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My Mind's Eye Is Blind
- Thread starter Sidney Prescott
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teezzy
Banned
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
If someone can't visualize a book's text, can you at least see images daydreaming making shit up in your head?
Elektro Demon
Banned
I saw number 6.
Synless
Member
This is me. I don‘t know why but it’s easier for me to just picture things with my eyes open and place them where I want then with my eyes shut.
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dr_octagon
Banned
I can't visualise.
I know what an object looks like, the colour and based of seeing it before, past experiences and understand how it would fit into the real world.
Imagining anything in front of me, on a wall or in the real world doesn't work.
I know what an object looks like, the colour and based of seeing it before, past experiences and understand how it would fit into the real world.
Imagining anything in front of me, on a wall or in the real world doesn't work.
BigBooper
Member
Interesting. Dont have that problem, but my mind is deaf. It's hard for me to gather useful information from spoken information. I need to read it or see it firsthand a lot of the time.
College lectures and class time were a complete waste of time for me, because afterwards I'd just always have to read it all again and figure it out on my own when I got home.
College lectures and class time were a complete waste of time for me, because afterwards I'd just always have to read it all again and figure it out on my own when I got home.
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dr_octagon
Banned
standing in a star sounds sus, u illuminati bro?
Tesseract
Banned
EverydayBeast
ChatGPT 0.1
What a topic I think the human mind can have crazy amounts of power and just haul in thought after thought...
infinitys_7th
Member
I don't actually see it, but I can conceptualize it and manipulate it. Are you supposed to actually "see" things, like a part of your brain overriding optic input?
I always had an easy time in calculus because I could manipulate the problem in my mind, but I never actually saw, say, how a volume could be analyzed in different coordinate systems or revolved around a line, or a line integral accumulating value across a vector field.
I always had an easy time in calculus because I could manipulate the problem in my mind, but I never actually saw, say, how a volume could be analyzed in different coordinate systems or revolved around a line, or a line integral accumulating value across a vector field.
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Ma-Yuan
Member
I always wanted to know can anyone else change their voice in the head? For instance I can think with Patrick stewards voice(no joke 
) but it's kind of hard and I have to focus and I am not a native speaker but I cant think with any voice I want. Just the ones I vividly remember.
Weirdest thing for me is I can't visualize my parents or remember their voice well. But I can remember photos of them only way I have to bring them to mind. Always annoyed me.
) but it's kind of hard and I have to focus and I am not a native speaker but I cant think with any voice I want. Just the ones I vividly remember.Weirdest thing for me is I can't visualize my parents or remember their voice well. But I can remember photos of them only way I have to bring them to mind. Always annoyed me.
I’m not entirely sure actually visualising images in your head is the way that the mind’s eye works. It doesn’t conjure hallucinations that you can see but it can conceptualise what an image can be. It’s not a kind of VR that you can get lost in, images can be fleeting so your imagination fills in the gaps. It’s more of a feeling than anything else.
Being able to actually see made up images in front of you is purely held in the realm of mind altering substances.
Being able to actually see made up images in front of you is purely held in the realm of mind altering substances.
Soodanim
Member
0 here.
I always find aphantasia a fascinating topic, because it explains so many things I thought were just concepts and metaphors. When someone says "Count sheep" or "Go to your happy place" I always thought they were silly because I've never pictured them like that. I've seen people on the other end of the scale describe being able to vividly see things they conjure up as if it were there, and there's some in this thread too by the sound of it.
I've seen a comment in a aphantasia discussion that said "Most people that think they have aphantasia actually don't", and I try to keep that in mind as a possibility. But there's no getting round the fact that I have a very hard time picturing things outside of the rarest occasion.
I think the distinction between visualisation and memory is important here, so when I read a book I can "picture" things in a loose sense. By that I mean my brain's process is to draw upon memory of concepts. For example, if an English countryside in summer is described, I put something together. But it's more like instructions than a photo. I know what bushes look like, and I know they're green. I know sky is blue, tree trunks are brown, etc. If I were to attempt to draw it, it would be made up on the fly because there's no finished scene in my mind. The way Bob Ross did what he did interests me because I sometimes don't have the foggiest what's going on until elements are finished, and I've rewound it before because I've thought "How did that happen, where did that come from?"
Maybe aphantasia feeds into my personality and general way of approaching the world. I'm on the side of logic and reason. I'm not artistic or creative. Recalling visual details is not always easy, like when someone asks what colour hair someone had. I've never seen a ghost or anything else that wasn't there. Like someone else said, horror films don't have any effect on me.
I always find aphantasia a fascinating topic, because it explains so many things I thought were just concepts and metaphors. When someone says "Count sheep" or "Go to your happy place" I always thought they were silly because I've never pictured them like that. I've seen people on the other end of the scale describe being able to vividly see things they conjure up as if it were there, and there's some in this thread too by the sound of it.
I've seen a comment in a aphantasia discussion that said "Most people that think they have aphantasia actually don't", and I try to keep that in mind as a possibility. But there's no getting round the fact that I have a very hard time picturing things outside of the rarest occasion.
I think the distinction between visualisation and memory is important here, so when I read a book I can "picture" things in a loose sense. By that I mean my brain's process is to draw upon memory of concepts. For example, if an English countryside in summer is described, I put something together. But it's more like instructions than a photo. I know what bushes look like, and I know they're green. I know sky is blue, tree trunks are brown, etc. If I were to attempt to draw it, it would be made up on the fly because there's no finished scene in my mind. The way Bob Ross did what he did interests me because I sometimes don't have the foggiest what's going on until elements are finished, and I've rewound it before because I've thought "How did that happen, where did that come from?"
Maybe aphantasia feeds into my personality and general way of approaching the world. I'm on the side of logic and reason. I'm not artistic or creative. Recalling visual details is not always easy, like when someone asks what colour hair someone had. I've never seen a ghost or anything else that wasn't there. Like someone else said, horror films don't have any effect on me.
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Stilton Disco
Member
This stuff fascinates me, because I have an incredibly vivid imagination and always just assumed everyone can create anything in their minds eye with perfect clarity.
It's simply impossible for me to comprehend not being able to do so.
Like take daydreaming for instance. I quite often get so caught up in my imagination, that I basically start to see what I'm thinking of more clearly than the world around me.
Do other people just not day dream, or do they only see vague images and simple shapes? How real is what other people can see when they zone out? Are they seeing anything? It's just so weird to think of.
It's not like I'm seeing things instead of reality, but I can absolutely super impose anything I can imagine over said reality.
The best way I can describe it, is as if I have a third eye that is seeing an AR overlay in addition to what I'm really seeing, that I have total control over.
If I want to conjure Scarlett Johanson as Black Widow, performing a slow sensual strip tease infront of me, with enough clarity to be like she's actually standing in the room, I can absolutely do that.
It's simply impossible for me to comprehend not being able to do so.
Like take daydreaming for instance. I quite often get so caught up in my imagination, that I basically start to see what I'm thinking of more clearly than the world around me.
Do other people just not day dream, or do they only see vague images and simple shapes? How real is what other people can see when they zone out? Are they seeing anything? It's just so weird to think of.
That is actually basically what I can do.
It's not like I'm seeing things instead of reality, but I can absolutely super impose anything I can imagine over said reality.
The best way I can describe it, is as if I have a third eye that is seeing an AR overlay in addition to what I'm really seeing, that I have total control over.
If I want to conjure Scarlett Johanson as Black Widow, performing a slow sensual strip tease infront of me, with enough clarity to be like she's actually standing in the room, I can absolutely do that.
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Kev Kev
Member
I see nothing when I close my eyes and think star. But I visualize things in my mind all the time. Especially when I’m playing music or reading a book. Pretty vividly sometimes. And I can zone out and go completely into another world sometimes too, when I come to I realize I was having a full on day dream compete with visuals via thinking of it. Not sure the test is really accurate?
GeorgioCostanzaX
Gold Member
I guess I’ve never asked but I can do that too I thought everyone could lol?
That sounds amazing. I have heard that some people can do that apparently. You sound like one of those that doesn't have to close their eyes to picture things. Very cool!
Soodanim
Member
You’re the polar opposite to me.
Daydreaming is the perfect example of something I didn’t think was actually a thing. I’ve always thought it was a poetic name for your mind wandering, and you are probably the first person I’ve seen describe a daydream. I just learned something.
I can absolutely not picture Black Widow or anyone else. Memory’s all I have.
I don’t know if it’s rarer to be like you or like me, because built in AR is about as close to a super power as it gets but I might just be defective.
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Stilton Disco
Member
I'd really like to know myself too, especially as I'm wondering about what else am I doing that others can't.
I mean what about imagining non visual things?
I can imagine sounds, smells and sensations with as much clarity as I can images, so can you do those too, and it's just the mind’s eye you lack, or does the inability to see also mean you can't imagine, say, flavours?
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Soodanim
Member
In terms of memory, I’m fine with all of them at least to some degree. I can’t conjure up a smell or taste by thinking about it, can you? Memory of them is as far as it goes. Same for sensations.
Sound is the easy one. Right now for example I have a song from THPS3 stuck in my head because I’ve been playing that today. I can essentially press play on some songs. That’s probably because it’s just a recording our brains take and we recall.
Do you have anything else similar but unreleased in terms of senses and brain processing? For example there are people that link various things such as numbers having colours assigned to them and various other crossovers involving senses. There’s something various musicians are said to have that’s got something to do with sounds but I don’t remember what it is.
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Sidney Prescott
Unconfirmed Member
I can actually do this. So, at least I have one cool thing. If I wanted to talk in my head like Morgan Freeman, I could do that.I always wanted to know can anyone else change their voice in the head? For instance I can think with Patrick stewards voice(no joke
Weirdest thing for me is I can't visualize my parents or remember their voice well. But I can remember photos of them only way I have to bring them to mind. Always annoyed me.
Are you trying to make everybody jealous?
Your post was a great read. You sound like a really extreme version of Number 6. I'd love to borrow your mind for a day.
I still daydream by the way. I don't see anything, but I can get lost in my thoughts.
Stilton Disco
Member
Honestly, this thread is making me think about what and how I simulate things in my head far more than I ever have done, and I can do the same with tastes, sounds, sensation and smell as I can visuals.
I knew I could imagine flavours and smells to some degree, because that's how I come up with ideas for new meals I've never had before.
But now I'm trying to think of tastes and smells that don't exist, which I've never really deliberately done before, and is bloody weird. Like I can imagine the smell of vanilla, and I can alter that contoured smell to be sweeter, citric, or even so rotten that I actually felt a bit sick, despite never having actually smelt any of those smells.
Same for taste and sensation, since I can imagine say, feta cheese and mushroom flavoured ice cream, or what it would feel like to have a pencil pushed though my hand, so it's not just memory, but extrapolation based on experiences I've had.
And sounds are weird. I can imagine anyone talking in my head, and have multiple people talking at once, even make them sing, or imagine different instruments playing both songs I know or melodies I can imagine.
I got to about a dozen voices talking at once before it became too hard to keep that many distinctive voices going at once, and 3 different songs with the wrong vocalists before it fell apart (which were Darth Vader singing Pulp's Common People, Diana Rigg singing Motorhead's ace of Spades, and Sigourney Weaver singing Queen's I want to Break Free.). Honestly this whole thread has inspired me to try and push the limits of what I can imagine a bit harder, which has been fun.
Although I am slightly worried I might accidentally create a Tulpa.
I can't imagine pain through, and sadly I've never had that cool 'sound becomes colours' thing.
I mean maybe a little bit.I can actually do this. So, at least I have one cool thing. If I wanted to talk in my head like Morgan Freeman, I could do that.
Are you trying to make everybody jealous?
Soodanim
Member
You know that saying “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”? In this instance you’re the technology. You could be making it all up or be somehow understating it, and I’d have no idea. I have no frame of reference for what’s possible, and I’ve never heard of anyone talking about this sort of thing before. If you’re making it up, flesh it out into some sort of homebrew magic system and start your own universe.Honestly, this thread is making me think about what and how I simulate things in my head far more than I ever have done, and I can do the same with tastes, sounds, sensation and smell as I can visuals.
I knew I could imagine flavours and smells to some degree, because that's how I come up with ideas for new meals I've never had before.
But now I'm trying to think of tastes and smells that don't exist, which I've never really deliberately done before, and is bloody weird. Like I can imagine the smell of vanilla, and I can alter that contoured smell to be sweeter, citric, or even so rotten that I actually felt a bit sick, despite never having actually smelt any of those smells.
Same for taste and sensation, since I can imagine say, feta cheese and mushroom flavoured ice cream, or what it would feel like to have a pencil pushed though my hand, so it's not just memory, but extrapolation based on experiences I've had.
And sounds are weird. I can imagine anyone talking in my head, and have multiple people talking at once, even make them sing, or imagine different instruments playing both songs I know or melodies I can imagine.
I got to about a dozen voices talking at once before it became too hard to keep that many distinctive voices going at once, and 3 different songs with the wrong vocalists before it fell apart (which were Darth Vader singing Pulp's Common People, Diana Rigg singing Motorhead's ace of Spades, and Sigourney Weaver singing Queen's I want to Break Free.). Honestly this whole thread has inspired me to try and push the limits of what I can imagine a bit harder, which has been fun.
Although I am slightly worried I might accidentally create a Tulpa.
I can't imagine pain through, and sadly I've never had that cool 'sound becomes colours' thing.
I mean maybe a little bit.
John Day
Member
eot
Banned
This is me, I can't focus on any visual details because the images disappear instantly. For example, if you tell me to picture an apple and then ask me what colour it is, then I wouldn't have an answer. I mean, I know what colours apples are so I could then just decide to think of a red apple for example, but that detail wasn't there originally. Same with reading books, visual descriptions do nothing for me.
On the flip side though I can hear music quite well in my own head, I can play back entire songs in my head and do several instruments at once.
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Sidney Prescott
Unconfirmed Member
I actually have pretty good memory in the general sense. Remembering details, places, names etc. Obviously don't have any photographic memory though. I imagine that is helpful when you're counting in your head. I always did really struggle with maths.Before I saw the drawing I imagined this:
I can visualize pretty much anything quite effortlessly.
I can also reproduce in my mind scenes from hundreds of dreams I've had.
But my real life memory is pretty bad.
01011001
Banned
yeah I wonder sometimes if I have this too and people really see something like you would with your eyes.
I also can't visualise stuff on command, I definitely can see things I think about sometimes but not with that star thing in the OP, I can't just think "STAR" and see a star shape.
it's very situational
SKM1
Member
As others have commented, I don't have to close my eyes to imagine things, so it is a different thing from seeing, definitely.
As an anecdote, I remember not too long ago I smoked a LOT of weed, and when I closed my eyes, my mind was racing and drawing cartoons morphing into one another, very very detailed and stylized, each one an original character that could be the protagonist of a series. I was actually a little terrified of the raw capacity of the mind for imagining things. And to not be able to communicate that in any way (I suck badly at drawing) is frustrating.
SKM1
Member
This resonates now that I'm trying to type up a paper as clearly as I can.
Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
Those who are not third eye blind certainly live a semi-charmed life.
Tesseract
Banned
it's not magic, m8
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Sidney Prescott
Unconfirmed Member
This is really interesting to me. So if you imagined bacon you would smell it for example? Are you a Superhero in disguise?
I would not be able to imagine a sound, smell or any sensations. I could think about what they would perhaps feel like based on real experiences, but I wouldn't be able to actually feel it.
Lady Bird
Matsuno's Goebbels
No, I don't think that happens unless you're just hallucinating/ under the effects of drugs.
"See" and "visualize" is figurative language for "imagine". And most of the times, to imagine anything visual, you don't even need to be creative. You just need to remember what it's like.
I can imagine/ remember the red star, or the grey star, or the faded grey star, or the grey background in the first post whenever I want, with my eyes open or closed, for as long as I can remember them. (Post-writing correction: I just checked the pic again, and it turns out the background is more dark grey than light grey. I was imagining it light!)
I don't think I can creatively imagine smells or sensations, but I guess others may be able to do that, like the poster you're talking with. But I can remember what many are like. And so I can remember how they "feel" like.
With image, and maybe with sound, I can get a bit more creative. It's not entirely memory-driven.
That's interesting. Many times, imagining something IS remembering something.
It's just that you can go creative with your imagination and add, subtract, combine all those mental images to create something new. Especially when you train yourself to do it (example, when spending a lot of time on a creative hobby).
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dr_octagon
Banned
Yes, I am become theif, copyier of threads.
dr_octagon
Banned
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Rickyiez
Member
That explains why I got creeped out by certain horror movies with ghostly beings like Juon and Ringu. My mind eye visualize picture perfect image and it kinda haunt me whenever I close my eyes when I’m a teen back then.
The only good thing about this is sometimes I can visualize the perfect life I’ve always wanted to cure my loneliness.
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