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Aphantasia

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Aphantasia

Tips: 0.50 INK Postby dealing with it on Mon Apr 19, 2021 3:59 pm

I just heard about something called aphantasia, and I realized that I have it. It’s the lack of a mind’s eye: I don’t see anything when I try to imagine anything. No visuals whatsoever. It probably explains why I don’t read fiction that often, and why I prefer non-fiction and philosophy.

https://youtu.be/ewsGmhAjjjI

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Re: Aphantasia

Tips: 0.25 INK Postby phosphene on Mon Apr 19, 2021 7:32 pm

i have this, as well, though i love reading fiction still. after doing some research on it, i’m beginning to wonder if the brain damage i suffered as a child might be what brought it on rather than it just being a natural thing but, ultimately, i don’t think it matters that much.

it is very interesting, though!
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Re: Aphantasia

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby lostamongtrees on Wed Apr 21, 2021 7:23 am

Hmmm, interesting. I've read on this topic before and it was presented entirely differently, thus producing very different results. I've come to determine that maybe we have an "inner mind's eye" and an "eye's mind's eye" , the first subconscious and imagination driven, the second imagination and hallucination via optic nerve activation.

First, imagining the apple according to the video dealing_with_it provided. This is very much the "inner minds eye":
  • I find that the images are wildly vivid, but depending on what i'm envisioning they aren't easily able to be controlled. This exercise was difficult and one i've done before, but in a different sense. As the narrator flipped through different scenarios, they instantly manifested in my mind's eye.

    For example, an apple appears iconographically for an instant and then disappears to be replaced by further imagery as my thought progresses. I can focus on holding the image of an apple, but there's something liminal about it. The surroundings and the light, it's genus, ever so slightly shift as my mind decides what scene we are placing the apple in. The scene can and will change as rapidly as it was able to be grasped firm, based again on whatever synapse fires off next up there in the noggin.
  • This would explain my passion for reading, considering the imagery in my imagination is so easily influenced at the same time as being vivid. Might be interesting to note I also lucid dream & can remember them in detail when able to remember them

These results are entirely different from the last time I came across an aphantasia test.

The last time I came across this apple-in-the-minds-eye thing, which I didn't know the name of at the time, I was asked to picture just the apple and seemingly use my actual optical nerves and senses to manifest the apple (according to the directions it seems) on the back of my eyelids. The directions didn't go into detail about the apple, or give any prompts in regards to where the apple should be, what it should be doing, it's color, whether or not it had a stem. This information was prompted to be recalled after the exercise. The exercise was presented in text reading format, instead of video, as well.



In complete contrast to my "inner brain mind's eye", it seems I was using a different type of mind's eye. My "eye's mind's eye".

My "eye's mind's eye" wasn't able to produce results with nearly as much ease.

For the longest time the apple sat as a solid gray-ish blur on a black background, purpling and fuzzing as if I was pushing my thumbs into my eyes. Without warning the apple popped into full 3-D vivid-ness and, I will admit I was kind of surprised that suddenly there was a literal apple hanging out between my eyelids and my eyes. It was wild.
...Then I lost control of what I was seeing. It morphed into a screaming face. I opened my eyes pretty quick. This is why my theory is that it plays with your optic nerves to do it this way and forces a hallucination in the same way a mirage would.

Great thread :)
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