See, thinking is just a process of connecting things, of establishing relations between objects. Is a rational ability, but not the only one. The other is "feeling", which is not the same thing as sensation. It's the function that regulates the relations between objects and ourselves, and produces a negative or positive response based on this interaction. Feeling is of two types: extroverted or introverted. This difference is based on wether the "libido" is directed outwards, toward exterior objects, or inward. It has nothing to do with being shy, self conscious, or not. The libido is the psychological energy, upon which our ability to perform certain tasks depends. If it's directed outwards we are involved in public relations, we manipulate objects, we struggle to change the world ecc. If it's inwards, we don't interact directly with the world, but we do it through the mediation of a subjective factor, which can be our idea of the world, the sensations we feel in our body, in other words anything that is related to ourselves, to pur sense of self. Now, I'm telling you this bc your type of visualization seems built upon an introverted feeling. It's a feeling bc, you say, you don't see things. During this experiences you are completely unaware of the spatial relations between those objects, until you come in contact with them. The experience of their relation depends on your ability to structure it through their subsequent and continuos interaction with you. It's introverted bc of the necessity of your presence to form this architecture. That explains why your thinking seems to accelerate, if become more proficient, when you begin to exercise, do physical activity. You need to feel your body in order to think, bc your thinking is grounded on a subjective factor: you think through change, through the many expressions of how your sense of self changes. From this, you infere the change in the object that corresponds to that change you have felt in your body. This process evolves through a series of yes or no. You move, then the interaction with the object begins: if it generates a positive feedback, you go through, if not, the objects gets left behind, with all the rest of its possible features. This happens bc of that subjective factor, that forces the interaction into a process made of binary choices. That's why, probably, informatics and computer science is so intuitive for you. You thinking is literally shaped after that.

See, thinking is just a process of connecting things, of establishing relations between objects. Is a rational ability, but not the only one. The other is "feeling", which is not the same thing as sensation. It's the function that regulates the relations between objects and ourselves, and produces a negative or positive response based on this interaction. Feeling is of two types: extroverted or introverted. This difference is based on wether the "libido" is directed outwards, toward exterior objects, or inward. It has nothing to do with being shy, self conscious, or not. The libido is the psychological energy, upon which our ability to perform certain tasks depends. If it's directed outwards we are involved in public relations, we manipulate objects, we struggle to change the world ecc. If it's inwards, we don't interact directly with the world, but we do it through the mediation of a subjective factor, which can be our idea of the world, the sensations we feel in our body, in other words anything that is related to ourselves, to pur sense of self. Now, I'm telling you this bc your type of visualization seems built upon an introverted feeling. It's a feeling bc, you say, you don't see things. During this experiences you are completely unaware of the spatial relations between those objects, until you come in contact with them. The experience of their relation depends on your ability to structure it through their subsequent and continuos interaction with you. It's introverted bc of the necessity of your presence to form this architecture. That explains why your thinking seems to accelerate, if become more proficient, when you begin to exercise, do physical activity. You need to feel your body in other to think, bc your thinking is grounded on a subjective factor: you think through change, through the many expressions of how your sense of self changes. From this, you infere the change in the object that corresponds to that change you have felt in your body. This process evolves through a series of yes or no. You move, then the interaction with the object begins: if it generates a positive feedback, you go through, if not, the objects gets left behind, with all the rest of its possible fearures. This happens bc of that subjective factor, that forces the interaction into a process made of binary choices. That's why, probably, informatics and computer science is so intuitive for you. You thinking is literally shaped after that.

Thank you for your post! Decades ago, I first realized that other people had mental images in a way that I did not. At that time, the word "aphantasia" had not been coined, and I didn't find to much to refer to, but I did talk to people I knew about what I had discovered that was strange about me. I assumed I was not unique, but it took me more than 30 years to interact with anyone else who knew that they did not have visual imagery. The many visualizers I spoke with were somewhat curious about how someone might not be able to visualize. Because visualization was such a large part of their own mental processes, a couple of people wanted to know, if I didn't visualize, how did I think? That question was cause of much introspection on my part. The metaphor I came up with was somewhat like a cross between your description of imagining how your body feels if it were to make a specific movement and your description of imagining yourself as a "black fog of static entity" moving through a space you are trying to map. The metaphor I came up with about how I think is that I feel that I am in a completely black cave, feeling my way, twisting my body into shapes that I might not even be able to actually assume, finding connections that I am not ready to put into words. It's not really a verbal experience, except for brief feelings of "oh that!" or "this could belong with that!" But then, eventually, I feel ready to use my words to describe my thoughts. Perhaps related, when I had difficult technical issues to resolve, I often found it useful to set the problem aside, go for a walk, or maybe for a swim. It seemed as though the physical activity of walking or swimming shook loose some new ideas that eventually bubbled to the surface. So maybe that's why when I'm just thinking, but not moving, I have a sense of mentally moving my body, and most especially my hands, through some completely non-visual space.

See, thinking is just a process of connecting things, of establishing relations between objects. Is a rational ability, but not the only one. The other is "feeling", which is not the same thing as sensation. It's the function that regulates the relations between objects and ourselves, and produces a negative or positive response based on this interaction. Feeling is of two types: extroverted or introverted. This difference is based on wether the "libido" is directed outwards, toward exterior objects, or inward. It has nothing to do with being shy, self conscious, or not. The libido is the psychological energy, upon which our ability to perform certain tasks depends. If it's directed outwards we are involved in public relations, we manipulate objects, we struggle to change the world ecc. If it's inwards, we don't interact directly with the world, but we do it through the mediation of a subjective factor, which can be our idea of the world, the sensations we feel in our body, in other words anything that is related to ourselves, to pur sense of self. Now, I'm telling you this bc your type of visualization seems built upon an introverted feeling. It's a feeling bc, you say, you don't see things. During this experiences you are completely unaware of the spatial relations between those objects, until you come in contact with them. The experience of their relation depends on your ability to structure it through their subsequent and continuos interaction with you. It's introverted bc of the necessity of your presence to form this architecture. That explains why your thinking seems to accelerate, if become more proficient, when you begin to exercise, do physical activity. You need to feel your body in order to think, bc your thinking is grounded on a subjective factor: you think through change, through the many expressions of how your sense of self changes. From this, you infere the change in the object that corresponds to that change you have felt in your body. This process evolves through a series of yes or no. You move, then the interaction with the object begins: if it generates a positive feedback, you go through, if not, the objects gets left behind, with all the rest of its possible features. This happens bc of that subjective factor, that forces the interaction into a process made of binary choices. That's why, probably, informatics and computer science is so intuitive for you. You thinking is literally shaped after that.

See, thinking is just a process of connecting things, of establishing relations between objects. Is a rational ability, but not the only one. The other is "feeling", which is not the same thing as sensation. It's the function that regulates the relations between objects and ourselves, and produces a negative or positive response based on this interaction. Feeling is of two types: extroverted or introverted. This difference is based on wether the "libido" is directed outwards, toward exterior objects, or inward. It has nothing to do with being shy, self conscious, or not. The libido is the psychological energy, upon which our ability to perform certain tasks depends. If it's directed outwards we are involved in public relations, we manipulate objects, we struggle to change the world ecc. If it's inwards, we don't interact directly with the world, but we do it through the mediation of a subjective factor, which can be our idea of the world, the sensations we feel in our body, in other words anything that is related to ourselves, to pur sense of self. Now, I'm telling you this bc your type of visualization seems built upon an introverted feeling. It's a feeling bc, you say, you don't see things. During this experiences you are completely unaware of the spatial relations between those objects, until you come in contact with them. The experience of their relation depends on your ability to structure it through their subsequent and continuos interaction with you. It's introverted bc of the necessity of your presence to form this architecture. That explains why your thinking seems to accelerate, if become more proficient, when you begin to exercise, do physical activity. You need to feel your body in other to think, bc your thinking is grounded on a subjective factor: you think through change, through the many expressions of how your sense of self changes. From this, you infere the change in the object that corresponds to that change you have felt in your body. This process evolves through a series of yes or no. You move, then the interaction with the object begins: if it generates a positive feedback, you go through, if not, the objects gets left behind, with all the rest of its possible fearures. This happens bc of that subjective factor, that forces the interaction into a process made of binary choices. That's why, probably, informatics and computer science is so intuitive for you. You thinking is literally shaped after that.

Thank you for your post! Decades ago, I first realized that other people had mental images in a way that I did not. At that time, the word "aphantasia" had not been coined, and I didn't find to much to refer to, but I did talk to people I knew about what I had discovered that was strange about me. I assumed I was not unique, but it took me more than 30 years to interact with anyone else who knew that they did not have visual imagery. The many visualizers I spoke with were somewhat curious about how someone might not be able to visualize. Because visualization was such a large part of their own mental processes, a couple of people wanted to know, if I didn't visualize, how did I think? That question was cause of much introspection on my part. The metaphor I came up with was somewhat like a cross between your description of imagining how your body feels if it were to make a specific movement and your description of imagining yourself as a "black fog of static entity" moving through a space you are trying to map. The metaphor I came up with about how I think is that I feel that I am in a completely black cave, feeling my way, twisting my body into shapes that I might not even be able to actually assume, finding connections that I am not ready to put into words. It's not really a verbal experience, except for brief feelings of "oh that!" or "this could belong with that!" But then, eventually, I feel ready to use my words to describe my thoughts. Perhaps related, when I had difficult technical issues to resolve, I often found it useful to set the problem aside, go for a walk, or maybe for a swim. It seemed as though the physical activity of walking or swimming shook loose some new ideas that eventually bubbled to the surface. So maybe that's why when I'm just thinking, but not moving, I have a sense of mentally moving my body, and most especially my hands, through some completely non-visual space.