[j_bum]

Awesome!

When I explain it to people, I always ask them to close their eyes and picture an apple on a table. I then ask them what color the apple is. Everyone I’ve ever done this with (except a sibling) answers a color.

I then say, “to me, there is no color, no apple, no table, no outline; nothing.” Always a leads to fun discussion :)

[instagib]

you’re supposed to be able to make an image of an apple appear in your brain by thinking about it? Sounds nice.

Well that was a fun side quest for the evening. One thing I read is aphantasia is common among siblings also.

[haswell]

> you’re supposed to be able to make an image of an apple appear in your brain by thinking about it?

This is very similar to how I reacted when I started reading “When the Mind’s Eye is Blind” [0] one day.

Up to that point (I think I was 31 at the time) I had always believed that when people talked about “visualizing” something, it was just a figure of speech. I didn’t realize people meant it literally.

30+ years of situations suddenly clicked and it was like a bomb of realization went off in my brain.

- [0] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-the-minds-ey...

[instagib]

I suppose this is why the mind palace of memory is difficult for me to utilize.

I have read that eskimos lost in the snow and ice have been able to have day hallucinations visually as well auditory. They see and hear birds which do not exist.

A YouTuber simulated it with thick white paper taped to his head with white noise playing head phones after 15-30min, iirc.

Another avenue to look into aside from hallucinogens as referenced in the link could be deep meditation.

[haswell]

My inability to do the mind palace thing is one of those things that suddenly made sense to me.

I've gone deep down a meditation rabbit hole since learning about all of this. No visual imagery yet, but I do see what I would have to describe as a non-specific shimmering/morphing "wave" that comes and goes. Nothing that I could describe as an image of something, but visual phenomena nonetheless.

[oaththrowaway]

I'll have to use that next time!