An aphantasia poll

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34039054   I'm interested to see  what % of us have this.

  • I know that feeling! I've lost count of the times I've said things like "Do you know that feeling you get when...?" or "You know when you see...?" and everyone else just looks at me oddly and says "No."

    I got 11 out of 40 on the test and anything I did 'see' was a memory of an actual scene, so I kept 'seeing' sunsets (because I've seen loads of those on beaches) instead of sunrises (which I've never seen on a beach). I couldn't picture anyone's clothes though, just a sort of impression of dark clothing. Or facial details, just a disembodied smile maybe. 

    Odd though, because I can draw very detailed plans of whichever house I've lived in pretty much to scale. I sort of 'walk around he house' in my head but I can't actually say that I'm SEEING it, more 'feeling' it really.   

  • Aha, yes I seen other people say they get the visual snow - maybe that's what it is then! 

    I know what you mean about thinking things are normal, I did the same for years and years. It is a bit of a shock when you realise that no, it doesn't work like that for everyone else. My partner says that it just means I have superpowers! Sometimes it is cool (seeing in HD, being able to eat something in a restaurant and identify all of the ingredients so that I can make it again at home) and sometimes less so (everyone talking at once so you can't make anything out, distraction and overwhelming)

    If you miss your blurry world, maybe forget your glasses once in a while! I wear noise-cancelling headphones a lot of the time, to escape from all of the competing sounds around me. Less to process again. You might find that they help you too.

  • I took your advice and looked up migraine and also came across “visual snow” or “visual static” which is associated with migraine.

    I definitely see that all the time with eyes closed and open. 

    There is more but at the moment feel a bit overwhelmed and confused with the amount of things which I thought are “normal” (when I say normal I mean everybody has them)

    Similar thing happened with my glasses I should be wearing them for at least 10 years.

    instead I thought world is blurry. Although I can see more clearly now which improved quality of my live sometimes I miss my blurry world with less information to process. 

    Weird??

  • Yeah, I see all that, I can spend hours just looking. The halo’s are simply auras. Some people see them as colours some just sense them. I’ve started to notice them more in fact I can see the colours and flickerings of light all the time now, I’m getting used to it and I’m practicing with seeing the auras as this will be very helpful in my work. I see the colours etc with or without my eyes open and I see them in everything as well, they’re not just around objects, although the auras are, they’re in the object as well or rather the object is made up of them. I thought everybody saw this and I’m just finding out, they don’t! 

  • Hi Janusz

    What you are describing is what I see when I get a visual migraine, or migraine aura. That can make you dizzy too. Is it jagged shapes on the edge of your vision, sometimes black and white but sometimes bright colours, that move about? 

    If you look up visual migraine on the internet, some people have used photoshop to make a picture of what it looks like, so it might be worth comparing that with what you see.

    Since I know from your previous post that you have a lot of sensory sensitivity, you might (like me) be too sensitive to light. If I look at something dark, like the keyboard, and then straight afterwards out of a window into bright light, it can be enough to give me one of these visual migraines. And it is definitely true that I get them more when tired or overstimulated. Maybe it is worth looking to see if this could be the same for you?

  • Hi BlueRay.

    Thanks for your reply.

    I wonder what others “see” when they close their eyes, so not about imagination but what appears “in front of you”? In my case all goes starry with loads of different colours, moves all the time and what worries me it makes me feel dizzy. What worries me even more it is that with open eyes I can still see “stars” halos around objects etc.

    I had my eyes tested got my glasses but that starry thing didn’t change. I’m pretty sure it goes more intense when tired (overstimulated) also tinnitus goes worse.

    Sometimes I’m not sure if it is actually getting worse or is it me noticing it more.

  • I was exactly the same janusz84 and since I’ve stopped taking the anti depressants it’s like I’ve got my imagination back. But not in the way I was trying to force it, to imagine a certain thing, it’s just kind of happening and the other day I actually saw a coloured imagine. It was weird! 

  • I definitely have a Aphantasia (at the moment self diagnosed with AS) 

    After I did the test I felt a bit emotional I think mainly because in a way it was a relief that I’m not losing my mind.

    When I was telling to somebody about my concern with not having and understanding the concept of imagination never felt like people believed me, so at some point I started to think that this is my own fault and I’m stopping my brain from creating images ... I was forcing myself to imagine something and failing every time. I became obsessed about it.

    Also I do understand myself as a child more now.

    I felt stupid at school because couldn’t imagine things for example when reading books.

    That only added to the feeling of not fitting in, being different and misunderstood... I was bullied badly in school so I started to feel that it is my fault because there is something wrong with me.

    Now I’m more confident with what I feel, hear, see or not see ... 

    Thanks for reading.

  • I'll add, having read others comments I've realised I'm not really constructing the sunrise/rainbow scene in the same was as most people, I'm effectively building a plan and design of sunrise in my head. It's not a relaxing, self expression of nature, it's a plan, a design of the sun rising over the horizon, a graphically stylised rainbow (I'm also colourblind, so rainbows probably don't look right to me either). I've never been able to do the "imagine yourself relaxing on the beach" thing either, I can create a beach, but I'm not feeling a beach, I'm just technically laying out sand, sea, palm trees etc.

  • That sounds very much like my experience of it too.  I never could prevent little details in the soundtrack or counsellors voice from setting off tangential thoughts and little internal dialogues, which I suppose is what focusing on the imagery is meant to prevent.

    Ironically, the closest I think I ever get to the intended "calm, thought free" state is during the fatigue following a melt-down.  Obviously, I wouldn't wish melt-downs upon myself, but the feeling afterwards can be very blissful and serene.

  • I remember doing a guided imagery class over a decade ago. We had to imagine the beach as a CD/ tape played ,and relax our muscles . I could hear the sounds coming from the CD/tape but I couldn't imagine in my own mind. I just lay there with my eyes closed until the session ended. We then had to report how we felt ; how the session had made a difference. It did nothing for me and when asked for a figure out of 10 I just plucked one out of the air.

  • I first identified this when I had a counsellor trying to teach me relaxation methods to help with anxiety.  It wasn't just that I couldn't imagine the peaceful scenes that she suggested; I really couldn't understand what it was that she was asking me to do.  I had always assumed that when people spoke of their "mind's eye", that it was just a metaphorical figure of speech.

    I think it affects me most with my memory.  My biographical memory is very factual. I feel almost as if I could have just read about me doing things, as I would a fictional character.  Recalling events doesn't bring to mind images, and very little in the way of feelings.  I always find it very hard to remember which other people were around me at the time, because I can't picture seeing the other people in the scene - which has led to quite a few embarrassing social slip-ups.

    Oddly though, it doesn't seem to impair me when it comes to finding my way around places or working with geometry and technical drawings.  In fact, I am generally very good at navigating spaces, even if I only visited them once before a long time ago - I was known for being one of the best navigators back in my caving days.  I've worked briefly in CAD (Computer Aided Design) too, and had no problems with mentally rotating shapes or imagining how the tools would sculpt out a particular shape.  Somewhere or other, there must be some kind of visual memories in my mind that I'm using, but I'm at a loss to explain where they are or how I use them.

  • Hi folks, well I did the test and found it strange, the image I had to focus on wasn’t there, not a horizon on a beach, I could find a horizon in a picture or book I had seen, but couldn’t conjure my own up.

    I also couldn’t place a storm of rainbow at the scene I had to imagine!

    I could picture a rainbow above the houses opposite me as we had one recently, big sharp full rainbow which lasted quite a while with eventually a second less sharp one underneath, i couldn’t place it on a horizon,not on a beach as I have never seen one in a beach scene?

    Same with the storm! I could see the last one I witnessed a few years ago when we were on holiday, it rumbled across the hills and lit up the hills as it flashed,it was at night.

    So I couldn’t honestly answer the questions as I could see images but not in the given scene.

    so I rely on remembered images! Very specific, as for colour of clothes, nothing came to mind, 

    My score was 18/40. So 9% share my score, less vivid than average but above lacking those with no minds dye.

  • I can visualise in a way, but not in others, I'm able to construct things, plans visualisations etc in my head, but I can't do faces, people, animals etc. I could create the plans to build say a bench or shed in my head and make it from those plans, but I couldn't visualise a face to even give a rough proportionality of mouth, nose, eyes etc people I see regularly all my life (family), or even someone I've just seen.

    Having just done the test I score 20/40, however on the first half which is on people I score 0/20 and on the second half on the sun rising over the horizion I score 20/20 so very different depending on the subject matter.

  • You might be interested in the questionnaires here medicine.exeter.ac.uk/.../

  • My score was 8 (out of 40).

    I had not realised there was a name for this 'state'.

    Has anyone contacted Exeter University to be included in the research?

  • I said yes even though I scored just above, because since I was a child and my dad told me to count sheep, I’ve been practicing being able to visualise. Also, as part of my Metaphysics course we had to learn about visualisation, so I have practiced the examples that the quiz asks. I can only (dimly) imagine something though if I’ve already seen it so it’s like I’m remembering, and can’t do it easily or with all images. This has been one of the things that have puzzled me all my life, as well as not being able to recognise people. It’s why I can’t follow films. I don’t know who the hell anyone is! My friend came to stay with me in Bali and as I was going to the airport to pick her up, I realised I wouldn’t recognise her, and I didn’t, but she was the only person left in the airport so I guessed it was her! Lol! I just shouted her name and hoped for the best.