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I truly believe some of this is just a misunderstanding, yes I can see the apple in my minds eye in all of its glory and color, but yes it’s still black “behind
by luxuryballs 2y ago
I truly believe some of this is just a misunderstanding, yes I can see the apple in my minds eye in all of its glory and color, but yes it’s still black “behind my eyes”, it all depends on where I am focusing, on my eyes or on the apple.
Some percentage of this has to be people simply not agreeing on the way to describe what they are experiencing even if they are experiencing the same thing.
- drooby 2y agoI would absolutely never write what you wrote though.. What "glory" do you speak of? For me, the apple is more of an idea and I can VERY faintly "see" fuzzy attributes about its geometry. And there is no color.
- Semaphor 2y agoI can’t. There is no apple. I remember how apples look from seeing them before. But I can’t see it. I can’t turn it, it’s a completely abstract thing in my mind.
- johannes1234321 2y agoI don't think it's agreeing. I can't "see" anything my any means just from thoughts. Either I see or I don't. There is no visual part I'm remembering stuff. Not that I can really describe how I memorize things ... but from all I read about there is a big difference between people. Not just disagreement.
- thornewolf 2y agoI address the "maybe we describe our experience differently" in my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41139321 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41139321 I believe that there is something past just a disagreement on definitions.
- yodon 2y ago>I truly believe some of this is just a misunderstanding...this has to be people simply not agreeing on the way to describe what they are experiencing The article makes clear there are significant differences in how multiple areas of the brain are activated in people at different ends of the "has aphantasia"/"doesn't have aphantasia" spectrum.
- redhed 2y agoI agree, not saying aphantasia isn't real but I think a lot of it is misunderstanding of those who think phanatasia is closing your eyes and "seeing" things. In an engineering class where I had to make drawings from multiple angles I would rotate it in my mind and draw it, I can can close my eyes and visualize walking around my childhood home, and I can visualize snap shots of important memories of my life. However, I don't "see" it in any sense of what it is like when my eyes are open, not even close really.
- saltcured 2y agoI think I'm pretty far out on the aphantasia spectrum. Mostly the spatial and abstract qualia of a scene, not like seeing. Even an afterimage of a strobe is more visual than my imagination. I can't really picture faces of loved ones, though I can sense strong recognition and/or anticipation of features or mannerisms when seeing an actual person. But I have a variable audio and proprioceptive imagination that is something in between, like many people have described above for visuals. Not like a hallucination or waking dream with perceptions equivalent to real senses, but with way more qualia than just an abstract idea. A distinct category of simulation that lies somewhere in between. So, I can believe that others have things more like this, but visually. And I have observed mentally ill people with full on hallucinations and delusions, and can also believe that there are other stages along this spectrum, more vivid but still distinguishing self-generated from sensory-generated perceptions. For imagery, I have the most tenuous topological or spatial perceptions that, if anything, connect more to my proprioceptive sense. Like as if I could imagine myself being some sort of tentacled animal and reaching all over to feel a complex structure in an instant. Or at times of extreme focus, I can almost feel myself as an amorphous charge spreading out (breadth-first) through a complex graph or maze.