People & Blogs
Have you heard of aphantasia? Here’s what it is — and how to know if you have it #TEDTalks
Picture this: a rocket ship crash-lands on a planet, and an alien approaches the spacecraft. What do you see in your mind when you visualize this scene? For Alex Rosenthal (and many others), the answer is: absolutely nothing. Exploring the fascinating science of aphantasia, or the inability to generate mental images, he shows why our…
People & Blogs
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People & Blogs
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What do you do when the world declares something impossible? When physician-scientist David Fajgenbaum was dying from a rare disease and social entrepreneur Kiah Williams was confronting the realities of economic hardship, they began asking a different question: What can I do today? In this conversation, they discuss how turning hope into action can drive…
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@bjarkebundgaard3441
March 30, 2026 at 10:02 am
What only 1 minute ago!!?
@grumpy3543
March 30, 2026 at 10:10 am
Question. When you read a book do you see anything in your mind about what you are reading? Or is just blank words?
@bradleysampson8230
March 30, 2026 at 9:15 pm
I have aphantasia. I don’t “see” anything while reading a book, but I can still create a mental model of the map, characters, and story just fine.
@grumpy3543
March 30, 2026 at 9:18 pm
@bradleysampson8230 Interesting. Thanks. What about before you start driving somewhere? I quickly built a map in my head of all the different ways to get there and then pick one. How do you do that?
@ozgunmavuk1002
March 30, 2026 at 9:20 pm
Exactly same for me. I describe it as a blind person “seeing” an item. They can know the shape, where it is, what its for, what color it is so in general what it “looks like” but they can’t see it
@bradleysampson8230
March 30, 2026 at 10:23 pm
@grumpy3543Not to brag, but I have exceptional spatial intelligence and navigation skills even in places I’ve only been once or twice. I just think through the map in my head, but that process just doesn’t have a visual component. In my head spatial relationships are just disconnected from visual processing.
@grumpy3543
March 30, 2026 at 11:41 pm
@bradleysampson8230 I don’t understand how that can work because I can’t do that without a visual component in my head. It’s like a GPS map in my head that plays out. I do the same with flight plans only my brain overlays the radar maps that I was studying.
@WisdomBeacon
March 30, 2026 at 10:47 am
Such an eye-opening explanation
@RandomGuy-6234
March 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm
I have hyperphantasia.
@kingwilliamVI
March 30, 2026 at 3:07 pm
I feel the same way. I have never met someone who i feel thinks the way I do
@29Doves
March 30, 2026 at 4:52 pm
Great explanation! I saw nothing. I tell people, I have to see it to know what you’re talking about.
@GenericGena
March 31, 2026 at 1:07 pm
Interesting! I’m fascinated by this. Would you be able to describe something from memory? Like if someone asked you what an apple looks like, for example.
@SludgeTube
March 31, 2026 at 1:43 pm
@GenericGenaI have aphantasia. Say I want to draw an apple. I have all these details and facts about apples in my head but none of them come to me as an image I can see.
It could be red or green or yellow. Could be round or have the “legs”. Could have a stem or no stem. Leaf…etc.
Now if I wanted to study a picture of an apple or a physical apple and draw it I could because I’m going to be able to remember a lot more specific details about that specific apple.
Then it’s just memory. How long can I go remembering that apple and did I consider all the details needed to create it.
In a way, the more I think about it the more I’ll commit it to memory because I’d be drawing the apple in my mind.
It’s kind of feels like the game Snake in my mind. I can mentally draw out the apple but if it gets too big or complex parts start disappearing. I can never have the full picture of the apple.
But once again I’m not seeing any visuals. The snake is more how I visualize curves and such in my mind.
@emilbroseliger8506
March 30, 2026 at 6:01 pm
Which do you think is better?
Aphantasia – inability to visually imagine things. Can be hard to picture faces and draw from memory.
Or:
Hyperphantasia – overly active imagination. Vivid visualisations that can lead to Maladaptive Daydreaming.
I’m curious plz comment or sum.
@Kineticboy2K1
March 30, 2026 at 7:42 pm
I still don’t understand how one can see nothing. Like your mind is blind, but you aren’t? How do memories work? You see all the time, so certainly you can remember things that you’ve seen. Is it really impossible to simply imagine something that you’ve never seen? I just can’t wrap my head around this concept and still think there’s something lost in communication. It just can’t be possible right?
@SludgeTube
March 31, 2026 at 1:56 pm
Memories are facts like a written diary.
I’m very good at remembering things I have seen. Show me a person and I can tell you if I have seen them or not. But I cannot pull up an image of their face in my mind.
It doesn’t matter if it is something I’ve seen or haven’t seen I’m going to “imagine” it the same way.
Like I can construct a beach in my mind. Sand, waterline, waves, beach chair, umbrella, seagulls. I can place them in relation to each other. I can add more details like the chair is blue. But I will never get a picture in my mind of it. I just know all the details and locations of them. I could tell someone and they could draw it. But for example I wasn’t even considering what type of chair it was just that it was a blue chair. I could get more detailed. But it would basically be like a script for an AI to create a scene.
@Kineticboy2K1
March 31, 2026 at 9:21 pm
@SludgeTube But like, you know what a blue chair looks like. I don’t understand how you can’t picture a blue chair. Doesn’t matter what kind of chair. If you’re thinking of it, then you know what it looks like. How can there not be an image of it in your mind? Ironically, I can’t imagine how that kind of mindscape works.
@chick-a-roo4860
April 1, 2026 at 10:06 am
@Kineticboy2K1😂 Honestly, when I hear that people can see things, it horrifies me.
People with aphantasia can understand concepts, in fact we work really well with concepts. The more we know about the concept, the more we can “imagine” without the imagery.
If some without aphantasia were asked to describe the world during the Jurassic era, without having a knowledge base of specific Jurassic era dinosaurs and plants etc. they could imagine but it may not be accurate, someone with aphantasia who has a vast knowledge of the Jurassic era will be able to come up with a more accurate description.
I don’t know if this will help, but it’s a little insight
Visual images are not necessary for imagination. Most of us with aphantasia have a common experience of assuming that “imagining” wasn’t just a phrase, not realizing that it was literal 😂
@SludgeTube
April 1, 2026 at 11:38 am
@Kineticboy2K1Yes I know what a blue chair looks like. Does a chair need a backrest? Does a chair need 4 legs? Does it have arms? Is it a navy blue chair? Baby blue? Is it wooden? Cloth?
There are so many types of blue chairs.
My mind does not pick a “blue chair” and that it would show me as a picture. When I think of “blue chair” it’s just the idea of a chair being blue. The more I think about the blue chair the more I will have to come up with details to fill in. But I hold all the details together in like an abstract picture I cannot see but know is there.
@christopherbeaudoin6793
March 31, 2026 at 12:03 am
This reminds me of dei but like because it’s smart
@KenTheAdventurer
March 31, 2026 at 2:28 am
This is the right way to promote diversity
@GenericGena
March 31, 2026 at 1:03 pm
Nobody is actually “seeing” anything… these are just thoughts about what something looks like. If you didn’t have those, you wouldn’t be able to identify anything you’ve ever seen before. This whole concept feels like it might be a communication error but I’m open to hearing about people’s experiences.
@SludgeTube
March 31, 2026 at 2:24 pm
It sounds like you might have aphantasia.
People definitely “see” a picture in their mind. How detailed and with color varies. Length of being able to view it also varies from a flash to people being able to rotate and change the image.
But the majority of people will be able to tell you instantly what color/no color their imaginary apple is because their brain gives them an image.
For me, my imaginary apple is a concept. I can pick details for it to have, I can even get the idea of the basic shape. But I cannot see it unless someone draws it. I would have to sketch out the shape multiple times if I wanted to draw it. Apple isn’t that complex of a shape.
My brother’s wife can change the room’s paint color in her mind if she wanted to and see the room like that in real life. It’s unbelievable to me.
But it’s no coincidence that “Imaginary” is related to Image.
Does counting sheep make sense to you? Like are you able to actually see the sheep and make them jump over the fence?