Tfw imaginationlet

>What are the most common ''effects'' you experience?
Incessant daydreaming, getting so involved in one it's difficult to get out of it, to close it off properly and return to reality.

>If you imagine something in your room, how close it will be to its real counterpart? Are the images just different or is one less detailed than the other?
That's not it. When you close your eyes, and you imagine something, it's like whatever you're thinking of is right outside your vision. If you're doing this for long enough etc. then it will naturally start to form as if the imagination is "real" in your mind and it becomes easier to maintain the imagery. It comes easiest when in bed at night, but it can just as well come from any other time, you just get lost in thought and it becomes as if you're somewhere else. You're not conscious of it, same way as in a dream where you don't know you are in one. And to add to the question about effects, the best is when you actually feel something from one, like it puts a smile on your face, you have a genuine emotional response.

Not sure if this is the kind of stuff you meant.

Did you watch TV when you was a kid?

Another question: how much control do you have over your imagination?
I can almost never see anything, but sometimes, before falling asleep, I'll be able to ''glimpse'' at random images that have nothing to do with what I'm thinking about.
The way these images form themselves is strange: at first (but only when I'm really tired) I see ''shadows'' (I don't really have a good term to describe them): lines, curves, perspectives that move randomly, most of the time geometrically (although it's always very simplistic, I never get even close to imagine fractals), which are colorless (everything I'm seeing is black, I'm just able to point that black out: I've found no related effect in my day to day experience). Every once in a while, without me noticing how it happens, they form a extremely realistic, vivid image: it doesn't take my entire ''field of view'', it's more like a painting, abstractly framed in darkness.
These paintings are extremely vivid representations of mix of things I've seen before going to sleep. If I jack off I'll se incomprehensible pink organs, that looks to genitalia only in their textures. If I walk in woods before going to sleep I'll see extremely vivid, incomprehensible natural landscapes. It has no resemblance to those actual landscapes, it's more like what a alien would draw if you just showed him some of the materials you can find in nature and described him with words what nature looks like.
These pictures are rapidly changing: sometimes I manage to induce into the hallucination and see them morphing costantly in radically different pictures. Most of the time I'll just get scared: having no control I know that I may see some fucked up deformed face staring at me, or abstract ever-morphing dogs running at me. It's rare, but it has happened enough times for me to be extremely cautious about these hallucinations. It saddens me to a certain extent, since I think that there is some real aesthetical value in this experience: being a (sorry for the pretentiousness) creative person I'd love to benefit from it, but I'm simply not able to do so without getting seriously spooked.

Is this experience relatable to yours in any concievable way? Does it ever happen to people with an actual, fully formed imagination?

No that sounds like you might have a tumor or something.

...

Just fucking practice if it's that important to you. Some years ago I wanted to get a tulpa, I didn't get one but I learned to visualize things pretty accurately in my head. Just sit down and try to picture stuff in your head every day for some time, might be useful for drawing. Just as being able to "picture" sounds in your head is a requirement for composing music.
Such skill also come in handy when you need to memorize something, like a number. For me there are 3 ways to do that: visual (just remember what it looks like, I don't even clearly know what the numbers are until I write them down), phonetical (repeat the sound in your head) or mathematical (remember the actual numbers). Of course I use some other mnemotechnical ways if the number is familiar or has some patterns, remembering concepts is easier.

Wait, I know what would be a perfect way for this vulgar place to learn this. Masturbate without porn, just using your imagination. This is actually the quickest way to do it, if you are able to.

That's not imagination. That's just your typical hypnagogic hallucinations.

Also there is no way you are aphantasic as you are able to think up these posts at least. Try picturing something in your head, then drawing that picture. Doesn't have to be 3D, could just be some hieroglyph or something. Imagination isn't something that lets you see things exactly as you do normally. It requires some effort, it's like experiencing seeing, but without the actual seeing if you know what I mean. No stimulus, just the response.

this makes me horribly sad to think of. i'm sorry, user.
since i was a child i've been able to imagine things even right in front of me, my imagination is not confined to abstract brainspace. i can imagine so many things, from original and beautiful landscapes to parties. it's really weird and as a kid i would sit for hours imagining a place in my head and just roleplay in my head--gardening, bathing, etc. i'd do this for hours. i had imaginary friends i could envision sitting right beside of me. it should be noted that i have (diagnosed) autism and ADHD, though. i also make art.
i really had no idea that people experience such difficulty with imagination. have you ever taken any drugs, or tried to draw?

>Try picturing something in your head
I literally can't do it. If I close my eyes I just see darkness and pulsating, non-existing colours, over which I have absolutely no control. When you tell me to just draw a line, well, I don't know what to do. It's like trying to teach the guitar to someone with no hands and feet. My imagination is entirely verbal.

What I can guess is that since I can at least hallucinate before falling asleep, chances are that at the very least this skill is present in my phisiology. If I have to speculate on it, I would point ad my cynophobia: even seein a picture of a aggressive dog almost sends me into a full blown panic attack, maybe my brain blocked this process in order to not have to deal with a panic attack everytime I accidently think about a dog. Who knows.
I'll try meditative practices in the proximate future.

that's actually a good idea, the porn bit. but, if what OP says is true, he'd probably be entirely unable to 'use his imagination.' masturbation would be completely devoid of any sexual thoughts, a mere mechanical process of physical movement and eventual orgasm.
this is depressing.

For aphantasic people (or at least according to another user who talked about it in a similar thread here on /li/) imagination is still possible, but it's never visual. They can think abstractly about things, but they can't visualize them in any sensible way.
They're not robots, they just can't create landscapes with their head. That's still depressing.

Wait, you can actually easily hallucinate a tulpa, even with your eyes closed? I'm pretty good at picturing things, but with open eyes I have no control over what I'm seeing.
Can you really learn how to ''add'' things to what you are seeing? That seems so cool.

You're not supposed to see anything doofus. Pay no attention to what you are seeing with your eyelids closed, that is hallucination territory. Not many people claim to be able to self-induce hallucinations, and most that do are probably insane.

It's like thinking, but instead of with words, with images. That might seem incredibly profound/hard but don't read too much into it. Imagination is just thinking, the best way for you to recognize what I'm talking about would be to look up a picture and try to memorize it and draw it from memory. Somewhere in that process you will do this whole "thinking with images" aka visual imagination.

>Wait, you can actually easily hallucinate a tulpa, even with your eyes closed? I'm pretty good at picturing things, but with open eyes I have no control over what I'm seeing.

That whole tulpa business isn't easy, and there are plenty of liars and role-players on the internet. Hallucination is usually the final step for people who do this sort of thing, I never got that far. I did some other things, but I can't know how much of it was real or not. It's all in your head after all. And with my eyes closed these things usually happened more often then with them open.

>Can you really learn how to ''add'' things to what you are seeing? That seems so cool.

I think so. It might seem cool but it would take a lot of work. Look up tulpa forums on the internet, if you want to dig in the trash and maybe find some truth.

>Not many people claim to be able to self-induce hallucinations, and most that do are probably insane.

Not him, but you may be aphantasic too. Yes, you are supposed to actually see and form ACTUAL images when closing your eyes. It's less abstract than you might think: I can close my eyes and literally see my library, and pretend to walk in it.

I get what you mean with abstract visual imagination: it's what I do when my eyes are open. I just ''know'' what something looks like without having to close my eyes and picture it.

I'm sorry mate.

>Also there is no way you are aphantasic as you are able to think up these posts at least.

aphantasia refers to the inability to conjure up mental images specifically. aphantasic people can still think verbally.

>you may be aphantasic too. Yes, you are supposed to actually see and form ACTUAL images when closing your eyes.

Yes, there are actual images but you don't use your sense of vision to "see" them. You use your imagination. I don't know how to state myself more clearly, but the fact is that it's not an entirely passive thing for me, and seeing is.
I see hypnagogic hallucinations, but I can't see my imagination in the same way. I can only "see" it. This distinction gets more and more blurred as I fall asleep of course.

I think you might want to work on your imagination, I don't have to close my eyes to imagine things. And it's not only "knowing" but also "seeing" the thing, yes.

Dickens claimed to have seen all his characters in the flesh like real people. He was likely schizophreniac.

Look at it like this. I can imagine a small black box floating in front of me, but I don't see it right there, but in in my ''minds eye''. Almost like a duplicate film roll that is behind the film roll of sensory data.

I really can't say that it helps with anything, since I have no comparison to a previous state of a ''lack of imagination''.

I get the same thing user. Especially when I'm really tired. It's perfectly natural.

>I can imagine a small black box floating in front of me, but I don't see it right there, but in in my ''minds eye''.
Obviously. I think actually seeing things in front of you would constitute mental illness. Typical imagination implies the ability to impose a visual phantom of sorts, or see objects with your eyes closed, keeping the image fairly consistent, and being able to manipulate it (turn it in 3D space, change shapes and colors etc).

How do I get this to happen again. I remember being able to do this reading as a teenager but now it never happens to me. I literally have to force myself to read.

Do you get scared too in the same way I've described? Or can you just intervene on those hallucinations if you start seeing more disturbing images?

Avoid more visual and intense media, such as video and television. Once books become the most extreme form of media you consume, you'll start to notice the visions coming back.

Even my actual memories are generally not so vivid and visual.

>tfw Harold Bloom is basically watching a movie at 10x his speed

His imagination must be so weird.

Even when writing nonfiction I use barely if any imagination while writing, it's doable.

I don't watch any television and rarely watch movies. Do you think it will come back by force of reading?

No. I have never managed to be in that state for too long, It only occurs when I'm trying to sleep, i.e. with closed eyes. Kind of like meditation; my mind wanders off and the morphing images stop, and I snap out of it.

I never see disturbing images. It's actually quite pleasant. Odd psychedelic catoonish petroglyphic manifestations that arise without any obvious cause.

Could be that you're severely fucked up and you're observing your unconscious mind. If you buy into that type of shit.

The people talking as though their imagination is so vivid it's like walking through a dream are clearly faking it. I remember quite clearly having a near paychotic episode as a child; I became nearly paralyzed with fear as I imagined countless jungle spiders, each 2-3 feet in size, climbing all over my room. I did not literally see them. That would be a true hallucination, where the imaginayion imposes on reality. That's true paychosis. For me, i could tell, on some level, that they were not there, but the barrier between my imagination and reality was so thin I couldnt help but react as though they were real. You cannot be sane and have non-drug induced hallucinations. And there's a reason most people's hallucinations are auditory. If you were to truly see something in your visual field that was from your imagination, you would not be able to separate it from the rest of reality. Your brain would not recognize it as imagination, but as the same as everything else in your visual field. This is how hallucinogenics turn your brain to mush. They rewire you to the point that you can no longer coherently make use of real time and space. The strength of imagination is not measured it how much it presents itself tobyour eyes, but in how vivid and precise its is, measured by how easily and consistently you can desribe the image, in either word or drawing/picute. To be able to draw anything that is not in front of you, or write about anything that is not in front of you, you must have imagination. Even visual memory requires it. To pull a visual memory back to the surface, you must imagine it. If you dream, you have an imagination. Don't toy around with it, and don't try and break down the visual barrier. Once you do that, there really is no coming back.

I've a strong imagination but I feel it almost hurts me in my creative pursuits. The problem is, I will feel/"experience" what I create so strongly that I can't judge it very well myself. It might end up seeming like a complete mess to others. Translating imagined things to such a form that others understand it, that is the hard part.

Sounds familiar to me, I often see corpses lying next to me and disturbing faces and shit before falling asleep. Sometimes a sort of "animation" of a sequence of events that repeats whenever I try to sleep, one that I want to stop before it reaches further (because I know it'll be something disturbing).

I usually have to postpone going to sleep when it happens particularly strongly. Sometimes I end up staying up the whole night because I just don't want to try any more.

>The people talking as though their imagination is so vivid it's like walking through a dream are clearly faking it.
idk man, of course it is "faking it" if you mean visual hallucinations. But it is not faking it when someone just says that daydreaming can be almost as vivid as real dreaming, for them.

I've actually had psychotic symptoms in the past (diagnosed) so I know there's a difference, but those things aren't really related. Imagined things may even be "seen" when your eyes are closed, but psychosis is a distortion of your view of reality itself.