Hyperphantasia. My experience

I discovered that I had Hyperphantasia recently at the age of 74.

For many years, in fact for as long as I can Iremember, I have had images of many and varied things. These images appear to come from my brain to behind my eyes. They are very clear.

I have a thought and that thought immediately translates into an image. EG I might be thinking about something in the past like my mother and immediately a variety of images pop up about her. Or, I am planning something for the future and I actually live what will happen through visual images. These images have some colour and can move when necessary.

I paint and do mosaics which I think may be enhanced by the images I see.

It is comforting that there is a name for what I have and that there are other people like me.

If there is anyone else who would like to join this discussion with their experiences, I would love to join in.

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Neal White•recently•edited

My wife has hyperphantasia. She is sometimes troubled by bad dreams and memories, which feel completely real to her (sight, sound, and touch). She has said that at times, she wishes she had aphantasia like I do. I do think the difference between our subjective reality has caused communication difficulties. I'm the artist, not her. Interestingly, I can somehow sense what I'm imagining and can sketch what I can't actually see. I also have superior color matching skills with remembered colors. I can't see the color, but I "know" when it's right.