Im trying to figure out if I dream in pictures or not.. Im curious how you determined that you dream as if reading from a book compared to picturing something while dreaming and then waking to remember it as if reading from a book? I don't have the answer yet I'm trying to figure out how I dream since i found out I have Aphantasia but I'm not convinced in either direction yet.. I remember my dreams like a foggy memory and I know it was a dream but I dont yet know how I know that.. maybe my brain knows there was no visual component? but I can still think about how something looked in the dream, but did I just fill in the same contextual characteristics that I would if seeing something and remembering it later? Are my dreams pictures that I remember with Aphantasia later or are they picture free dreams that I treat like any other memory where I log the information and pull from it when i want to recall it?
Yes! math, physics and math some more.. I went into engineering because I hate memorization and I think it has something to do with aphantasia.
I had this conversation with my wife the other day.. I don't think I can smell or taste or hear things in my mind. I can also not picture in my mind. I definitely can think about the beat or tune of the music and I can hum it or sing it in my head with my internal dialogue "voice" but I cant hear it in its "natural sound". When i think of food I think of how it could taste but I don't taste it, my mouth waters and I get hungry and long for the food but I wouldn't describe it as tasting it at all. I do find I get itchy or uncomfortable in my skin when I see someone get hurt or think about touching a hot surface I get a body wide shiver of sorts sometimes. I don't think I'm feeling a burn but I definitely have a physical reaction to seeing someone else get hurt or thinking about putting my hand on a hot stove or getting a bad cut. Maybe that's a form of physical imagining?
Im in the same situation, just found out a week or so ago.. very odd to learn about.
I think I have full multi-sensory aphantasia but I do certainly have empathy and can easily feel the emotions of others (I cry in sad or touching movies, I relate heavily to characters in tragic circumstances, I cringe and feel uncomfortable if someone gets hurt (even sometimes feeling a not quite pain but very uncomfortable itchy feeling in my limb while watching someone else breaking or getting a cut or something.) Not sure if that helps or not but I feel that I am more connected to the physical and emotional pain of others and feel those things readily.. perhaps this is because of my lack of imagery. I am very present in the moment and so I take in all the information around me and really internalize it in the moment rather than letting my mind conjure up images of past of future.