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I have aphantasia and didn’t realize it until adulthood. Both my brother and I have it (or lack it), though neither of our parents have aphantasia. When people
by jumploops 3y ago
I have aphantasia and didn’t realize it until adulthood. Both my brother and I have it (or lack it), though neither of our parents have aphantasia.
When people spoke of “daydreaming” I always assumed it was just a metaphor for being deep in thought, as it would be clearly impossible for people to visualize things without dreaming or hallucinating… boy was I wrong!
Apparently some folk can even look at a wall and imagine a scene playing out like a movie. Blows my mind every time I think about it!
- nocoiner 3y agoI am fairly sure I don’t have aphantasia, but for me there’s no visual component to daydreaming - it’s purely just zoning out and later realizing I’d lost track of time. It’s so interesting to hear about how other people’s minds work totally differently from that.
- smokel 3y agoDon't believe everything people say. It is very hard for people to report their inner processes correctly.
- jumploops 3y agoI completely agree — all of our minds work slightly differently and thus using language to describe one’s internal loop is necessarily fraught with translation error. With that said, this report came from a close relative who had no idea that aphantasia was a thing. We started with the experiment: “imagine a barn, what color is it and how many windows does it have?” and then proceeded to dive into the limits of their capabilities (e.g. detail is often absent or brushed over, while some things are quite vivid like people’s faces). Her report was quite different from others I’ve spoken with, so it certainly seems like there’s a spectrum to the experience of phantasia.