The Most Common Questions I Get Asked about Aphantasia 

I have aphantasia too, never knew it even was a thing because I never realized people could see stuff when they closed their eyes. I thought counting sheep and going to your happy place was just a figure speech. So weird I’m kinda different.

"when I was in class I was looking at the teacher and I was focused on everything the teacher was saying" dear god, it's like a superpower.

Oh my gosh! I know you’ve said being able to see pictures seems like a super power, but honestly I feel like aphantasia is definitely a super power! I have VERY vivid daydreams and it has always been difficult for me to stay in the present. When you spoke about being in school and all you could focus on was the teacher- I was like wow!!! That’s so amazing! I would literally be in math class zoned out and imagining myself dancing on the ceiling and flying all over the place. And then class would be over and I would be like “whoops.” 😂 I struggled with math a lot because I could never stay focused. Even listening to people talk- I’ll just zone out and be transported to another dimension. It can be a lot of fun, and I wouldn’t trade it, (I am a visual artist for my job), but I also hate I can’t focus when I reallyyyyy need to. Sometimes I will have to stop a person who is talking to me and tell them I accidentally stopped listening, (started day dreaming). Makes me feel bad that I can’t focus for too long. The only time I pay attention the whole time is when the story they tell me is flooding my mind with imagery and emotion. I think it’s so cool you can be such an attentive listener. When you talked about how you still feel the stress of thoughts while trying to sleep, I feel I could understand the Black Friday analogy. Anyways, I am so fascinated by aphantasia and did not know it was a thing. Thanks for sharing your experience and trying to break it down. You really are great at describing what having aphantasia is like. I hope you continue writing and making videos because I believe you are great at painting super clear pictures with words instead of imagery!

I came across your channel while researching aphantasia. I realized I have aphantasia only one month ago and I geniunely thought everybody was "imagining" the same way as I do, like thinking about a concept only and not really vizualising things. The only thing I noticed during the years is that I barely have any memories of the past, and if I do it's only "knowing" what happend without being able to relive the moment and the emotions associated to it. Apart from that, I never knew people could actually see very vividly in their mind. About math I do exactly like you and I actually do the same for French (I am french speaker). Even if I read a lot since I was a child, I often have to write in the air or on my leg to know the correct spelling of a word because I don't have any visualization. And internal monologue is permanent. I actually realized that this is how I am able to remember things. If I go to the park, once I am back home I can tell the color of the bench just because I specifically thought about it while I was looking at it at the park, if you know what I mean. If I just look at things without thinking about what I see, I am not able to remember even if it's just 5 minutes after. I don't know if people cope like me for the lack of vizualisation. But with this method the memories do not last long for details as such. For old memories, it's more like knowing I went to visit a city without knowing how it looks like or even what I did exactly.

Your math example was so interesting to me. Because, yeah, 7x2, I can almost instantly (rote memory) say its 14, but then I do see the 7x2=14 in my head - I'm just not USING that visual to get the answer, but I still see it. Also, when I am doing harder math problems, I WILL use visuals to solve them. Like I might take 86 and pull it apart into 80 over here and 6 over here, etc. Sometimes I have to close my eyes because even though I'm not "seeing" with my actual eyes, having the blackness of my actual eyes makes it easier to focus on my "mind's eye" I guess you could say

As a person with both a heavily visual brain AND a constant internal monologue, I think you are incredible!! Not only does my brain constantly talk to me and back to itself, but sometimes I actually see the words of said monologue - like on a printed page - while thinking my thoughts and listening to me thinking them). :) I also have the sensation of ‘listening’ to my thoughts, while I am simultaneously reacting and hearing my internal running monologue about my reactions - and all of that is happening at the same time. 🤪 Your videos are amazing, I love the whole idea of your channel, and how well you explain everything! I think my biggest takeaway of the difference between what you do and what I do is how we process KNOWLEDGE (versus experience or memory, for example). Your brain, to me, seems like a computer; you either know what you know, or you don’t. And when you recall something, it recalls the knowledge and awareness; you don’t have to REexperience or REimagine it to access or probe that memory. We loud minds have that ability sometimes, too, we just don’t have it in a superpower strength like you! I loved the multiplication analogy you used...if someone asks me what 7x14 is, even though I SEE those numbers in my head, I’m not using those pictures (or 14 of...anything) to access my knowledge of that information. I just KNOW and when I need it, I pull it out and it’s there. It sounds like that is your brain all the time - if you need to know, your brain pulls out the INFO. Not how you GOT the info (sights, smells, sounds of that experience); your brain doesn’t seem to need it so it (efficiently) doesn’t pull it up. We do get the benefit of being ABLE to relive the experiences of our memories, but with the added benefit of being forced to relive nearly every memory whenever we remember them. Are you still taking questions? I have so many!! Keep up the awesome work!

Interesting what she says about school. I have aphantasia but would constantly zone out, and just think about things.

Fellow aphant...only learned about it about 9 months ago. It’s nice coming across videos of people having similar experiences. For a few weeks after learning about aphantasia it was a little rough trying to understand how I’m able to do some things that seem like they should require visualization and whatnot. At the end of the day, it was really a revelation that everyone experiences the world in different ways. We conceptually understand this, but really understanding how differently people can perceive the world and their memories is kind of mind blowing.

Must be so peaceful! My head is constantly trying to predict the future, like if I do this, then it'll lead to this and that, so I better do that instead....but what if that happens, then I'll feel terrible... and so I go through the feeling as if it has already happened, and I'm just left with a whole lot of anxiety, and have a hard time making decisions! Also, when someone is talking, any word can spark a memory and before I know it, I'm reliving spring break in Playa del Carmen - smells and everything!

There’s something so sweet and endearing about this woman! Very interesting topic as well. I am an artist, I see pictures, dream vividly every night and even during naps, remember dreams in detail. Daydreaming is one of my favorite things to do when I’m lonely I just go back to a memory and it feels like I’m in it. My inner monologue is absolutely exhausting though. All day everyday non-stop and I’m an empath. ABSOLUTELY EXHAUSTING. I envy you! LOL.

I do not have aphantasia but I can relate to so many experiences you have - especially with directions. There are certain tasks that I am just consistently horrible at and they do require the ability to visualize well! But then I also think I have some advantages because I do feel I have a strong inner world of thoughts and I actually only hear my inner voice when I’m thinking slowly! Is it possible that your brain has gained incredible efficiency in certain areas since it’s not having to work on the visuals / inner voice ?! This is so fascinating, thanks for sharing, would love it if you came back to RU-vid to give an update!

I think many of the things you do to think are things we use as well, they're just so overshadowed by the images and the dialogue that we completely overlook them. The things you are able to do BECAUSE of the quiet and lack of imagery are things we cannot do or comprehend.

As someone who also has aphantasia, "concept" is definitely the key word. All things and thoughts are concepts and not replications of external stimuli. Getting these answers from someone with out aphantasia would be a fun interview.

If you ask me where my cellphone is, the first thing I imagine is really a picture of the location with the cellphone in it.

These videos are so fascinating to me. Every time you explain something I really try to put myself in your perspective and think about just knowing things versus having that mental picture. The thing I keep thinking of is if you can't see a mental picture and you just know, but HOW do you just know? Then I think that it just comes from a lifetime of knowledge from learning things. I think that's the thing that fascinates me most about aphantasia is that you can't just picture something, but you know what it is. I really enjoy your videos.

Another interesting and great video thanks so much for sharing!

Your explanation of listening to the teacher is making me think some of the people I thought were soulless robots in school that never doodled, gazed around, got bored, etc. may have had aphantasia. I'm still not certain aphantasia people aren't somewhat NPCs or lacking in spirit and soul, but it at least explained why some people will be very attentive like a robot. Your sense of empathy seems to me to suggest someone with aphantasia can have sympathy but not empathy in the full sense. Granted, empathy is experience based, but without being able to fully recall the experience would make it harder to imagine someone else's experience. The video definitely helped me understand a couple more things.

I just recently discovered that aphantasia is a Thing and it explains so much about me. The Black Friday explanation was brilliant. And indeed, my mind is often Black-Fridayish.

Wow! Ever since I know I have Aphantasia, everything just make so much sense to me! It explains everything. Now I know why I sometimes have this difficulties to understand others. I can be a good listener but I can’t really put myself in other’s shoes. I previously thought I was just being very selfish, but now I know myself better. And it is good to have a direction of where I can make the change. Thank you so much for sharing. :)

I have Aphantasia. And what's F'd up, I'm a writer! So I have an imagination, but I don't imagine things? That's kinda crazy... like most with it, I just assumed everyone was like me! I didn't realise there was even a name for it till a few days ago. This is crazy. So much of what you said resonated with me, except the dreams, I have vivid dreams almost every night.

Thank you for posting this. I just realized recently that my mind works this way. After 45 years of life it was a surprise :) Honestly, it explains a lot that I've experienced though!

Here’s something interesting about inner voices that I thought you might get a kick out of! I don’t know if this is true for everyone but sometimes my inner voice gets ‘tongue tied’ and can mispronounce things! You would think that since there’s no mouth muscles involved, that all of the words would come out perfectly but the voice in my mind behaves so much like a natural voice that it sometimes even makes mistakes! Like occasionally blending words together or mispronouncing things or stumbling over sentences.

Wow. Everything that you're saying feels so common for me. I relate for almost everything (except from nog studying for a test 😂) that you're telling. It's difficult to discribe how I'm thinking, I think you described it the best way. The question about 'empty', I study Psychology and yes I can not visualise but that doesn't mean there is no empathy for people. A bit more logical than emotional feels true.

I actually came to this realization because my class did this visualization exercise and it was so specific and I just couldn’t see any of it. Ever since then this discovery has absolutely fascinated me.

I'm crying and laughin right now...this is the one of the most relatable videos I've watched

This is interesting, the weird thing is that I definitely understand how you are thinking even though I can both picture things in my mind and have a constant monologue. I think that most people that say they can't understand how you think haven't really tried to. For example, I've started using the inner monologue less and less for some time since I've realized it gets in the way of a lot of things, especially reading. This is especially true when I'm reading a book in english since I'm not a native english speaker. I've realized one day that there is no point in pronouncing every word in my mind since I already know what it means and since then I've read a lot faster. It is actually known that not reading the words in your mind is a faster way of reading. Another example would be having a really complex thought out of the blue that would take at least 5 seconds for the internal monologue to go through and I sometimes just stop and realize that I already KNOW the whole thing I'm thinking about. It's like trying to tell someone a story and he's not listening at all, you already have the story in your mind, be it a 2 hour long movie, you don't have to read the whole scenario inside your mind to know it. I have to admit though that there IS something I don't understand about the way you think. How do you conceive very specific thoughts? Here are a few examples: 1. How do you do math in your mind? You've talked about it in this video but didn't give a concrete answer. I'm not talking about things like 7*2 that you already know like you have the answer in a database. If you have to calculate 27 * 54, how do you do it? I don't really do it myself since there is rarely a reason to, but if you give me enough time I can calculate the answer by visualizing the multiplications like you would write them down, though it would take longer since it's not as vivid. This is especially true for bigger numbers, say 476 * 159. If I give you 10 minutes, how do you do that? 2. How do you formulate long answers/speeches in your mind in a situation where you should NOT give an instant answer. When you would have to "watch your mouth". 3. Finally, how do you learn a poem? I've had to learn a lot of essays word by word for bac (an important romanian exam), we're talking about dozens of pages. How can you do that? I couldn't imagine myself learning these word by word if I couldn't literally repeat them in my mind. By the way, this is another thing I'm extremely curious about, and it's not really related to the discussion, but what would happen if someone with aphantasia would learn to lucid dream? I'm into lucid dreaming communities and I was wondering what you would see/feel when lucid dreaming if you have aphantasia, since 100% of what you see there is mentally generated.

I was confused most of my life cause I can't recall sounds, images, emotions, touch, or taste and I can't smell at all so I don't know what smells smell like. With all of that, I thought people said that when they could hear a sound in their head or can visualize something in their minds eye, I thought for the longest time it was just a figure of speech and thought actually seeing an image in your head was impossible. I have learned that me not being able to recall emotions has impacted how I interact with people when telling stories where I was really sad or traumatizing things happened to me and I thought people were over reacting when they would get emotional or upset when telling something that happened to them when they were a child. I have learned that I am the odd one in this situation and I had to learn to fake those emotions when retelling my stories so people don't look at me like a psychopath. I was so happy when I learned Aphantasia was a thing and that I wasn't alone or "crazy" with not being able to recall anything or visualize. I'm glad more and more people are talking about it and not just about it not being able to visualize with your minds eye. But that some people literally can't recall anything or maybe can't recall a few of the senses.

Since I'm so early and it's more likely that you'll see my comment I just want to say thank you for your videos. I'm really interested in this topic and i watched a lot of videos but yours are the most informative because your way of describing how your think is great and satisfying for my thirst of knowledge. I also love the conversations sparked in your comments.

I like how you are trying to explain aphantasia. And I get how you feel, because I have it too. But I have visual dreams, which I find interesting, that I can visualize while sleeping but not when I am awake.

O wow, I have heard of aphantasia before, love the name it sounds beautiful. I can definitely relate about directions they're just a list of words to me and I'll need to refer to them as a list of words. It takes me quite a while to feel comfortable sometimes with going to a new place alone. Also if I'm not driving the car I will not remember how to get there basically at all. When I'm going somewhere like taking a walk I will remember basically just the turns and remember my way back that way and the familiarness of the way I came. I can be very easily turned around. I think I even have a vague word description of where I parked my car and I can have a hard time finding the car lol. I often talk to myself especially like to talk through a difficult conversation or if I am going to lie I need to really think it through how it will go, what questions I could be asked, I'm very uncomfortable with lying. I have many interesting dreams definitely with visuals and also daydreams with visuals but in the dreams the sound is just something I know is occurring it's not seeming real. I'll know like reasons people do things, if there's ever anything written it will not look like text I'll just automatically know what it says. Also in my dreams sometimes it's like a movie where I'm watching everyone including my own character who is not necessarily the me from the waking world. Thank you for making this video I will subscribe. I'm always fascinated to learn more about people, it's an undying passion. I'm self-diagnosed autistic

Please continue making videos we need more clear minds on discussion around these topics

I've been trying to understand how you think and I realised that I sometimes catch myself deciding if I should expend the effort to translate a thought into words in my head or if I should leave them in their more abstract form. This made me realise that I do think about things without using words, though I think my inturnal monologue distracts me from these deeper workings of my mind most of the time. When I first discovered some people don't have a voice in their heads it blew my mind and I felt envious as not only does my inturnal voice bug me a lot of the time, but it seems like it could be a far more efficient way of thinking, not having to translate all the thoughts into words. Probably a lot of people who have an inturnal monologue like me arent realising that the voice in their heads is simply telling them things which they already know on some deeper level. Though I think when you are used to having a voice in your head it becomes a part of the thinking process and you can't do without it. I can't tell if I'm able to visualise images in my head or not. It's so faint that Its difficalt to tell if there is anything there, and i think a lot of people are like this. So it's not like everyone has a movie running in their heads and you are one of the few who is missing out. I think there is a big spectrum here and a whole lot of people can't picture things clearly in their minds so your'e difinantly not alone. Keep up the videos! theyre very interesting :)

Beautiful ❤️🙏🌈

I just learned that I have this today!

Hi there, I just hope people understand everyone is different, I myself have Aphantasia and I consider myself very different from you. I explain to people I have a knowing, I don't have any visual pictures in my head but I know things, they are saved in pockets of information like filing. Anyhow what I wanted people to know is I'm truly very empathetic as in I feel everything and I think this comes from compensation my other senses are heightened. I all my life would say I read people and animals. I am noticing micro expressions, the small stuff, so I notice how someone is feeling I see when they are confused or sad etc same with animals. I also have vivid lucid dreams. I only know this as there is a period of time between asleep and awake where I can recall them like a movie. Unfortunately it is fleeting. Only thing you can feel sorry for us is I cannot picture my lovely Mother's face or my beautiful dog. I know how I felt about them and can recall her voice but not her face.😢 Hence why I changed my career later in life I am now a photographer I use this to my advantage and I get to keep my memory and show others how I see.

This new camera is da bomb! It’s nice to have you looking directly at us. Very insightful video as always. Question: If someone asks you "Where in your fridge is the mayonnaise?" Will you know automatically, or would that be difficult? I literally get a detailed (but not 100% accurate) image of the interior of the fridge and its contents, so I could not only tell you where the mayonnaise is but what’s next to it, behind it, etc.

Hi there. Your video was a while ago now, but guess what. I just realIsed I have it too, and I’m nearly 60. It’s reassuring that other people are like this. I ‘technically remember’ watching my Dads hands while he worked (me aged 40). I SO wanted to be able to visualise them. But after a few minutes that image was gone. I never knew why. Now I do. I’m not a fan of going on holiday because I can’t recall anything, my memory is awful. I like to take hundreds of photos... when I see them I have a certain memory, but no visual. I cannot recall anybodies faces. Mother, father, wife etc. But I technically know who they are. I know that this has been all my life, and I never imagined it wasn’t normal until recently. I love your video. It makes sense to me. Question:- can you remember the events of your life? I get real down when old school friends discuss stuff. There’s no memory there for me at all. Also, do you read fiction books? My shelves are all factual, reference books. Not one fictional book. Maybe that’s just me Many thanks and God bless you x

This is extremely fascinating. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the way you experience the world around you. I'm constantly seeing images and hearing music and sounds in my head. Not necessarily actual images as if they were real. But more "transparent" if that makes sense? I guess you can say I'm always daydreaming haha. To answer your question about math equations, I usually always picture the numbers in my head. Even simple equations like 1+1 are visualized. Many times words and sentences are visualized as well. If I have a place to go the next day I've never been, I'll visual what the experience might possibly be like, almost like a movie. And then when I get there the next day its usually not what I imagined, and then I'll start to compare what's different about how I thought it would be. Its mind blowing to discover just how vastly different peoples minds can be. 🤯 All that to say, thank you for sharing these videos.

I've asked a few people if they can imagine and how strongly, and although I haven't met any true aphantasics a few of my friends can't imagine super clearly or only see images in the corner of their eye. Some also can't remember their family members faces, while the other people I asked can see very clear in their imagination. I have yet to meet anyone with no inner monologue though.

I have probably the opposite, hyper-PHantasia. Sometimes I go on wonderful journeys like actually travelling to a new place, especially in the occasional dreams where I wake up like I just came back from vacation and I can design and build things in my mind and then build them very quickly in physical reality afterwards, like building a project on a bus and just writing it down fast when i get home. But other times its horrible like I can't pay attention to a single thing in a meeting or a lecture or a tutorial video because one little thing that was said triggers me into picturing all of this stuff that goes off on a visual tangent in my mind and I come out of it realizing I haven't paid attention to real life at all for 5, 10, 20 minutes! Its good for thinking but bad for interacting. Imagine everything everyone ever said to you made you feel like a rocket ship is blasting off to the place they are talking about and your mind considering every possible outcome of the events described while you have trouble remaining present enough in real life to keep talking to the person who said it.

I find this fascinating. Thank you for sharing! I think I may have hyperphantasia. When I visualise it is crystal clear and with as much detail as life practically, including generated scenes and objects that I have never seen. Apparently this isn't normal either and I had no idea until recently.

The Black Friday example actually makes a lot of sense to me and even though I have an inner voice and see pictures, I still experience that sometimes where I am just very anxious but not about anything specific. I think the question about lying is because, at least for me, I think through what I want to say before I say it. Like I get the words in my head first then decide what to say or if I need to change it, so if I’m going to lie then I have that thought inside my head and think through if I will lie or not but I can’t imagine doing that without the inner dialogue lol so that’s probably where the confusion is 😅

This stuff is really blowing my mind. My memories are movies from my own perspective, but I can feel and touch and smell things in the memory. I can clearly hear the voices of the people I know and see them as a face or a head or whole body. I can change the color of their hair or eyes or skin in my mind. Reading fiction is incredible, I really do go to a different world. All of the characters have their own voices and mannerisms and accents. I can see the sights and hear the sounds and construct the scenes in my mind. I can't imagine not being able to do that. When I can't sleep my thoughts are full of sights and sounds and voices and feelings and I just wish it would all shut up sometimes. When I do mental math it's literally a chalkboard I write on in my mind, but I don't need to close my eyes, I can put the chalkboard anywhere in real space. I'm just obviously not seeing it with my eyes. But the memory of smells and tastes are intense to the point there's very little difference between actually smelling something and remembering the smell. I'm rambling now but I can't believe there are people who can't imagine things that way.

This is so interesting!! (Extremely long post coming! Sorry!) I see math in my head. When you said the 7×2=14. I saw it, except vertically. I'm very visual. I see images very clearly and crisply at least 90% of the time. It's pretty much always going. When I can't visualize I get so confused, I don't know why I can't when I can't. But in those instances I just have the thought probably similar to you. Like, I just know what something looks like. I was a dancer and when I'd listen to music i would be able to see girls dance across the floor and choreograph an entire dance team. It was incredible. However, I'm currently a fine artist and i can rarely visualize drawing/paintings. I have to keep physically creating it over and over in different ways to see it. It's super annoying. I HAVE to visualize where I left something. I'm always losing things. The only way I can find them is to see in my head where it was, what is was with, and the position it was in. If I wasn't paying attention I'm screwed. I'll also visualize it as I've seen it many different times in life and use the clues of the other objects in the picture to indicate when in time that was. You've made me realize that I can't really visualize letters well and I think that's why I'm a terrible speller. I must write it down to see it. I mean, I can visualize some words, but not most and it takes significant effort, whereas most visualizations are effortless. You kind of touched on this in your last video, but I'm so good at visualizing that when I was a kid I had this awful recurring night terror. It got so bad that I was visualizing the bad characters from my dream in the day time. Not hallucinating. My mind was recreating them while I was awake. It was terrifying. Idk if my parents have a mind's eye or not, but with things I would see when I was scared they'd basically reply with, "shut up. We're sick of this it's not real." But I also think, even if you see pictures in your head, you know they're not real, so if a kid talks about a monster in the closet adults just tell them it's in their head. Lastly, my memories are also seen as a third person. I was told not that long ago that this is weird. I assumed it was a PTSD thing, but maybe not. If I try really hard I can get glimpses of a memory from first person, but it's rather difficult. I'm very thankful you're taking the time to share all of this with us. I think i knew not everyone saw like I did in my mind. I'm far more fascinated with the lack of spoken thoughts in people's minds. Like did you watch 'scrubs'? How did you not know?! What would that be like? My brain never shuts up. I do have some thoughts that aren't spoken aloud,I just feel them, and when I try to explain that I felt crazy, like who doesn't have all their thoughts spoken in their head?! I call them more mild, then there's normally spoken thoughts, and then they're are thoughts that are screaming- those usually come with very intense pictures. Also, reading!! No wonder I'm so fricken slow at it. I have to say every word in my thoughts, if i don't know how to say it I try over and over and then tell myself 'I'll just say blah or what. It doesn't matter! Move on!' And i have to visualize everything. If i can't do both or if it's boring I can't retain any of it. Anyway, thank you. This is fascinating. 🙂

That thought experiment was the first time I’ve really come close to understanding how you think. Just because I can’t see or hear something doesn’t mean it’s not there. The problem is I have to start with the images and monologue in my head first before I can’t get to the place of knowing without seeing or hearing and the monologue never goes away, I’m just pretending it’s not there. Im picturing myself wearing headphones and a blindfold but the voice is still there. The empathy concept makes sense too. I don’t have to conjure up images in order to feel empathy. I can feel the emotion of empathy in my chest and stomach without picturing anything. This stuff is endlessly fascinating. I’m really enjoying watching your videos.

I rarely dream. The dreams are in vaguely familiar places but hazy, no faces. I’m usually looking for something or lost. Outside, I easily navigate with an internal map of the city or region. Directions in a list are too confusing and I’d have to write them down. And still get lost. Arithmetic was a terror for me in elementary school. It wasn’t until I got to college with a good calculator that math became easy for me. I see memories as camera pictures. I remember once having a picture taken of me standing in front of a small portable cement mixer. I finally found the original picture of the scene. It had virtually no resemblance to the vague scene I remembered. Reading a novel is better visually then the movies, with full sound effects and music score. But not poetry. I can not visualize poetry. Poetry comes across as a series of words I have to sound out. I can usually make sense of it but seems pointless to me. Good quotations get stuck in my head like refrigerator magnets. I have a continuous jabbering voice in my head. I rarely think out loud?

it’s really interesting to me how people who have visuals and an inner monologue never understand our apologies/explanations like your store one, but us who have the same brain as yours understand it 100%. It makes total sense to me, and that’s exactly how i’d explain itz

That is so interesting when it comes to "day dreaming " I always tought of my self as a big day dreamer before i knew other people could visualise. I would be in class and think about concepts, Ideas, or scripts etc for book that I read. I always tought this is what imagining was for everyone.

Finding out that there are people with no inner monologue has been the most interesting thing I've learned in my lifetime, especially since it turns out my wife is one of them. Your videos are great. It really makes me question how much of what I thought was just intrinsic to being conscious is just something that happens sometimes in some people. I've both questions and comments. What goes on in your mind when you make a decision? I have an inner monologue and often I discuss it with myself in my head, pros and cons, that sort of thing. But I've always been suspicious that that inner conversation is just debris bubbling up from a decision that's already been made without words. That it's just a sort of harmless, after the fact rationalization. And sometimes for big life decisions, proposing to my wife, joining the Navy, there seemed to be no mental process at all - I just knew it was going to be what I did. So I'm guessing that all of your decisions might feel like that. I'm curious. About generating speech without an inner monologue, I don't think that you are all that different. I mean, when I imagine a sentence before saying it, it just pops into the inner monologue, it's not as though I think in a special brain language and then translate into mental English and then speak it out loud. One way or another it just pops up, either directly into speech, in your case, or sometimes, into inner voice speech in my case. In both cases, something we have no direct access to generates the speech, whether it's internal or external. What you describe for math is just what my wife experiences. Easy things she just knows; harder things she writes out or mumbles, but she certainly cannot close her eyes and solve a definite integral. I loved the phrase in your fist video that you were "just there in reality." In my mind one of the disadvantages of having an inner monologue is that there can be a tendency to experience the narrative that the monologue is feeding you rather than the actual experience. If your mind is quiet, you're just there. Or so it seems to me anyway. Thanks again for the videos. Philosophers have been fussing about consciousness for centuries and it doesn't seem to have occurred to them to survey experiences like your.

I have aphantasia also, but I do have an inner monologue. I can't imagine smells, taste or sounds either. One thing that would be interesting to know is if blind people who previously had vision can mentally visualize or if they're blind in both ways. Another thing I've noticed is that when I'm typing on a keyboard it's almost like muscle memory is in action since I type fast without looking at the keyboard (not sure if that's related to having aphantasia but thought it'd be interesting to note). In regards to daydreaming, I do but obviously without imagery. It's as if it's just "there" and I can play out scenarios as concepts (if that makes sense), so for example if I'm a passenger in a car and I decide to daydream, if I get distracted or someone talks to me I loose the thought process but can go back to it afterwards but I'd have to make up other aspects of the daydream up since I was cut off from the original idea/"scene". (sorry if I don't make sense, it's hard to describe it all). In regards to inner monologue, I don't hear words as voices but I just think with my thoughts. Just as when you speak in person, in my mind I also can't hear different thoughts at the same time. If I try to not think anything, it's hard to have no thoughts whatsoever. There always has to be a thought running through my mind and if there's no thought then it's me humming or my brain focusing on sounds around me. I wish I could hear songs play in my mind but sadly I can't. I seriously don't get how people who are secluded from anything can cope with just their thoughts for a long period of time without going crazy (e.g. like solitary confinement) Not having aphantasia would be a lifesaver in those instances I'd assume.

I have aphantasia too, didn't even know I had it until last year when I was talking to my GF about something and she explained how she sees images in her mind, I was blown away, at first I started thinking she must be exceptional, I do have good taste in women lol... but the more I started looking into it I found out I was the exception one, but i don't feel lucky or special in a good way at all. I feel like I've been running a marathon and just reached the half way point and and looked back and saw i was tied to a 200lb weight the entire time. However I found a guy on RU-vid doing studies and collecting data, so hopefully this will become a thing and get more support.

Oh yes! The plot summaries! I’ve tried so hard to explain to people how my dreams manifest themselves and that’s just it. Thankyou for that. Now then. Empathy. I can’t understand why it would depend on visuals? I mean for me empathy is mostly just feelings. I can feel that sadness when someone is upset and empathize because I too have been upset. Or I can be happy for someone because I like them and I see them when they’re happy. I don’t have to imagine myself being them. Those worded problems threw me on a spin always at school. But I think that has more to do with my add than the aphantasia. And daydreaming was easy at school only when we were supposed to be quiet and working on math. I just always fell into some sort of storydream where I kept dreaming a plot to adventure. And then the math suffered. But I was bad at it as well. I agree with you on the tests tho. They were meant to measure the depth of my learning and I didn’t have any reason to study by myself after school.

I want to thank you for your video you answered so many things that never made sense before. Especially how you can not sleep if you leave something undone that has been driving me nuts all my life and I never realised what it was because there are no thoughts just my mind buzzing. How do you shut it down? With Covid it has been going non stop for the past month.

Had to pause the video and say this about the math word problems. I think that we are kinda similar to you in that at the end of the day, we often disregarded the imagery as well to just focus on the numbers. But at the same time, the imagery isn’t really there to confuse you. Sometimes seeing a real-life application for math actually helps us understand a concept better. I’m curious now as to whether you ever wondered how different math concepts applied to real life? I asked my teachers that all the time. It helped me understand better if I could visualize how that math was used in the real world.

Oooo so your math mumbles are what my inner monologue is like just in my head and not out loud. You don’t get distracted easily either. I feel slightly jealous. School is a struggle. I’m close to your age and I’m back in school. I feel like now that I’m older my distraction levels are even higher than when I was younger. Hahaha sorry that I’m commenting on a different video. I’ve just found you and this is my second video that I’ve viewed.

I now know that I have this condition. I was born, and have been around religion all of my life. I have frequently encountered many who actually get answers to prayers, feel and see spiritual things and I became frustrated when I could not. After intense coaching, fasting, and praying I admit that I would pretend, just to fit in or avoid harassment. I can only think in ideas and concepts. I thought I just wasn't good enough. I have a blind mind's eye! I do know others who can just sense things and other peoples feelings. I totally have to rely on observation rather than belief because I have been easily fooled. I do not sense energies or have "spiritual gifts" that others do. Meditation is just silent thinking for me as visualization is absent. I think better with my eyes open. After actual explosions and flashes I do see spots and hear ringing. In deep sleep I have vivid dreams I see, hear, and even feel but I only remember them in ideas and concepts, no pictures when I wake. I have seven children but only one daughter who has this condition. Actual deafness and hearing loss is also common in my family. I don't think in words and I have thoughts that I haven't words for. I find this concept very enlightening as I just learned about aphantasia.

Every single thing you said about math is exactly what I do. I just realized I have Aphantasia, and math is what I'm best at 😂

I'm just the same. I treat directions just like you, it is a set of instructions. I don't have empathy, it is something I have had to learn to act. But obviously don't want to see others in pain or suffering but I can't feel it. I can't really lie. I can say the words but I see zero point in actually telling a lie. I don't dream, I don't get stressed unless I'm under time pressure to get something completed or running late. Zero imagination, I only found out that other people see images when they read a book. Managed to get through life without realising it. Been told i'm autistic but Aphantasia sits a lot better. Biggest issue for me is very personal.

This is crazy! I’m exactly like this ... I think in concepts but not images .

I, too, often ask myself where is my cell phone.

Yes, those things you described about lying. That would be how I lie. I would have to rehearse and anticipate all the possible responses and then rehearse those. “If I said this and then bob says that what I should respond with is ____.” That’s what the voice inside says.

I have trouble with sleep. One thing that kind of works if I have thoughts that won't go away, I write them down on a pad on my night stand. That way, I know I will remember what I need to remember and do not have to keep thinking the running thoughts.

I think a way of telling if you have empathy, without consciously imagining yourself in others' shoes, is to gauge your reaction to others getting hurt. If you have any motor response that indicates you are registering some sort of pain, I'd call that an empathy response.

I have a minds eye, but when it comes to maths I either just know it or I write it down to know the answer. When it comes to word problems I think they just want to confuse you with a bunch of information but also try to train your mind how to use math in the real world, though the word Problem might not be very useful at all

Regarding the empathy question, yeah there are 100% different way to empathize with someone. Like for me as someone with aphantasia(with no sensory or emotional imagination) and little to no emotional reaction from empathy. (Like when I learned my grandmother died, I responded with "oh... that's sad, loved her.... ok back to my day") I feel empathy by thinking of the factual things about what the person might be feeling. So like if a friend is heartbroken, I think of the emotions I associate with that. In not like feeling those emotions, I'm just making a list of them. Then I remember the descriptions of how those made me feel. I can't fully emotionally empathize, but emotions do still get triggered to a degree. Seeing a friend hurt after a brakeup still makes me feel a bit of sadness. But I'm mostly thinking of the descriptions of how they must feel. I don't know if that's connected to my aphantasia, maybe I have something else going on to. But you can def empathize without "feeling" the same things as the other person.

This woman is very intelligent either way, high precision selection of thoughts. I do believe she can improve visual imagery but it takes a lot of practice. I remember up until 22 I thought exactly how she described, after 22 I got glasses and my thinking changed a great deal. All words were bound to visual simulations, all senses were integrated when I dreamed on demand in the daytine or night time

i think in terms of predicting situations, people differ. whether you have aphantasia or you're average or you have hyperphantasia. I saw some people in the comments say they talk to themselves (inner voices) when they do lie. In my case, however, I imagine myself in the exact situation. I play out this scenario of me and the person i lie to and the voices that speak in my head are also different. the voice from the person i will lie to is different from my actual voice in that scene. Edit: I think I'm pretty average. Some situations, my minds' eye and inner monologues are more vivid while in some situations, I can hardly count on them (I still have to draw in the air for maths sometimes). I can picture out a whole movie scene that I've never seen before in my head, differentiate inner voices, etc. but when asked for locations, I usually depend on logic too (i can use minds' eye sometimes but usually logic). I do have a strong empathy though. I can picture myself exactly in someone else's shoes when needed to be. I clicked on the video to know if you can dream and ended up learning so much more

This is a lot of how I would describe it.

1:28 A bold statement.

I have aphantasia and I have a horrible horrible memory. I’ve been out of high school for 20 years and it blows my mind that my classmates can remember their teachers and schedules and who was in what class, and what happened at certain events. I have a few snippets of memories mostly captured by photographs that can recall. I still can’t visualize it but I can recall the memories of what was happening.

This is fascinating, I can relate to so much. I wonder, and I'm sorry if this sounds personal, feel free to ignore it, but, did you have problems with organizational skills? Spatial organization, time organization?

If I need to find, say, a fork, I borrow from "recognition" a sort of negative image of the outline of a fork, so I know what to look for. I don't know what my kids look like but they are tall and wear glasses.

When I have dreams I get only the plot as well, but I also feel what my body is going though during the dream. Like if I was running, it would feel like my body is running but I can’t visualize anything. I do “see” but not visualize

that black friday example reallllllllllllllly helped understand :)

Word problems are a practical way of applying the abstractness of math. Real life uses of math. (sorry the answer is so simple, but that's really all there is to it). Keep going; awaiting and loving these videos, because it's an interesting topic, and because you've a great way of explaining!

i would miss daydreams. but having a blank mind sounds peaceful.

Thats exactly how I do math too. I use the phrase "I'll know it when I see it" a lot as well. I'm also an empath and a highly sensitive person, so I do feel all of the emotions and things other people feel; I don't think they are related.

I feel like I experience both imagery and non-imagery in my thoughts and mind. A lot of what people with aphantasia say resonates with me, but I do occasionally have visuals in my mind in various degrees.

I have aphantasia too, but I do have inner monologue so yeah if I have to lie about something and I know beforehand (like you said, I might not enjoy lying, but there are sometimes situations in life that call for it so...) I will sort of act it out in my head and "say" what I'm gonna say.. I just generally have lots of "conversations" like this in my head. You mentioned it in this video I think (I watched a few at once, but finally decided to leave a comment), but didn't get into too much detail so um... how is your sense of direction? Because ever since I found out about aphantasia I assumed I have a terrible sense of direction, because I can't picture anything in my head. Then again that might not make a lot of sense since I am good at recognising faces and remembering people's face even if I only met them once, but I cannot picture even my mother's face if I'm not looking at her right now. So my bad sense of direction might be something else entirely. I really just cannot imagine not having the internal monologue tho. I think because of adhd my thoughts might be even more chaotic and "layered" so I do often think like my mind is like a browser with a few youtube tabs open and all of them playing a different video at the same time... except that I don't get the visual input

The directions thing is interesting. My husband and I have talked about it. He makes a map in his head, top down, and then sees us driving on that map. I tend to have pictures of landmarks and move between the landmarks. Both of those techniques are heavily dependent on visual processing. Even if you give us directions we're going to translate them into a map or series of landmarks. It would seem so unnatural to navigate by sterile checklist. I can understand it, though.

I feel like what you’re describing is the feeling you get when you try to anticipate someone’s words before they say them. Like if you try to mimic someone by talking at the same time as them so you have to anticipate their words a little bit before they even say them

I always wondered how would people know if they dreamt if they didn't remember the dream. But listening to these videos I gather there's emotional leftovers from a dream --especially from a troubling dream like a nightmare -- that would evaporate since you woke up. I sometimes have recollections but I have to sometimes ask myself " Did that happen or did I dream that?"

Hi. So so interesting listening to you. Omg. I'm gobsmacked to now be aware of these differences. By no means an a trying to be mean spirited, but the more I listen to you and others, the more I think of a programmed mind. Missing reasoning and vivid imagination. Especially when you reference things instantly available, do you think? I'm confused , but I think one of us is programmed different? All best wishes. Xxx

I have vivid dreams, but to recall them later, I can remember some characters or events, but it is more like reading a book than reviewing a video (as it may be for regular people, I don't know). As far as a realistic connection like sex, I would think, 'if this or that, i just KNOW it would drive me crazy, but later when it happens, (like a massage for 2 hours), the experience is like 'really, is this all that it is?' BUT, in the real sense I cannot get the 'full desired effect', but later on, when I RELIVE the experience (the sights, the touch), THEN something happens. I don't know why. I was a 3lb. 1oz - 10 week premie baby and maybe the connections for visualization to paper and sense reactions were blunted when I was born early. I have been an artist, and if you want me to sit down and draw a dragon or anything from my mind and next draw a dragon or your face from pictures, you will be suprised by my 2nd grade 1st dragon and college level 2nd attempts. I learned 2 days ago I have Aphantasia and have learned a lot about it. I'll follow your channel in the future. Thanks, Randy A.

I daydream in words.

Really interesting videos! Thank you for the examples you give, it really helped me understand better! I was wondering if you have looked into type theory? Like meyers briggs? I'm curious what personality type you are? I was just thinking maybe a persons type could make a them more or less likely to be a visual thinker...

I have aphantasia and I might be slightly autistic. I think I was born 5 weeks early. And .1 pounds in the underweight category . my moms amniotic sack was leaking so she was induced with pitocin. I'm not sure I had a stroke during labor or before that . I also have high alexithymia traits.

Very interesting! On empathy, if you are about to see an accident you know is going to happen, like someone about to hit their thumb with a hammer while knocking in a nail, do you get that cringe feeling before it happens? (For example, watching darwin awards type shows)

We are all so different Just found out I have Aphantasia I’m nothing like you are But I’m understanding now why o have been so different then others are all my life

I relate to much of what you said. My question would be to you or anyone else is what are people without aphantasia thoughts and memories like? Can they actually see pictures in their minds? Like a movie in their head?

When you said the confuse you with imaginary... I was always really good at math, even mental math, but what would trip me up was getting a long word problem bc I'd get caught up in imagining the train, the entire story etc 😱

With time and math and things like that, I see the numbers in my head. Like if someone says "It's ten-thirty", I kind of see 10:30 just briefly floating around. For easy mental math like 7x2, yes I *just know* it's 14, but I also see the numbers 7, 2, and 14 briefly floating around. And yes, if a calculation is just a little too complex to juggle in my head, I will definitely take out a pencil and some paper, and if that's not available I will use my finger to "write" because it does aid visualization. The ability to do mental math is limited and requires training, even for phantasiacs. If someone asks me where something is, I do see in my head a picture of it in place. Sometimes I just know right away where it is, sometimes I have to think about it, and that involves going into my visual memory of places it might be and matching that up with my sense of "Is that right, or...?" If I realize I'm wrong, that involves a brief flash of remembering/"seeing" me or someone else using it and putting it away in a different place, or maybe just a flash of "seeing" it in its actual location with the sense of that being the more recent memory.

it's interesting....as soon as you said '7 x 2 = 14' I was thinking, "I absolutely see the digits in my head." I see the image. And for bigger numbers i have a visual picture where the 'round' numbers (100, 200 etc.) are like 'limits' or 'borders', just to keep my bearings so I know I'm in the right zone.

That's so funny that you assume that I wouldn't need a picture to know where something is, but if you ask me where anything is, even something like the couch that never moves, I still get a picture of it in my mind.

are you creative with any crafts, art, music, etc.? I like to write music and I know what it’s like to simply come up with melodies without having to play through them in my head first, so I think I have a grasp on how executing creative things would be for you. but also, I sometimes like to edit melodies (or drawings or whatever) in my head. I’m just curious about your creativity since I assume you can’t “picture your next step” or “edit things” in your head. I'm also really curious if you ever meditate? I wonder if people with aphantasia have an advantage when it comes to getting the benefits of meditation, or if there's no advantage and instead it's just a different experience 😊

I visualize all mathematical equations in all kinds of diagams. So e.g. 14+7=21 looks sth like this: - - - - - - - - - -|- - - + - - - - - -|+ Explanation: I visualize a scale (like a ruler), where all numbers are marked. In the simplified diagram above each dash is a number on the scale, the vertical separator marks each 10, and then the number 14 is marked, then I add a 7 by adding it to it and I just look where the mark ends - and it ends on 21. Everything is also colourful.

I think the point of word problems in math are to be able to apply it to real life. I believe that ideally you're supposed to recognize what kind of math problem underlies the situation and then solve it. However, in my experience they tended to be written in a rather superficial way. I consider myself a very visual person, even when it comes to math (I tend to manipulate numbers in my head spatially, like Lego blocks), but I had a similar approach to word problems -- it was all about stripping out the irrelevant stuff!

Some of these questions are acting like you can’t think lol. I don’t just have a picture in my head that I HAVE to see or else I don’t know anything. I don’t think I have a very strong minds eye unless I make a point to think about it and I’m not helpless haha. These are cool videos though!

I often don't know where things are, keys, purse, phone. my family knows where they are. Driving is kind of automatic, but sometimes I look around when I'm driving and get a little scared because I don't recognize where I am for sure and have to recall what I'm doing.

I also have aphantasia!!. I use to have a very very small imagination. But after years of trauma it went away.