I haven’t had any image in my mind for as long as I can recall. However, some time ago I had an anxiety attack (first time) that involved delusions and after the attack ended I could imagine and visualize in FullHD. Everything went back to normal the next day and I haven’t been able to visualize since then (as usual), but I’m super curious about what might had happened and if anyone else has had an experience similar to mine.
No, but I had some serious panic attacks between the age of 30 and 50 and I didn’t tell anyone. For some reason, they go away after 50. For me, ninety-nine percent of the time panic attacks happened at night. Some times I would quietly slip out of bed and repeatedly throw cold water on my face inbetween pacing inside the house. Other times I would walk outside usually in the wee hours (3am) and when it was cold out. I don’t know what was worst, having the panic attack or being discovered that I was having a panic attack LoL. What kind of delusions were you experiencing? What were the visuals? Were you asleep or awake?
Yes, with psychedelics. Also, I dream in images.
What I’ve read so far is that dreams are a type of involuntary vision and that people with aphantasia commonly dream is vivid, life-like dreams.
I’m curious though about the psychedelic experience and how it might differ. Do you see entirely new images (dancing bears?) or is it more of a object breathing, bending, twisting kind of visual experience or both/something else entirely?
I’ve still never experienced visualization! Not in my dreams or anything. What was it like, when you had that brief experience? How would you describe it, as someone who doesn’t regularly visualize?
I also cannot recall having images. I sometimes get a brief glimpse of one that lasts less than a second, always of some landscape, never of a person.
However, in 1982, when I was age 40, I had an amazing episode of full color video that lasted several hours, keeping me awake for some time. I had conducted anthropological field research in Kenya from 1973-74, and the event happened during my first return to Kenya, for a few weeks. As it happened, there was a coup attempt just before I arrived. That had involved a lot of violence. I arrived the morning of the first day that martial law ended. Many people were in the street, restaurants, or bars. I joined them that evening and had a lot to drink. The next day I went to visit people at the University of Nairobi, and talked to some people. During the next week I visited the Loita Hills Masai community where I had done most of my research. People everywhere were talking freely about events in their lives and during the violence. One day, as I was in bed at my hotel, I had saw an extended parade of thousands of Kenyan people in many settings. This was like a documentary. I was seeing the faces and bodies of all of the Kenyan people whom I had ever seen.
This was during a time of high emotional arousal for me and for everybody else in Kenya.
