this post was submitted on 27 May 2025
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[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] nichtsowichtig@feddit.org 12 points 2 days ago (4 children)

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'.

[–] CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml 2 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

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

[–] nichtsowichtig@feddit.org 2 points 14 hours ago

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

[–] aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] nichtsowichtig@feddit.org 8 points 2 days ago

it's absolutely wild! I still struggle to imagine how other people can picture things.

[–] xorollo@leminal.space 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Waiiiiit. It's not just a figure of speech?!

[–] nichtsowichtig@feddit.org 5 points 2 days ago

welcome to the rabbit hole!

[–] HandwovenConsensus@lemm.ee 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

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.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] nichtsowichtig@feddit.org 1 points 2 days ago

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.