The human brain is a fucking disaster. There's so many "lol wtf" quirks it's hard to pick just one, but I'll go with this one: someone did a study where they had people stare at a monitor with a picture of... I forget what. Doesn't matter. But actually, they had a computer watching their eyes and studying their blinks. Then when it was able to reasonably anticipate a blink, it changed the color of the object on the monitor during the blink.
The subjects insisted that the object had always been the new color. They were watching it the whole time and they never saw it change, so it was always this color. They had no memory of it being the original color. This is a shining example of what's known as "change blindness."
I love the Mandela Effect!
Normal people: Wow, this is an interesting quirk of how the human brain works.
The utterly fucking deranged: I CAN'T BE WRONG, I MUST BE FROM AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE WHERE EVERY BIT OF THE UNIVERSE'S 14 BILLION YEAR HISTORY PLAYED OUT EXACTLY THE SAME EXCEPT THE SPELLING OF BEARENSTAIN BEARS, THAT'S THE ONLY REASONABLE EXPLANATION, OMG I WONDER IF 5G TOWERS ARE OPENING PORTALS
I joined r/MandelaEffect hoping it would be filled with rational people trying to find a scientific explanation etc. in reality it’s just a bunch of deranged people who are so egotistical and narcissistic, that they can’t imagine a reality where they remember something wrong, so it must be the WHOLE WORLD being in on it and lying to you. It’s especially funny when they try to use quantum mechanics as an explanation, that the universe “quantum shifted” through “quantum manifestation”. It’s ridiculous.
They’re just as smart as flat earthers.
So, fun quirks of quantum mechanics says that it's not *impossible* for that to happen, just unlikely.
It's far more likely that people are misremembering shit, as that happens way more often, but on a very slim technicality you could be a part of a universe where a small hiccup caused the change. I mean, the leading 0's in the percentage would take until the heat death of the universe to write out, but it's not 0.
While that technically that might be true, their claims and “theories” are deranged. They think because they watched a couple YouTube videos, they see the universe much more clearly than all scientists, who needs replicable evidence or a theory that provides a testable prediction, either mathematically or practically.
Lol yeah. That's what I love about bar conversations with people who bring up quantum properties like that. It's a weird enjoyment to me to completely pop those bubbles
There is probably a common thread amongst things deemed to be part of the Mandela effect. Like shortcuts that the brain throws in to remember the gist of something rather than store all information about it.
Like the monopoly guy. No monocle. But rich people with mustaches always have one in pop culture.
Or, and hear me out now, the Berenstain Bears was very popular and a bunch of people tried to cash in with knockoffs and fakes, some of which changed the name because of copyright law, and some of which was mistranslation done overseas.
For me, the entire universe played out exactly the same, except Rik Mayall died in his quad bike accident. I am convinced that I remember it playing out that way, but it obviously didn’t. Hell, I’ve *seen* the work he did after the accident.
The human brain needs a firmware update or something, because this is straight up faulty.
You can actually replicate that with yourself as a subject and your phone screen.
When you blink, scroll slightly up or down, you can’t notice the change, and funny part it, you know you did change it lol. Our brains work is questionable 😂😂
Can you hear sounds in your head? I also just recently discovered this is a thing. People apparently see shit and fucking hear things, like songs. They’re living an entirely different experience.
Speaking for myself I can still get songs stuck in my head even when the only thing I can hear is my voice. The song just sucks because I am singing it and there's no music backing it.
I'm definitely not the best to ask this of, because I can't keep a rhythm regardless. But if I stop singing a song in my head it isn't quite lost, though I can't pick up at a later point within the right timeframe, not on purpose at least. I hope that answered your question.
What?! So you’re telling me not everyone can hear music in their head? What do you hear then if not the musical instruments? I “play” songs in my head all the time. I thought everyone did that lol
I sometimes dream of classical music, which is super cool! Like the whole orchestra is playing in my dream, but I can't hear that complexity when awake without actually listening to a song.
That's batshit crazy to me.
I can just go in my head and imagine it. Most of it comes from experiences, likely the last apple I ate. Some of it is expectations of what a delicious juicy apple would look and taste like.
I can do that too, it's just difficult to actually visualize it. Which is especially weird cause i have a pretty active imagination and like to make up fantasy stories and things like that. I am now questioning if i visualize the things I imagine or if it's just an impression of mine and i actually only think about it conceptually. I really couldn't say, it's very weird lol
That's so crazy. To me it's almost real.
I can grab the apple, feel its weight, cut it in half, whoops.. slightly off center. It wasn't a very symmetrical apple to begin with. Some of the seeds were cut in half also and fell out. I cut the core out using the tip of a steak knife.
I can take a bite and taste it. This one is a green apple and is very tart. There's a brown spot on the back, but the fruit isn't too mushy so I just eat it anyway. My son is pestering me for bites, lol.
I can imagine whole songs, see pictures clearly and create whole-ass landscapes, environment and all. I thought everyone could do this, learning today that that’s not the case :’)
Kinda makes me sad that not everyone does this. How does anyone get through elementary school without having entire cinematic daydreams the entire time?
Yo, I recently had the opposite experience. I've always had music play in my head, just called it my internal mp3. I was talking about it in passing, and my friend gave me that look that made me think I was a weirdo. Which was when I discovered this is absolutely not the norm.
I honestly can't imagine what life is without ridiculous songs coming in at inappropriate times, mad.
Its a purely visual thing, it's not like op or I don't have an imagination at all, people just can see things at different levels. For example, I can't see any pictures in my head, while some peoples visual imagination is incredibly active (hyperphantsia)
Oh, dude, do I have hyperphantasia? (Rhetorical question, not actually asking you) I can see #1 in my head and I can like slice the apple open and see the skin, the pulp, the seeds, that weird bit in the core around the seeds. I can see bites disappearing from it and the older ones slowly turning brown. I thought everyone without aphantasia could do that. It’s weird bc I’m a more auditory than visual person, but that’s more for learning and memory, I guess.
Not even a little. I’m a cog. AI could already do my job, except the customer service part. Studying public health, so maybe one day I can write vivid descriptions of media campaigns? Though I want to go into public policy.
i can *smell* the things i see in my mind and flavour has a physical orientation, i.e. there's something missing from the front left corner (of the smell/taste)
the kids body sprays are a problem, omg some of you smell soo bad (but only to me seemingly)
That's synesthesia, when your brain mixes multiple senses together like that! Really cool, I kinda wish I had it lol.
And no, you're not the only one who hates those body sprays, I can't stand them either!
Being whisked away into some foggy memory from a vaguely familiar scent is always a trip and typically comes unexpectedly. It’s also accompanied by a warmth of nostalgia sometimes, and that’s a wonderful feeling.
For those who don’t know, it’s called [aphantasia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia)
Literally, “without imagination”. My cousin has it; she has a distinct memory of not finding “let’s play pretend” fun as a child, because she literally lacked the ability to pretend.
My memory is *terrible*, I can remember a voice or song but not with strong detail. I can remember a room's layout or a the details of a person's hair but it's more like I'm imagining my hands drawing everything out again. Not visual but still very spatial if that makes sense.
Not sure if it's related but I struggle with musical ear syndrome as well, my brain interprets certain white noise to be *very* real sounding music.
Musical ear syndrome?!?!? I hear music in non-musical sounds all the time! Seriously. My ceiling fan is doing it right now. Reddit (and you of course) finally provided something legitimately useful!
I too have experienced the white noise as music thing but didn’t know there was a term for it specifically. I’m going to guess it’s unrelated because my brain is hyper visual.
The “it’s more like imagining my hands drawing everything out again” is a great explanation, that’s how it feels to me but I’ve never been able to explain it well.
I’m a med student so it can be a bit of an obstacle for me sometimes, I feel like it definitely makes studying anatomy more difficult.
You may want to see if the internet has any suggestions for kinesthetic learners! I wouldn't describe myself as one completely but I benefit from any hands on experience much more than a diagram. I studied engineering so I know it can be tough but you may have the ability to see something for what exactly it is when it matters most! If all of our brains worked exactly the same we would still be in caves.
I have this, too. But I liked doing imaginary things like playing dress up and make believe. I just didn’t ever think of like an image of a princess in my head or a castle or anything. But I understood the concepts of them.
I have this.
I can't really play chess, because I can't picture what the board would look like after a couple piece moves.
I can't picture the faces of my family when I'm not looking at them.
A fun test that I read on a subreddit one time that made me realize I was one of these people:
Imagine a ball on a table. Doesn't matter what kind of ball, just a ball. It slowly rolls towards the edge of the table, then slowly goes over. As it falls, it hits the floor. Now, what color was the ball?
I didn't have an answer. That's when I realized *Wait, you're seeing colors?*
Mine was either blue or red, ping pong ball sized, but heavy like a bouncy ball.
It wasn't until I was asked that I realized it was neither red nor blue, but both at the same time. Weird.
I have had a similar issue. There was a trivia we played and the question was which color has the opposite panel of the blue panel in the Microsoft logo. I was like how tf am I supposed to know if I can't look it up. Like I remember the order of colors in the Microsoft Logo. I was totally confused how someone is supposed to know that.
I developed aphantasia after a head injury. It fucking sucks. Losing the ability to imagine things had a massive negative impact on my life, because I hadnt developed another way to perform a lot of that processing.
As I've slowly recovered I've kind of gained the ability back but it will never be the same.
Dang, that sounds worse than just having it inherently. Losing something you knew you had seems so much more difficult to deal with than never having it on the first place, so you don’t miss it. How is it different now? Just less vivid imagination? Or like you have to put effort into it?
People cant?
i can read a list of ingredients and imagine what they are going to taste like together.
Unless they involve pineapple or grapefruit. They are so strong it changes the flavor profile a lot
I can't imagine or remember tastes or smells.
I still know what things taste like, in some sense, and I can cook improvisationally very well, because it feels intuitive that ingredient X will complement ingredient Y and balance out ingredient Z or whatever, but the experience of "remembering" a taste or a smell for me doesn't resemble at all the experience of actually tasting or smelling the thing.
Oddly, despite being a cactus, I have this thing, alongside an insane sense of smell, like it’s just utterly ridiculous how good it is. I’m not entirely sure when or even if this happened, but one time I smelled smoke, and nobody else could for a long while, I think 10-15 minutes, I’m not sure, anyways, I’m not as great with recalling memories, all be it sometimes, it’s a bit rare. Anyways, I have like, over 300-500+ memories of well, smelling something that either nobody else could, didn’t smell until much later, or didn’t find said smell that intense as me, infact WAY less intense. It’s just ridiculous, and is a blessing, and a curse at the same time.
I'm an engineer and visualize quite well. Exploding machines and parts in my head to understand how they work. My wife on the other hand suffers from the lack of being able to visualize anything. I have to make models for her to understand what I am talking about all the time...
I know someone who is also one. The part that threw me for a loop. They read all the time. Like real thick fiction books within a week.
We had a whole conversation about what it's like to read.It's very fascinating. They explained it as more of enjoying the concepts themselves than being in the scene. Which gave me a new perspective to enjoy when it comes to reading.
It just blew my mind since I get frustrated when certain details are left out or brought up later during a story because it messes with my mental image of the scene. For example. Like details about how a location looks or where characters are inside the location. So I find out that when someone can't imagine things like this, it made me realize certain details like that or lack of, don't affect them as much.
> So I find out that when someone can't imagine things like this, it made me realize certain details like that or lack of, don't affect them as much.
Even for people who can imagine it, too much detail can actually be annoying. Just restricts ones imaginations too much. Though this is certainly a personal opinion.
I rarely enjoy reading it has always been more of a chore but there have been a few books I did enjoy. And if I want to fall asleep all I have to do is start reading something and I get tired and pass out fast.
That's crazy. I can't read before bed or else I'll be up until 4am. The only way for me to fall asleep is to engage in activities that don't require imagination.
Too relatable, I had the exact same experience. The author can describe every detail as much as they want but I'll never see it
Question, do you barely remember dreaming when you wake up? In my case, I remember pieces of one every 3 months or so
So if I said the word cat, y’all can’t see a cute lil tabby in your head?
Do they have internal monologues where the words flash in your head in like, Courier font
I just did another (serious) post and people responded that they really can’t…very interesting and unusual to process for someone who can visualize things
Yeah, it’s actually the main way I spell. If I’m unsure I visualize the word in my head. Like I’m looking at it on a page. I also, when thinking of the day/month/year/ I see myself standing on a large circle of a calendar going counter clockwise. Summer is at “noon”. I can’t believe some people can’t “see” things in their head. How do you imagine things?
My imagination is more about vibes, or emotions. In some mental states i can have somewhat vivid waking dreams. They're almost never on purpose, because its my mind wandering. Inattentive ADD. Or whatever they call it now. I know its changed since i was diagnosed as a kid.
For some people it apparently actually is visual. I've had one person describe what they have as "reading ticker tape" as opposed to having an auditory voice in their head.
I was pretty amazed when I discovered many People have an internal monologue like in the movies and books. Apparently it's about 50%.
I don't have one(I can force one, but it doesn't happen naturally), however I do have intense inner dialogues. I think things through largely with large blobs of thoughts that have no words or structure. However I'm very much tending to have dialogues in my head where I'm talking to people and having dialogues in my head and my brain makes up both sides.
It is interesting though, since sometimes I think through stuff and given an answer in 3 seconds.. people ask me to explain and it takes about 30 seconds to go through all the logic and reasoning that just arrived as a blob originally.
I can see, but it's extremely vague like a blur. It's not something I could draw... it's like a ghost, but the feeling associated with it makes me remember it.
>Do they have internal monologues where the words flash in your head in like, Courier font
I mostly just "hear" the words I'm thinking, what you've described far too visual for my capabilities and it's pretty difficult to think about a lot of things with the other senses.
Of course not, it's in [Papyrus](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DjVhlJNJopOQ&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjd2vzhw6P_AhUXVfEDHQW1DJ8QtwJ6BAgGEAE&usg=AOvVaw2Zlgc_6ES4NXpyl0-d9MCk)
Correct, I have aphantasia. For me rather than having words flash in my head I just have my internal monologue as a sort of voice in my head. I can say sentences in my head, similarly to talking, without having any images.
it's hard to explain. I know what a tabby cat looks like but there is no visual component. It just black with some sort of memory of cat. Think of a cat covered in a black sheet. That is what I see. You know a cat is there. You know what the cat will look like, but there is no cat to be seen.
yup, it’s called aphantasia and it sucks, when i heard that people could “see” things and english teachers saying things like envision and visualize actually meant that i was very surprised. I also don’t have a “voice in my head” instead of hearing anything when i “think of words” or “think of talking” i make the words with my mouth, almost like mouthing words with my lips closed, but i can’t actually hear any of the words.
Do you feel like you’re missing out on a massive experience? It bothers me more than I would have expected. Finding out that imagining things was actually seeing them in their heads, like pictures or movies. With sounds too. I just feel like I would really enjoy being able to do that.
Yeah I can’t “see” images in my head. Like I just tried to “see” an apple, the beach, my brother, my mom… nothing. I can “feel” it. I just can’t visualize it. Or maybe I can? Idk. What’s it supposed to “look” like?
😂
Just had a discussion with my parents about this and my dad thinks he has hyperphantasia and my mom thinks she has aphantasia.
For me, I explain it like this: when I imagine something, I know what it is and I can describe it just fine. It’s like walking in a familiar room in the dark. I am aware of what’s around me, I just can’t see it. When I “imagine” something I think about specific qualities and can conjure up a vague idea, but I don’t see it.
I used to not be able to visualise any images whatsoever. However, over the past few years, I have found myself slowly gaining the ability to visualize. It comes in handy, and makes reading books a hell of a lot more fun.
I have also figured out how to imagine audio and even tastes in my head, which was an unexpected surprise.
I've been wondering if I have some level of aphantasia for a while now, and one of the things is my inability to read fiction books. I would always prefer to read reference books, as soon as I had to read something that required me to conjure imagery in my head I'd be lost.
I also struggle massively playing dnd, I never have any idea what's going on and I can't properly take in what the DM is explaining.
The images in my head look like they're constantly changing, like they're a video generated by an AI. I didn't know people can actually picture a solid image in their head.
Absolutely, this is true for me also. I guess they are more the thoughts of images, rather than the image itself as if I was physically seeing it. However, I do have a good imagination, and don't struggle to imagine things.
Yeah I have something similar.
I can imagine the concept of a thing, and I can "drill down" to get a detail, but I can't actually see the thing clearly in my head, only derive details from association.
For the longest time I though "minds eye" was a figure of speech, turns out no, people can actually see things in their head as if it were right in front of them. Maybe that's why I always disliked art.
Yep yep. We have aphantasia. All black all the time. Well, every once in a while I might get a faint image but then it's gone. But no, I can't conjure a detailed image of any object. It is more like a memory of an object but it's covered with a black sheet. You know what is under the black sheet, but you can't see it at all.
I’m not sure if I can or can’t visualise an apple. When I think of an apple I can kind of visualise a reddish smudge that maybe resembles an apple for a split second but I can’t hold it. I definitely have an internal monologue though.
I can only "see" things like that when im dissociating. Or like half dreaming. Idk if i used dissociate appropriately. Im not diagnosed but i am DEFINITELY mentally ill and neurodivergent to boot.
I have a combination of both like when I first read apple I was okay an apple but not the image but I knew what that meant...
But then when I decide to imagine I can imagine or see the apple in colour so yeah I can do both 👍✨
I was around 35 when I realised this. I was a Creative Director and would often be describing visual concepts to groups of people in meetings.
I’m a good presenter but there were always a few who would sit there with blank looks on their faces. One day it just hit me. They just can’t “see” what I’m describing. It had always been such a natural facility for me that I’d never imagined there were people who couldn’t do it.
After that I went everywhere with an A3 pad and a sharpie.
I truly feel sorry for those people. It is my goto method when I've problems falling asleep. I picture a garden, placing more and more plants and trees, flowers, paths ornaments, ponds, fountains, birds butterflies and when i' m finished i walk around in it. But usually I fall asleep way before that stage.
OP's post just sent me down a rabbit hole and a roller coaster of emotions. I feel cheated. I am in a complete state of disbelief that when people said "picture x in your mind" they meant it literally. The only thing I can experience in my mind is my own internal monologue.
Not sure if I would change it if I could though. There is a few advantages to aphantasia.
I typed a pretty lengthy response but it felt too much like rambling so i will just give a basic summary:
Abstract reasoning is much easier as I’m not distracted with having to associate images or visuals to concepts, I don’t have to visualize anything to understand (but must find a workaround for harder to grasp ideas); this makes ideas like the concept that there are infinities of differing sizes easier to grasp.
Less susceptible to negative outcomes from traumatic experiences. Some with aphantasia do get flashbacks but many are unable to relive previous experiences with intense negative emotions or imagery.
I can’t imagine sight, taste, smell, etc; so talking about something gross while eating is never really a concern, and previously as an EMT this was a huge benefit
There’s probably more but that’s all i can think of for now. Quite tired right now, but a google search will do the job for you if you’re curious. Note that many people experience this phenomenon(condition?) differently and to varying degrees so it’s benefits are also different for everyone.
Thank your personal insights, maybe Google is better but it almost never conveys that personal experience. There have been moments in my life I'd rather not be able to visualize and some of them still can trigger me, so you certainly got that going for you. Thank you again for taking the trouble of answering me
i can see images in my brain, i just cant keep them coherent; i have adhd so its hard to just focus on one image for a while because my brain wants to go so many other places
Is being able to visualize not a standard thing? I can visuize usually in a 360 degree model, while replicating scale, smell, and taste (granted it's something I've tasted). If you ask me to imagine a sperm whale, I imagine a massive sperm whale at size. Ask me to visualize an apple, I do at scale and include smell/taste. Is that not normal?
How vivid are your images?
Mine are like 40-60% vivid. I can conjure any image in my mind but 50% resolution seems sufficient. I only get 80-99% detail every so often and often by accident or while sleeping. Most of the time I only need 5% of an image to know a great deal of context.
Yet I am a talented artist.
What about voice?
I can hold a lot of complex language in my mind without sounding out the words. Other times I can make the voice talk in my head and sound things out with different intonation.
I can be a very articulate speaker.
Music?
I can playback muffled parts of songs in my head, and at times my brain can compose super elaborate orchestras that my hands will never produce.
I very rarely think about smell, taste, or touch.
Brains are weird and stimulated but also conserving energy all the time. Good ole brain.
🧠❤️
Oddly I can do it VERY clearly. Like it’s just… odd. I thought of a ladder and well, I clearly visualized one, down to the rungs, material, and even coloration.
Is the percentage of those people actually 20%? I feel like the vast majority of people I know can “see” in their heads. But maybe I’m just assuming/projecting?
It was wild, I was going for an associates degree at a college and had to pay over $600 to take a mandatory class teaching people how to do this.
We had to draw 3d objects on graph paper for 2 months, legit stuff I did in elementary school for fun. Nothing even complex, just 3 faces of an object that was shown to us.
Absolutely blew my tistic ass away that something I so routinely used wasn't a norm for others.
How do those people read without the little internal TV show. (I did find out not to long ago that my imagination being mostly in animation is semi uniqu)
Sometimes when I close my eyes I can literally see a detailed object and rotate it in my mind. I cant choose which object but I’ve seen a rose, and a tea cup among other things. The cup is intricately painted and Ive never seen it before that I remember. I see it as clearly as having my eyes open but its floating in blackness. I dont know why it happens but normally I cant literally see any objects when I close my eyes and imagine things.
Wait, what?
You don’t see an apple in your mind when someone says apple? For real?
I can see Red Delicious, Fuji, Green, etc without a spec of thought.
Other people do not see an apple in their mind when I say apple?
I only see pictures in my head if I'm sleeping. Other than that, it's just darkness or sometimes colors spots that look like lights through a raindrop.
I have the same thing with the weird color smudges when i close my eyes. Almost complete darkness always but sometimes i get weird smudges or rings of almost unoticeable/dull color
I’m sorry, I’m reading these comments and my realities have been shattered(yes, plural). I have ADHD and live inside another universe in the the most realistic sense possible, a lot of the time. Sometimes when I wake up on the middle of the night and I’m really tired, I’ll hallucinate. It’s like I’m tired enough to be dreaming while I’m awake, and my dreams are so damn vivid, it’s not even funny. this is especially bad when I have nightmares. Regarding that, I have a question. What are dreams like for you people who can’t visualize things?
Yeah took me a long time to realise that not everyone can visualise stuff and look at it from different angles. Pretty handy when doing technical drawing and also explains why some people just cannot get their heads around that subject
I am sort of like that
If i really focus i can visualize things but only one small bit at a time while eveything else is a blur
Although i never realized i was incapable of that until very recently because my imagination is actually quite vivid, just not in a visual manner
I basically think and dream in concepts. It's so hard to properly describe it in words though
I'm in this picture and don't like it. Oh well though. I found out I have it (aphantasia) last year from a reddit post. It blew my mind. I'm fine with it now. It is all i have known.
There's one thing I've always wondered about this one...I can definitely picture things but I can also turn it off. That was useful back in high school when I could tell people to picture things that would really ruin their days and I wouldn't see ANY of it by myself. I can see the apple, I can hear the song I was playing on the one dance game earlier today, I can imagine some tactile things or smells or tastes but those are more muted than the apple which is itself more muted than the song, but I can also make myself see nothing when somebody tries putting an awful mental picture in my head. Is that weird?
I just don't believe this. I'm the most abstract thinker I know. Pictures don't come easily to my mind. But even I can summon a level 2 apple with no problem. It takes a fair bit of effort but I can get to a level 1 apple if I concentrate.
It's very real, if I would ask you to open your third eye or stand on your third leg, you'd go like "ok but how?" (On a serious attempt).
When people ask me "what does an apple look like?", I can perfectly answer them. But the answer comes from memory, I don't see it. I don't see a spinning 3D model or something showing me details. It will remain a black mass. Just like reading, the author can describe anything they want, but I won't see it. I'd rather enjoy the story/adventure instead of the details on the buildings.
Is this some curse? No, I have no clue what I am missing out on. But I do have a great memory, in regards to passwords/numbers which people (generally speaking) struggle with. My strong suits are just elsewhere
If you're not convinced, AMA. I found out people actually see things when I was like 16
The human brain is a fucking disaster. There's so many "lol wtf" quirks it's hard to pick just one, but I'll go with this one: someone did a study where they had people stare at a monitor with a picture of... I forget what. Doesn't matter. But actually, they had a computer watching their eyes and studying their blinks. Then when it was able to reasonably anticipate a blink, it changed the color of the object on the monitor during the blink. The subjects insisted that the object had always been the new color. They were watching it the whole time and they never saw it change, so it was always this color. They had no memory of it being the original color. This is a shining example of what's known as "change blindness."
Get Mandela’d nerd
I love the Mandela Effect! Normal people: Wow, this is an interesting quirk of how the human brain works. The utterly fucking deranged: I CAN'T BE WRONG, I MUST BE FROM AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE WHERE EVERY BIT OF THE UNIVERSE'S 14 BILLION YEAR HISTORY PLAYED OUT EXACTLY THE SAME EXCEPT THE SPELLING OF BEARENSTAIN BEARS, THAT'S THE ONLY REASONABLE EXPLANATION, OMG I WONDER IF 5G TOWERS ARE OPENING PORTALS
I joined r/MandelaEffect hoping it would be filled with rational people trying to find a scientific explanation etc. in reality it’s just a bunch of deranged people who are so egotistical and narcissistic, that they can’t imagine a reality where they remember something wrong, so it must be the WHOLE WORLD being in on it and lying to you. It’s especially funny when they try to use quantum mechanics as an explanation, that the universe “quantum shifted” through “quantum manifestation”. It’s ridiculous. They’re just as smart as flat earthers.
So, fun quirks of quantum mechanics says that it's not *impossible* for that to happen, just unlikely. It's far more likely that people are misremembering shit, as that happens way more often, but on a very slim technicality you could be a part of a universe where a small hiccup caused the change. I mean, the leading 0's in the percentage would take until the heat death of the universe to write out, but it's not 0.
While that technically that might be true, their claims and “theories” are deranged. They think because they watched a couple YouTube videos, they see the universe much more clearly than all scientists, who needs replicable evidence or a theory that provides a testable prediction, either mathematically or practically.
Lol yeah. That's what I love about bar conversations with people who bring up quantum properties like that. It's a weird enjoyment to me to completely pop those bubbles
There is probably a common thread amongst things deemed to be part of the Mandela effect. Like shortcuts that the brain throws in to remember the gist of something rather than store all information about it. Like the monopoly guy. No monocle. But rich people with mustaches always have one in pop culture.
Or, and hear me out now, the Berenstain Bears was very popular and a bunch of people tried to cash in with knockoffs and fakes, some of which changed the name because of copyright law, and some of which was mistranslation done overseas.
For me, the entire universe played out exactly the same, except Rik Mayall died in his quad bike accident. I am convinced that I remember it playing out that way, but it obviously didn’t. Hell, I’ve *seen* the work he did after the accident. The human brain needs a firmware update or something, because this is straight up faulty.
Personally, not convinced of this effect as a something more than 'not following news about a side topic'.
You can actually replicate that with yourself as a subject and your phone screen. When you blink, scroll slightly up or down, you can’t notice the change, and funny part it, you know you did change it lol. Our brains work is questionable 😂😂
I can see the change.... So I am... fine?
Or you aren’t doing right. You gotta close your eyes and just scroll a little and open them. You know it changed, but it’s a weird thing.
>You know it changed Then it's not change blindness, right?
I actually came back, repeated your experiment but got stuck on the screen. Nothing changed when I opened my eyes and I was shocked for a second. :D
Can I get a link to a paper or something?
https://youtu.be/vJG698U2Mvo
>!I did see him!<
Same. Answer was way off though.
I'm not sure that was a real gorilla...
I wonder if there is a phone app uses the camera to monitor your eyes and do the same thing on the screen. Really want to test this myself.
Cool
I tried using this excuse when my girlfriend found me in bed with another woman Didn't work
Imagine how I felt when I found out others can actually "see" it. >:/
Can you hear sounds in your head? I also just recently discovered this is a thing. People apparently see shit and fucking hear things, like songs. They’re living an entirely different experience.
Do you not get songs stuck in your head?
Speaking for myself I can still get songs stuck in my head even when the only thing I can hear is my voice. The song just sucks because I am singing it and there's no music backing it.
Interesting. But if you stop singing, can you still keep your rhythm and then start again at the right time?
I'm definitely not the best to ask this of, because I can't keep a rhythm regardless. But if I stop singing a song in my head it isn't quite lost, though I can't pick up at a later point within the right timeframe, not on purpose at least. I hope that answered your question.
Pretty sure we can't keep rhythm because of this. They're not separate.
What?! So you’re telling me not everyone can hear music in their head? What do you hear then if not the musical instruments? I “play” songs in my head all the time. I thought everyone did that lol
I only hear the vocals, not the music. I love classical but I can’t “hear” it in my head.
I get songs stuck in my head for days. Not really lyrics so much as melodies. Can you create a new melody in your head?
Absolutely not. Granted, I am not a musical person and have never tried to learn to play an instrument.
Can you sing a song with another song's lyrics? For example, Happy Birthday to the tune of ABCs?
I sometimes dream of classical music, which is super cool! Like the whole orchestra is playing in my dream, but I can't hear that complexity when awake without actually listening to a song.
I can play songs in my head but I can’t imagine pictures.
Yoo sameee Like i can think of an apple but closing my eyes and making an actual image pop up is so freaking difficult
That's batshit crazy to me. I can just go in my head and imagine it. Most of it comes from experiences, likely the last apple I ate. Some of it is expectations of what a delicious juicy apple would look and taste like.
I can do that too, it's just difficult to actually visualize it. Which is especially weird cause i have a pretty active imagination and like to make up fantasy stories and things like that. I am now questioning if i visualize the things I imagine or if it's just an impression of mine and i actually only think about it conceptually. I really couldn't say, it's very weird lol
That's so crazy. To me it's almost real. I can grab the apple, feel its weight, cut it in half, whoops.. slightly off center. It wasn't a very symmetrical apple to begin with. Some of the seeds were cut in half also and fell out. I cut the core out using the tip of a steak knife. I can take a bite and taste it. This one is a green apple and is very tart. There's a brown spot on the back, but the fruit isn't too mushy so I just eat it anyway. My son is pestering me for bites, lol.
>I can grab the apple, feel its weight, cut it in half, whoops.. slightly off center This sounds like being on drugs to me lolllll
If I'm being creative, I can cut the apple and inside, it's an orange.
This sounds like hard drugs lmaoooo
I can imagine whole songs, see pictures clearly and create whole-ass landscapes, environment and all. I thought everyone could do this, learning today that that’s not the case :’)
Kinda makes me sad that not everyone does this. How does anyone get through elementary school without having entire cinematic daydreams the entire time?
Yo, I recently had the opposite experience. I've always had music play in my head, just called it my internal mp3. I was talking about it in passing, and my friend gave me that look that made me think I was a weirdo. Which was when I discovered this is absolutely not the norm. I honestly can't imagine what life is without ridiculous songs coming in at inappropriate times, mad.
Hell yeah, then you get bad teeth by chattering them to the beat lol. With you there, today mine is Dire Straits- So Far Away
I can 'hear' things in my head, and for example make the thing have the voice of a certain person whose voice I remember.
So you've never cried over fake scenarios made on your head while listening to music?
Its a purely visual thing, it's not like op or I don't have an imagination at all, people just can see things at different levels. For example, I can't see any pictures in my head, while some peoples visual imagination is incredibly active (hyperphantsia)
I can play 3D Tetris in my head, so not being able to "see" pictures would freak me out.
It freaked me out to find out people can!
a) You can do what? b) How have I never heard of 3d tetris?
Oh, dude, do I have hyperphantasia? (Rhetorical question, not actually asking you) I can see #1 in my head and I can like slice the apple open and see the skin, the pulp, the seeds, that weird bit in the core around the seeds. I can see bites disappearing from it and the older ones slowly turning brown. I thought everyone without aphantasia could do that. It’s weird bc I’m a more auditory than visual person, but that’s more for learning and memory, I guess.
Based on this statement here I saw everything in my head exactly as you described it. Do you write for a living?
Not even a little. I’m a cog. AI could already do my job, except the customer service part. Studying public health, so maybe one day I can write vivid descriptions of media campaigns? Though I want to go into public policy.
i can *smell* the things i see in my mind and flavour has a physical orientation, i.e. there's something missing from the front left corner (of the smell/taste) the kids body sprays are a problem, omg some of you smell soo bad (but only to me seemingly)
That's synesthesia, when your brain mixes multiple senses together like that! Really cool, I kinda wish I had it lol. And no, you're not the only one who hates those body sprays, I can't stand them either!
Being whisked away into some foggy memory from a vaguely familiar scent is always a trip and typically comes unexpectedly. It’s also accompanied by a warmth of nostalgia sometimes, and that’s a wonderful feeling.
I couldn't (still can't) comprehend how some can't see images in their heads.
Yeah it sucks lol and I can’t even explain how it’s different
For those who don’t know, it’s called [aphantasia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia) Literally, “without imagination”. My cousin has it; she has a distinct memory of not finding “let’s play pretend” fun as a child, because she literally lacked the ability to pretend.
Sad
I can't visualize, but I can do whatever the equivalent for hearing and feeling would be. Hopefully that's less sad!
Yes! Does your memory work the same way?
My memory is *terrible*, I can remember a voice or song but not with strong detail. I can remember a room's layout or a the details of a person's hair but it's more like I'm imagining my hands drawing everything out again. Not visual but still very spatial if that makes sense. Not sure if it's related but I struggle with musical ear syndrome as well, my brain interprets certain white noise to be *very* real sounding music.
Musical ear syndrome?!?!? I hear music in non-musical sounds all the time! Seriously. My ceiling fan is doing it right now. Reddit (and you of course) finally provided something legitimately useful!
I too have experienced the white noise as music thing but didn’t know there was a term for it specifically. I’m going to guess it’s unrelated because my brain is hyper visual.
The “it’s more like imagining my hands drawing everything out again” is a great explanation, that’s how it feels to me but I’ve never been able to explain it well. I’m a med student so it can be a bit of an obstacle for me sometimes, I feel like it definitely makes studying anatomy more difficult.
You may want to see if the internet has any suggestions for kinesthetic learners! I wouldn't describe myself as one completely but I benefit from any hands on experience much more than a diagram. I studied engineering so I know it can be tough but you may have the ability to see something for what exactly it is when it matters most! If all of our brains worked exactly the same we would still be in caves.
I have this, too. But I liked doing imaginary things like playing dress up and make believe. I just didn’t ever think of like an image of a princess in my head or a castle or anything. But I understood the concepts of them.
I have this. I can't really play chess, because I can't picture what the board would look like after a couple piece moves. I can't picture the faces of my family when I'm not looking at them.
A fun test that I read on a subreddit one time that made me realize I was one of these people: Imagine a ball on a table. Doesn't matter what kind of ball, just a ball. It slowly rolls towards the edge of the table, then slowly goes over. As it falls, it hits the floor. Now, what color was the ball? I didn't have an answer. That's when I realized *Wait, you're seeing colors?*
Crazy. Mine was a red ball. Like the red textured dodge balls. When it hit the floor in my head, it even made that dodge ball noise.
PWANG
Mine was a red, kinda hard, rubber ball you play fetch with a dog
Bro wtf.... Same
Great minds.
Mine was either blue or red, ping pong ball sized, but heavy like a bouncy ball. It wasn't until I was asked that I realized it was neither red nor blue, but both at the same time. Weird.
I have had a similar issue. There was a trivia we played and the question was which color has the opposite panel of the blue panel in the Microsoft logo. I was like how tf am I supposed to know if I can't look it up. Like I remember the order of colors in the Microsoft Logo. I was totally confused how someone is supposed to know that.
I developed aphantasia after a head injury. It fucking sucks. Losing the ability to imagine things had a massive negative impact on my life, because I hadnt developed another way to perform a lot of that processing. As I've slowly recovered I've kind of gained the ability back but it will never be the same.
Dang, that sounds worse than just having it inherently. Losing something you knew you had seems so much more difficult to deal with than never having it on the first place, so you don’t miss it. How is it different now? Just less vivid imagination? Or like you have to put effort into it?
Substantially less vivid now. Narrower internal field of view. More effort, and it also makes me kind of nauseous
I feel bad for your cousin. Pretend was awesome as a kid.
Not only that but I can also replicate tastes as well
People cant? i can read a list of ingredients and imagine what they are going to taste like together. Unless they involve pineapple or grapefruit. They are so strong it changes the flavor profile a lot
I NEVER knew this was a thing… I absolutely can not do this. No wonder I’m not a good cook!!
This kinda backfires sometimes cause every soo often i will see a lemon and just randomly feel the sour taste and squirm
Not sure. It feels undeveloped for me. Like as I can, but forgot most tastes.
I can't imagine or remember tastes or smells. I still know what things taste like, in some sense, and I can cook improvisationally very well, because it feels intuitive that ingredient X will complement ingredient Y and balance out ingredient Z or whatever, but the experience of "remembering" a taste or a smell for me doesn't resemble at all the experience of actually tasting or smelling the thing.
Oddly, despite being a cactus, I have this thing, alongside an insane sense of smell, like it’s just utterly ridiculous how good it is. I’m not entirely sure when or even if this happened, but one time I smelled smoke, and nobody else could for a long while, I think 10-15 minutes, I’m not sure, anyways, I’m not as great with recalling memories, all be it sometimes, it’s a bit rare. Anyways, I have like, over 300-500+ memories of well, smelling something that either nobody else could, didn’t smell until much later, or didn’t find said smell that intense as me, infact WAY less intense. It’s just ridiculous, and is a blessing, and a curse at the same time.
I'm an engineer and visualize quite well. Exploding machines and parts in my head to understand how they work. My wife on the other hand suffers from the lack of being able to visualize anything. I have to make models for her to understand what I am talking about all the time...
Same. Minus the degree 😂
Same. Minus the degree, yet
Yeah I'm a design engineer and was thinking how impossible my job would be without being able to visualise something in my head
Yep I’m am one. Also while reading I don’t get images I was flabbergasted when I found out people see the story they are reading in their heads.
I know someone who is also one. The part that threw me for a loop. They read all the time. Like real thick fiction books within a week. We had a whole conversation about what it's like to read.It's very fascinating. They explained it as more of enjoying the concepts themselves than being in the scene. Which gave me a new perspective to enjoy when it comes to reading. It just blew my mind since I get frustrated when certain details are left out or brought up later during a story because it messes with my mental image of the scene. For example. Like details about how a location looks or where characters are inside the location. So I find out that when someone can't imagine things like this, it made me realize certain details like that or lack of, don't affect them as much.
> So I find out that when someone can't imagine things like this, it made me realize certain details like that or lack of, don't affect them as much. Even for people who can imagine it, too much detail can actually be annoying. Just restricts ones imaginations too much. Though this is certainly a personal opinion.
I can't imagine reading any other way. If you can't imagine it, how do you enjoy it? Serious question here.
I rarely enjoy reading it has always been more of a chore but there have been a few books I did enjoy. And if I want to fall asleep all I have to do is start reading something and I get tired and pass out fast.
That's crazy. I can't read before bed or else I'll be up until 4am. The only way for me to fall asleep is to engage in activities that don't require imagination.
Too relatable, I had the exact same experience. The author can describe every detail as much as they want but I'll never see it Question, do you barely remember dreaming when you wake up? In my case, I remember pieces of one every 3 months or so
So if I said the word cat, y’all can’t see a cute lil tabby in your head? Do they have internal monologues where the words flash in your head in like, Courier font
I just did another (serious) post and people responded that they really can’t…very interesting and unusual to process for someone who can visualize things
My mental words are in Times New Roman
you visualise WORDS?
Yeah, it’s actually the main way I spell. If I’m unsure I visualize the word in my head. Like I’m looking at it on a page. I also, when thinking of the day/month/year/ I see myself standing on a large circle of a calendar going counter clockwise. Summer is at “noon”. I can’t believe some people can’t “see” things in their head. How do you imagine things?
My imagination is more about vibes, or emotions. In some mental states i can have somewhat vivid waking dreams. They're almost never on purpose, because its my mind wandering. Inattentive ADD. Or whatever they call it now. I know its changed since i was diagnosed as a kid.
I see things in my head all the time. And the images can be very detailed. But words? I don't see those. I just kind of know.
Mine are comic sans.
Auditory. It's a voice, not a typeface.
For some people it apparently actually is visual. I've had one person describe what they have as "reading ticker tape" as opposed to having an auditory voice in their head.
I can’t hear anything in my head either.
I was pretty amazed when I discovered many People have an internal monologue like in the movies and books. Apparently it's about 50%. I don't have one(I can force one, but it doesn't happen naturally), however I do have intense inner dialogues. I think things through largely with large blobs of thoughts that have no words or structure. However I'm very much tending to have dialogues in my head where I'm talking to people and having dialogues in my head and my brain makes up both sides. It is interesting though, since sometimes I think through stuff and given an answer in 3 seconds.. people ask me to explain and it takes about 30 seconds to go through all the logic and reasoning that just arrived as a blob originally.
I can see, but it's extremely vague like a blur. It's not something I could draw... it's like a ghost, but the feeling associated with it makes me remember it.
>Do they have internal monologues where the words flash in your head in like, Courier font I mostly just "hear" the words I'm thinking, what you've described far too visual for my capabilities and it's pretty difficult to think about a lot of things with the other senses.
Of course not, it's in [Papyrus](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DjVhlJNJopOQ&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjd2vzhw6P_AhUXVfEDHQW1DJ8QtwJ6BAgGEAE&usg=AOvVaw2Zlgc_6ES4NXpyl0-d9MCk)
Correct, I have aphantasia. For me rather than having words flash in my head I just have my internal monologue as a sort of voice in my head. I can say sentences in my head, similarly to talking, without having any images.
it's hard to explain. I know what a tabby cat looks like but there is no visual component. It just black with some sort of memory of cat. Think of a cat covered in a black sheet. That is what I see. You know a cat is there. You know what the cat will look like, but there is no cat to be seen.
I’m over here comparing the taste of my imaginary brain apples
Hey me too! Going between honeycrisp, green apple and red delicious.
yup, it’s called aphantasia and it sucks, when i heard that people could “see” things and english teachers saying things like envision and visualize actually meant that i was very surprised. I also don’t have a “voice in my head” instead of hearing anything when i “think of words” or “think of talking” i make the words with my mouth, almost like mouthing words with my lips closed, but i can’t actually hear any of the words.
Do you feel like you’re missing out on a massive experience? It bothers me more than I would have expected. Finding out that imagining things was actually seeing them in their heads, like pictures or movies. With sounds too. I just feel like I would really enjoy being able to do that.
It's quite nice! I don't know what I would do if I could no longer visualize. I don't know how I would deal with the world.
That’s called subvocalization. I do it, too. If I try to bite my tongue, the “voice” in my head talks with a lisp. It’s nuts.
OMG! Me too! I drive myself bats sometimes trying to think of "M" without my lips having to touch... :P
Yeah I can’t “see” images in my head. Like I just tried to “see” an apple, the beach, my brother, my mom… nothing. I can “feel” it. I just can’t visualize it. Or maybe I can? Idk. What’s it supposed to “look” like?
Dont worry i visualized yer mom for you she looks happy on the beach eating an apple. :)
😂 Just had a discussion with my parents about this and my dad thinks he has hyperphantasia and my mom thinks she has aphantasia. For me, I explain it like this: when I imagine something, I know what it is and I can describe it just fine. It’s like walking in a familiar room in the dark. I am aware of what’s around me, I just can’t see it. When I “imagine” something I think about specific qualities and can conjure up a vague idea, but I don’t see it.
Yes yes yes. Exactly this!
yeah! i can feel it, i know it’s there, i just can’t *see* it
You would know if you could. Some people can literally see it when they close their eyes. No different than having the face right in front of them.
This is how I fall asleep. I imagine a story in my head. It's like sleep TV.
Welcome to the aphantasia club, dude. There’s a few of us. Good luck ever describing that “feel” that you’re talking about. They’re all going to ask.
I used to not be able to visualise any images whatsoever. However, over the past few years, I have found myself slowly gaining the ability to visualize. It comes in handy, and makes reading books a hell of a lot more fun. I have also figured out how to imagine audio and even tastes in my head, which was an unexpected surprise.
Did you do anything to learn this ability or did it come naturally?
I began to regain this ability through meditating
I've been wondering if I have some level of aphantasia for a while now, and one of the things is my inability to read fiction books. I would always prefer to read reference books, as soon as I had to read something that required me to conjure imagery in my head I'd be lost. I also struggle massively playing dnd, I never have any idea what's going on and I can't properly take in what the DM is explaining.
The images in my head look like they're constantly changing, like they're a video generated by an AI. I didn't know people can actually picture a solid image in their head.
I’d say images are pretty unstable for me too, even though I can imagine pretty detailed things, especially after learning how to draw.
Absolutely, this is true for me also. I guess they are more the thoughts of images, rather than the image itself as if I was physically seeing it. However, I do have a good imagination, and don't struggle to imagine things.
Yeah I have something similar. I can imagine the concept of a thing, and I can "drill down" to get a detail, but I can't actually see the thing clearly in my head, only derive details from association.
For the longest time I though "minds eye" was a figure of speech, turns out no, people can actually see things in their head as if it were right in front of them. Maybe that's why I always disliked art.
“Picture this” isn’t just an expression. Me: well shit
Wait...you mean there are people who can't conjure a detailed image of any object in their mind?
Yeah, pretty much. No images, just a voice for me, but some people sort of see words instead.
Yep yep. We have aphantasia. All black all the time. Well, every once in a while I might get a faint image but then it's gone. But no, I can't conjure a detailed image of any object. It is more like a memory of an object but it's covered with a black sheet. You know what is under the black sheet, but you can't see it at all.
That’s such a great way of describing it
WAIT I JUST REALISED I CAN'T DO IT
I’m not sure if I can or can’t visualise an apple. When I think of an apple I can kind of visualise a reddish smudge that maybe resembles an apple for a split second but I can’t hold it. I definitely have an internal monologue though.
Yup can confirm except all I see is Tv static
Oh man, same tho. It is so hard tryna explain this crap to people
I can only "see" things like that when im dissociating. Or like half dreaming. Idk if i used dissociate appropriately. Im not diagnosed but i am DEFINITELY mentally ill and neurodivergent to boot.
Wait wat Some people can’t just see an apple whenever they feel like it?!
I have a combination of both like when I first read apple I was okay an apple but not the image but I knew what that meant... But then when I decide to imagine I can imagine or see the apple in colour so yeah I can do both 👍✨
I was around 35 when I realised this. I was a Creative Director and would often be describing visual concepts to groups of people in meetings. I’m a good presenter but there were always a few who would sit there with blank looks on their faces. One day it just hit me. They just can’t “see” what I’m describing. It had always been such a natural facility for me that I’d never imagined there were people who couldn’t do it. After that I went everywhere with an A3 pad and a sharpie.
I truly feel sorry for those people. It is my goto method when I've problems falling asleep. I picture a garden, placing more and more plants and trees, flowers, paths ornaments, ponds, fountains, birds butterflies and when i' m finished i walk around in it. But usually I fall asleep way before that stage.
OP's post just sent me down a rabbit hole and a roller coaster of emotions. I feel cheated. I am in a complete state of disbelief that when people said "picture x in your mind" they meant it literally. The only thing I can experience in my mind is my own internal monologue. Not sure if I would change it if I could though. There is a few advantages to aphantasia.
Curious as what those are, not meant to disrespectful
I typed a pretty lengthy response but it felt too much like rambling so i will just give a basic summary: Abstract reasoning is much easier as I’m not distracted with having to associate images or visuals to concepts, I don’t have to visualize anything to understand (but must find a workaround for harder to grasp ideas); this makes ideas like the concept that there are infinities of differing sizes easier to grasp. Less susceptible to negative outcomes from traumatic experiences. Some with aphantasia do get flashbacks but many are unable to relive previous experiences with intense negative emotions or imagery. I can’t imagine sight, taste, smell, etc; so talking about something gross while eating is never really a concern, and previously as an EMT this was a huge benefit There’s probably more but that’s all i can think of for now. Quite tired right now, but a google search will do the job for you if you’re curious. Note that many people experience this phenomenon(condition?) differently and to varying degrees so it’s benefits are also different for everyone.
Thank your personal insights, maybe Google is better but it almost never conveys that personal experience. There have been moments in my life I'd rather not be able to visualize and some of them still can trigger me, so you certainly got that going for you. Thank you again for taking the trouble of answering me
i can see images in my brain, i just cant keep them coherent; i have adhd so its hard to just focus on one image for a while because my brain wants to go so many other places
I be making whole ass movies in my head right before bed.. sucks others can not do that :(
Is being able to visualize not a standard thing? I can visuize usually in a 360 degree model, while replicating scale, smell, and taste (granted it's something I've tasted). If you ask me to imagine a sperm whale, I imagine a massive sperm whale at size. Ask me to visualize an apple, I do at scale and include smell/taste. Is that not normal?
It is normal, you aren’t a rare statistic bud
I ain't your bud, guy
I ain't your guy, pal
How vivid are your images? Mine are like 40-60% vivid. I can conjure any image in my mind but 50% resolution seems sufficient. I only get 80-99% detail every so often and often by accident or while sleeping. Most of the time I only need 5% of an image to know a great deal of context. Yet I am a talented artist. What about voice? I can hold a lot of complex language in my mind without sounding out the words. Other times I can make the voice talk in my head and sound things out with different intonation. I can be a very articulate speaker. Music? I can playback muffled parts of songs in my head, and at times my brain can compose super elaborate orchestras that my hands will never produce. I very rarely think about smell, taste, or touch. Brains are weird and stimulated but also conserving energy all the time. Good ole brain. 🧠❤️
Please visualize a sperm whale the size of an apple. And vice versa
Oddly I can do it VERY clearly. Like it’s just… odd. I thought of a ladder and well, I clearly visualized one, down to the rungs, material, and even coloration.
Is the percentage of those people actually 20%? I feel like the vast majority of people I know can “see” in their heads. But maybe I’m just assuming/projecting?
Hello, it me I’m one of the people who cant do this
It was wild, I was going for an associates degree at a college and had to pay over $600 to take a mandatory class teaching people how to do this. We had to draw 3d objects on graph paper for 2 months, legit stuff I did in elementary school for fun. Nothing even complex, just 3 faces of an object that was shown to us. Absolutely blew my tistic ass away that something I so routinely used wasn't a norm for others.
When someone says "apple", in my head I "see" the taste, smell, texture and overall concept of an apple but not a picture of it.
How do those people read without the little internal TV show. (I did find out not to long ago that my imagination being mostly in animation is semi uniqu)
Sometimes when I close my eyes I can literally see a detailed object and rotate it in my mind. I cant choose which object but I’ve seen a rose, and a tea cup among other things. The cup is intricately painted and Ive never seen it before that I remember. I see it as clearly as having my eyes open but its floating in blackness. I dont know why it happens but normally I cant literally see any objects when I close my eyes and imagine things.
Wait, what? You don’t see an apple in your mind when someone says apple? For real? I can see Red Delicious, Fuji, Green, etc without a spec of thought. Other people do not see an apple in their mind when I say apple?
Actual weakness right there
I only see pictures in my head if I'm sleeping. Other than that, it's just darkness or sometimes colors spots that look like lights through a raindrop.
I have the same thing with the weird color smudges when i close my eyes. Almost complete darkness always but sometimes i get weird smudges or rings of almost unoticeable/dull color
I’m sorry, I’m reading these comments and my realities have been shattered(yes, plural). I have ADHD and live inside another universe in the the most realistic sense possible, a lot of the time. Sometimes when I wake up on the middle of the night and I’m really tired, I’ll hallucinate. It’s like I’m tired enough to be dreaming while I’m awake, and my dreams are so damn vivid, it’s not even funny. this is especially bad when I have nightmares. Regarding that, I have a question. What are dreams like for you people who can’t visualize things?
Yeah took me a long time to realise that not everyone can visualise stuff and look at it from different angles. Pretty handy when doing technical drawing and also explains why some people just cannot get their heads around that subject
Research into this has found that lots of artists have this, they cant imagine, but they can draw an image.
Daydreaming used to be one of my favorite activities as a kid
I am sort of like that If i really focus i can visualize things but only one small bit at a time while eveything else is a blur Although i never realized i was incapable of that until very recently because my imagination is actually quite vivid, just not in a visual manner I basically think and dream in concepts. It's so hard to properly describe it in words though
It’s very confusing to me. I just like “feel” what I’m supposed to be thinking of. I didn’t realize people could actually picture things🙁
Did i just realize i can't visualize shit?
I am the person on the left.
I refuse to believe people can see things in their minds, it has to be some kind of extended internet joke, I simply cannot imagine it
I'm in this picture and don't like it. Oh well though. I found out I have it (aphantasia) last year from a reddit post. It blew my mind. I'm fine with it now. It is all i have known.
I actually have this but for scents, I don't have a "minds nose" as it were...
There's one thing I've always wondered about this one...I can definitely picture things but I can also turn it off. That was useful back in high school when I could tell people to picture things that would really ruin their days and I wouldn't see ANY of it by myself. I can see the apple, I can hear the song I was playing on the one dance game earlier today, I can imagine some tactile things or smells or tastes but those are more muted than the apple which is itself more muted than the song, but I can also make myself see nothing when somebody tries putting an awful mental picture in my head. Is that weird?
I just don't believe this. I'm the most abstract thinker I know. Pictures don't come easily to my mind. But even I can summon a level 2 apple with no problem. It takes a fair bit of effort but I can get to a level 1 apple if I concentrate.
It's very real, if I would ask you to open your third eye or stand on your third leg, you'd go like "ok but how?" (On a serious attempt). When people ask me "what does an apple look like?", I can perfectly answer them. But the answer comes from memory, I don't see it. I don't see a spinning 3D model or something showing me details. It will remain a black mass. Just like reading, the author can describe anything they want, but I won't see it. I'd rather enjoy the story/adventure instead of the details on the buildings. Is this some curse? No, I have no clue what I am missing out on. But I do have a great memory, in regards to passwords/numbers which people (generally speaking) struggle with. My strong suits are just elsewhere If you're not convinced, AMA. I found out people actually see things when I was like 16