Test: Can You Visualize This In Your Mind? APHANTASIA Explained 

my mind grasps the concept , my mind will think of the attributes of that object, but I don't see the object

I never thought this was literal. I used to think "imagining" was to be able to think about what things would look like without seeing. I have never seen images when I close my eyes, only darkness. I'm absolutely shocked others can.

wait.... people can VISUALLY SEE mental images...? I mean I thought I could 'picture in my mind' things, but not as this describes.........

This would have helped me when I was in school. I would automatically hate teachers that asked the class to " Visualize" anything when the best I could "see" was static

i didn’t know people actually could visualize

I like how no one can explain this clearly.

I can sometimes feel and smell my memories.. anyone else relate?

I always though when people said close your eyes and see the image i didnt know they meant literally i thought it was a metaphor

I can feel the feeling of what I’m to visualize but can never see the image🤷🏽‍♀️ is this aphantasia

I was doing well until he said “visualise yourself under the tree” then I tried to see my face in 3rd person and couldn’t . I can’t visualise my own face or loved ones unless it’s from a photo

It's like openin your eyes in a pool for me. The image is there for a moment, but it's fuzzy and blurry and ever-changing.

I'm not denying that aphetasia is real, but hypothetically speaking what if this is a semantic issue? When we say we "see" images in our mind that doesn't mean that we imagine it as looking as solid as when we see with our eyes. But what if people with aphetasia just think we mean that we can see super vivid and solid objects in our mind because they misunderstood what we mean by imagining things?

I didn’t even find out about this until this video. My whole life, I thought everyone sees the world like this. My life is a lie. I’m really sad because I will never know how other people see the world like me.

I can visualize it in my mind, but i can't "see" it with my eyes

I'll die if I can't Imagine.

I can imagine everything as a feeling, but not a picture

how do you really know you're actually visualizing the picture and its not just from memory?

Give credit to the animators that you stole work from please.

I can imagine things in 4k ultra quality 😂

I feel like when you are thinking about how vivid it is then you can't see it as well

I just want to say that Hyperphantasia, the opposite, can be equally as distressing

No words either, just blackness, no sound , no smells, no sensation.

Comparing the brains between people without an ability to visualize or use an internal monologue with people in the average vivid imagery range is fascinating. It is probably the best candidate to figuring out how different conscious experience emerge in the brain. Like are the abstract ways people that can’t see images in there head describing when they think about where things are in there house as strong a conscious experience as what a visualizer is having. Or is it just different but because it does not align with there sensory perception. So are many of these people slightly less conscious than people in the normal range or is it just a different experience. And are the people that are vivid imagers on the opposite side of the spectrum really having a stronger conscious experience than most people that would be at there same level of intelligence. So for example are non visualizers having less of a conscious experience than a visualizer when they can correctly answer a question on a mental rotation test. Is the brain still able to do the rotation but just outside of the experience that the person is having. Likewise when someone can read 150 books a year, but they do not have an internal monologue, is the abstract way they visually break up and interpret the sentences much faster just a different form of self awareness manifesting itself. Or is much of that work of processing the information the brain is doing subconscious. There have been studies comparing brain regions and how different parts of the brain activate. And for example vivid imagerers that can see things in there head to the quality they see with there eyes open tend to have much stronger activity between there pre frontal cortex and there visual processing centers. Does this mean we could just plug a couple neural-link wires from the cortext back to another port near the visual center part of the brain and make everyone be capable of interpret the world in there minds eye with super clear visual clarity. It would interesting to see (no pun intended) if there are differences between the brains of these different groups at the cellular level too and not just the overall structure. Like this could help prove if quantum fluctuations in microtubials effect self awareness or if that or other theories are bunk science.

This explains why I never cared for novels and preferred comic books.

It's eerie vivid. I just lost it at "right shoulder" and the yellow butterfly was constantly switching from both arms.

I can see it but I can't actually see it. I can describe every detail of that image without seeing it. Do people literally see the images as if their eyes were open?

I an Great at Visualization...Thankyou Father!!

wahhh!!! what an information thank you 👌

This is bonkers. My recent poll of people seems to be pretty close to 50/50.

Idk but sometimes my mind is just way too detailed like i can even hear my crush voice talking to me while im replaying some of my memories and even her face etc

they explained aphantasia, gave a description of the symptoms, yet i cannot imagine aphantasia🤔

I have a really hard time visualizing things and always thought there was something wrong with my brain. Turns out.. there is smh!

I can visualise this but sometimes i feel like i can see my visualisation

I cannot see myself not seeing myself in my mind

A lot of the time I don’t know what I am thinking I am just sitting there and when I try to remember what I was thinking I forget

"Love" having aphantasia... -_-

How is it possible to build something from scratch without visualizing first?

I find it very hard to visualise things I have been questioning myself if I have Aphantasia

I HATE APHANTASIA WTF WHY CANT I SEE AND IMAGINE SHIT IN MY HEAD WHY TF CAN I ONLY SEE BLACK IMA ACTUALLY CRY 😭😭😭

Can "see" the object so to speak but not physically. When i close my brain thinks of the thing and gives me an image. But all i physically see is complete darkness. Im not sure if i have aphantasia but i think so

I am scared of butterflies and almost dies after this.

it's weird cause I'm certain I used to visualize images (y'know looking into the corner of a dark room and seeing stars and images dancing around) but now either I've lost the knack, I've tricked myself into thinking I could, or I'm worried that I don't so my brain isn't doing it and ngl it's kinda upsetting to have seemingly lost it

wait i though nobody actually SAW pictures? it’s just like a vague concept of the image paired with black when u shut your eyes

So you know when your teacher will tell you to picture something in your head like for instants a goat and everyone in the class will be like “yeah I see it” I thought we were all just lying…….😂😂

Having no VSI is a massive issue

I dont really see anything like i dont even know how normal ppl imagine things.. like can you really see it or-

Alright I'm confused, so I can kinda picture things, I can think of what an object looks like and have a plan of what it looks like but I can't see it ,it's kinda hard to explain-

I can pciture things But only if i have seen them before and theyre like separate So i can see a hill I can see a sun I can see a yellow butterfly I cant smush that image together though Actually i cant see a yelow butterfly, the best i can do is orange

its not an “error” btw these people may be different but its not a bad thing.

Ok, I can think of a green field and the sun going down and a butterfly landing on my right shoulder. But I cannot see this in colors nor pictures. Just my eyes closed and there is darkness, although I can think of these things!! So am I one of those????

I used to do this but I can’t anymore.

I've never missed a video you've ever put out and this was the most valuable one FOR ME that I've ever seen. Thank God for you, Lorie. You've helped me so much on my journey... I'm so very grateful ❤

I can't visualise 😢 how to cure it ?

Interestingly, I picture myself in 3rd person

So many people think they have this when they really don’t. Everyone sees black, people. It’s in your mind. I bet 1/10 people who think they have it actually do.

I feel like I’m always getting the short end of the stick in life. 😂

if i think of a big ahh plate of pasta all'amatriciana covered in pecorino i can taste that shi it is so fucking savory

I cant think abt it on will But i have a 24/7 voice that changes languages.....

I watched the video afterwards but my vision didn’t have me wearing a mask in a field under a tree. I guess I’m old school

Ok but do you have to be able to clearly see an image? I can imagine things but not like I’m looking at a picture-

As someone with aphantasia I'm tired of people saying it's not a disability. Just because one people makes that statement doesn't make it true. Sure we can blend in and compete, but it's awful. As my wife said when I first discovered this, I sure hope you're kidding because that sounds miserable. It's like we are not completely alive.

Ok so i can like imagine it and like 'see' it but are yall seeing actual images in the black or is it more or like the feeling of an image

Kind of but it’s like looking at 35mm negative … colors are not vivid more like dark sepia, no crisp lines, no 4k quality… 🤷🏻‍♀️ … im not there im looking at a bad negative of myself being there…. Don’t know if that is aphantasia.

i hold a small object in my hand to help me visualize that the small object that im holding is the caracter that i made up in my mind its kinda like playing a toy bot imagining its a cool caracter

I saw it😂 I even felt wind on my face which is hot due to the sun😅

I can only visualize things with Isd. Was actually one of the effects that blew my mind lmao

I can’t see feel smell see or anything that I visualize I wouldn’t even call it visualizing because it’s basically not all I see is black

I can taste memories like if i think of chocolate right now i can basically taste it or smell it. Can other people do that?

I can picture some kind of field, the tree and the sun but it's definetly not an image, and I can not see myself I just "see" the things but ehen he said to imagine the butterfly in my shoulder I kind of saw the butterfly but not my body.

"It's like a cellchone wihtout a screen". OR...a phone....

i can visualize without closing my eyes i can visualize 2 caracters or more that are fighting with there own unique poweres😂

I think I have it

I can visualize it with my eyes open but not with my eyes close.

Uhm im confused now, i can imagine things, but like i don't actually see them if this makes sense. I only see darkness and of course i can recall things or imagine new ones, but i won't *see* them like i see things in real life. I don't think this is aphantasia, it has never disturbed me whatsoever, i'm just wondering if i should actually see things as if i was hallucinating or something

I can't see anything. Iv only realised every1 else can 😔

I can’t see color or any 3dness in my head

Yeah I'm all good

You should probably give credit to the animated clips made by jamie. The non-binary animator formerly known as wow right meow.

Do not anyone I mean think there is something wrong with you there isn't even tho whoever can imagine whatever when you eventually witness the self you see yourself as a body but you are looking at your body but you are not with the body you are the eye's watching then you become aware of the watcher there is nothing you are consciousness no feeling nothing just aware of the eyes watching it's like someone putting there hands on your shoulder saying you are home I did not visualise it was a very deep experience I had

I can imagine it but they are all separate and not very clear and I can’t put the whole scene together. It’s not like it’s that visual I just know what grass looks like and what a tree looks like but there’s no real visual. I’m probably not making any sense but to me I can image it, albeit it it’s hard.

I see it in glinpses but has soon as I see it (blurry), everything goes black. I can't focus on anything. I can't picture my girlfriend's face in my minds eye. Would that be considered as aphantasia?

i can't imagine 😭😭😭

I am total opposite. I have hyperphantasia

I'm confused if I have aphantasia or not cause do non apants literaly close their eyes and make themselves see images like they would in real life or like you dont literaly see it but you just imagine it

I can imagine things in my head but it's dark and at the same time it has colors, its quite difficult to describe it

Yuh. Im there but im blind.

I couldn’t at all

The thing is what some people don’t understand is that we visualise with our eyes open! We can still look at the world around us but have “picture thoughts” running through your mind, or any senario like a movie. You don’t so much see it on a screen or anything, it’s hard explain, it’s like you’re just in that moment. So when you close your eyes you see darkness but you just “see” images. It’s so hard to explain really. It’s just there and you can put yourself in any place you’ve ever been. It’s dream like. I never ever know until this week that people didn’t experience this.

I can do it but is is bad I can not see it in detail and I can not see many things at one time

My mind was thinking of like a pastel anime and I was sitting on small green hills, also the sun had a smile :> edit: OMG IM THE 1K LIKE

Mine is off and on I don’t really understand why tho

I cant i see the back of my eyelids

i visualize it but its really blurry

GIVE CREDIT TO THE ANIM CREATOR

I can visualise and everthing but I cant able to imagine the voices for that situation and i need to self talk mentally And that doesn't seems like imagination or real visualisation. And If once were imagining ourself there will be 2 persons one is ourself and another one is imagineted once. But i cant able to difference the both

I can visualise but it's not that vivid.

When you read books is it just words on a page?

HELP I HAVE THIS IM SO SAD RN WTF

So I’m broken nice

I can't.