In 1997, I was in college, studying Graphic Design. During one of my classes, the instructor began walking us through some visualization exercises. He started by asking each of us to close our eyes and imagine a tree. This was not the first time I had been asked to do such a thing. One cannot go through life for too long without running into dialogue such as “picture this”, “visualize that”, or “imagine it in your mind”. This was, however, the first time that my assumptions about thinking in pictures began to change.
Thinking in Pictures Is Not for Everyone
After he asked us to visualize a tree, he paused and then asked, “Everyone got it?” As I sat there in darkness trying to think of a tree, that question caught my attention. It implied that there was something to get… and that perhaps it took a moment for someone to “get” it. Then, for the first time in my life, I had the following thought: maybe thinking in pictures is the norm for some people. Maybe they can actually “see” a tree in their mind.
That was certainly not the experience I was having. There was no tree. I had a vague, distant thought of the concept of a tree but nothing more. This was normal for me. This is what I thought “picture this”, “visualize that”, or “imagine it” meant. I thought these were metaphors and a figure of speech. I began to wonder if people had a different experience.
As class went on, the instructor continued to ask us to visualize in different ways and I realized that other students in the room were having a vastly different experience than I was. The student sitting next to me, in particular, seemed to be much more engaged and interactive with his responses and participation.
When class ended, I leaned over to him and asked, “Could you actually see all of that in your mind like looking at a picture?”
“Yes,” he replied, “I could see all of it very vividly.”
After this, I asked everyone I knew if thinking in pictures was their norm, and quickly learned that most people could. Yet I noticed that the descriptions and information about their shared experiences differed.
Understanding the Nuances of Thinking in Pictures
I constructed some questions informally that would help me determine how and what people were seeing or not seeing in their minds. As I learned more about the many differences that people were experiencing, I added more questions to my list.
Over time, I developed my set of questions further, grouping them into categories. Since 2020 I have been more formally documenting my research via YouTube videos, podcasting, and have published the questions in my book titled Aphantasia and Beyond. I call my set of questions the Discovering Your Mind Protocol, which, not surprisingly, continues to evolve as my understanding of thinking in pictures evolves.
I have interviewed people of all ages, from all walks of life; with aphantasia, hyperphantasia, and everything in between. My questions about thinking in pictures evolved to include not only mental pictures, but also mental sounds, smells, tastes, sensations of touch, emotions, and more.
Having gained many insights from my research and conversations with people, my main takeaway from all of it is that we are all beautifully unique!
This is my bold and emphatic statement to the world!
We Are All Beautifully Unique
You are one of a kind! Nobody experiences all internal senses exactly the same way you do. Why do I consider this such an important message to share? Mainly because everyone on the planet tends to assume the exact opposite. It seems to be human nature to assume that our experience is everyone’s experience.
It took me until I was in college to realize that other people could actually “picture it” in their minds; that’s twenty plus years of assuming everyone was like me. There wasn’t even a good reason for me to make that assumption, other than it was my experience. Everything else pointed to a different conclusion. Frankly, a fairly obvious conclusion that I didn’t even consider until that day in class.
And yet, I am not alone in my delusions. Every single person I have ever “enlightened” about the subject of aphantasia and thinking in pictures has reacted in the same way—with absolute shock. Many people’s first reaction is disbelief. Many visualizers have a hard time believing that non-visualizers exist. Equally, some non-visualizers have a hard time believing the opposite.
Why are we so reluctant to believe that someone else could have a different experience in their mind than we do? Why is it so common to believe we are all the same, taking our personal internal experience and applying it to all humanity?
After my initial discovery, I asked my dad if he could see pictures in his mind. He answered, “Of course, everyone does.” He assumed that because thinking in pictures was his experience, it must be everybody’s.
Why was he so sure about something he couldn’t possibly be so sure about? I once listened to an audio recording of a guru that taught people about visualizing and manifesting. He smugly dismissed the idea that some people can’t visualize with this confident declaration: “I know I’m right… because you’re not so special that you’re the only human on the planet that can’t do this. Every single human on this planet can do this.”
Again, he is adamant about something he can’t possibly know.
The only mind we have ever experienced is our own, yet we’re so sure about what is happening in someone else’s mind.
We tend to judge other people, not by their experiences, but by our own. We judge others’ obesity based on our ability to stay thin. Similarly, we judge others’ tempers based on our ability to stay calm, and others’ weaknesses based on our strengths.
There is no possible way for us to know the complexities of someone else’s experiences. Understanding this will help us be more patient and forgiving with others. Learning about aphantasia has helped me see every person as wonderful and unique. If we could stop trying to put everyone in the same box, and instead study, explore, and embrace how beautifully different we all are, the world would change for the better.
Thinking in Pictures Doesn’t Apply to Everyone
I mentioned earlier that my dad had assumed that everyone could see pictures in their minds. What I didn’t mention is that he was a school teacher for over 25 years. He told me that knowing this information would have affected the way he taught. Other teachers and former teachers have said similar things.
One former teacher explained that when she learned that aphantasia was a thing, and that everyone was having different experiences, it amazed her. She learned that thinking in pictures for some people was like seeing a movie, while others in still images. Some visualized in great detail, others in vague detail, while some not at all. Some only experience smells, or sounds, and so on. She went on to say that she wishes she had known this information when she was teaching. Having taught literature, she assumed everyone mirrored her experience with the books they were reading and studying, thinking in pictures just as she did.
Once you delve into it, it really does affect communication and relationships in many ways on all sorts of different levels, whether it be with a personal relationship or a professional one.
Making Assumptions About How People Experience Information Can Be Troublesome
My brother-in-law is a gifted builder and handyman, rarely using plans when he builds something because he can do it all in his head. He told me that he used to get very frustrated with his employees when they needed plans or step-by-step instructions, expecting them to be able to do it the same way he did. He has since learned that thinking in pictures is not something everyone can do. They can’t just “picture it” like he can. As such, he is more patient with them.
My wife has hyperphantasia and is able to visualize in extreme detail. A better understanding of how completely different our internal experience is has helped us better understand each other and be more patient with each other.
I used to think that my wife was a major over-reactor. For example, if I said something that was gross or disgusting, she would have a huge negative reaction to it. Her reaction seemed to me to be over-the-top and unnecessary. That was, until I realized that she was actually seeing it, smelling it, feeling it, and tasting it. She was experiencing it completely in her mind. For me, they were just words, and I had already moved on. Simple but meaningful realizations, like this one, have made our relationship more complete and interesting.
On my podcast, I introduced my cousin, Sarah—who is highly visual—to aphantasia and the fact that not everyone visualizes in the same way. She could scarcely believe that thinking in pictures wasn’t something everyone could do, at first. By the end of our conversation, she keenly observed how not knowing about this had affected her communication style and relationships.
Of her relationship with her husband, she said, “Our communication has been a rough road. I expect him to be able to see what I’m describing and explaining, and remember the things that I’m saying and understand them the way that I’m explaining them. And he has repeatedly said to me, ‘I’m sorry, I just don’t get it. I don’t see it. It doesn’t make sense to me.’ And so I feel like he’s intentionally choosing to play stupid so he doesn’t have to do what I say.”
“I’m thinking back on so many conflicts and issues that my husband and I have had in conversations and communication and recognizing that this was probably part of the problem. It was playing a role and I didn’t know it. If I had known it, I would have handled it very differently. Moving forward, I think I’m going to handle it very differently and have a lot more patience with him and be better at the words I use to describe things or the way that I communicate with him. There is a real strong possibility that my husband does not see things the way that I do. I need to go and apologize.”
I have another friend who has hyperphantasia who is a volunteer football coach for youth. He expressed to me some frustration he was having with a couple of his players because they were having trouble remembering the plays. He went on to explain that he can visually pull up the playbook in his mind and look at it. “Maybe they can’t do that,” he said.
I assured him that I was 99% sure that those few players could not visualize the playbook, and that thinking in pictures was not their experience at all.
Before our discussion, he had simply chalked it up to laziness. Now he has more options to consider. To me, that’s a win. It’s worth having these discussions. As teachers, bosses, employees, coaches, parents, and friends, we can open our minds to more possibilities when we realize these differences. Maybe it’s not laziness or incompetence. Maybe it’s just how things are.
I asked my friend, Ellis, how learning about aphantasia has affected how he communicates with others.
He said, “It’s created a curiosity in me as to how people think. Instead of thinking that this person is dumb or an idiot, it’s, oh, they just see things differently. Their tools are different. Before, I would have defaulted to frustration. Not that I still don’t get frustrated because I certainly do, but there’s an explanation now for why we’re not communicating.”
“I think we are kind of hardwired to think that our experience is the same as everybody else’s. How much more effective could we be as a parent, as a leader, as a coworker, as a husband, as a wife, or whatever, if we would, through some natural curiosity, find out how those people that we need to communicate with process, how they think, how they learn, I think that would simplify our lives through just a little bit of natural curiosity.”
How Often Do We Really Think About How We Think?
Beyond understanding that the people around you are beautifully unique, exploring and discovering how your own mind works can be life-changing. Although we have been with our thoughts and our minds from the get-go, we tend not to pay much attention to them. Most of us have never stopped to think about how we think. We just do it.
As one person I interviewed put it, “You’re asking me questions that I’ve never really consciously paid attention to.”
Some people are disappointed and upset when they discover that they have aphantasia. This is valid. Some feel insecure about being different.
In an interview I did with a musician with aphantasia, she expressed her insecurities about her process.
As I am a graphic designer with aphantasia, I can’t do any of the designing in my mind. I do it in real life on the computer. So, I asked her if composing music was similar for her. She answered, “Yeah. This is something I’m trying to accept about myself. I have always composed at the keyboard, at the piano. There are stories of Beethoven going on a walk and composing a whole symphony in his mind. I really don’t like to hear about that, because that’s impossible for me. ‘That’s not my method of working, and that’s okay,’ I have to say that to myself every day.”
I told her that I’m glad that she’s different. She does it in her way, and it works, creating astounding compositions and filling life with meaning. We don’t need another Beethoven. We need her; her authentic, glorious way of composing and creating.
How Understanding Aphantasia Has Helped Me Embrace My Own Uniqueness
Personally, finding out about aphantasia has been a huge blessing in my life. Not only has it given me a fun thing to research and learn about, it has also helped me understand who I am; how I learn, communicate, and how I create. It has helped me understand why I can do what I can do and why I’m good at what I’m good at. I now embrace who I am and appreciate my uniqueness. I’m certain it has done the same, and more, for countless others.
Although my research has led me to believe that a “mind’s eye” is like a fingerprint—no two are alike—I still occasionally find myself thinking that other people with aphantasia must be like me. This too is false. Some of us hear, smell, or taste in our minds. Some don’t. There are aphants who love to read while others don’t. Some struggle with memory. Well, you get the picture.
The point is… be you. Discover your mind. Embrace it. Create the way you create. Design the way you design. Imagine the way you imagine. Solve problems the way you solve problems. It’s not a mistake. It’s just as it should be.
We are beautifully unique!
