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Aphantasia... apparently 3% of the world has it. Any aphantasists in here, who've had success improving their condition? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Transcendant@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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10 years ago, I'd have put my ability to visualise at 0 out of 10. Practice and occasional halucinogen use has got me to 2 out of 10. It causes no end of problems in day to day life, so I'm interested to hear if anyone has tips or just experiences to share so it doesn't feel such a lonely frustrating issue.

edit informative comment from @Gwaer@lemm.ee about image streaming, I did a bit of digging on the broken links, the Dr isn't giving the info away for free anymore without buying their (expensive) book, but I found some further info on additional techniques here, pages 2/3: https://nlpcourses.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Image-Streaming-Mode-of-Thinking.pdf

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[-] OhmsLawn@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago

Yes, and not interested in changing.

I'm me and I'm happy. I find that the strategies I learned as a kid sometimes allow me to think more clearly and procedurally than others. I'm not haunted by images of the past. I do take extra photos now that I know what's up. All in all, I don't see it as much of a negative. It's far better than some of the other conditions I was thinking I might have, before I learned about aphantasia.

I was fairly active on r/aphantasia for a bit, but I started to back away when they went for this "total aphant" thing, where you weren't really in the club unless you couldn't imagine with any senses at all.

[-] Transcendant@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

they went for this “total aphant” thing, where you weren’t really in the club unless you couldn’t imagine with any senses at all.

People always have to ruin shit by taking to extremes ey.

Tbh as hard as it is for non-aphantasics to imagine no mental imagery, I find it just as hard to imagine those who have no visual AND no audio mind. Like, how the fuck do they think? Then I reckon, prob the same as me visually... I know what a green triangle is, it's the colour of grass and has 3 equal sides. Just, I can't see it when I shut my eyes

[-] ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 year ago

I don't have mental audio, and the best way I can describe it is that I can think of words, but not in words.

I think in concepts that have words attached.

So, if I'm thinking about a dog, I have multiple words that can work for it. Dog and perro (spanish for dog) for example, both point to the same "concept", and it's that concept that I have in my mind when I think of a dog. But I can pull the word dog to mind when needed too. Hence thinking "of" words

Either way, I can't hear any of it

[-] Transcendant@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Sorry, are you saying you're one of the people with no visual or audio inner mind? Interesting if so. Sounds as if you're thinking in concepts (which is exactly how I 'think visually')

[-] ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 year ago

Yep, exactly.

I kind of have an inner voice, in so far as I can choose to think of words in a sentence, or I can "translate" the concepts in my mind in to words in real time, but those words have no auditory components. I can't "hear" them anymore than you can "see" an apple in your mind. I just know that it's there

[-] Transcendant@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Isn't the brain an incredible organ. It creates a rich inner world despite the difficulties we may have with the way our senses connect to it.

[-] Loki@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

(not OP) I'm curious, are you not able to "play back" songs in your head then, for example? This is such a foreign idea to me - sometimes there are melodies playing in my head without me even initiating it, in a way. I'm wondering if there are people this doesn't happen to.

this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023

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