I don't recollect having memories since I was very young, a toddler I would say. I need to see pictures to know something about the past. Of course I do have some memories... but I don't know if I have them because they left a strong emotional response at that moment. I do not recollect or feel now strong emotions as well. So, yes...If I take pictures or see pictures then I can recall the moment of the picture. Names, faces, places, events... all not available for me as memories. My son growing up, going to school, no memories... what he ate, what he did, what he dressed like... no memories. And again, my emotions are very limited as well. My son left home to live with his girlfriend and people couldn't believe I wasn't suffering because now I am alone. I find it interesting, just as the weather, earthquakes and other things. I hope there will be more awareness on this topic, because my doctors don really care about this.

WRONG! I have a constant inner dialogue. Never stops! Drives me mad. But i cant visualize at all. Its black

So how did one count sheep to fall asleep?

I feel like basic geometry has gotta be so hard though?

I don't think i have any mental imagery... I can "try" to picture something like a point in space extending lines when imagining a triangle being drawn, but the "image" falls apart in my mind even faster than I can conceptualize it, and yet I don't think I've "seen" anything, just black. Like Plato's allegory of the cave I "see" the shadow on the wall of an image meaning that I don't see it in any real sense just that I'm vaguely aware of some conceptualization of an image having taken place, but I've certainly never seen anything. I'm also not sure how to describe the voice in my head that is my thoughts. It is my voice and yet there isn't sound. Its not that I hear myself, but my thoughts are endless streaming dialogues with myself. I don't really think I can imagine sound either. Its hard to explain, but when I think of an animal or a noise I just know what it is and just make a ton of connections and that's what builds my idea of something. If you ask me to visualize a beach, I think "beach" and immediately think "sand","water", "waves", and so on, but i don't see any of it or even say any of that it just is my thought. I recently came to the realization yesterday that people can see actual pictures when they close their eyes and that baffles me. All I ever see is the same black. I don't really know how to describe what the feeling of an attempted visualization that devolves instantaneously is like beyond my example above. I'd assume other people start this process and just succeed where I fail. Why I know what things look like when I cannot see them I do not know.

I've had it my whole life. Shocked to check with my mid 40 yr old daughter today that she has it.

One good thing about it, it is nearly impossible for me to hold a grudge or retain bad feelings for someone who wronged me in the past. Why? Because I can’t visually re-live and replay the injury in my mind. The hurt fades away fairly quickly.

When asked how many windows? I found the explanation of flying from where I am (in my head) through the house to each window and "knowing it's there" very accurate. I produce some sort of mental image or understanding but it isn't a clear picture like representation. Idea is an interesting way to put it but feels wrong to me still. It's more substantial than an idea. It's almost a faint feeling of actually walking to the windows and looking at it.

The "hunters mind" comment caught my blind inner eye. I have always been hyper aware of other people's unique body language. So much so I recognize people by their movements as well as I can by seeing a face. It has also been very unsettling not being able to picture the faces of loved ones and pets. Thank you so very much Dr. Zeman. Coining the phrase has helped so many of us begin down a path of understanding by helping us become aware.

I have lucid dreaming, also can hear say things in my mind when I sleep is when I see things when I'm conscious I can't do mental imagery

Religion is a system of control used to play on peoples subconscious mind state. When you come into this world you were not born with any religious text attacted to you. Many churches pastors and other religious groups use scare tactics to get you to give in and give up your conscious mind state. Making you a walking zombie. Light comes from darkness not the other way around. They have you backwards. Why is it when u go to a church they dont present any facts they just said believe or god said. But they dont present you with any math, science, or historical facts to support what they are telling you. They just say if you dont believe your going to hell. Much of it is brain washing and used to control humanity. There is no man in the sky controlling the universe no heaven or hell. Buddha, Jesus, Allah all are one in the same all the texts are one in the same.They all talk about the universal mind and how it works. And different time periods of the world and the state in which it has and will go through. Much of these names and religions were made up by man. We gave the elements of the universe human like attributes even more so making them human giving them names and birthdays times and seasons. All of this was just a way to study and relate to the universal mind as a whole. People do your own field research because there is a answer for everything. Peace and love to all.

I resonate with this message... I feel my biggest frustration is trying to describe what's wrong with me in order to get help. I feel like there are huge implications coming from having aphantasia, SDAM and "ADHD. Sure when things are good... They are okay. But as soon as the complications start adding up... I'm useless to the world. Then it compounds

It is not a disability, just a variation of the mind. I love having this quirk that sets me apart from other people. To not see things when I close my eyes has not given me a disadvantage in life.

I have aphantasia but a strong inner voice. Everything is words.

It always strikes me as strange when they put the pictures up as a comparison as to what people might see in the spectrum of visual thinking, presenters tend to use very similar 3D colour images with lots of detail. For me it’s less like cataract vision and more like glaucoma vision. Less like someone turned down the lights of what a visual thinker see’s and more like looking through a telescope of a narrower much simpler picture. I do have images but rarely and they are nowhere near as complex as the images they show. Think small 2D, black and white emoji horse 🐎 minus the blanket and the surrounds are blurry or blank. To think as much as that takes a lot of effort and trying to use visual pictures rather than the other ways I naturally use would be disabling in everyday life. Moving pictures are a no, If you asked me can I see a face it would be a black and white emoji lol. Today I learned about hypophantasia but there is still much more variation within that we still have to learn.

Things that are always the same color, like lemons, are not a problem. We memorize those things. I know that lemons are always yellow. Show me a car that is blue but my friend has the same car in orange, I am likely to recall the color I am more familiar with because I see my friends car often but have no anchor to the blue car. Also, I am a birder and typically have to re-identify the same bird until I memorize it's primary features. If I see a bird once and then don't see that bird again for weeks, I can't recall it from memory because I have no retained "picture". I have to see it multiple times until the verbal description is memorized. This memory manifests as a verbal description in my mind. If that makes sense...

Artist.

Ridiculous! The problem isn’t about a minds eye but rather it’s a inability to self assess. No one actually can close their eyes and see something as if it’s really there. If they could then v.r. Would be near pointless and far more people would be closing their eyes all day long in order to immerse themselves in their own life-like creations. People would be going insane, unsure what was real and what was imagined because they are both that similar.

Very interesting. A most obvious question is are there differences in the experience of aphantasia vs phantasia subjects on hallucinogens, LSD, DMT, etc?

I don't have a minds eye, I have a minds thesaurus

I have some type of aphantasia but maybe… I can hear in my head, ie repeat back audio in my head, but it’s short clips, like a highlight reel, my impression of the sound. Small dialogue is easier to recall than random sounds. I can’t tactically feel things in my head, I can imagine the emotions I felt touching that object but I can’t replay the actual feeling of the object. I can’t smell well in real life, I have no sense of inner smell. taste…. I can kinda do this. It’s more like my tongue remembers the taste, not my head. That’s what I call cravings… it’s not 100% recall but it’s still way better than my other senses. Oh and I’m 100% inner monologue. In silence it’s nonstop commentary. Or it’s telling a story using the shitty bits of visual imagery it’s got. It’s one voice, and I wouldn’t say I hear it with my ears. The voice will also speed up. So if I’m watching double speed KZbin videos, the voice will get faster. This was clear to me when I tried to read a KZbin comment. My reading speed stayed the same (I read aloud in my head) so my inner voice was forced to slow down. This speed discrepancy felt like I was having a stroke. No lie.

I am one of these ppl who can't produce. Images in my minds eye. I, although untested, fall somewhere on the autism spectrum. I wanna say this. I use the monroe Institute, gateway tapes, to meditate, too. Once the binural frequencies play in my ears, about 10 15 min in. I can start to pull images into my minds eye. They are random but they are almost crystal clear. Some of the things I saw were, my kitchen, my dad end table and lamp, my driveway, and for some really random reason, Bart Simpson. I try to lay still and do this excersie without the frequencies, and I can not produce images. Not atm atleast. This is something i am working on as I type this. I'm just curious if anyone else here has tried binaural beats and meditation to produce images. If not may I suggest you try it. Please let me know on here in the comment section if it worked for you

I've drawn haphazardly a couple times, only to see coherent pictures afterward. With both oil paints and digital Paint(s), I've daubed around. I think my conscious aphantic mind draws on my subconscious mind to show me what I should say - is that the basis of abstract thought; I seem to be able to (imagine?) seeing very vague silhouettes that move to convey conceptual structure. Does anyone relate?

I have this and I do not have very much recall of my childhood and what I do think I remember, I do not know if I just invented it or if it actually happened. What I think I remember, I have very little details.

I believe I have aphantasia and anendophasia, so im not sure im a verbal thinker, or at least im not very conscious of it, in fact im so poor at some verbal tasks like memorising a list. Yet Im here, and I do things that regular people do

What is "sensory intrusion"? Was it explained on some questionnaire that I didn't receive?

I make short movies happen in my mind, just a few seconds. I imagined I was in a car looking out the windshield and I said, : “Ok, let’s go.” and for 2-3 seconds my whole body felt like I was going 69 miles an hour. I could see it as, but when I started feeling it I opened my eyes and shut it down. I’ve been experimenting with my own mind for years. It’s great when you can close your eyes and then think of something you want to see or feel you can just do it. Kind of scary. I’ve had dreams that I was in a car that was moving but that was just brain, my body didn’t feel it. This I felt as if it were real. I can tell my visions what to do and not only do they don’t, i can immediately feel it in my head. I know the brain itself has no pain sensors, but i felt something in my head while it was happening and when I stopped, the feeling in my head stopped as well.

I worry that your science is going to eventually flatten our minds out and separate them into a number of dead abstractions so they can fit into one of your genius’s models.

It’s because we see without seeing. Best way to put it has been said before… computer monitor with an image on it but the screen is off. With more detail. If I saw a series of shapes, I would mentally draw the lines in my mind but I don’t see it. I think it in such a way that I see it. It’s kind of like a mouse pointer and Microsoft paint… moving but not clicked and dragged so the cursor makes no shape.

What I wanted to say is that this is why I can't 'imagine' plans - for how to lay out my garden for example. Once I get started, it becomes obvious how it all should be, but if I don;t start, I just can't see or imagine it in any way. I'm very good at making and building and mending things, and I also am a lifelong musician. I 'discover' the steps in the creative process as I go along, they are revealed, rather than visualise it as a complete thing I have to build / write / make. I think th analogy is like in a computer game where you have a map that slowly gets revealed and mapped out as you travel the area, and you build up a larger, well . . not picture. . . but an operational map of it all. I don't get any imagery in my mind's eye. It hurts to try! And I;ve realised I probably couldn't handle that much extra input, it wold be very distracting.

I remember someone describing how they used their imagination to build a starship as they went to sleep. I was like, wait, you can see all that in your mind???/ He was like . . yeah of course . . what - you can't? I was like, no, it's just black. He didn;t believe me!

I will be 49 this October and i have lived with this condition all my life. I have only once been able to visualize in my mind and that was Christmas day of 2003. When i woke up on the 26th it was gone. I have sent in studies for the university of Exeter in England with no help and at this point in my life. It is ehat it is. Ive had to except what i have as much pain as it gives me not being able to see my sons face in my mind or any other loved ones. If you have this same condition just know you are not alone.

I have a question for ppl with aphantasia. Before you realized you had aphantasia, When you would watch a movie and the main character or who ever would be talking narrating but the characters mouth wasn't moving. Did you realize that was thier internal thoughts or what did you think? For instance the movie "Mean Girls" idk why that came to mind but I remember a lot of internal monologlohansthe main character. Lol

I missed the live presentation but have watched the video two or three times now and my question is do you think aphantasia can be caused from trauma? I tend to block hurtful/painful things so is my mind blocking out images? I "see" absolutely no images, is from early childhood trauma?

ASD but safely middling on imagery for me.Auditory seems 70 per cent Visual 40 pc so slightly below. I am musical

I am multisensory aphantasic and i had ptsd and flashbacks tons and tons of years ago. Ive seen my memories about 5 times under 6 years old , and 3 times were ptsd flashbacks. However, people without aphantasia probably have flashbacks all day, for weeks or months. Ive not seen any other memories, like watching a movie in my brain. So, not over 6 years old. Ive never been able to willing create stuff in my minds eye; like seeing, hearing, tasting, smell and other stuff. I read the detailed multisensory aphantasia article where someones wife ranked their hyperphantasia. By her standards (comparing to how she ranked herself) i got 0 on everything except 3/10 for emotional memory. I remember somewhat emotions of memories. I would have given myself 5/10 for that, but compared to all the things she said she could do in her minds eye. I got 3/10.

I watched this whole interview some time ago. While I did not totally understand all of the technical details, as someone with aphantasia, I did find it interesting. I find it hard to find the words to explain to friends and family exactly what it is like, so thank you for sharing this and making this network in the first place.

I am a South Korean aphantasic dating Japanese. In the Japanese langauge, the expression for "to have a dream" is "to see a dream (夢を見るor YUME WO MIRU).“ Speaking in Japanese, there is no simple alternatvie way to express that I dreamed than saying I "saw" a dream. As she understands aphantasia and knows that I don't really mean that I "saw" something, we often have a moment of laughing whenever I say the sentence. The fact that the langauge itself doesn't allow me to accurately describe my inner experience shows that the language game is deeply ingrained in our daily lives, adding difficulty to detect the existence of aphantasia. Also, it will be an interesting study to explore the impact of the language (what specific language is spoken) on the language game regarding aphantasia.

The difference between imagination and visualization?

I cannot picture past memories in my mind. I can only remember things if I told the story of that event immediately after it happened. I also need to tell the story repeatedly over time. If I don’t, I have no memory of that event.

I have to assume I'm on the low end of the aphantasia spectrum. There is no apple or horse in my mind's eye, and the rolling ball task is what convinced me fully lol I have a robust internal monologue. I also dream less than once a year; and, if I do, I'd describe it an audiobook. I also scored a perfect "super recognizer" score on the Harvard facial recognition test. When I was in grade 2 or 3, my school made me take "gifted child test", which I assume was some kind of IQ test. I scored a perfect 10/10 on the non-verbal part of the test (mental rotation tasks and one-hole punch puzzles). No mental health issues other than what I'd describe as a functional schizoid personality (flat affect, introverted, maybe a dash of autism). So, what, I fall into multiple "1% of the population" categories simultaneously? Ya'll better study me or some shit lol

As a aphant child who grew up late 60's and 70's during a strong accepted hippie drug culture, I never had any visions, hallucinations or flashbacks on any common drugs used back then. I never visualized anything. I still find it unbelievable that people can visualize anything! Oh and I also cannot be hypnotized. I had experts while in the military as part of a training and it never happened. It seems to require visualization.

I usually end up having to explain to the health professionals what aphantasia is. I have CPTSD, ADHD, anxiety, and depressions. It's very complicated. Now I'm about to start with a new therapist. Hope this time I have more luck. 😅😅

I do wonder if my aphantasia helps sometimes because I was in an abusive relationship from 2014 to 2016 and he did and said some awful things to me. I can’t replay any of it in my mind, I just remember details and they certainly never came back unbidden. I am also not an emotionally unstable female whatsoever, even though I see so many women around me that are like that. I don’t have emotional outbursts but I am quite caring and in touch with my emotions and that of others. I do wonder if there’s a link.

I would have thought that memory issues are related to SDAM and not aphantasia? You can have vivid memories but no visual imagination and vice versa. I have both sdam and aphantasia but I have a friend with aphantasia but they can recall memories visually. I think it's an important distinction so i think the data is significantly flawed as there's no way of knowing if these apahants with no imagery flashbacks normally have visual memories or not.

I have full aphantasia yet I can draw photographically. I get that skill from my father's side but my mother is the one with aphantasia. I also have adhd.

61 yo male, German. Max level aphant, knew it since I was a teen. Learned about Adam Zemans research some ten years ago and finally could give it a name and perspective, which in itself helped me a lot. Suffered from a stress-related depression recently and was recommended psychodynamic psychotherapy. Found a therapist I had a good rapport with but they/we couldn't think of ways to get around my inability to actually /recall/ any kind of sensual perception or emotion, so they figured they couldn't help me. Very interesting presentation, thanks a lot. Looking forward to hearing input and recommendations for therapists.

I want to acknowledge how funny this title is, especially for Aphantasiacs like myself

I have aphantasia. I have been researching about it. When I talked about this with my family, it turned out that my mother and brother also have aphantasia. I don’t visualize anything at all, not even senses. My mother can only visualize the high-emotional places or events (sometimes). My brother can only visualize for a fraction of a second then the thing he visualized disappears(after a lot of effort). But my father has a vivid image that he scored 3.5/5. I was very fascinated by the fact that in the family there are 3 different degrees of aphantastic person and one who can visualize easily. I hope more reseach would be done about this case.