3 ms·

Everyone has an imagination. Some people have had it beaten out of them or were never taught to pay attention to it or use it, but everyone has one.

• brightly-salty 3y ago
  This is not true. I and many other people have aphantasia[0], our brains are simply unable to imagine visually the way other people are. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia
  • borski 3y ago
    Fair enough; I shouldn’t have said “everyone” because that’s obviously not true, but only pedantically, for the most part. It’s not insensitive to say “everyone has a nose” and mean “except the very small percentage of people that don’t have noses due to birth defects, trauma, or genetics”. 1-3% of people have aphantasia. That’s not everyone, but it’s close.
    • ModernMech 3y ago
      The question remains.
    • blahbob 3y ago
      Throughout my life, I thought "mind's eye" was a metaphor, and that people didn't actually see images in their heads. When I discovered aphantasia was a thing, and that I had it, I also accepted it was rare. But turns out, about a third of my male friends also have it. Not one female friend has it, though. It's a pity there isn't much research on the subject.