Don Morris

I will be 70 in 2021. I am a lifelong visual aphantasiac (VVIQ score=16/80), but I dream while asleep or almost asleep, sometimes quite vividly. I do not hear, taste, or smell in my imagination either. But I can imagine pain--when I was a kid I dreaded going to the doctor in case I had to get a shot. I would feel the jab of the needle over and over, and it was always worse than the actual pain of the shot. I still don't like it, but I don't flinch an more. I have an internal dialogue, and can plan what I want to say or write silently. I have great difficulty recognizing faces. I am also visually impaired with a genetic condition that is progressive. My two siblings who are also visually impaired are also aphantasiac , and my siblings with normal vision are not, so I wonder if there is a causal connection. I have known I was different than most people since I was 19 (1971). I had a psychology professor who told a story about a girl coming out of her house, jumping down steps, crossing the road, climbing a fence, and running across a field. When he finished the story he asked "What color was her hair?" About half the class said blonde! Half the rest said brunette, and a few said red=-haired. 10-15% did not see any certain color. Many could tell you how many steps were on he house, what kind of fence the girl climbed over, how old she was, what she was wearing, what was growing in the field, what the sky looked like, etc. After several questions like this the teacher said "How many of you don't know what we're talking about?" Me and one other person across the room (there were about 100 students) raised our hands. He called it analog and digital imagery, and said it is on a spectrum. I have never been able to find any information on this condition until today. So glad to find this group!