Aphantasia

bump. maybe we should learn drawing then we can train this .

Wow, I never thought about this being special in any way. What about songs that really get to you? For me music sounds the same in my head as it does irl. But maybe that's just because it feels the same and music is something I can really connect with.

Not really, it's not pitch black but a kind of white/yellow/red color in front of a black background that changes a bit and I assume is the color of light passing through my eyelids.

I haven't meditated in several months, and I right now have a hard time "seeing" simple objects like I used to be able to.

I can only visualize simple objects and usually only one side of it instead of an all-around picture.

It's easier when I don't actually try to do it weirdly enough. Dreams being an obvious example and another is reading books. Also happens randomly when I close my eyes, trying to fall asleep. But then it's just random images.

I can do this too, there's often a song playing in my head involuntarily. It usually only consists of the most memorable parts though, the vocals, the beat, solos. Often it's just a snippet (the favorite part) of a song repeating itself.

Can't everybody?

i only see the black

i-i thought this was the same for everyone
i mean people talk about visualising things but i thought they mean like just thinking about how something looks not actually seeing it

I can play some in my mind. But it doesnt sound like irl, its like a humming in my head.

Exactly like this.

Also can you recall feelings ?

i can recall feelings pretty easily, and i can think about sounds, smells, tastes, etc. very easily too. i just can't visualise things

Barely. I can visualize images very briefly and with little detail. If I concentrate for a while I can conceive of more general pictures but I only "see" small details, the rest is just conceptual. For example, I imagine being on an island, I know I'm surrounded by water and beach, but all I can visualize is a small patch of grass or sand or frothing water, everything around it fades away. For sounds and music however I can "replay" what feels like a perfect reproduction whenever I want.

Predictably, I'm shit at art and decent at music.

When I picture things it doesn't seem to be in front of me, but behind my eyes.

Sometimes when I'm falling asleep though, strangely photorealistic images appear in front of my vision.

It's weird.

LOL I now realize how superior I am to others. I can visualize detailed pictures, in 3-D even, and vividly recall songs, sounds, and events.
This is truly what being the anthesis of a brainlet feels like!

I just realized I can also recall smells and physical feelings though not as strongly as pictures and sounds.
Do I have near perfect genes?

Depends, are you a manlet?

6 feet

I'm like that too. I thought everyone could do that.

Especially with music though, I'm good at recognising songs from small details.

I'm sorry : (

same here
I mean I just know how something looks but can't actually see it

I mean, if someone tells me "close your eyes and imagine cutting through an apple, what does it look like"
I could answer
but I wouldn't have an image of an apple in my head
I could describe it but that's all

Not *literally* "seeing" it. When you say "thinking about how something looks", do you mean just abstract terms that you remember applying while looking at the thing, or a more concretely visual kind of mental activity?

Pretty sure most people can. Just not every single person. Like how most people can see, but blindness does exist.

I'm good at simply picturing things but not manipulating the images to come to conclusions, solve problems, etc.

Give me a pen and paper though and I can usually figure it out.

Um, I don't know if anyone else does it like this, but I do this thing with eyes opened, however most of the time I have to focus on a point or something similar, thought I recall a few times I could do it while actively doing something else.

I just imagine it in a 3D space, usually in front of me and to spin it around its axes and inspect from various sides, I just twitch my eyes in the direction I want it to rotate in. I also sometimes use my hands to rotate it in space if I'm visualising and imagining something while having eyes open.

On the other hand, I have a bit less success while having eyes closed. It's just, dark. I can do it, but faintly, though, sometimes, when I'm feeling great and just at ease overall, I get great ideas while having eyes closed and I'm able to almost perfectly visualise them, again, with eyes closed.

Honestly, I don't know, all of these stories make us all sound like we're trying to be special snowflakes, but honestly I don't give a shit. Why?
Because, I'm sure everyone can do this if they tried for some time, but the ones who use it often, pretty much every day, have the utmost advantage and joy. I just find it so fun to play around with this ability. Say you're making something. Instead of drawing it in AutoCAD or a similar program, you can visualise it in your head, or like in my case, with both the head and eyes.

It's such an interesting thing that it will never cease to amaze me, honestly, and if some of you can't do it, I really recommend just practising it over and over, perhaps there are even some guides, though I haven't looked for any myself.

Sorry, no TL;DR, you just have to read it to understand it like I do.

Forgot to say one thing, but this 'ability' helps me out so much when it comes to physics and general logic, especially physics.

>Um, I don't know if anyone else does it like this, but I do this thing with eyes opened, however most of the time I have to focus on a point or something similar, thought I recall a few times I could do it while actively doing something else.
I usually have to look at a surface like a white wall to make it easier. I just imagine it projected onto it.

When you dream or imagine things in your minds eye, is it in full color? My dreams tend to be in a more muted color pallete, like someone turned the color setting on a TV lower than what it should be.

Who can't do this stuff? I'm picturing entire action sequences with me as the main character, blowing up humvees and helicopters, when I'm bored.

Yeah, that's the best thing, it's fun.

Then when I try creating a mind palace to use for mind mapping and such, I fail terribly and it just doesn't work.

I can visualize but it is more like imagination or a dream.

If I just focus on the back of my eyelids rather than the imagination, then I mostly just see black.

Don't we all put our visualisation abilities to full use when we wank?

I wank to porn

Some researcher say that the 2% of the population

My dreams are vivid, or I think so. I rarely remember them.

You can visualize things on the same level as in your dreams? That's pretty rad.

Honestly, I mostly use porn as a visual aid, I occasionally wank to my imagination but it's much more pleasurable to use porn as a sort of catalog for women and scenarios, then wank off of the movie playing in my head from that.
I have alot of intrusive thoughts though, I also have ADHD and OCD (Apparently I'm an autist too), I wonder if there's some correlation between mental "illness" and visualization ability.

Me too, I can also see pictures like OP was saying, although there's definitely some loss of fidelity in both. I feel really sorry for people that can't do this, if I lost the ability one day I honestly and truly do believe I'd commit suicide.

Best way to train this is imagine a reflective object. Lets say a cube. Now start giving each side a fold inwards or outwards. Good luck

I don't see anything, but I get something like the knowledge or understanding of the shape of an object like you'd get from seeing something.

If I wake up in the middle of the night I can easily picture the things I think about

yep me to last one was Frank Ocean - Solo

I used to be able to see the room i was in when going to sleep/waking up if i closed my eyes and kind of focused. Sometimes it almost felt indistinguishable until i opened my eyes.

Sort of the same thing