Video

My hyperphantasia feels identical to dreaming if I am in deep focus. I also have hypnagogia/hynpopmia, exploding head syndrome, and involuntarily lucid dream. I often wonder if I am missing a part of my mind that is present in aphantasia. The ability to turn off visual thinking, and use a more alphanumeric form of thinking.

same!!!!

@@brynn7064

That is a separate condition called prosopagnosia.

I was 50.

I just turned 60...mind has been blown.

I wonder as well. I am a total aphant and I read voraciously. I particularly enjoy Fantasy and Sci-Fi even though I can't picture a single thing.

I just find it boring - a whole page dedicated to describing 1 scene in a book that I can't even picture 😅 No thanks

I have hyperphantasia and have difficulty staying focused on the text. My mind immediately begins creating the visual world the story is taking place, and it like my mind gets distracted exploring the imagined world, and it is like my eyes stop inputing the words as part of the story.

Aphantasiac and I cannot read fiction.

Good question. I don't remember being able to visualize as a child, but I did have a horrific childhood. I know that I couldn't as a teenager, but I didn't have a word for it then. I first heard aphantasia at 50.

Adopted but have never experienced visualizing. Luckily for me… i would have hated to lose it. Best not to ever have had it!

I am hyperphantasic and began experiencing trauma by 4 years old. It continued to 17 years old or so. I feel like my hyperhantasia has been there since birth and never gone away, but may have also made me more confusing to my abusers which led to further abuse as they tried to change me towards their more aphantasic understanding.

@@jmfs3497- What’s an aphantasiac understanding?

could be, could be. I have been this way ever since I remember so there would seem to be a genetic component. Although Neanderthal normally suggests something that is less advanced and I feel that this property of our brains does have advantages :) The ability to be more clinically detached since you don't see images to give you strong memories of loved ones who have passed and negative situations....the ability for abstract thought to be a little easier regardless of IQ...maybe less propensity for feeling distracted....several advantages. :)

@@neutrino78x the idea of Neanderthal that people think of as being less advanced is largely misconstrued, in the field of physical anthropology Neanderthal DNA is not actually considered intellectually disadvantaged.

Hmmm. I have red, curly hair, an autoimmune related genetic disorder, super white skin, freckles, smoke MMJ, have always had disrupted sleep, and depression.

This was refreshing to hear … and I wish to add contrast.. I have had health issues all my life and further from fit than a hippo on land .. I have always drawn and visualize when learning or thinking on anything though .. and would just know things by connecting to them as you do gems .. anything I think of or anyone I think if I want a answer, I connect and ask as wait to hear and be shown what data they have to offer .. I call these expressions they .. because they seem to have their own personality at times when showing me things or answering things for me .. I also see energies .. orbs … sparkles all over that look yellow I call grid of life energy .. it activates more intense when ever around running water , forests , mountains , and most def thunderstorms.. I also can feel and connect to crystals and items as you do .. you can use this same ability to wave your hands over scratch off tickets ^^d and see if a winners lined up worth buying or not for fun .. and many silly things like this .. I don’t find it makes socializing hard personally but I do easily get bored around most adults as they seem to lack connection to life and curiosity for the world around them to add value to their lives as I do .. which experiencing all this and witnessing how mad most adults are because they lack these abilities , leading them to self delusions and being easily deceived .. I am very glad I perceive this reality as a collective who is open to all life has to offer , on many levels others mostly won’t get to ..so if you have similar abilities .. know it’s not a disorder , it’s a advantage!

Know your not alone .. you don’t have to be super guru or super fit .. these are superficial constructs holding a lot back .. you don’t have to be sober and not a drug addict .. you don’t have to be in nature and prime energetic rich areas to connect .. anyone IMO can use meditation to develop these senses if not naturally already tuned in to using them .. just allow your self to let go and be and feel and focus intent if need be after you reached that flow of heart and mind space .. there’s many practices available .. simply breathing , dancing and being is what I do to get boosts or spend time in nature or at beach .. some times take shrooms and smoke pot as chill with my crystals and mental spectrum bubble buddies of light ^^d it’s very simply human not super human kind of life IMO so don’t over complicate it .. do what you love and enjoy your self :) “miracles “ will come to you like breathing air

This is a science based place. No a mumbo jumbo place.

I had no idea this was a literal thing either. I figured it out today. Oh well...

well I mean it's not really a disability. We have advantages as a result of it. I think they said someone with aphantasia is 20% more likely to be a scientist or engineer of some kind. :)

I have aphantasia and found the laughing super funny, because it (for me) was funny. Finally they learn about us and even laugh as our brains are so inconcievable to them. Laughing is inviting and I didnt feel they were laughing at us, but more on the comical aspect that there can be so many differences where we dont even know there are As for negative experience. I guess I have several, but the one that stands out: I remember when being a child, at school there was a teacher who talked about brain and focus and he said «if I say, dont think about a Pink Elephant, you cannot do it. Right? Didnt all of you just think about it in your head?» I was the only one saying «no». And the teacher got really mad at me. And since I was anxious, i forced myself to think about a pink elefant because then the teacher would leave me alone. But I have no internal monologue, so it didnt come naturally. And then I spent several days wondering why everyone just pretended. Or maybe pink had a different meaning than colour. Obviously, for me, noone could think about a colour…. So eventually, i just took for granted people talked about experience as if they could see it. And I even do it myself! Because I am good at associations…

@@neutrino78x I have lifelong hyperphantasia and while I am good with applied sciences involving hands-on experimentation and observation, I am horrible with alphanumeric retention.

@@jmfs3497 " have lifelong hyperphantasia" Hyperfantasia? So you are able to see see things extremely clearly in your mind? In a way I'm jealous! I literally can't picture anything. 🙂 Still, I don't want to be "cured" because suddenly seeing things in my mind when I think of them might be disconcerting. Also in some ways it makes me more focused and more in the moment....depends on the subject though. 🙂

You are not missing anything - I can visualize with my eyes open, not closed. Nice to have some "peace" my eyes closed and feel sorry for those, who don't. I count my-self lucky not having this "minds eye"

@@kristiinakallas6130 I, too count myself 'Blessed' for not having an active minds eye. At 72 years old I have led an active and fruitful life with no regrets. Very interesting to read you can visualize with your eyes open only, my neighbor has the exact same thing, and he knows others like him. It takes a lot of folks to make up a village.

It's like watching a camcorder video in your head. I can see myself having a conversation from work earlier today, from both the point of view of how i experienced it and also from a 3rd person perspective. I can see anything that I can think of. A blue elephant, a pink lamborghini, etc. But I do believe there are distinct advantages to having aphantasia, the main one being not having to relive the most painful or embarrassing moments of your life over and over. It's hard to control the thoughts/movies that "play" and takes years of control to not get sidetracked when doing tasks.

@@inkjazz I cant imagine images with or without my eyes closed but I still think of the not so nice momments before going to sleep. I just get a though of how I did somethig that one time with the rough emotion, the concept of what happend but without the faces, envoirnment and whatever else you would get normaly.

I have hyperphantasia and I hallucinate visually on mushrooms. The hallucinations are not like new things though. They are like normal things start to look like paintings or color shift. I would say they are mild hallucinations. Otherwise my imagination is extremely vivid though and I never watch a movie more than once because I can just rewatch it in my head and to watch a movie twice is like torture for me. I can sit in one place for hours and just imagine things. In some ways I think it can be paralyzing because the world in my head is more rich than reality at times...actually most of the time. In my head I can fly around the universe or create new universes or whatever. In reality I just have what is in front of me and when I look at media I'm always looking for media that reflects the richness of my imagination, but am mostly disappointed. Lately though I've been enjoying AI art because a lot of it is like what is in my imagination, very satisfying.

Can you describe your childhood bedroom?

@@nickjunes the only childhood room I remember, is teenage, I hung Elton John poster everywhere. Can I visualize them on my walls if I close my eyes and see that image? No. I have the memory of it.

@@jeninegrasc8414 Thanks. Do you remember an experience you had in a childhood room like laying in bed curling the blanket under your toes or tossing a ball against the wall? Do you remember playing with toys by yourself?

@@nickjunes I have memories, like you would have say, a hard drive. I have a memory of my mother coming into my room when I was 8, telling me my uncle was about to pass away. I was in bed. But , like a computer with a blank screen, if I close my eyes, I absolutely cannot visualize it. I can hear it in my mind. I have that for memories very keenly. Like songs, note for note. Sometimes conversations, voices of people I have not spoken to for years, but nothing visually. I sometimes at night try to make myself see colours while my eyes are closed. The closest I’ve ever come is to a very dark greenish colour. I thought that was pretty good. It’s kinda of depressing, you know. I won’t go into detail here why, but it would be nice to be able to think of someone who was loved, and I can’t think of them and see their face, and I haven’t got the courage to go and look at their picture yet. Aphantasia is not your friend….

@@jeninegrasc8414 But has it only become sad recently because it was recently discovered or did you always know you were different? Did you ever think anything was missing? Do you have lots of photos of your loved ones? That must be some comfort.

Same people were like @ “yes I can see images” “oh you don’t? I am surprised” and no further questioning 😂

Yes! Same! I feel handicapped but pretend as nothing is wrong because people generally dont care.

@@qine6559 I don't have it, but now that I am aware I have noticed when people have trouble with maps or something and I now realize that they may think differently than me and I adjust how I communicate. I think it's really important that we all learn about all of this more so we can better communicate with each other as a species. It may help solve many problems we didn't even know we had!

I have aphantasia too but I dont have any problems at all with math.

Out of curiosity, have you looked at where Neptune is in your natal chart ? I am wondering if it could be that you have intuition centered around other domains rather than visual, and maybe maths could be more natural for you when “seen” in those domains

I am adept at spatial relations but I couldn't possibly "look at 87 apples". I imagine things in relation to each other. Those things don't have a visual component just a place, and I think what's the logical move to connect those things. As for subtracting, I think that's simply becoming more familiar with decimal numbers. 7 - 5 = 2, 8-1 = 7. 72. 8/4*3 = 6. 7/4*3 = almost 6. so almost 66. To do this by seeing must be super slow as you maybe could quickly remove about 1/4 of the apples, but counting them must be slow.

I find Reading a book is impossible if you can’t imagine the story line ,Then it is meaningless words

I can't really do mental math but I can hold the idea in various pockets. I loved chemistry and hated most higher maths. I loved trig. But you can literally see the formulas for chemistry and memorize the different wants of solving trig problems but it's right there in front of you. You don't have to "visualize" it. I seriously didn't even know that was a thing. How can you see something with your eyes closed? Apparently everybody else can...

Yes, I agree for us CZcams watchers the black framing was not ideal.