Aphantasia: the inability to visualize

Count me in.

I'm 67 and I have discovered my aphantasia a couple of years ago.
I have been a professionnal programer for 40+ years and I never had the feeling I was missing this ability .. of course since I had no idea people could "see" ..

As far as analysis is concerned, it is probably some kind of an advantage since you stick to the facts (your brain cannot distord the reality) ... I guess ..

And now I know why I never quite understood the meditation thing ...

This is a fascinating thread for me - All my life I have been largely 'face blind' - my ability to remember what a person looks like is extremely limited. Thinking about it my ability to visualise anything is really bad. This doesn't mean I don't know what the ocean looks like or a boot or, after a while, a persons face but I cannot close my eyes and hold that image in my mind.

Strangely I can easily recollect every friends phone number from my childhood 40+ years ago, every mobile number I've ever had, every car registration & bank account etc.

With regards to faces, I can eventually identify a person but it takes time and I can't actually think about then picture them. Rather I have an object in my mind and it holds a whole host of identifiers that when I have enough of them I'll be able to say oh Hello [insert name here].

I don't know if there's any link (probably not) but when I think I actually hear my own voice talking in my head. Apparently that doesn't happen for everybody.

@John Naylor my experience is indeed very similar.

John Naylor said:

This doesn't mean I don't know what the ocean looks like or a boot or, after a while, a persons face but I cannot close my eyes and hold that image in my mind

Click to expand...

Exactly. From hearing my friends and people on this thread who do not have this 'problem', it appears to be very weird for them not being able to that and still 'remember' things. I believe our minds are just wired differently and is more based on a list of facts and associated emotions. I too have to interact quite some time with somebody until I have a list of features that I can assign to each of them. Doesn't mean I don't recognize them, just if the interaction was brief, I don't have enough info to identify/name them.

John Naylor said:

I don't know if there's any link (probably not) but when I think I actually hear my own voice talking in my head.

Click to expand...

I can hear that too, it is just the visual aspect that is not there.

I've been practising since a week of two to try to get more visualizations and just before I fall to sleep, I seem to be able to do it sometimes. I do dream vividly.

alwaysbusy said:

@John Naylor my experience is indeed very similar.

Exactly. From hearing my friends and people on this thread who do not have this 'problem', it appears to be very weird for them not being able to that and still 'remember' things. I believe our minds are just wired differently and is more based on a list of facts and associated emotions. I too have to interact quite some time with somebody until I have a list of features that I can assign to each of them. Doesn't mean I don't recognize them, just if the interaction was brief, I don't have enough info to identify/name them.


I can hear that too, it is just the visual aspect that is not there.

I've been practising since a week of two to try to get more visualizations and just before I fall to sleep, I seem to be able to do it sometimes. I do dream vividly.

Click to expand...

There was a UK magician called Paul Daniels - He practiced a lot of different types of magic. Big bold feats of walking through walls right down to very fine slight of hand and memory tricks.

I watched a show of his where he was explaining memory tricks and he gave an example. He picked on a member of the audience and showed how to remember his name. The guy was called Mike Ash. The instruction was to paint a picture of the guy holding a microphone (Mike ofc) and then picture his glasses and imagine cigarette ash along the top rims.

I remember the name but only because I remember the objects just like in OOP. I can't hold a picture of them they're just a bunch of things to put together.

The guy also did a language course using memory techniques. For example I know what an L is so I know what 4 of them are. I know what a trout is. I cannot visualise them but I know when I put them together I get 4 L - Forelle - German for trout. So in my head whenever I think of a trout object I also get a 4L object returned too.

alwaysbusy said:

I do dream vividly.

Click to expand...

Do you visualise in your dreams or are they more like objects? I actually see images in my dreams oddly enough, and I have lucid dreams several times a week.

John Naylor said:

I actually see images in my dreams oddly enough, and I have lucid dreams several times a week.

Click to expand...

Same with me. I think the rest of the world are just sleepwalking at day and we are the only ones actually awake ?

Chuang Tzu was a philosopher in ancient China, who, one night went to sleep and dreamed that he was a butterfly. He dreamt that he was flying around from flower to flower and while he was dreaming he felt free, blown about by the breeze hither and thither. He was quite sure that he was a butterfly. But when he awoke he realised that he had just been dreaming, and that he was really Chuang Tzu dreaming he was a butterfly. But then Chuang Tzu asked himself the following question: "was I Chuang Tzu dreaming I was a butterfly or am I now really a butterfly dreaming that I am Chuang Tzu?"

Thank you @alwaysbusy for bringing up this discussion. I too don't visualize much, although at various times I do hear music in great detail without any external source.
I remember a meditation mindfulness exercise where we were asked to transport to another place and visualize it. Afterwards when my turn came to describe it, I had to be honest and admit that I went back to my office in my mind - where I did some coding. When I actually did get to my office I just cut and pasted from memory.

When someone says close your eyes and imagine such and such all I see is darkness with little blobs of light which move randomly.
I have always thought imagination is about "thinking". I don't know if people really "see" things.
On other hand I can't even meditate or have no thoughts as meditation gurus expect you to think "nothing". I keep thinking if what I am thinking is 'nothing'.

@epiCode Imagination suggest "image" but that is not correct. Take a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagination

It takes real imagination to think of nothing.

0/0 is a number that not equal to itself, try it

And in tennis, 'Love' (l'Oeuf) means nothing.