17 votes

Experiences with aphantasia or what does visualizing look/feel like?

Aphantasia is a condition where a person is unable to visualize images in their minds eye. If I tell you to think of a red apple, several people will visualize this apple and 'see' it. But those (like me) with aphantasia simply can't. Some of us have access to other senses within our mind (hearing, touch, smell, etc), some don't.

Do you have aphantasia? There's a simple test here.

In a similar vein, is anybody able to explain what visualizing looks like? Is it just like the sight I get from my eyes? Different?

34 comments

  1. [10]
    tesseractcat
    (edited )
    Link
    Visualizing (for me) feels like a second layer in Photoshop. I can see the world with my eyes as the main layer, and I can sort of sense the second layer. For example, if I imagined a large red...

    Visualizing (for me) feels like a second layer in Photoshop. I can see the world with my eyes as the main layer, and I can sort of sense the second layer. For example, if I imagined a large red ball in the middle of my room, I don't actually see a large ball, I experience a second 'layer' of vision that occurs only in my mind that isn't as vivid as the real world. It's essentially the same for my other senses as well. I'm curious if other people have the same experience as mine.

    Edit: After thinking about it some more, describing things that I 'visualize' is sort of like describing things in the periphery of my vision, unless I concentrate I'll have trouble describing the details of visualized images.

    The images I have the easiest time visualizing are as follows (in order of ease):

    1. Spaces that I know well (my house, schools, friends houses, etc.). I can visualize the interior, contents of rooms, etc. This is most likely due to the fact that spatial memory is particularly good for humans.
    2. Simple objects, ex: a guitar, an apple, a cellphone, headphones, etc. (My actual visualization of these objects is typically made up of a few different shapes that make up the essential components of these objects.)

    The images I have the most difficult time visualizing are typically faces, surprisingly. I can recognize faces pretty easily, but have a lot of trouble actually visualizing in detail what the face of someone I know looks like. I probably actually have an easier time with people I don't know very well, for example a coworker I see every so often.

    10 votes
    1. [6]
      a_wild_swarm_appears
      Link Parent
      This is a good way to describe it! same for me! Edit: My wife says when she visualises stuff it's as clear as real life. The ball would be in the room if she wanted.

      This is a good way to describe it! same for me!

      Edit: My wife says when she visualises stuff it's as clear as real life. The ball would be in the room if she wanted.

      2 votes
      1. [3]
        Gaywallet
        Link Parent
        That's crazy. I can't even imagine being able to visualize like that. Ironically, a large portion of my work is design, so don't let poor/no visualization skills stop you.

        My wife says when she visualises stuff it's as clear as real life. The ball would be in the room if she wanted.

        That's crazy. I can't even imagine being able to visualize like that.

        Ironically, a large portion of my work is design, so don't let poor/no visualization skills stop you.

        2 votes
        1. [2]
          a_wild_swarm_appears
          (edited )
          Link Parent
          Yeah, me neither, I'm very jealous of her. Edit: I've had some insanely realistic hallucinations on acid back in the day, some. where I literally couldn't distinguish them from reality, except for...

          Yeah, me neither, I'm very jealous of her.

          Edit: I've had some insanely realistic hallucinations on acid back in the day, some. where I literally couldn't distinguish them from reality, except for the fact Ba'al doesn't really exist, no matter how much he tries to convince you that he does.

          1 vote
          1. Gaywallet
            Link Parent
            Even when having so many hallucinogens I was convinced I might die, I never had a hallucination quite like that

            Even when having so many hallucinogens I was convinced I might die, I never had a hallucination quite like that

      2. [2]
        tesseractcat
        Link Parent
        That's really interesting, I imagine the quality of visualization is on a scale for most people, usually falling around an average of being 'ok' at visualization, where at the extreme ends you'll...

        That's really interesting, I imagine the quality of visualization is on a scale for most people, usually falling around an average of being 'ok' at visualization, where at the extreme ends you'll see experiences like aphantasia. I wonder if a higher quality visualization leads to an increase in artistic ability, or at least natural talent.

        1. a_wild_swarm_appears
          Link Parent
          My wife has literally zero artistic ability :-D She's good a baking, cooking and things like that, but stuff like drawing, music or other 'traditional' artistic stuff - forget about it, she's...

          My wife has literally zero artistic ability :-D
          She's good a baking, cooking and things like that, but stuff like drawing, music or other 'traditional' artistic stuff - forget about it, she's absolutely terrible, she has no interest whatsoever. On the other hand she does have a ridiculously good memory.

    2. [2]
      pamymaf
      Link Parent
      That's really interesting. If I try to imagine myself at home, I know where everything is, but it's like I'm walking through with my eyes closed. Or rather, blind. I have a 'sense' of where things...

      That's really interesting. If I try to imagine myself at home, I know where everything is, but it's like I'm walking through with my eyes closed. Or rather, blind. I have a 'sense' of where things are, but no visuals to back it up. It makes me wonder if a blind person can successfully walk around their own house if they know where everything is. I would think so.

      2 votes
      1. tesseractcat
        Link Parent
        If I concentrate really hard, I'm able to remember a space without visualizing it. I imagine that's due to the fact that visualizing is just so ingrained in my process of remembering locations....

        If I concentrate really hard, I'm able to remember a space without visualizing it. I imagine that's due to the fact that visualizing is just so ingrained in my process of remembering locations. It's really an odd feeling, but in the end there's not much difference in the memory capacity, just in the method used to remember.

    3. Silbern
      Link Parent
      Same here! I've never been good at visualizing someone's face just from memory. It just sort of shifts and blurs around, and I have a hard time distinguishing people who look similar without a lot...

      The images I have the most difficult time visualizing are typically faces, surprisingly. I can recognize faces pretty easily, but have a lot of trouble actually visualizing in detail what the face of someone I know looks like. I probably actually have an easier time with people I don't know very well, for example a coworker I see every so often.

      Same here! I've never been good at visualizing someone's face just from memory. It just sort of shifts and blurs around, and I have a hard time distinguishing people who look similar without a lot of practice or some kind of marker. I also struggle to associate names with faces too... But I have a pretty decent memory for non face related things.

      1 vote
  2. [7]
    Comment deleted by author
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    1. [4]
      tesseractcat
      Link Parent
      It sounds like you have very high quality visualizations. If you would compare a real world object to an object that you visualize in the real world, would you say that the visualization seems...

      It sounds like you have very high quality visualizations. If you would compare a real world object to an object that you visualize in the real world, would you say that the visualization seems faint, only in the minds eye (see my description above), or a similar level of vividness as the real world object.

      1 vote
      1. [4]
        Comment deleted by author
        Link Parent
        1. [3]
          tesseractcat
          Link Parent
          So if you imagine a glass of water on a table, you can actually see it? Like, with your eyeballs? That's a crazy level of vividness compared to my visualizations. If you don't mind me asking, when...

          So if you imagine a glass of water on a table, you can actually see it? Like, with your eyeballs? That's a crazy level of vividness compared to my visualizations. If you don't mind me asking, when you imagine a glass of water, do you see actual reflections and refraction, and can you see the small details on the glass, or does it seem blurry or indistinct.

          1 vote
          1. [3]
            Comment deleted by author
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            1. [2]
              tesseractcat
              Link Parent
              That's super neat. One other question I have is, if you could, can you visualize a large red ball, right in front of your computer screen/phone screen. Does that ball occlude the text/screen (as...

              That's super neat. One other question I have is, if you could, can you visualize a large red ball, right in front of your computer screen/phone screen. Does that ball occlude the text/screen (as in, prevent you from reading it), or can you see both the ball AND the text.

              1. [2]
                Comment deleted by author
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                1. tesseractcat
                  Link Parent
                  Ah, so it's more as if your 'second layer' is just very vivid, rather than your visualizations actually taking place within the 'main layer.'

                  Ah, so it's more as if your 'second layer' is just very vivid, rather than your visualizations actually taking place within the 'main layer.'

                  1 vote
    2. [2]
      pamymaf
      Link Parent
      Been this way as long as I can remember! I like mathematics and science, though I've come up with an interesting way to approach it. Instead of using my internal sight sense to visualize things, I...

      Been this way as long as I can remember! I like mathematics and science, though I've come up with an interesting way to approach it. Instead of using my internal sight sense to visualize things, I use my spatial sense. I'll think of something, then 'grab' it and move it where it needs to go. I can only imagine how much more helpful being able to see what I'm doing would be.

      I actually do have a big inner world! I'm just blind in it and navigate based on 'sensing' where everything is. Like mental echolocation.

      1 vote
      1. [2]
        Comment deleted by author
        Link Parent
        1. pamymaf
          Link Parent
          I wouldn't be able to say if I'm better or worse, I've never really tested. I'll have to see if I can find a way to actually test that.

          I wouldn't be able to say if I'm better or worse, I've never really tested. I'll have to see if I can find a way to actually test that.

  3. [5]
    teaearlgraycold
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    So something like a mind palace is impossible for you?

    So something like a mind palace is impossible for you?

    1 vote
    1. tesseractcat
      Link Parent
      That still might be possible, since spatial memory isn't impaired by aphasiantasia (I believe), it would just require a different method of encoding information into the palace (not through images).

      That still might be possible, since spatial memory isn't impaired by aphasiantasia (I believe), it would just require a different method of encoding information into the palace (not through images).

      1 vote
    2. pamymaf
      Link Parent
      Funny story about that, I actually have a 'headspace' or 'wonderland' (depending on who you talk to). There is an area inside my head with persistent places that I can recall. I also still have a...

      Funny story about that, I actually have a 'headspace' or 'wonderland' (depending on who you talk to). There is an area inside my head with persistent places that I can recall. I also still have a spacial memory, just no visualization of the palace.

      1 vote
    3. [2]
      silva-rerum
      Link Parent
      Not OP, but not only are mental palaces impossible for me – I thought the idea of mental palaces was batshit crazy the first time I heard of it precisely because it sounded completely impractical.

      Not OP, but not only are mental palaces impossible for me – I thought the idea of mental palaces was batshit crazy the first time I heard of it precisely because it sounded completely impractical.

      1 vote
      1. Arthur
        Link Parent
        Mental palaces really confuse me. I don't think I have Aphantasia, but I know some people who do, so I know some first-hand accounts but I still can't decide if I have it. I saw a post here on...

        Mental palaces really confuse me. I don't think I have Aphantasia, but I know some people who do, so I know some first-hand accounts but I still can't decide if I have it. I saw a post here on tildes about mind palaces a while back and the OP was taking about imagining words on a book and then storing that book away somewhere. I don't understand this. I have a very vague picture of a bookshelf and a book, but the moment I try and put text on the book I'm thrown back into real life. Even when I do have this mental picture, it's more of a phantom thing, a lot like a floater in your eye that you can only see when you're not really looking at it. I don't really know what that means but anyway that's my experience with this.

        2 votes
  4. [3]
    Comment deleted by author
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    1. [2]
      pamymaf
      Link Parent
      I can't hear anything either, sadly. It's also odd that your's wasn't since birth. Any head trauma that happened to you at any point?

      I can't hear anything either, sadly. It's also odd that your's wasn't since birth. Any head trauma that happened to you at any point?

      1. [2]
        Comment deleted by author
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        1. Pilgrim
          Link Parent
          I'm curious by what you mean by too much. Like years of alcohol abuse or you threw up a couple times?

          I'm curious by what you mean by too much. Like years of alcohol abuse or you threw up a couple times?

  5. [6]
    Lynx
    Link
    I have a kind of face/person aphantasia. I can build complicated objects in my mind, although it takes some time to think of all the parts individually at first I believe I have very good spacial...

    I have a kind of face/person aphantasia.

    • I can build complicated objects in my mind, although it takes some time to think of all the parts individually at first
    • I believe I have very good spacial memory, I can remember and visualize places I've only been to once or twice quite a while ago (at least the room/landscape layout, nothing like individual items in shelves)
    • imagining and manipulating geometric shapes is just pure intuition, no thinking required
    • since someone else also said it was a problem for them, I guess I kind of could imagine walking in my imagination, but it's not easy.

    But there's absolutely no chance I can visualize faces or whole persons. The test you linked focuses on that quite strongly - unless I've seen them in literally the last few hours, I can't see their faces, I can't imagine them walk, and I can't imagine their physique. Not even for close family members who I've seen basically every day for my entire life. I'm also horrible with names and remembering people in general, that's probably related.

    I'd probably drive a sketch artist insane if I ever witnessed a crime. Face? Well, I suppose they had one, yes.

    1 vote
    1. [2]
      pamymaf
      Link Parent
      I hope I'm never in a position where I have to talk to a sketch artist. I would just tell them that I can't do it. Do you ever have problems recognizing people out in public?

      I hope I'm never in a position where I have to talk to a sketch artist. I would just tell them that I can't do it.

      Do you ever have problems recognizing people out in public?

      1 vote
      1. Lynx
        Link Parent
        No, not really, funnily enough. It's not that I can't remember faces, or can't process them (face blindness), but just that I can't recall them. I can pretty much always tell that I've seen...

        No, not really, funnily enough. It's not that I can't remember faces, or can't process them (face blindness), but just that I can't recall them. I can pretty much always tell that I've seen someone before, but anything more than that (name, story, where I met them, etc) is hard. I guess it's similar to Alzheimer's/dementia, where you just lose access to memories, not the memories themselves? With a few pointers normally it all comes back.

        The only thing I'm quite good at recalling are spacial and "photographic" memory (if you can all it that, nothing crazy like pages of numbers, just imagery in general). I should probably look into mind palaces.

    2. [3]
      Pilgrim
      Link Parent
      Look up face blindness. That's a thing. Segment on 60 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxqsBk7Wn-Y My wife accuses me of this but I think I'm largely just inattentive of those details...

      Look up face blindness. That's a thing.

      Segment on 60 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxqsBk7Wn-Y

      My wife accuses me of this but I think I'm largely just inattentive of those details because I view them as unimportant much of the time.

      1. [2]
        Lynx
        Link Parent
        Haven't had time to watch it yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm not face blind. I don't have much trouble recognizing people, just with visualizing faces.

        Haven't had time to watch it yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm not face blind. I don't have much trouble recognizing people, just with visualizing faces.

        1 vote
        1. Pilgrim
          Link Parent
          Ah yes, then that’s not face blindness

          Ah yes, then that’s not face blindness

  6. [4]
    silva-rerum
    Link
    Hey, I have aphantasia too – I can't visualize anything. Ironically, I'm a visual designer lol. For the longest time when I heard people talk about visualizing things in their mind's eye, I...

    Hey, I have aphantasia too – I can't visualize anything. Ironically, I'm a visual designer lol. For the longest time when I heard people talk about visualizing things in their mind's eye, I thought they were speaking metaphorically. The only time I've truly been able to visualize things has been on psychedelic drugs.

    1. [3]
      pamymaf
      Link Parent
      Even on psyches, it's REALLY hard for me to visualize. Only on certain brands of research chems or on a specific trip of mushrooms have I been able to visualize. Though there are a few people on...

      Even on psyches, it's REALLY hard for me to visualize. Only on certain brands of research chems or on a specific trip of mushrooms have I been able to visualize. Though there are a few people on the r/Aphantasia sub that said LSA allowed them to visualize after the trip was done... I want to play around with that.

      1. [2]
        silva-rerum
        Link Parent
        Hey this kind of happened to me. When I used to do DXM (I don't recommend it), one of the places I used to visit was a suite of simple, dark greyscale rooms that I could see whether my eyes were...

        Though there are a few people on the r/Aphantasia sub that said LSA allowed them to visualize after the trip was done... I want to play around with that.

        Hey this kind of happened to me. When I used to do DXM (I don't recommend it), one of the places I used to visit was a suite of simple, dark greyscale rooms that I could see whether my eyes were open or closed. I could look around the rooms, and move around in them. It's been 13+ years since the DXM phase of my life, but I've done other psychedelics since then and I could occasionally revisit those rooms on those trips, although it's been 6+ years since I last tripped. In the time that's elapsed since I last took any psychedelics, I've still had very rare moments where I can momentarily revisit those greyscale rooms for a few seconds, but it's not voluntary.

        1. pamymaf
          Link Parent
          I've had a DXM trip once. I don't actually remember most of it. Dissociatives and I don't seem to mix well.

          I've had a DXM trip once. I don't actually remember most of it. Dissociatives and I don't seem to mix well.

  7. BuckeyeSundae
    Link
    Conscious visualization is usually pretty hard for me if the thing I’m trying to imagine is real, like friends or the look of a specific garden. Turn it imaginary and we’re good to go hogwild into...

    Conscious visualization is usually pretty hard for me if the thing I’m trying to imagine is real, like friends or the look of a specific garden. Turn it imaginary and we’re good to go hogwild into the hills with all sorts of fauna and creature attending.

    For me it’s more like I see the outlines of real things rather than the thing itself. Even the imaginary things might seem realistic, but I don’t see them. It’s like trying to add to a drawing, picture, or painting with a pencil that doesn’t write. It feels like the impression is there, even if I can’t sense it. Even if I know exactly what the thing looks like, I can’t just add it to what is real. But I can experience it, in a way.