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If you have ever wondered what the elephant is, you know what the elephant is talking about.
I do not. No matter how descriptive the image, the story, or the text, I could not create any image in my head. 2% of people can’t do this either. This inability to visualize is called aphantasia.
I never knew that this mental imagery was one thing, until my daughter and I said that we and I had something in common with my wife and another daughter. Ask us to imagine a rainbow or a sunset and we will not see anything. We cannot create images on the heads of our objects, people, places or experiences. We cannot do these things in a place where others can imagine them. It is not a picture of past or future for people, memories or images. I thought it was just a phrase when people said, “Think of it in your mind.” I now realize that other people are seeing something in their head.
If you want to see what aphantasia looks like, look at the image of Apple. 
Now close your eyes and imagine an apple in your mind’s eye. If you do not see anything, you may have aphantasia.
See the Visual Image Questionnaire for more detailed testing.
(When people say that they can hear their voices in their heads, I realize that it was not just a train of thought, but my mind is silent.)
My response to learning that so many people can create visuals was “huh”. All my life I have lived thinking that the word “sight” means “think what this means,” but I could not “see.” Reading that other people see pictures in their heads is like learning that many people feel that I am lost. My whole life revolved around seeing the world in black and white and living in the same color as other people. (Besides, I often wake up remembering something special in my dreams.)
Disabled or property?
The inability to visualize seems to have weakened my mind or my imagination. I’m constantly thinking about new things – I don’t see (or hear) them as pictures.
I’m not sure what it is, I can’t do what others can do. Maybe I can blame him for my failure in sports? Or not being able to sing or dance? When my husband asked me what a person wears or what their home looks like, he probably explained why I was empty-handed. Or more importantly, why I could not imagine the expressive language in poetry or fiction.
Amazingly, the loss of what everyone seems to be able to do can explain how I think, understand and deal with information. Maybe this explains how I go about the creative process. When I wanted to describe an event, I did not take pictures of what the places or people looked like. Instead, my stories remind me of the facts surrounding the event.
It can also explain why pattern recognition and abstract thinking (conceptual thinking and non-physical ideas) are easier for me. I may not be distracted by the visual images of others. I only see raw data.
To make complex ideas, I often formulate ideas and concepts (but do not draw pictures.) I divide each section into ideas and concepts into simple steps. This helps me to simplify my thoughts so that I can explain them to myself first and then to others. 
Then I translate the illustration into words.
Sometimes the result is more than I can handle.
The way I handled the wire gave me (and probably other founders and other fields) a edge. So, how can others aphantasia Knowingly Armed with that? And is there anything you can learn from those who do not see us through their eyes?
(I think I could have benefited from the improved classroom curriculum if it had been available earlier. Or I could have taught how to visualize it. But what would it be?)
Pluses and Minuses
When I first heard about Auntasia, I thought we had a tendency to excel in certain areas and to avoid others. I was surprised to learn that someone with low or no visual imagery had already done research in the scientific and math industries. And the presence of hypertension (people with the opposite condition – with a very clear mental image) motivates people to work in the arts. The response and recovery from PTSD made me wonder if those memories are related to those who have difficulty seeing. (Here is a great future study for veterans’ administration.)
We are just beginning to understand
This latest recognition of afantasia as a neurological difference is ten years or more (although references in the literature date back to the 1890s) my guess is that science continues to investigate neurological diversity (brain differences between humans), we will survive. A broad understanding of how people experience, interact, and interpret the world in different ways. And understanding how it leads to different strengths, pattern recognition and problem solving. We may get more connections.
I was curious if anyone else could see the images on their heads.
let me know.
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