[stevebmark]

I wonder about this too, and what's interesting is it seems very difficult to objectively say if people perceive things "visually" in their mind's eye. I can imagine a flat gray 5 pointed star in my mind, and of course there's not a visual experience like my eyes, it's more of an imagination of the visualization of seeing.

I also wonder if this is a trainable skill. Some people think being able to roll their Rs is genetic, or being able to curl their tongue, however there is no genetic component to these, they're both trainable.

When I close my eyes and imagine something visually, I'm shutting off the attention to the blackness my closed eyes are seeing. I ignore that input pathway into my brain. It feels like my center of consciousness moves up/above my eyes, or recedes behind my eyes, into my brain, and this is where I'm able to craft visual images. Do folks with aphantasia over focus on the blackness / input from their eyes, trying to make something appear in that visual pathway, and it's a matter of training?

I think what's difficult for me is that the ability to visualize something feels like an inherent part of how the mind works. I'm skeptical that people are "wired differently" outside of genetic disorders, injuries and schizophrenia. We all have brains with the same number of lobes, we all have a limbic system, hormones, consciousness. There's certainly variations in degrees of experience, and the core wiring is the same.