Lynne Chapman

I've wondered how hypnosis and aphantasia might work. Even if you can, as you describe, get past the conscious visualisation barriers on the way into a hypnotic state, can an aphantasic summon their past life in the same way as a phantasic, if they don't have visual memories of people, places and happenings to access? Or is hypnosis finding a way into the same stash of hidden visualisations that dreaming would seem to access?

The more I think about it, the more I believe that having aphantasia (although not an extreme version) has impacted on my life in many different ways. I am sure there is a link between visual images and holding onto memories in general and that this links to my lack of memory of my past - I remember almost nothing that wasn't either captured in photographs, or associated with some kind of emotional issue. I am also convinced that the inability to visually 'map' my environment is the reason why I have no sense of direction and cannot easily navigate between places in my local area, unless they are well-trod routes. I can't map the interiors of buildings either, so get lost in a strange space almost immediately I turn a corner (or go into a loo for instance). I also realise that aphantasia is the reason I could never do mentally arithmetic, despite being pretty good at maths. I can't see the sums in my head. Same reason why I can't really play chess - it's hopeless if you can't visualise future moves, because you can only think about one or two moves ahead before it's all a mush. I am also a visual artist, who never understood how other artists claimed to paint from memory. All my work is very 'in the present' and I specialise in urban sketching - capturing life, from life, 'live' as it happens. When I'm in the studio, I paint abstracts, which are purely instinctive expressions of mark-making and have no recourse to past life experiences, because I cannot summon the images to work with.

I found I could see much the same in both. I could see what I wanted to see somehow, depending on how I chose to look, if that makes sense. I got better at 'looking' by the 2nd time and so could perceive more of the blue animals, which tended to be dominated by the red when I first looked. I can't say that picturing the colours made much difference, though I was able to picture them in my mind, sort of (the red was a easier than the blue to imagine).