I do! I visualize when I dream. But I can’t do it on command. This is how I realized I probably have aphantasia. I can never consciously visualize. I can think and conceptualize, but not ‘see’.
I have the exact same experience, from lack of inner monologue to aphantasia. Funnily enough, when I’m on the verge of falling asleep, I can sometimes conjure images, but that’s the only way I’m able to
I also have aphantasia. I only learnt about it a year or so ago. It was eye opening when I realised. People used to say “picture this or that” and I thought it was a figure of speech! Turns out there are people who can picture shit.
I realized after reading about people with aphantasia that what I do is kind of a combination of visualization and conceptualization. If you ask me to imagine a cow, I’ll tend to visualize the cow itself, but it doesn’t come with a field for the cow to stand in. The cow is just in the concept of a place. That is, until I concentrate on visualizing details of the place, at which point I’ll probably lose the visual of the cow. Like, it’s still there, it’s just become the concept of a cow.
That’s interesting that your brain is capable of it but it just won’t. It sounds like it could make a lot of things difficult for you. I spend a lot of my idle time “working” on different problems with projects I have going on and a lot of that involves “constructing” things in my mind. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t do that.
I spend a lot of my idle time “working” on different problems with projects I have going on and a lot of that involves “constructing” things in my mind.
I do, too! I guess in a different way though. A lot of aphants like to compare it to a computer that does not have a screen or GUI. The computer is there - also the graphics card, the images, the data - but nothing visual appears in your mind’s eye. I would say there are several things that are more difficult for me to do - but surprisingly people with aphantasia function just fine. Otherwise I would have known something is different with me way earlier.
Yeah! I don’t think I do in the sense some people do, in the sense that some people describe having a narrator or something like that. If I am to think in words or sentences it takes a little more effort and happens when I’m thinking about talking to someone or putting things into words, whereas my passive thinking is generally wordless, and more conceptual/spacial/tactile.
Wait are there people without inner monologue?
I don’t think I have an inner monologue. Also I have full Aphantasia. I can’t visually imagine an apple let alone rotate it in my mind.
Do you have dreams?
I do! I visualize when I dream. But I can’t do it on command. This is how I realized I probably have aphantasia. I can never consciously visualize. I can think and conceptualize, but not ‘see’.
I have the exact same experience, from lack of inner monologue to aphantasia. Funnily enough, when I’m on the verge of falling asleep, I can sometimes conjure images, but that’s the only way I’m able to
yess when I read that this is a common experience for aphants, I became pretty certain I’m an aphant too. crazy how people can do that on command
I also have aphantasia. I only learnt about it a year or so ago. It was eye opening when I realised. People used to say “picture this or that” and I thought it was a figure of speech! Turns out there are people who can picture shit.
it’s absolutely wild! I still struggle to imagine how other people can picture things.
Waiiiiit. It’s not just a figure of speech?!
welcome to the rabbit hole!
I realized after reading about people with aphantasia that what I do is kind of a combination of visualization and conceptualization. If you ask me to imagine a cow, I’ll tend to visualize the cow itself, but it doesn’t come with a field for the cow to stand in. The cow is just in the concept of a place. That is, until I concentrate on visualizing details of the place, at which point I’ll probably lose the visual of the cow. Like, it’s still there, it’s just become the concept of a cow.
That’s interesting that your brain is capable of it but it just won’t. It sounds like it could make a lot of things difficult for you. I spend a lot of my idle time “working” on different problems with projects I have going on and a lot of that involves “constructing” things in my mind. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t do that.
I do, too! I guess in a different way though. A lot of aphants like to compare it to a computer that does not have a screen or GUI. The computer is there - also the graphics card, the images, the data - but nothing visual appears in your mind’s eye. I would say there are several things that are more difficult for me to do - but surprisingly people with aphantasia function just fine. Otherwise I would have known something is different with me way earlier.
Yes, it’s quite wild but I guess I can’t really say that as someone without the ability to imagine things.
Yeah! I don’t think I do in the sense some people do, in the sense that some people describe having a narrator or something like that. If I am to think in words or sentences it takes a little more effort and happens when I’m thinking about talking to someone or putting things into words, whereas my passive thinking is generally wordless, and more conceptual/spacial/tactile.
I remember what it was like before I had one.