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Hello, fellow aphantasic. Can you "see" motion? I can. I can easily visualize a ballerina doing a pirouette and a plié and gracefully moving her arms... but

Hello, fellow aphantasic. Can you "see" motion? I can. I can easily visualize a ballerina doing a pirouette and a plié and gracefully moving her arms... but I'm seeing actual imagery. It's more like I see the gradient of an image. Frankly, it's like "seeing" pure motion itself, devoid of the image itself of the thing moving. This was quite a surprising realization when I first noticed this ability. I think, by the way, for dancers and sports and others involved in motion activities, this ability is probably natural for them and they don't think about it.

supertofu 5y ago
Do people with aphantasia daydream? How does it work? What about drawing? When I was a kid I would spend hours constructing elaborate daydream worlds and plot lines. They were so vivid that I could have drawn them if asked.
- srcreigh 5y ago
  Hello. For me it's monologue (inner dialogue) or vague/shadowy fleeting images. Or singing songs to myself. I can rarely keep an image in mind for more than a moment, and it's always mostly colorless, not detailed.
  - supertofu 5y ago
    Fascinating! While my mind is VERY visual, I have horrible music recall and music doesn't come naturally to me at all.
- scruple 5y ago
  Nope, no daydreams here. And I cannot draw, though I am trying to learn (but it's hard to find time with young children), but that doesn't mean much. Famously, at least one of the people who started Pixar is an aphantasiac and, when they ran a survey of animators, IIRC, quite a few of them reported back that they also had/have it.
- khazhoux 5y ago
  I daydream, I suppose -- just not in clear imagery. I can actually draw really well, better than most people. But not super elaborate scenes. And I know that if I could actually visualize, it would be helping me a lot. I also have excellent musical/audio memory. I can hear back songs almost perfectly in my head, in the right key and in full detail.
  - jamiek88 5y ago
    I’ve never come across someone who also claims to be able to reproduce songs perfectly in their head. I can do this. It’s mostly involuntary though. I can’t pick and choose which songs I ‘record’ onto my brain.
- nimos 5y ago
  I don't daydream but I "self-narrate" - probably to a fault. Like I'm not seeing anything. I'm just sort of writing a novel where I'm the main character if that makes sense? It's similar to how I remember things.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
canam 5y ago
I don’t see motion, but I can feel/experience motion. I don’t see images at all. The motion aspect is interesting and I can use it to experience outdoor activities or sports on demand.

supertofu 5y ago

Do people with aphantasia daydream? How does it work? What about drawing? When I was a kid I would spend hours constructing elaborate daydream worlds and plot lines. They were so vivid that I could have drawn them if asked.

srcreigh 5y ago
Hello. For me it's monologue (inner dialogue) or vague/shadowy fleeting images. Or singing songs to myself. I can rarely keep an image in mind for more than a moment, and it's always mostly colorless, not detailed.
- supertofu 5y ago
  Fascinating! While my mind is VERY visual, I have horrible music recall and music doesn't come naturally to me at all.
scruple 5y ago
Nope, no daydreams here. And I cannot draw, though I am trying to learn (but it's hard to find time with young children), but that doesn't mean much. Famously, at least one of the people who started Pixar is an aphantasiac and, when they ran a survey of animators, IIRC, quite a few of them reported back that they also had/have it.
khazhoux 5y ago
I daydream, I suppose -- just not in clear imagery. I can actually draw really well, better than most people. But not super elaborate scenes. And I know that if I could actually visualize, it would be helping me a lot. I also have excellent musical/audio memory. I can hear back songs almost perfectly in my head, in the right key and in full detail.
- jamiek88 5y ago
  I’ve never come across someone who also claims to be able to reproduce songs perfectly in their head. I can do this. It’s mostly involuntary though. I can’t pick and choose which songs I ‘record’ onto my brain.
nimos 5y ago
I don't daydream but I "self-narrate" - probably to a fault. Like I'm not seeing anything. I'm just sort of writing a novel where I'm the main character if that makes sense? It's similar to how I remember things.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

canam 5y ago

I don’t see motion, but I can feel/experience motion. I don’t see images at all. The motion aspect is interesting and I can use it to experience outdoor activities or sports on demand.