Stef Smith

Frame it.

That blows my mind!

Brains - what a crazy place to be!

Rewatching Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark. Remember when we all agreed that Nazis were the bad guys?

Can you ‘see’ the images that are baked into your brain? Or do you just ‘know’ what they are? I know certain strong memories and feel their emotional impact, but can’t see them, but I could describe them. So bizarre!

That’s such an interesting perspective!!

Yes totally. So while awake I see nothing - total black. While asleep - WHEN/IF I dream (I don’t always) it’s incredibly vivid visuals/images. Often it can be so strong that if I’ve seen a loved one in my dream I’ll wake up and have been crying. You? How do you dream?

Am getting the newsletters already, agree they’re great!

The gift that keeps on giving!

Can someone turbo-charge carrots to replace a part of our brains that doesn’t function? Yes please!

And over, and over, and over…

Hahaha how did your mum react when you told her? Any small comfort in the fact that apparently only 2-4% of the population DON’T see things? I think it must be higher because there are still so many people that don’t know they don’t. Like me. Only last year.

I’ve not done drugs so can’t comment on that but I was hospitalised with post op complications and injected with hydromorphone multiple times a day for 10 days - I started to see horrible visions/hallucinations. It was really scary!

It did make me sad when I discovered it and could name it as a deficit - something I was missing out on. Like a party I wasn’t invited to all these years! I’ve always had a fear of losing sight and not being able to remember/picture the faces of my loved ones anymore.

This sounds like the exact opposite experience of my brain. Isn’t that incredible! That brains can function in such vastly different fashions.

How did you discover it? And how did it make you feel? I felt sad.

Meditation gives me the shits!!! I think aphantasia might be why. You? Can you persist and meditate?

Similar experience for me. Nada on being awake - just black. On dreaming - (IF I dream) very visual.

I’ve wondered what this might be like! Do you find it incredibly invasive?

I was the same! Isn’t it funny how words and their interpretations can leave so much room for personal experience and/or error! All this time I thought it was just some creative imaginative exercise.

I was 37. I could always dream very visually, and would often wake up with dried tears on my face. It was the Christmas my Grandma died (last year), I was talking to my kids and somehow internal imagery came up - and they can see. I just couldn’t understand it at all. So I turned to Dr Google!

Can you recall if you can see images when you dream?

Similar for me! I’m a writer/director and have to take a similar approach - hope like f**k that it works out. How often does what you’re envisioning come out the same way?

This sounds like a really good way to keep a wandering brain (like mine) on track. Thank you for the tip! I’m sorry for the TMI. I hope you’ve recovered. Did it feel sad to lose the images?

I wonder about that too.

Even recently I told a doctor about it and she wouldn’t believe me either. But she ALSO couldn’t see things, so her perception was that people who could see were lying. Not that we were missing out. Interesting response!

Totally! “Picture” an apple, “imagine” a beach, “visualise” a tree. I thought they were all just words for making shit up!!

Your experience sounds very similar to mine in terms of aphantasia. I’m a TERRIBLE reader. My mind wanders and then I’ve lost track of everything. Do you ever miss anything with speed reading?

Mine was my Christmas discovery last year. We were talking about something random and I realised my kids could SEE things, INSIDE their brains!?! The idea baffled me! How did you find out?

Isn’t it weird to discover!! I felt a bit sad. But it made sense too? How did you feel?