.
Жыл бұрын
It means they don't visualize things when they think about them. I think about my son and see his smiling face and a slobber soaked onesie (he's 19 hahaha but that's still always my first mental image of him). they don't create mental images. it doesn't matter if their eyes are open or closed. they don't picture things in their mind at all. one of the biggest hurdles for autistic women in getting a diagnosis is how many specialists think if you can picture something mentally you are automatically not on the spectrum.
@AmbiCahira
Жыл бұрын
As a chronic vivid daydreamer it blew my mind the first time I heard about this. I have a whole universe in my mind with everything in it.
@sahelhappenstance8992
3 ай бұрын
This is the first explanation of the difference between aphantasia and 'normal' visualization that has actually made sense to me as someone without it
@Torkai
9 ай бұрын
I wish I could daydream in class, or read a book while seeing a little movie play out, but theres just nothing. One of my teachers used to do this meditation portion of class, ask us to imagine something but I couldn’t and just had to sit there the whole time never really understanding x_x I can’t imagine any of my other senses either like smell, taste, hearing, or touch. For real, head is just empty. I wish I never found this out because now im kind of jealous 😭
@lekiscool
Жыл бұрын
From what I’ve heard, if you ask a person with aphantasia to picture an apple they don’t mentally see an apple but they can still tell you with words what an apple is. So I feel like people are confusing descriptions with mental pictures. I’m the opposite, I often mentally see something like a flower but can’t find the words we use to describe the object.
@piggieria
Жыл бұрын
Yes this is how i am. I have vivid images but ask me to describe or draw and I have a hard time a doing it.
@lightning4744
Жыл бұрын
I have aphantasia and your description is correct! That’s exactly how my mind works
@danic9304
Жыл бұрын
I think it's probably more to do with the level of detail people can see in that image. LIke, if someone says to me imagine an apple -I am not 'seeing' a detailed image of an apple - I am 'seeing' a vague impression of an apple that is very fleeting and falls apart if I try to strengthen or examine it.. Different people have different levels of detail in their mind's eye. But - there are also different types of imagining. So - I am rubbish at trying to visualise something 'on command;' so to speak. Reading a description in a book I have a very weak visualisation of places and people. Even if I try to imagine someone I know I struggle to 'see'their face - but if I try to imagine that person speaking, or smiling I will suddenly get a very strong image of that person , or I can bring to mind a scene from a tv show in great detail. I can go off into a day dream and am seeing it all, eyes open or closed. So in some contexts my mind's eye is very weak and only produces impressions of a thing, but in other contexts my mind's eye is very strong and detailed.
@darcyroyce
Жыл бұрын
the same here :) I would remember scenes, vaguely, but mostly because there's an emotional element tying things together. It's interesting.
@Ta2dwitetrash
4 ай бұрын
This is an off and on thing for me. Sometimes I can close my eyes and everything is still there, not fading, and almost static like in nature. I can look around for a minute or so like my eyes are wide open. But I do lose it. I haven't done it in a few years, was just trying last night. Then I randomly find this short describing something I didn't know had a name. Crazy...
@arcdi467
Жыл бұрын
I used to be able to envision things, but it just kind of went away as I became an adult. No idea why. Really noticed it when I was about 22 and could no longer picture people's faces in my head
@jacksmith-vs4ct
Жыл бұрын
yeah I think I had the ability up to about 12 course I think that year is when I fell off the monkey bars and hit my head soooo who knows
@artbookgaming
Жыл бұрын
I have pretty much the opposite of aphantasia. I have very detailed imagination coupled with an overactive imagination. It can be kinda scary at times, because if I get an intrusive thought, my mind can automatically play a simulation of it, what it looks, sounds, and physically feels like copies to pretty much perfection, and sure I'm perfectly aware that it's my imagination, it's like playing a video game or movie, I'm still going to be terrified and avoid whatever caused anything bad in the intrusive thought for a couple days. Whatever I choose to imagine, I can imagine perfectly for the parts I have paid attention to. If I'm trying to envision specific things like text and numbers, they are often just the vague outlines and constantly changing between the possibilities they could be, e can change into o, a, 0, Θ, θ, etc. or a crack in the wall can gain and lose turns and smaller side cracks. I can change my vision into Van Gogh style oil painting, flat colors animation, anime, minecraft, realistic minecraft, etc. so that anything I'm looking at I imagine and can see in my brain as the same thing drawn or painted or created in whatever style I choose (there may be a delay, but in familiar settings it can get as good as live feed on a camera)
@Canlyn62
Жыл бұрын
I have a couple of friends that love Books, but can't do Audiobooks, because they CANNOT imagine what the author is describing from hearing it read to them. They need to see the words on the page to help with their comprehension of the story. It is like a sensory overload for them to hear the story, but the written word helps. However, one of these people needs visual aids because she still cannot bring these images to life without a picture/drawing. And we are not talking about someone that is seeking attention from this, she truly needs visual simulation for full comprehension.
@Tiewaz
Жыл бұрын
Yeah, I have aphantasia. How I remember what things look like is through words. I used to read novels that were based on movies (that used to be a thing in Ye Stone Age.) I started connecting the text descriptions to the visuals I saw. I've been writing fantasy/sci-fi since I was 15, so I've honed my skills. Though I don't do the Tolkein-esque exhaustive descriptions. I highlight what I would focus on/notice if I were in the scenes (often including other sensory perceptions.) I have no idea how I'd function without writing.
@kellypatterson9456
Жыл бұрын
You and me both. I can’t ‘see’ a horse but I remember what they look like. It’s in the recesses of my mind. It’s there but not.
@xylianyx
Жыл бұрын
Yeah, I'm lost now! Knew nothing of this... but now...I need help!🤣
@amanitamuscaria5863
9 ай бұрын
When I close my eyes I see swirling colors. I can imagine anything and everything. But it's not like a dream or a movie or a picture.
@MamaJanella
Жыл бұрын
I have nothing. Never have... But I DO have a running dialogue/ commentary talking me through what features the horse should have based on past experience could horses.
@mymusings47
Жыл бұрын
I can't see it in my mind's eye at all, no matter how hard i try. No visualisation whatsoever. I can imagine by thinking about it, but don't see anything. I remember what i have seen and can describe it and reminisce, but again, don't see it, I recall it verbally. I see phospors and colours on my eyelids when i close my eyes, but nothing in my mind's eye
@stilith2706
6 ай бұрын
To clear up confusion, there’s types of imagination. Traditional Phantasia: This is the one most people have, seeing something in the back of your mind, not your eyelids. Prophantasia: This is a rarer type, which is seeing it in your vision (yes people can do this) Autogogia: The most vivid type of imagination, which is closing your eyes and seeing so vivid it is like you have your eyes open. A couple of my friends have them all, most of my friends have only traditional, and I have aphantasia towards all of them.
@eliza6971
Жыл бұрын
It’s being able to visualize the plot of a book while your eyes are still actively reading. You’re seeing pages but visualizing characters, places, actions, sounds, textures, flavors, etc
@mb6019
Жыл бұрын
It was helpful! This has always confused me, I can’t see an outline but I can see the thing without actually seeing it. Thanks!
@pokemonfanthings4444
Жыл бұрын
You described the situation perfectly. Confusing to me too
@wolfco47
Жыл бұрын
This type of neurodivergence means you cannot fully mentally image something you saw with your eyes. For example, if I invite you to my house and serve tea in a pretty tea set that you think you might like to buy yourself, you will be unable to recreate the visual image of that tea set in your mind well enough to find it online to buy. You might be able to visual certain aspects. You might be able to remember characteristics like that it featured rabbits and was mainly white. But, you will not be able to bring everything of details of the tea set together in a visual image that lets you confirm whether the set you find online is the same exact one. The mind's eye is not physical. It is a mental space where you can remember and imagine sensory experiences.
@liyzette
Жыл бұрын
So when you meet people you know, you can’t recognise them either?
@darcyroyce
Жыл бұрын
@@liyzette more like, you won't have a mental image of them once they faded from your memory. Or any other sensory image, either.
@wolfco47
Жыл бұрын
@@liyzette No. You can recognize the people and things in your life. You just cannot reconstruct a image of them in your mind. So, you have dinner at your parent's house and spend hours chatting with them. Once you return home after your visit you cannot picture their face features and hairstyle as an image in your mind. You know your dad has short red hair, brown eyes, and a strong jaw line. But, you cannot create an image of his face in your mental space.
@VerySimplyEl
Жыл бұрын
I used to have really vivid minds eye and what you are describing is that normal person. Took some mood stabilizers for a few years and it's taken me years to be able to visualize anything. I'm finally around level 3. Aphantasia is literally just nothing not even a shape comes to mind.
@cheshiregrin1714
Жыл бұрын
I had this conversation with a friend. I can remember what a horse looks like and "see" it in my memory. I can't picture one in my head. Yes, its confusing. yes I absolutely have aphantasia.
@RiverWoods111
3 ай бұрын
I also have a hard time visualizing what aphantasia would be like or is like. I literally think in pictures. For me every word you speak goes into my brain as a picture that is added to all the other pictures and creates a video which I store. It is kind of awesome because I graduated with a 4.0 from college. After all, every test was open book, open board notes, and I had a complete video of every lecture that I could simply pull information from. My roommates and friends would get so mad at me because in class my mind was simply photographing or videographing all the information so I looked like I wasn't paying attention, and they never really saw me study. Then I would walk into political science and blow the curve causing the rest of the class to basically fail.
@unclenought6385
Жыл бұрын
For me, it's apparent when I'm reading. I can hear the characters voices, I know what is going on from the context of the words, but I don't picture what is happening in my head. It always amazed me that people could draw fanart of characters that didn't have real life actors attached to their image, because I can't picture what those characters look like from a description. It absolutely blew my mind when my boyfriend told me that for him, reading a book is like watching a movie in his head. Because for me it's just blank, nothing happens.
@ColorJoyLynnH
Жыл бұрын
Mom had an accident and brain injury and now she can’t picture anything she hadn’t known well before the accident. She can’t picture her room at the assisted living until she gets to it. She can’t imagine the dining room when she’s in her room. Her accident was almost 5 years ago but she will still tell you she lives in the house she bought circa 1961.
@hinikki8747
Ай бұрын
I have aphantasia after a stroke and I think you are right that a lot of people confuse what it is and what the experience is like, except I think more people have it and it goes unnoticed rather then people are mistaking having it.
@missbeaussie
Жыл бұрын
Dude yes. This has what has confused me too. Like I can recall what a horse looks like but I don't see the horse when I close my eyes. I see a memory of what a horse looks like, it's not a movie screen behind here.
@yesnaja
Жыл бұрын
I know i have aphantasia. Like no doubt. There never was a doubt. The only thing that changed a few years ago was that i suddenly have a word for it. But what you described is why people went from "imagine an apple. If you cant see it you have aphantasia" to "imagine a ball on a table" and then ask follow up questions like "what color is the ball" or "what material is the table"
@mysterylovescompany2657
Жыл бұрын
I can't "see" the horse, but I _can_ smell its musk + feel its fur, right down to the fine dust/grit that's in it. Due to an SPD, sight & hearing have always been my weakest senses, & it goes touch, then taste, then smell, in ascending order of primacy. So I never really questioned the fact that my imagination + dreams aren't especially visual. Interestingly, my _memories_ always are.🤔
@nethertaxi3719
Жыл бұрын
i'm pretty sure i have aphantasia. for me if someone asked me to envision a horse, i'd know what they're asking for because i know what a horse looks like, but i can't see it. it's like with that whole calendar thing, i know the order of the months, but i can't list them in my mind. it's just something my brain knows
@faunaprince4466
Жыл бұрын
Thank you for this. Also sorry if you saw the previous comments they were literally for different videos. Anyway, you're great
@Falloutlover1011
Жыл бұрын
Yeah, I can’t envision anything. Literally nothing.
@reilley26
Жыл бұрын
100% SAME!!!! This is so hard to describe!
@OptimusPhillip
11 ай бұрын
What you're describing is what I thought people meant by mental images until I started looking at these online aphantasia tests. Like, I can conjure the idea of a thing in my head, and describe it in great detail, but I never actually see it in the way that I see things in front of me. At best, I can see basic shapes flashing amongst the retinal noise, but otherwise nothing.
@bhitttourrent6127
Жыл бұрын
I think the better phrase is to picture it? I can recall the image of the horse, even if I won't have every detail accurate, I know and can think about what the horse or horses look like and image it in my mind's eye. When I read, it is a complex imaging of the scene as described, sometimes with wider details and sometimes focused very tightly on The Point of Interest.
@ImARealCat
Жыл бұрын
I remember learning about this in college with some friends. We were all like that's crazy but my one friend was so confused that we could all see things with our eyes closed. Turns out she had it but never knew.
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