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>People who don't have aphantasia see objects in their visual field, occluding reality? That sounds like hallucination, and very unsafe unless you have a high d

by _dain_ 2y ago

>People who don't have aphantasia see objects in their visual field, occluding reality? That sounds like hallucination, and very unsafe unless you have a high degree of control over it. An imaginary horse pops into your visual field while you're making a tricky maneuver on the highway... Does the image from your left eye occlude the image from your right eye? No, it doesn't. It's the same for mental imagery. It's a third "image buffer", alongside the two from the eyes. It coexists in the same coordinate system as the other two, but it doesn't occlude them. Can you imagine a song in your head? If so, does it drown out the sound of the real world? Again, no.

mondrian 2y ago
I fully agree, and that is my experience. I am just grappling with what looks like quite a bit of misunderstanding around aphantasia. Some people make it sound like it involves imaginary objects in the visual field, causing other people (who probably don't have aphantasia) to start suspecting that they too have aphantasia, because when they close their eyes they can't see vivid images on the backs of their eyelids.
- hondadriver 2y ago
  And here is what makes it difficult. My wife really sees 'extra' images when imagining with eyes open and closed. I can imagine very well but don't see anything, so no visualisation. With eyes open I see what is in front in me, and imagine (ltterlaly) what I am thinking about. This can be in high visual detail, but with no picture. With eyes closed it is strange enough harder te imagine, because the black is all consuming. Long story short: I think you might have aphantasia but don't know or acknowledge it yet...
RHSeeger 2y ago
> Does the image from your left eye occlude the image from your right eye? No, it doesn't. I know it's kind of a tangent, but I have double vision; the images from my two eyes do not converge, they're not looking at the same thing. As such, the images from my eyes overlap and I see both of them at the same time. I need to wear a fresnel lens on one of the lenses of my eye glasses to prevent this. If I'm not wearing them, it makes it complicated to interact with the world. It's mentally exhausting. Plus I sometimes walk into things because I avoided / went around the "wrong one".

by _dain_ 2y ago

mondrian 2y ago

I fully agree, and that is my experience. I am just grappling with what looks like quite a bit of misunderstanding around aphantasia. Some people make it sound like it involves imaginary objects in the visual field, causing other people (who probably don't have aphantasia) to start suspecting that they too have aphantasia, because when they close their eyes they can't see vivid images on the backs of their eyelids.

hondadriver 2y ago
And here is what makes it difficult. My wife really sees 'extra' images when imagining with eyes open and closed. I can imagine very well but don't see anything, so no visualisation. With eyes open I see what is in front in me, and imagine (ltterlaly) what I am thinking about. This can be in high visual detail, but with no picture. With eyes closed it is strange enough harder te imagine, because the black is all consuming. Long story short: I think you might have aphantasia but don't know or acknowledge it yet...

RHSeeger 2y ago

> Does the image from your left eye occlude the image from your right eye? No, it doesn't. I know it's kind of a tangent, but I have double vision; the images from my two eyes do not converge, they're not looking at the same thing. As such, the images from my eyes overlap and I see both of them at the same time. I need to wear a fresnel lens on one of the lenses of my eye glasses to prevent this. If I'm not wearing them, it makes it complicated to interact with the world. It's mentally exhausting. Plus I sometimes walk into things because I avoided / went around the "wrong one".