DKB

“It occurred to me if a person reacts to kinetic, instead of visual (or taste and smell) clues then a guided visualization or guided hypnosis tape wouldn’t work very well. You would need to have someone (hypnotist) to be present to touch you…to hypnotize you with physical manipulation.”That had also occurred to me. However, I am not sure that it is an issue. If I were to try an induction with you (or you with me) that instructed the subject to “imagine a red ball” we know that would not work. If, however, I were to instruct you to “imagine the feeling of holding a ball. Now imagine you toss the ball over your shoulder”. I am guessing you would be able to describe the shape of the ball (round or football) and the texture, etc.Perhaps I could suggest a classic and simple kinetic meditation technique. Sit comfortably in a darkened, quite room. Focus your attention as completely as you are able on your breathing. Breath in through your nose slowly. Then breath slowly out through your mouth. Follow the feeling of the air with your mind as it travels in, around, and out. If any words show up in your mind, refocus on your breathing. Do this at least 5min a day for a week.I, personally believe that hypnosis is a meditative state. And meditation is simply non-directed hypnosis. Once you are able to enter the meditative state with little trouble, consider that your induction. Then you could try a recording of instructions coached in kinetic terms to deepen your state, and finally, to achieve a goal. Keep the goal simple to start. Something like remembering the texture of a toy you had as a child.Good luck.

Hi; I am new to this Aphantasia idea. It would seem to explain a lot. Like some of you, I never learned to spell adequately as the visualization techniques used to teach it were wasted on me. I can not visualize a face, not even my Mothers. I have come to realize that I too would make a particularly lousy witness.Among other things, I am a trained Hypnotherapist. Which is why I am replying to this thread. My mentor was a particularly gifted therapist. In her technique you start the session with a few unimportant questions, the purpose of which is for the therapist to learn what is the “dominate sensory mode” of the subject. You note if a person uses answers containing phrases like “I can see” (visual), “I feel” (kinetic or touch), “It sounded to me like” (auditory), or “it just did not smell right” (olfactory). Then you would tailor the session to match their dominate mode. In the session you watched eye movements, changes in skin tone, breathing, etc to gain clues as to if you were having success, and build on it when you did. So, in my humble opinion, those of you who had a Hypnotist just assume visualization would work well with everyone, well, there’s your problem. It is also the basis for the view of Aphantasia I am leaning toward: that there may well be several versions of Aphantasia. Consider this. Just because you can not visualize well, does not mean that your dominate mode will be the same as anyone else who can not visualize well. Perhaps you are primarily an auditory person while I am primarily a kinetic person. It would do me little more good to try and rely on auditory ques to learn, or be hypnotized, than it does for you to rely on visualization. As I said, I am new to all this, so there is no guarantee that I am not completely wrong in this. But, I would propose an experiment; Self analize what is the mode of experiencing the world that has the strongest resonance with you Find a “Guided Hypnosis” or “Guided visualization” that you generally like and “translate” it to your more effective mode using "felt", or "heard", or "moved" instead of "saw". Record this translation in your own voice, or get someone who has a good storytelling voice to record it for you. In a dark space, or with a sleep mask on, in a relaxed posture, give this translation a try for at least 15 min a day for a week and see what happens.Alternately, you could seek out a form of meditation that relies on other than visual ques. If you can find it, there is an excellent book (probably out of print now) titled “Richard Hittleman's 30 Day Yoga Meditation Plan” that is a sampler of many different meditation techniques using some differing modes. I’d be interested to see how/if any of this works for others, especially you kenetic types like me.