After going 40 years of my life believing that I thought in the same way as everyone else, I've just learned that I'm wrong. Some of you have an internal monologue and most of you see pictures in your head! I can't believe it!
I created this channel to share information about my quiet mind because apparently it's different from your busy one. If you have questions about how I think, please let me know. And if you just learned that you have Aphantasia and need someone to talk to, feel free to get in touch!
Maybe you are very lucky. People meditate for years to get rid of the inner talk and the visual images, the phantasms that are constantly arousing them.
I don't see stuff either except the foggiest of vague things. But the narration of life and associated commentary never stops. And most of it is not real fabulous let me tell you. I think it has to do with how someone processes information. My husband says he thinks in pictures and i thought wtf man what even is that?
I'm fifty, creative(a Poet/MC/Singer Songwriter, and(I actually think my poetry is better as a result) and only discovered recently I am a certain percentage Aphantasic, I always used to win when as kids we would say don't picture a pink elephant, I still dream(lucidly quite a bit), but it takes pretty strong Psychedelics for me to literally picture anything instead of...kind of writing it, describing it internally instead.
I just came upon aphantasia on Reddit somehow and learned yesterday I have it….seeing this video helped a lot. I thought I was over reacting when I was crying realizing how much I was missing out on everything and how it affected me in school & college…I’m going to be 40 and realizing all this has been making me question a lot of my thing in my life…even though this video was posted 40 years ago it’s nice to see I’m not alone. ❤
I agree there are degrees to this, just like hearing or sight impairment in us to degrees. It makes sense that this can happen when I think of that. I def have the talking to myself going on but maybe not as strong of a visualization. And then there are those who wake up in the middle of the night and get like a download of pictures or music and go on to create a song or painting. Our brains and bodies are so amazing and somehow we learn to live with what we have.
I wonder if this is something your born without the ability todo or if it just depends on whether or not you believed in literally seeing things in your head, because it seems like a lot of people that can’t didn’t actually think it was real when they were younger, like I didn’t in 2nd grade but I remember one day the teacher would say something like “imagine a beach” like you said, and I kinda saw a slight image in my head and since then (not thinking of it’s normal or not) I’ve been constantly doing stuff in my head and trying to get my visualizing and problem solving skills in my head better
I’ve also come to notice that for me I can visualize things in a couple different ways with some being easier than others, like seeing something in my head while my vision blurs out, or placing what I’m seeing in my vision, (the later being more difficult except for close up writing)
I wonder if it is possible to gain the ability later in life if you don’t have it, like I apologize if this might sound ignorant, but have you ever dedicated time to intentionally visualize something, maybe seeing a bright object and using the left over “light-marks” or “traces” left in your vision to imagine objects using those marks?
Something I used to do when I was little when I first realized I could try and visualize things was close my eyes and see shapes and faces in the almost “static-ness” of the darkness (almost like how people see things that aren’t there in the dark)
What about your nightime dreams? Most people don’t easily remember most dreams but they can usually remember a few dreams. In your dream i’m sure you would have the visual and audio of the place and if someone was talking to you, you would be ‘hearing’ it. Basically it’s like experiencing a waking life reality, but more foggy depending on how aware you were and how well you remember the dream. When you say you can “force” the inner voice when your awake that means to me that you do have the same inner audio abilities, but you just use your inner voice much less than others.
This! It's like the explanation I tried giving but couldn't put in words for the longest.... I'm like on the near end of aphantasia (like 1/10), I dream and remember but not like others do. I do have an internal monologue though (a very active one).
Monologue, no monologue, pictures, no pictures, visual thinking vs verbal thinking: I can do all these things easily enough. I use whatever approach is best suited to the situation...... And even though this woman regrets that her childhood memories are not as complete or intense as the other "monologue" people around her, the simple fact is that most people can't remember jack sh!t from highschool anyway, after 5-10yrs, and their recall is almost nonexistent.
Imo, I think the best way to explain how she experiences life is like during meditation where you quite you inner voice (stop talking to yourself) and stop imagining things (visualizing images in your head). Instead, you just look around yourself and experience. You know where you are, what your looking at, and you can speak without the need of the inner voice and eyes.
For me I wouldn't say I have an inner monolog, it more like a inner conversation between several internal "people"/"voices". I also can definitely picture things in my head in a low resolution way.
I think that she does have an internal voice. She's just giving herself the silent treatment. She seems nice though. Her inner voice must just not wanna be around people...
It's been a long time since it was aploaded, but YES. It's really really close to my experience. I think of my thought process as a deprivation pool frome stranger things or that water cave in korra. Dark, no sounds, no temperature, no smells just comfy laying in the water. And the thoughts are like ripples. They come when I need them and I feel them, not anything else.
I think it's a matter of being conscious about something happening or not. As an aphant I must have and process the visual information in my head, or otherwise many things would be virtually impossible. I actually do very well in IQ tests that require "seeing" how objects move, rotate and how they look like after that. I can do that without consciously seeing anything, although my logical reasoning tells me that I have to see it in some meaning of the word. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to have a clue. This raises very interesting questions about the nature of consciousness as a whole, it's a bit mind-blowing.
BE AWARE OF HEMISYNC. I have lost my ability to visualize after listening Hemisync H-Plus - "sensory seeing session" After closing my eyes I saw darknes no mental images.I didn`t realize it from the beginning..... it also had an impact on my planning a day... I diagnosed it and I was surprised that this has a "medical index named: APHANTASIA.Horibble thing -- all is about neurology and neurons connections - I hope the solution could be Psilocybin mushrooms and marijuana. Try mudras, marmas and meditation, neurotransmiters, supplements drugs all... ! Write in the comments what was effective for you.....I wish our all to find the solution and remove the aphantasia from our minds. Kind regards. Konrad
When I was young I don't have inner monoluges but when I got married and gave birth everything's change, I felt lonely, alone and depress and no one can talk to and got into inner monologue but now I want to go back to myself where I only live in a present moment
A writing curriculum that was really popular had lessons that frequently asked students to refer to "the movie in their mind" to help them add details to their writing. I used it for years thinking it was metaphorical, never understanding that people really do see movies in their minds!
So i. Short if your family disapired you wood not even remember them Sad ...and not only that what are the fealings to them when you cant imagin them at all
Thank you for this. I also lack a minds eye or inner monologue. I've never heard anyone describe this experience-- and I only know that I was different mainly because of going to therapy and getting the feeling that most people have discrete thoughts going on, or.. well I don't know? Not really knowing how to answer some of the questions because honestly, they never made sense to me... thoughts are just not discrete, maybe more like predictive sublimated impressions? I dunno. I read super fast (with great comprehension even), have been considered by the academy to be a very good writer, and think very quickly on my feet.... it's always been a superpower of sorts (it's almost instinctual?). I wish I understood a bit more how it all worked. I am amazed that you have a partner willing to talk with you about these very hard things to articulate because I do believe some of how we can understand our variation is in relationship to the "other."
I can visualize anything on a whim. I am a visual thinker when I want to be and not when I do not want to be. I can think in words or I can turn off my inner monologue. I've honed it to a skill too I can look intently at something distant and visualize what it looks like up close almost like mental binoculars. I guess I assumed everyone operated with some variation of the same, but I now understand there are some who cannot form "visual imagery" at all? I understand if it is not the default mode of going about their day, but that is kind of shocking to me I don't think I could stand it if I couldn't visualize imagery.
The most mindblowing thing for me is that there are people who realize this so late in their life. Isn't it something that you should pick up as a kid?
I have the same thing. I’ve been an artist for 40 years…you’re wondering how? I’ve used my materials to inspire me. I use a lot of hand made Japanese paper, lots of colour, texture and design, then my instincts kick in I’m gone….. I also wonder if anyone else is “face blind” as well. I don’t recognize people I know. My daughters boyfriend of 15 years, thinks it’s funny that I don’t recognize him on the bus or when he walk toward me on the street, only after he waves do I know it’s him.
I have two inner monologues can actually put myself in a different location i can touch a pencil in my mind and can feel it when i read a book it actually takes me there 😭 i thought everyone had this power
This is an interesting topic. Almost everything i do has an inner dialog . If i didnt have one i feel like i wouldnt be able to do mostly everything. I can drive without thinking about it, but i couldnt avoid an accident without thinking about the risk in my head. I do have a feeling of what should happen, but its normally combined with inner thoughts.... Like i said if i didnt have an inner monologue i would disregard everything as not improtant enough to remember.
