Comment by honzzz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by honzzz | Hacker News Reader

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I have to say that it is mind boggling to me that someone can be surprised to realize that visualizing things is normal for other people - it feels like someone surprisingly finding out in their thirties that the other people are not blind - that's how ever-present it feels for me. Living without it is as hard to imagine for me as hard it must be for people with aphantasia to imagine seeing things with the inner eye.

If I can ask people with aphantasia...

How do you remember things? When I remember the past I see the ephemeral image of what I was seeing then. And there is a thin line between memory and fantasy - I can play with my memories and let them play out some other way than they happened.

How do you read the books without imagining what is happening? How else do you convert letters into meaning?

What happens in your head when someone says "a car"? I see a vague image of a car - right now it's a red sports car but I have no idea why and I am not sure about the brand and it's kind of general car without specific features but if you ask me, I can immediately imagine the details of wheels or whatever - and some other day it might be a black BMW.

How do you imagine your future? I can see myself sitting in a place (inspired by a photo I saw and liked) with big wooden bookcase in a bright room lit by setting sun - and that image makes me feel something and motivates me to work towards it.

And fear is also visual - like when I see myself getting hit by a car when I am on a bike, with the blood and dirt in wounds... I could continue like this for long time - it feels like seeing things inside my head is so "normal" that I cannot imagine functioning without it. It is fascinating though.

>How do you remember things?

I don't. As I mentioned in a previous post, without photos to look at, my past is a complete, impenetrable, black hole. I've been aware of this for a very long time, but never thought it strange (I don't know any different). The tape in my head is non-visual and seems to only stretch a few weeks back. Photos are the only way for me to relive these moments.

>How do you read the books without imagining what is happening? How else do you convert letters into meaning?

I was a voracious reader as a child, reading dozens of novels per year. I can't see the story, but I still like hearing it. By the sounds of things I am missing a very large part of what makes reading enjoyable (this makes me sad).

>What happens in your head when someone says "a car"?

I unlock the "car" concept in my mind. This does not include an image. I guess it's the same for you if you think of something with no embodiment such as a taste.

> How do you imagine your future?

I consider things that I think will make me happy and work toward them. No images are part of this.

>And fear is also visual

For me it is visceral. I don't see anything, but am filled with an unpleasant sensation or dread if the fear is strong enough.

That's the crux. Every thought I have has a visual element. If I think of a perfume, then I'm back in the hotel seeing the person that was wearing it. If I imagine a taste, then I can see the dish.

man that is wild. I have never experienced something like this. seems pretty awesome.

To think about something i don't use images, i use words. When I want I can imagine how things look and can even draw the simple things, but the process is nothing like seeing, it's more like analytically reconstructing the image from memory thinking about the 3d model and how it would look from different angles what details would it have. But sometimes, after seeing something new and visually impressive (first time being in a forest, playing a beautiful game for whole day) for several days i can see that thing whenever i close my eyes.

I am not sure if my "analytical visualization" is weird, and other people can visualize things more vividly by simply thinking about that, or the dream like visualization i sometimes see is weird, and it changes the bar i put on calling something visualization.

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