That's really interesting. I can believe it happens. Some portion of your brain is still seeing the words, since the retina and optical nerves aren't affected

That's really interesting. I can believe it happens. Some portion of your brain is still seeing the words, since the retina and optical nerves aren't affected, it's just that your visual field is getting interference from somewhere else. Like getting interference on an old CRT monitor with a magnet. It affects what you can see, but it doesn't stop anything from seeing the data come through the graphics card itself. The reason I wonder about whether I am seeing things on a "screen" I can't access has to do with my ability to recognize things. When I see something I've seen before, I immediately recognize it, just like normal people do. So it's saved off somewhere, I just can't access it in the meantime. So it's possible that when I try to imagine a beach or whatever, it's appearing on a screen I can't see. I think of it as if my visual projector has a burnt out bulb. It could be showing it to me if I could somehow change the bulb, possibly.