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Kreeeee said:
...do you actually see a beach in your "mind's eye"?

I don't. Everything is just black (because my eyes are closed) and I just think about the facts of being on a beach, the sand texture, feeling relaxed, warm etc.

I watched this video and my mind has been completely blown. I just can't comprehend that people literally see and hear things when they think about places and situations.

I'm now sat here wondering how I am able to function at all with literally no imagination. I might go have a lie down.

Edit: An interesting article that clarifies how I think about things: https://en-gb.facebook.com/notes/bl...s-to-be-blind-in-your-mind/10156834777480504/
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what happens when you rember something?

keep your eyes open and remember something you've seen/done, like driving.

do you picture all the details and see it even though your eys are open?
 
I think without imagination, damn, would reading books just be terrible? I'm currently reading through a scifi series called Frontlines, space combat, aliens, etc. Throughout it my mind is filling in blanks. There are basic descriptions of certain characters so my mind kinda not vividly but kinda gives me an outline of a character. Same with the ships, they are roughly described and I fill in the blanks, imagine a ship that fits the description.. hell sometimes it will just be a starting point, they describe a big blocky space ship that looks less like a ship and more like a factory so I imagine something then just because maybe it fits more in with other stuff I imagined I add detail or change something. It's not something I spend long doing, it's almost automatic and, I've never tried to describe it or thought about it.

But without imagination and filling in the images, I don't even know how reading this series would be. I'd have such a basic boring concept of the book. Like the description of the main two characters happened in the first few chapters of the first book yet 4 books later, when they have a conversation or travel somewhere I imagine roughly how they look doing it. Just reading a book without any imagination must be such an empty experience. Ironically, the one thing I can't imagine.... is how it would be to have absolutely no imagination.
 
Mildly shocked by genuinely interesting thread :p Yes, I can create an image of multiple beaches in my mind, and the differences between them, without closing my eyes. Pretty much anywhere else I've been, too

Interesting to read about other people's experiences though, I'd always assumed everyone did this. I do also have incredibly vivid dreams though. The one I just woke up from had me and an old flatmate going to the second-top floor of Trump tower, swinging on some hanging blue and green boxes to get to the stairwell to the top, then having to jump off to get down, to land on an area they rolled out as we fell. Then having to go straight back and do it again so they could get it on video :p

So yes, I guess I do create very clear pictures in my head, awake and asleep.
 
I do both am I autistic?

I never even thought people didn't also visually think stuff... Interesting.
 
I'm struggling to believe anyone can actually see what they're 'visualising'. I can think about the sand and water etc, not an actual image though! I could say that I can picture it in my mind, but not something the eye can see...

Hmm...if I close my eyes and imagine I just see black, keep them closed long enough...still black with maybe some colour/shade change depending on light outside

Reading is boring for me.

Something that might be related...Even side by side if there's a picture of the same model/person with different clothes/ make up on I sometimes struggle to tell if they're actually the same person or not!

I play guitar and piano but hardly ever write songs from scratch.......

Can do technical drawing but rubbish at drawing in art class etc
 
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Tefal said:
what does your mother look like?

you cant picture her face?
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I think this whole aphantasia thing is just people describing how they remember things in different ways. Thoughts (in your head) and images (that you can see) seem to be the same thing to a lot of people, they're not!
 
I dunno....I'm sitting here thinking about as many things I can. Can't 'see' a single one but know what they look like.

That's all from memory.

If someone can 'paint a picture in their mind' it's because they know how to paint/draw etc or have watched others paint...so it's just recalling that from memory. Or simply remembering something they've seen already

Counting sheep is just counting whilst thinking of a cartoony image of a sheep you remember!
 
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i can bring up the image, but the sounds, smells and feeling are beyond me.

i remember watching a good documentary about how the human imagination plays a bigger role than you'd think, and that a lot of what you think you "see" is actually being edited in by your brain based on what it expects to be there rather than actually being observed by your eyes, especially so in your peripheral vision.

it's also how things like art can be different the second time you see it- because your brain remembers the parts you saw the first time so you end up looking elsewhere and picking up on details you didn't see the first time round.

when we call up an image in our minds eye, it's not really an image, you couldn't transpose it into a picture from scanning the brain. it's more about our impressions of the location and putting together the things we'd expect to find based on past experiences. for example when i first read the harry potter books, long before the films came out, i had my own versions of what the characters looked like, what hogwarts looked like etc etc, then the films came out and it was nothing like what my minds eye had created, because it was a rendition of someone else's imagination who'd taken the time to put it onto film.

it's especially moreso with the films based off terry pratchett's books because he had a much bigger part in their development so there's a lot more of the authors original vision in the image compared to my interpretation of this vision.

i don't think it has to do with the ability to paint, or be artistic, because i can't draw/paint for toffee. but i can still imagine.
 
^^

Yes, it's all about memory! You're just recalling things. If you have a poor memory so you don't remember exact details then you're imaginative because you fill in the blanks?

If I read something in a book and didn't know what it was then I wouldn't be able to 'visualise' it, some ppl might just visualise it based on the rest of the story or whatever (I would do that too...a bit, maybe?)

Music is using songs/sounds you've heard before, nobody just creates a song from nothing

Too complex to be giving a name to it I think!

Kreeeee said:
Maybe you're broken too, but you just don't realise it yet :p
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I can relate to all the points but not buying it :p
 
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builder22 said:
If I read something in a book and didn't know what it was then I wouldn't be able to 'visualise' it, some ppl might just visualise it based on the rest of the story or whatever
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indeed, you can get a close approximation, for example if the story has a castle then you'll likely imagine a norman style castle, if you get asked to imagine a palace it's likely not too far removed from the disney castle/neuschwanstein pattern of palace.

hence the need for a lot of detailed description comparing fantasy objects to real objects in literature, and more importantly real objects that the reader will likely be familiar with.

for example look at greek monsters or egyption gods- they tend as a rule to be based off creatures or a mixture of man and creature. because that way you can describefor example a minotaur to someone as they will know what a man looks like, they know what a bull looks like, so they can get a close approximation when you say half man half bull.
 
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