Checking in to see what you'd like to do next! 

A year has past and it would be interesting to hear your gained reflections/ insights on Aphantasia. Your skills in verbalizing the topic from "our" perspective is amazing.

Would love to know what is happening in Taiwan. How do you manage when you're stressed?

I personally would love to see videos from you during this quarantine instead of having you wait till after everything blows over. Stuff is super boring so the sooner the better😂

All of those would be super interesting videos!

Loved the what happens when you read. It would be interesting to hear about your dream. Also, happy to hear about your life now where you are. You are such a great observer. What a relief to have my brain thinking about other things. Thank you. I want you to know how much I look forward to your posts. Be well.

I would watch whatever you post so...

Now would be great! I'm stuck at home with compromised lungs. I can't even do our shopping. The walls are closing in. 😓 I'd love to hear about how reading works with how your mind functions.

Hello! Nice to see you again. I live with anxiety and even if I'm not fearful of the virus I realised last week that I must take care of wath I'm watching. So random subject is good to me.

Yes please! Videos about Taiwan and quarantine

I would like to know how you learn best... what strategies did you use to learn or review... what was your study habits... What study strategies were horrible... What were the best environments to learn and study... and which were the worse... Hope all is well. Thanks .

Hi, again. Have you viewed my comments in your other videos? I mentioned a Cool memory experiment I did 30 years ago in college about visualizing walking through familiar territory and visualizing or 'putting' objects in certain places to remember them - like a grocery list... visualize your front door and 'put' a gallon of milk there that you can see, then you enter your home and in the living room floor, you 'put' 2 loaves of bread, some pancakes on the couch, and into your bedroom, a carton of eggs on your bed, and a jar of peanut butter in your tub. So when you go shopping, you just casually walk that familiar path in your house to fulfill your grocery list. One note - High contrast makes the memory more memorable - don't 'put' a bottle of shampoo in your tub, not enough contrast to remember, 'put' something in the tub that would Never be found there and it will be easier to remember. This technique should work through concepts as well as visualization techniques - 'put' items in those spots or 'visualize' items in those spots. It would be a fun game of visual hide and seek with your kids and your husband, be creative with this technique and see where it takes you. GOOD LUCK, and Happy times!! And as I tell others, Don't HAVE Nice Days, MAKE NICE DAYS!! Take care, Randy.

Would like all the above. Would love to know more about the differences in Taiwan. Hearing about your dream would be good too. Just keep on your weekly schedule, we all need distractions and I have a lot of free time. 😊

Yes, I'd like to see videos on everything you mentioned. Also, maybe you can talk more about how your memory works with visual things like movies or art. A lot of people are stuck inside watching endless Netflix or making art, so that might be an interesting way to connect a couple of topics. Also, what is boredom like for you? For me boredom can trigger daydreaming so I'm just curious. Also, in what ways are you creative and how do you experience that?

Maybe you can show us the results of you trying exercises to potentially get a minds eye or monologue?

I would love to hear your thoughts on trying to increase or learn to visualize or promote an inner voice if that's even possible. Love your videos so interesting!

A few days ago I became aware that not only can I not form a visual mental image of, say, an apple; I am unable to 'think' of an apple without sighting one. The concept 'apples', yes; an individual apple, not at all. I even tried to 'cheat' by holding an apple out of sight behind my back, but to no avail. I experienced the feeling of roundness, coldness, smoothness, but was completely unable to convert these impressions into thoughts of an actual apple. Can people without aphantasia visualise an object without thinking of that object and vice versa? I hesitate to submit what must seem nonsense, but it is probably important that I do.

My mom has this and she doesn't even care

I think you should definitely do more videos, they’re fascinating! I haven’t read through all of the comments on your videos, so some of these may be a repeat, but if you need some questions...😂 Something like a movie you’ve seen several times, if you know a line or scene from that movie, can you do (even if a poor one) impression? I guess what I’m asking is can you remember audio/verbal/visual memories in your head if you really want to, or is the knowledge in there but not the audio/visual memory? What about seeing a graph while studying for a math or sociology test or something...when recalling the info, cam you call up the graph as well? When you ‘think of’ someone (mom, husband, kids), what is actually in your head? I thought you said something about not really remembering what people (even yourself) look like, and you’re probably not picturing various memories or moments; how would you describe it? Can you remember art? If you ‘recall’ the Mona Lisa, can/do you SEE that in your head? If not, could you still describe it? Sketch it (no judgements on skills, lol)? So much of what I enjoy about art is being able to pull it up in my mind’s eye to see it again - music, too. I pull up songs and listen to them playing in my mind like on the radio; sometimes I sing along out loud, or sing along in my mind, but I still always hear the original as the ‘main track’. Can you pull up music in your head, and is audio different from visual (processing and retrieval) in that regard? Sorry so many weird questions, I have tons! Love your channel, it’s keeping me sane during the quarantine. ❤️

I'm stuck in quarantine where I can't leave this room for two weeks. Really glad I discovered your channel as these topics have been on my mind recently and its given me something to think about while I'm here. You're a great speaker and very interesting to listen to. I'd love to hear any of the things you mentioned though i'm particularly interested in what reading is like for you! On another note, I've been researching and experiementing with my own mind recently. I don't really feel like I can picure things in my mind, though I do feel like I can think about things in a visual way, which is difficult to explain and confuses me as to wheather or not I can actually visualise things. Anyway, I was reading this article about an objective test for aphantasia. The idea is that when looking through blue and red 3D glasses at two overlapping words, one in red and one in blue, such that one eye can see the red word and the other eye sees the blue word, the brain picks one word to be dominant over the other, which is the one you will see. People who can think about things visually can supposedly think about the word or colour they wish to see before taking a look, and the one they thought about becomes dominant. I don't have 3D glasses but the following optical illusion came to mind: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2RSsoTJA6cA.html This silhouette of a spinning dancer can be seen to be spinning in either direction depending on how your brian interprets the video. I found that I can think about the dancer spinning in a particular direction, then when I watch the video I see her spinning in the direction I was thinking of! I'm curious to see what other people will find with this and if people with aphantasia could still think about the dancer spinning in a particular direction to the same effect?

I'd like to hear about what it's like to live in Taiwan during this! The whole thing: From how people were reacting to this before it reached there onward.

I thought of a couple visualization-adjacent questions for you. When the clouds are poofey and have lots of different shapes, do you ever stare at them, to see what recognizable shapes you can find, in them? Have you seen the extreme close-up photos of familiar objects, called Eyeball Benders (Google image search has many examples)? Recognizing what the objects are, depends on your attention to details, and if seeing a bit of an object triggers your mind to recognize or visualize the whole. I think these are two fun exercises that help unconscious visualization to become a conscious skill. Watching you and your husband play with these, might make a fun video.

Both of those ideas sound so interesting!! I’d love to hear how your life is in Taiwan too! I love learning about how other cultures differ from some of ours in the US. I would love to watch your videos while in quarantine! I have nothing better to do other than watching RU-vid lol and I might as well learn and give my brain something to do😊

Any thoughts on drawing and/or singing? I guess that people without aphantasia imagine pictures/songs in their head when they draw or sing. Can you do it (well)? Do you have any way to compensate for that?

I just hope you'll keep your channel going! :) Here are some things I've been 'word thinking'* about: At your peak of fitness in your life, so far, how athletic/physically coordinated were/are you? What are your experiences with playing musical instruments? If you play, can you make up a tune "off the top of your head"? If legally offered in a safe environment (let's say Johns Hopkins) in order to advance afantasia research, would you be willing to take a hallucinogen? Have you ever had tinnitus and if so, what was your experience? Have you ever read 'Stranger in a Strange Land' by Rober Heinlein? How good are you at remembering names and faces? There are many more questions I'd like to ask, but I would prefer that you screen some of them off-line. Would you be willing to set up a Gmail account just for questions? Just a thought. *Thinking in words, just to differentiate.

What if you do videos on anything you’re passionate about. 🌸

I've found your videos very helpful. I also have aphantasia in multiple senses. I have a question. When you're listening to someone, do thoughts ever come into your head? When this happens to me, the thoughts are almost always related to what I'm hearing and I sometimes have difficulty not saying what has just come into my head (e.g., a question about the information I'm hearing). Does this ever happen to you? If so, how do you handle this? If you don't verbalize what you've thought, do you later remember it? Do people get annoyed if you interrupt them with a question that has come into your head when they're talking? I find that I have no trouble being interrupted by a relevant question although there are times when I may ask a person to wait until I'm finished with what I'm saying, but it makes me angry when I'm interrupted by an irrelevant question which feels like the other person hasn't been listening. People seem to have different reactions to being interrupted. Some seem to welcome dialogue where others seem to want to be allowed to speak at length without interruption

Have you tried Image Streaming method by Win Wenger? In this time it might be good idea to start, it can help develop mind eye :)

Please read "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle and talk about it. There will be parts you won't relate to, but other parts you might.

YOU'RE IN TAIWAN!?!?!?!!

What is your blood type? I am wondering if there is a connection between lack of inner voice and being RH Negative?

How 'Connected' do you feel? A video I saw about a guy talking to a doctor about Aphantasia he mentioned his mom died, and with no visual memories of her, he easily disconnected from her and went about his life, whereas his brothers were distraught for a long time with their emotional connection to their visual memories. As for me, I cannot become Fully connected to anything. I live in an apartment complex with about 24 other people and in 6 years, 17 people I know have died - either intentionally or due to severe health issues. When I hear about their deaths, I TRY to bring back times or pictures of them and - Nothing - I feel sad for a few seconds, but I know that they are in a better place without pain or suffering, and then go about the rest of my day. I feel empathy and try to imagine the suffering that they might be going through or have gone through, but cannot make the actual 'connection' to them. So my question is how 'Connected or Disconnected' are you? I love my mom, but cannot 'see' her or 'hear' her voice, until I actually call her or see her and it's like, 'Oh, that's what you look like.' Thanks, Randy A.

I'm interested in how you deal with reading fiction. I've always found it incredibly boring to read fiction books and I think my aphantasia might be responsible...

"@Fran MacGillivray" & Courtney (any hints on tagging someone?) Would it be ok for our purposes to use the abbreviations AF & F instead of spelling the words out? I'm going to do it on this post and you guys tell me what you think. More thoughts: As I was meditating today, some of the pre-mediation talk was about ruminating, which I don't believe either of you is capable of; more like either of you is cursed with. Ruminating, thinking the same thoughts over and over, be they angry, sad, hurt... rumination is almost always negative. Understand (I think understand is a better word than picture this, or imagine)... understand that this is like rewatching a movie that makes you feel absolutely horrible, over and over. But unlike a movie, instead of getting boring and losing interest, with rumination not only does the interest often block out large swaths of focus, but it's a movie that has it's own hormones. Steadily gaining steam and morphing the memory into something way, way worse than the actual event might have been. We also can experience the reverse. We may be anxious about things we think may happen in the future. Anything from a fear of losing a job, to fear of speaking in public, fear of being an imposter, fear that anything bad may happen. Or when things actually happen for real like combat or abuse. I realized that (I think) neither of you will ever be subjected to that. It's the flip side of an open mind, some times it's open and awake to things we can't control, eg chemical imbalance or runaway anxiety or worry. This is what meditation is all about... to train the mind to be much more like yours. Seeking that silence. Learning to simply 'be' 100% right there in that moment, not thinking about the future or the past, no thinking about smells or sounds or sensations, but just letting them become like white-noise... just unfocused sensation. It is impossible for us to ever achieve. We hope, in time and with daily practice, to get to a place where we can focus on one thing and simply notice thoughts without engaging them... letting them go peacefully like leaves floating down a river. Most of that was to give you context. Because yin/yan, good ruminations do exist too, and I am guessing that you don't experience these either. Most small (Western) children get more and more excited before Christmas and their birthdays. The know what gift they would like and they've made sure that their parents know what they want... and they dream. Every day that passes, more fantasies in the mind of how much fun this toy would be or how romantic having Barbie AND Ken is going to be. Picturing and dreaming about popping a wheelie on that new dirt bike, or imagining all the stuff they are going to create if they get that new art set. Am I correct that neither of you has ever experienced those things? If not, what are events like for you? When you got married, did you have any big hopes for what your wedding would look like? How did you feel leading up to your weddings? Hard for me to picture you being anxious, though I know that Courtney has spoken about her manifested anxiety resulted in her head not feeling right. And what about anxiety for short term stuff. Normally if a typical person suddenly gets a phone call from their boss and is told something like "I need to see you in my office, that's all you need to know", their mind will immediately start focussing on things like "what did I do", "what could I have done", if you have done something in the past you may be thinking how to respond if that's what it's about... the mind can go into mini overdrive until it knows what's actually happening. I'm guessing this is something else you don't have to suffer. That's enough for this dissertation. Thanks again for letting us take this journey alongside you two.