i do the same but my “visualization” is very very strange, i don’t see things as much as i feel them and just know stuff like colour and texture and whatnot, and it’s fairly low fidelity most of the time (like a low res image scaled up so it’s blurry but still recognizable), but at the same time it… feels like i see things in my mind?
I think the best way i can explain it is like if you could feel colours when touching them, and i’m running my hands over a relief print of things. It’s not vision but it’s also basically the same.
like i said it’s weird and that’s just the closest approximation, what i actually experience is more of an extra sense akin to proprioception but that sense is itself hard to notice if you’re not familiar with it (proprioception is how you know where your limbs are, so you can touch your fingers without seeing them). I’m not literally experiencing a sense of touch when i imagine things.
And i don’t literally see anything overlaid ontop of my regular vision with my eyes open, if i close my eyes and try to visualize things i can manage a faint silhouette against the weird noise you see when it’s completely dark, and i can make it move and change to a minor degree.
But if i imagine a pipe curving to the left it’s like a 3d model in a computer without a display, i’m not seeing it but at the same time it’s very much there and i can… see it without seeing it? It doesn’t make any more sense to me either, it’s kind of a baffling thing when i pay attention to it like this…
I’m not just omnisciently aware of the thing i’m imagining, it’s very much from a normal perspective, but it’s sorta like it’s a wireframe model so i can also see the rear side of things, and again that’s just the best way i can think of to try to explain how the actual experience is…
And all this is on a separate mental… channel? display? that i can overlay on reality if i want, which is when it really becomes an extension of proprioception because i can “feel” the thing(s) around me despite not seeing jack diddly squat.
I should also note that i have pretty good audio imagination, if i’m in a completely silent room my mind is basically an mp3 player, it feels like i’m replaying things in perfect fidelity though if i pay a bit of attention to it i do notice that it’s pretty obviously not actually perfect fidelity, it’s just what my brain thinks perfect fidelity sounds like, which is a pretty wild thing to experience. My brain is studying itself and giving itself criticism…
I know the names of streets I need to take and the direction of travel I should be heading on those streets.
I know my city like I know the back of my hand. Which streets connect, which streets have which landmarks, and the general direction from the city center of where those landmarks are.
By combining all of these facts I can logic my way through where I am from almost anywhere in the city.
I also use pictures,but I have a 2d map in my head of my entire city, it’s relatively vague in areas I don’t go to often but most of the time I pick a location on my map and just instantly know the way there
There is literally nothing inside my head. Pitch blackness. Just a void of information that I can piece together to get an idea.
Like “I know X business is on the Southside of town and on Y Street. I know Y Street connects to ##HWY. The highway runs E-W, and these streets that run N-S connect to ##HWY…” So on and so forth until I have a connected path from point A to Point B.
It’s fascinating that people are like this. Like how do you have ideas? If I’m going to make something I can kinda see what I want it to be in my head. Or when I try to go to sleep by just imagining scenarios and things.
The ideas just lack visual/auditory components. its all just concepts and intangible information.
Like when I draw, I know how I want it to turn out as well. I just don’t “see” any of it until I put it on paper but all the logic behind why I want it that way is still there. I know what I want to convey through the art and what will let me do that. I know what objects I want to be in the image. I know the general color palette and style I want to draw in to convey a specific mood. The metaphors, allegories, or any other references I want to make.
Sleeping fucking sucks. It’s just laying in the dark listening to ambient noises for hours waiting until the moment the world skips a beat and I’m waking back up. Sometimes my mind runs on its own but it isn’t really “imagining” anything more just running logic scenarios, endlessly speculating the "What if?"s about all my life’s regrets but that’s not really healthy and just keeps me up longer.
Imagine you “see” the map but you don’t see it at all, even in your head. You just ‘feel’ the way to go, like “I recognise this curve, I think I know this is the right way”.
I can’t even picture the apple, much less make it do something.
Y’all who have pictures in your heads are fucking weird. /j
How do you remeber how to get somewhere? I picture all the turns I need to take.
i do the same but my “visualization” is very very strange, i don’t see things as much as i feel them and just know stuff like colour and texture and whatnot, and it’s fairly low fidelity most of the time (like a low res image scaled up so it’s blurry but still recognizable), but at the same time it… feels like i see things in my mind?
I think the best way i can explain it is like if you could feel colours when touching them, and i’m running my hands over a relief print of things. It’s not vision but it’s also basically the same.
So. If you visualise like a curve you feel the curve bend to the left or right rather than see it? Like touching the surface with your hands?
like i said it’s weird and that’s just the closest approximation, what i actually experience is more of an extra sense akin to proprioception but that sense is itself hard to notice if you’re not familiar with it (proprioception is how you know where your limbs are, so you can touch your fingers without seeing them). I’m not literally experiencing a sense of touch when i imagine things.
And i don’t literally see anything overlaid ontop of my regular vision with my eyes open, if i close my eyes and try to visualize things i can manage a faint silhouette against the weird noise you see when it’s completely dark, and i can make it move and change to a minor degree.
But if i imagine a pipe curving to the left it’s like a 3d model in a computer without a display, i’m not seeing it but at the same time it’s very much there and i can… see it without seeing it? It doesn’t make any more sense to me either, it’s kind of a baffling thing when i pay attention to it like this…
I’m not just omnisciently aware of the thing i’m imagining, it’s very much from a normal perspective, but it’s sorta like it’s a wireframe model so i can also see the rear side of things, and again that’s just the best way i can think of to try to explain how the actual experience is…
And all this is on a separate mental… channel? display? that i can overlay on reality if i want, which is when it really becomes an extension of proprioception because i can “feel” the thing(s) around me despite not seeing jack diddly squat.
I should also note that i have pretty good audio imagination, if i’m in a completely silent room my mind is basically an mp3 player, it feels like i’m replaying things in perfect fidelity though if i pay a bit of attention to it i do notice that it’s pretty obviously not actually perfect fidelity, it’s just what my brain thinks perfect fidelity sounds like, which is a pretty wild thing to experience. My brain is studying itself and giving itself criticism…
I know the names of streets I need to take and the direction of travel I should be heading on those streets.
I know my city like I know the back of my hand. Which streets connect, which streets have which landmarks, and the general direction from the city center of where those landmarks are.
By combining all of these facts I can logic my way through where I am from almost anywhere in the city.
Not the person you’re replying to.
I also use pictures,but I have a 2d map in my head of my entire city, it’s relatively vague in areas I don’t go to often but most of the time I pick a location on my map and just instantly know the way there
Yea this absolutely is not how it works for me.
There is literally nothing inside my head. Pitch blackness. Just a void of information that I can piece together to get an idea.
Like “I know X business is on the Southside of town and on Y Street. I know Y Street connects to ##HWY. The highway runs E-W, and these streets that run N-S connect to ##HWY…” So on and so forth until I have a connected path from point A to Point B.
It’s fascinating that people are like this. Like how do you have ideas? If I’m going to make something I can kinda see what I want it to be in my head. Or when I try to go to sleep by just imagining scenarios and things.
The ideas just lack visual/auditory components. its all just concepts and intangible information.
Like when I draw, I know how I want it to turn out as well. I just don’t “see” any of it until I put it on paper but all the logic behind why I want it that way is still there. I know what I want to convey through the art and what will let me do that. I know what objects I want to be in the image. I know the general color palette and style I want to draw in to convey a specific mood. The metaphors, allegories, or any other references I want to make.
Sleeping fucking sucks. It’s just laying in the dark listening to ambient noises for hours waiting until the moment the world skips a beat and I’m waking back up. Sometimes my mind runs on its own but it isn’t really “imagining” anything more just running logic scenarios, endlessly speculating the "What if?"s about all my life’s regrets but that’s not really healthy and just keeps me up longer.
Imagine you “see” the map but you don’t see it at all, even in your head. You just ‘feel’ the way to go, like “I recognise this curve, I think I know this is the right way”.
Like that.
We literally have a glance at a map to chain together and cache “two blocks ahead, left, cross and [look] west”
like how do I know if I can actually picture it or not
Perform the following request. Only when you have done so, reveal the question that is hidden under the spoiler tag and answer as best you can.
— Imagine a ball in your mind. Hold it clearly as you can in your mind.
Got it? Now answer the following…
spoiler
What color is the ball?
If the question doesn’t make sense, you might have some form of aphantasia and do not have visual imagination.