I unlocked visualization

1 min readByRavi M.

Hi All. I also have aphantasia. However, I wanted to share that a small number of times in my life, when doing certain activities, I was able to unlock the ability to visualization. Furthermore, when this happened, the imagery was vivid and intuitively controllable. The activities that led to this unlocking were (1) running and (2) hot yoga.

This is significant for a number of reasons. Perhaps others may have some luck as well with unlocking visualization with such activities. If anyone else has been able to unlock the ability in other ways, I'd love to hear about that as well.

In general though, it suggests that the activities (running and hot yoga) are having some effect on the brain that makes mental imagery work. This implies that people with aphantasia may actually be able to unlock mental imagery. It also may provide a valuable way of studying the difference in brain activity when mental imagery is occurring, and when it is blank.

I welcome any thoughts on the above.

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Jennifer Durante•recently•edited

The only time I have visualized anything is in a spiritual manner. Has happened when I am very relaxed - when having a massage or when laying in bed before sleep when my mind is quiet. I have seen images — more like illustrations - white outline on black but clearly a face. My brother (also with multi sensory aphantasia) described having similar visions. The images come at me fast and there is no time to assess if it is a person I know, except this one time. I saw images one afternoon in a massage and the next morning when I was waking it happened again and my friend's mom was the last image I saw - I had only met her a couple of times but I just knew it was her. It turns out she was in the hospital and my friend - who I was with on vacation - did not know yet. I thought these spiritual experiences were insanely unique because I had no idea that other people could visualize. Funny to think about now how my excitement at seeing these images must have sounded to everyone else who can always see images!

Jennifer McDougall•recently•edited

That's an interesting experience to share — thanks for posting. It's worth noting that running and yoga both involve high levels of interoceptive awareness, which is scientifically linked to imagery vividness. That said, there's currently no evidence that these activities can "unlock" mental imagery for those with congenital aphantasia. If you're curious to dig deeper, you can explore our AI research assistant (aphantasia.com/chat) — it pulls from verifiable sources in our aphantasia research library.

Neal White•recently•edited

In my case, it feels like the mental image is there, but I can't see it. It's like I can't switch off the input from my closed eyes, which overrides my mind's eye with real-world data that just happens to be solid black. On rare occasions, I can sometimes see through the black, such as when I have a lucid dream. Even so, the images are fleeting, more like glimpses instead of continuous movement.

Heather Namias•recently•edited

I can relate to this whole message. Sometimes right before I drift to sleep, I too get hazy like glimpses of subtle movement of bodies, like different scenes from random movies flashing through but very vaguely and whimsy. I think these were possibly just the beginnings of dreams though. There have been other times in which I specifically intended to meditate and visualise, and during these few times I can conjure very simple shapes. I see first a triangle, then a circle imposed upon that, & then either the star of David or a pentacle, but that's as far as I get.

Jennifer Durante•recently•edited

Same for me. I know the image exists in the back of my mind somewhere… "I know an apple exists." I too have seen through the black on a couple of occasions. I saw my dog who had passed. Everything turned white (she was a white dog) and she was outlined in black/gray as if in the clouds surrounded by the outline of palm trees. Even though the scene was not clear I immediately knew it was my parent's backyard looking up at the sky, one of her happy places.

Josh Camden•recently•edited

Is this an advertisement? Skipping the anecdotal evidence for a moment, please reference any related studies.

Ravi M.•recently•edited

Not an advertisement. This was my personal experience and I am unaware of formal research studies that cover this. However, I thought it was a useful data point for others and for further research. And in fact, perhaps some out there may want to even try such activities to see if it gets unlocked for them.