Max Barber

I am constantly amazed to find out new things about my mind.  I found it incredible when I first heard of Aphantasia in 2014, but to now hear about hypnopompic hallucinations is another level.  I have had these for years, always just when I am completely relaxed, before sleep or upon waking.  I would like to understand more as they have a certain pattern.  I am always moving, no idea how, but usually just drifting along with houses or people on either side, I cannot control this movement, and if I try, the whole effect disappears.  then I can hear people or voices, but have no way to interact with them.  It is very surreal, I would be very interested to know if anyone else has similar hallucinations?  To be honest, as a complete Aphantitasic, I find it amazing just looking at all the "photographic" like images in my mind.

I find it weird people not believing that it was possible to enjoy reading if you were unable to visualize the characters and events.  Having been completely Aphantasic all my life (I believe), and having read books all my life, I would say back to them that I can't believe it is possible to enjoy flying unless you have piloted a fighter jet (or something similar)!  My point is, as I have never been able to visualise anything, I live my life in the acceptance of what I have, and cannot miss something I have never had.  I have never found myself saying 'if only I could visualise this!' as I don't know what that would be like. The only constructive thing I can add to this is the issue I often have with reading, is when there are too many characters, I often have to keep a list, with brief notes to help me remember who is who.

I kind of know what you mean, I guess because we cannot visualise anything we are just relying on our memory. For instance, Sixth Sense, I know he's dead (plot reveal :) ), and a few of the other details of the film, for example the people hanging in the school (I think), and about his wife, but as I watch it I generally don't remember whats going to happen.Question: Same or different for reading a book that is not so visual?

This is an interesting question, much like most Aphant related ones as we all grasp to understand our minds that are not as we have been led to believe all our lives.I was recently discussing Aphantasia with a friend who is a non-aphant and she was asking if I had ever been in love. I replied that of course I had, i've been with my partner for over 30 years after all! But the more she described what she believed as the fellings of being in love, the more I wondered if I ever really had been in love at all, or if I actually just believed I had, because that was what other people did.Do I have a sex drive? Yeah, of course I do, but maybe not as pronounced as other people, I enjoy sex, but it is not something I strive for in life.Can I fantasise about sex? That's an issue, not really, in about the same way as I can imagine anything without actually seeing it in my mind. One interesting thing I have found is that I find audio pornography more arousing than video pornography, bit of a shame that it is so hard to find (ooh-err madam!).

I love this! At last, some humour. I always enjoy looking in a mirror these days and exclaiming out loud " My goodness I had no idea I was so good looking!"I usually try to describe it to my friends as like seeming the HTML text of a web page rather than the web page. You may need to be a bit techy to understand, but essentailly I can't see pictures, but when I try to think of someone I kinda know what they look like although I cannot see them.Oh, hold on, there's a mirror here, wow, I really am good looking...

Hi Jennifer, I think that is the one, although I thought I read it in 2015, but maybe I am wrong as I have googled it again and I cannot find anything else that rings a bell.

Hi there, firstly, a great looking website and some good looking swag, I hope you ship to the UK!I first found conclusively that I had aphantasia in 2015. I had known I had something for a few years before that, but did not know what. Whenever I had some spare time (like today!) I used to hit google and try and find what it was, but the results always leaned towards 'face blindness', but I knew that wasn't what I had because when I saw someone I recognised them, it was only when I couldn't see them that the problems occured. How many times have I lost my wife in the aisles of a supermarket and gone looking down for her only to realise I had no idea what she was wearing.I only put a name to it when I found an article from someone big in the tech industry (Amazon or Google or Facebook? I can't remember now), I was so happy reading the article thinking Oh wow, this is me! Then soon after, as I wrote in my introduction on this site, I found that my daughter has it too.Since then I have found two friends who may have aphantasia too, but they showed no interest more than 'yeah, same here' when I asked them to close their eyes and try to picture their wife or children.I find the whole subject really interesting and would love to explore it more. I have done two questionaires for university studies, one here in the UK and one in US, but never heard anything much back, seemed like they just wanted to collect data, not discuss it. I am so interested in what differences it creates between us and visulisers!