.

I can picture the concept and the basic outlines of a beach, and maybe faint images here and there, but I don't have the capability to imagine a fully detailed beach all at once that you could 'explore'.

The mind's eye may be something that can be trained, though, so there's always the possibility of improving that ability given the right guidance. I recall hearing that a lot of younger people have a decent mind's eye that fades over the years, probably from lack of usage.
 
with regards to imagination and creativity - nasa did an interesting bit of research, and it turns out 5 year olds are creative geniuses and adults have lost the way to be creative. However, teh good news is you can learn to tap into it again, you just need to practice.

https://suitable-education.uk/98-of-5-year-olds-are-creative-geniuses/

The problem is as your grow up you're taught to learn through repetition and preparing for exams, you're castigated for daydreaming and you're not encouraged to "think" or imagine or be creative.

Now as a scientific person (I'm a chartered engineer) and someone who's quite pragmatic about stuff, I also lead on creative problem solving and innovation in a very uncreative sector (civil engineer / infrastructure) and there is a huge immaturity to creativity in adulthood. Only 2% of adults are truly creative - in problem solving we often use something call divergent thinking - allowing the mind to go crazy with weird and wonderful ideas etc... and then you use convergent tools to sharpen the focus and weed out the fantasy from reality. Honestly it's the most fascinating thing seeing a bunch of adults get completely sideswiped by asking them to imagine and think outside of the constraints of their day job. Through the work that the company I run we've been able to uncover multi £bn of opportunities ( of course opportunities dont' turn to value unless they're implemented) - but the "belief" about creativity in a pragmatic/scientific field is starting to be seen - however people default back to what they're comfortable with.

I'm a massive day dreamer, especially if I go for a walk, or commuting, my mind will wander as well as sometimes in the wee hours of the morning, that's why I keep a notepad by my bed to scribble down my mad thoughts.

You can learn to unlock your imagination but you've got to work at it, and it's still not a natural skill for a lot of people - and often the pale male and stale leadership don't want to hear about this "weird" stuff - all they want is P&L, ROI, KPIs etc... but I push back against all of that and purposefully disrupt the board because I don't believe that that alone will deliver the best opportunities.

A question, when you read a book (fiction) do you imagine the scenes and events that are happening or do you find it hard to visualise?
 
I can fully see the beach, the trees, the water and hear the sounds and even feel the warmth.

It’s an invaluable gift when you’ve been stuck in a hospital as much as I have.
 
Kreeeee said:
It’s not something that I can train. Not once in my life have I ever seen or heard even a hint of something that wasn’t actually there physically. I have gone through the whole training process as posted above to try and “learn” this.
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Me too. My mind wanders and I can think of things that I want to do. I can think of worlds I'd build for things like D&D, but I can't see, feel, hear, touch or smell it in my mind.

To describe it's like my brain ticks of a list of properties. I know a tree has leaves and the rough shape it'd form and that when in full bloom it's be green with brown bark. So I could draw one, then use what I see on the paper to then further refine the image to what I know a tree should be.

But I can never see that tree in a minds eye, even if I look away for a moment after staring at it for an hour.
 
R.P.L said:
I'm personally much better at imagining things than ever producing anything in the real world. It's a real problem for me when I decide to start a new project, because I tend to lose interest once I know enough to have a good idea of how I would do it. On the one hand you don't get recognition from others for stuff that exists only in your head, but on the other you can be whomever and do whatever you want in your imagination :D
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I know that feeling. I can plan stuff, work out all the joints say, all the cuts etc in my head, but my brain's skills and actually doing do not match up.
 
Kreeeee said:
It’s not something that I can train. Not once in my life have I ever seen or heard even a hint of something that wasn’t actually there physically. I have gone through the whole training process as posted above to try and “learn” this.

I get this response a lot from people who can’t imagine not having a visual imagination as they rely on it to function/perform, but funnily enough not for the psychologists that study the condition. I’ve been in touch with a few over the years to help with their studies.

Be careful not to equate a lack of visual imagination with a lack of creativity, they are very different domains and I have no issues with the latter.
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I'm not - I was using it as an example - I didn't say it was mutually exclusive :)

I'm sure like most things it possibly can be trained, but admittedly I'm not a psychologist - but there must be a tool or some options out there?

Out of interest are you able to meditate?
 
Kreeeee said:
I’m sure for those with some degree of visual imagination it can be trained, but a total absence cannot. Anyway, it’s not a disability that needs to be fixed, it’s just a variance among humans.

What do you define as meditation? If it’s seeing things that aren’t really there no, if it’s clearing the mind and thinking of nothing then sure but I never need to work at clearing my mind.
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I suppose you could consider it a disability if you want it to, but as you say it's easily liveable with.

Yeah I meant about clearing the mind - a lot of people struggle with that, so the fact you can is a great skill in itself :) Ying and yang and all that.
 
Kreeeee said:
As I said in an earlier post, there are many advantages too.

I meant that it isn’t at all a disability if my post wasn’t clear.
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I didn't mean to imply - I just meant it could be seen as one I suppose if you wanted to (it was the "royal" 'you') :)

I struggle to clear my mind! So you're my opposite! Teach me OB-Kree!
 
Kreeeee said:
I was born this way as far as I know, or at least I’ve been this way since my earliest memories.
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This is why humans are so fascinating - although we're all generally the "same" i.e. physically similar (2 eyes, 2 ears, a brain, 4 limbs etc...), we are all so very very different. :)
 
Kreeeee said:
We also generally assume everyone is the same as us for non-visually identifiable traits, hence why this particular variance was only "discovered" shortly before I made this thread.
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Indeed - I'm convinced that not everyone sees the same things as each other and has different experiences during either physical or emotional events as well - but people often like to "conform" and just go with general consensus or worry about being outcast by society for being different and being upfront and honest about it.
 
Yeah it's like some people can taste/smell more than others and some people can see musical sound as colours. Apparently a few famous composers would see musical colouration and ask the orchestra to "play more red" etc.
 
Does anyone else, like me, sometimes taste a food for no reason?

It tends to happen to me with foods that I really fancy, like , cheeseburgers, KFC or sausage and mash. It happens every so often, but when it happens I simply have to have that food ASAP.
 
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