aphantasia–cannot visualize
Tuesday, February 9, 2016 by Frogboy | Discussion: Life, the Universe and Everything
My wife and I recently came across a show that referenced a person who had the inability to visualize images in their minds.
My immediate reaciton was, “Of course they can’t, nobody can. We call those hallucinations.” I thought it was absurd to suggest that people could just conjure up an image in their minds.
Turn out, I’m the defective one: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/23/science/aphantasia-minds-eye-blind.html?_r=0
So in my case (which for 45 years I assumed was the same for everyone else), I can’t close my eyes and visualize say an apple. If I see someone and close my eyes I won’t recall anything I just saw. I couldn’t identify their shirt. Unless I explicitly memorize it, I won’t remember a visual detail (like what my son’s glasses look like – I have no idea).
To me, you close your eyes, it’s dark. Sort of “Duh, of course.”
I was aware that I could not easily recognize people. Put one of my friends at the mall here and I wouldn’t recognize them easily. But until the show we watched, I had no idea that people could actually visualize an image in their mind. For me, it’s pretty mind blowing.
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Reply #22 Friday, February 12, 2016 7:23 AM
And you know this how?
I did the student protests at the law courts re people burning their draft cards ... did the Sunbury pop concert in 73 ,,,, got shit-faced drunk in Paris in 72 ....was roadie for a band who lost to Bon Scot's one in the Battle of the Bands...BEFORE ACDC.... been there done that....
...and yes, one of the lesser evils was smoking weed....
Reply #24 Monday, February 22, 2016 6:28 AM
Don't know whether I have to be grateful for this post or not. For almost 50 years I've lived in blissful ignorance, now I know I'm missing out on something 
I never understood people who hated a movie adaption because it didn't match the way they saw the original book, I could never visualize one. And I'm afraid I would like to.
Reply #25 Monday, February 22, 2016 10:24 AM
I'm the opposite. Everything gets visualized for me (especially faces, not always names 
). But now this makes a lot of sense on why I see ways to fix things or do things that my wife may not see. (And why me trying to explain it makes no sense to someone who can't see it visually in their mind)
Reply #26 Monday, February 22, 2016 3:45 PM
But now this makes a lot of sense on why I see ways to fix things or do things that my wife may not see. (And why me trying to explain it makes no sense to someone who can't see it visually in their mind)
No, that's simply the reality your wife is always correct and you are always wrong.
Haven't been married long? ....
Reply #27 Tuesday, February 23, 2016 8:32 AM
But now this makes a lot of sense on why I see ways to fix things or do things that my wife may not see. (And why me trying to explain it makes no sense to someone who can't see it visually in their mind)
No, that's simply the reality your wife is always correct and you are always wrong.
Haven't been married long? ....
Har har
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Reply #21 Friday, February 12, 2016 1:18 AM
Fun part is...if you're good at visualizing it all becomes entertaining if you're smoking pot..
And you know this how?
Oh, and I'm not saying what I visualise.
