Why Some People Don't Have A 'Mind's Eye' | Random Thursday

What do you "see" in your mind's eye? Is it as real as looking at a photo? Or do you not see any images at all? It turns out there are 3-5% of the population who don't have the ability to form images in their heads. It's a condition called "Imagination blindness" or Aphantasia, and it was only recently discovered.

Along with Aphantasia is the opposite end of the spectrum, Hyperphantasia, where the mind's eye is so vivid, it's hard to distinguish between what's real and what's imagination.

It opens up a lot of questions about how we see and perceive our world.

Here are links to the tests to determine where you fall on the spectrum:

SUIS:

OSIQ:

VVIQ:

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[SylvainDuford]

This was a life-changing video for me. I'm 61 and I had never of this, I always thought when people talked about seeing images in their head it was hyperbole. I totally have aphantasia and I fit all the characteristics that you mentioned and I have a very strong inner-monologue. This explains so many things about me, both good and bad. Thank you so much for making this video.

[timchallenge]

I've been telling my friends for years that I cannot picture things in my mind. They always seemed dumbfounded by the idea, but if you asked me to picture a house with a red door, my mind would just say the words "a house with a red door" there's no actual image in my head. What's weird is on the rare occasion that I do remember my dreams, which is extremely rare, my dreams are extremely vivid, so somehow my unconscious mind can picture things, but my conscious mind can't.

[OpreanMircea]

My inner voice constantly talks, especially when I'm trying to sleep

[lizard]

I have aphantasia and I can see hazy things in my mind, but I can't imagine new things. If you described an animal to me that I'd never seen before, I would have no mental image of it. If you asked me to picture my partner's face, I wouldn't really see it so much as a fuzzy outline and a list of attributes. I still dream in images, although interestingly my dreams are usually not photorealistic. I've always loved reading but I found it ridiculous when people said that reading a book was like seeing a movie in your mind, until I learned that it's because most people actually do see something in their head when they read. It blows my mind that people can actually see things in their head like that; it seems almost like a super power to me and it's so cool.

[rondlh]

This seems like something we should test children on, so we can support them in their learning processes

[insertcoffeehere]

I honestly thought that seeing things with your minds eye was all fictional in movies and books 💀 didn’t think people had it that good

[TheSandkastenverbot]

When I was a teenager I always wondered why I could never imagine the girl(s) I had a crush on apart from maybe their hair and eye color

[dod]

I work in architecture. One of my architect coworkers has aphantasia. I have hyperphantasia. The different ways that we each approach design is something I try to pay close attention to so that I can better figure out how to convey information without relying too much on abstract descriptors.

[evensong]

This video is extremely enlighting to me, i never understood how the hell counting sheep was suppose to help me sleep but now that I know other people actually see a sheep makes sense to me lol.

[Aesthics]

0:28 I'm imagining a doggo. I see scattered outlines of one, with some detail near the top of it..but most of it is indescribable concepts. Kinda like how you know wind is there, but you can't see it. I know the dog is being imagined in my mind, but it's hard to 'see'

[SeenGrand]

Is it okay that I imagined a hotdog? The Buns are perfectly cut, cheddar cheese melted on both sides, hotdog slides in between with the same size of the Buns, a nice continuous squiggly line of mustard across and some fined onions sprinkled across

[krystal]

I think in words, not pictures. When asked to picture a dog I think of a golden retriever type dog with shaggy reddish fur but I don’t “see” anything. It’s just like a default generic list of dog features that pops up but not an image. Same with an apple, I can think of an outline and assign a color but I don’t hold an image in my mind. I am not good at realistic drawing and can remember names/numbers easily but wouldn’t recognize a person that I’d recently met. It’s annoying haha but I’m a photographer and it’s cool to be able to create art from the vast darkness of my mind and see it come together on paper.

[thesurrealtaco]

Thank you Joe. I had a stroke in 2019. I went from having a minds eye to Aphantasia state. Now i no longer remember how my parents look etc. Yet I know who they are in sight.

[joshua]

That day dreaming thing Joe described happens to me everytime I sit still for to long, it's like my mind goes "I'm bored now, let's think up some interesting scenarios and play through them."

[melaniebach]

I have aphantasia!! I always explain it to people this way: say you’re reading a book and they’re explaining a scene or a person. There’s no actual picture, but you’ve got a sense of what’s there. That’s exactly how all things are stored in my brain.

[rileystanton]

I just learned about this a few months ago. It explains so much. I always thought those “visualization” meditation exercises were so stupid! I don’t see a beach or my “happy place” when I close my eyes. Now I know that most people actually can and their experience with the exercise is completely different. I thought everyone else was bs-ing me when they said they felt more relaxed afterwards.

[ChadandJamal]

No dog as I'm one of those unlucky buggers with aphantasia (I've had it for my whole life however didn't realise until I was 29) haha. I can "feel" the concept of a dog and get a loose data stream of what dogs are/like via inner monologue but no image. Funnily enough I'm quite thankful for aphantasia as it came with a number of advantages when it comes to abstract thinking, information processing and well it sort of made me immune to bad/annoying/cringe memories as I can't get flashbacks or intrusive thoughts. I also attribute aphantasia to my inability to become depressed/get PTSD or even feel sadness/feel down for long (please note this isn't all people with aphantasia). Due to a lack of visual memory I also tend to live in the now as opposed to the past/future. What you mentioned about describing people/places is so correct. I can describe personalities far easier than the way they look. My thought process is pretty much 100% active and ego-driven inner monologue + emotion based. Dreams are also abstract and thought based (but still very profound and vivid). I even enjoy lucid dreaming regularly.

[doomfrogg]

I’ve never felt so normalised after watching this. I always thought I was crazy when people would tell me they could visualise things and I could never get anything in my head or understand what people were trying to explain things. Thank you for this video I’ll have to do my own further research but now I have a reason that explains what I’ve been so lost on for so long

[pepperleaf]

When I was a kid, I thought artists were magical because they could remember what things looked like when they weren't looking right at them. I had no idea that it wasn't a special ability, lol.

[tav.bassboi]

i always thought it was metaphorical or hyperbole… thank you so much for making this video. I’ve seen this video multiple times and it still makes me a little emotional because it is such an unknown concept to teachers, parents, and kids. I never knew that most people literally see things in their head. In school I would get so frustrated trying to describe what I “pictured” when I was reading a passage from a book… the idea of “picturing” didn’t make much sense to me. I really wish I knew what it was like to see images or events play out in my head… reading the comments makes me feel so understood and normal