Where Does “Immersive but Non-Visual” Imagery Fit?

I’ve had a clarification about my imagery that might be useful for others who feel misclassified by standard aphantasia questionnaires. When I imagine a scene (e.g., “cat in a tree”), I can construct it fully and vividly in space and structure: the tree growing up from the ground, branch layout, the cat’s position and color, surrounding ground, context, and associated sounds, textures, and the feel of wind. It’s immersive and coherent, almost like stepping into the scene. However, the visual phenomenology is low. The scene isn’t visually illuminated in the way questionnaires often seem to assume. It’s more accurate to describe it as existing in shadow: spatially precise, richly contextual, and embodied, but without bright, pictorial “seeing.” This led me to realize I may have answered some earlier questionnaires inconsistently. I initially interpreted questions about “seeing,” “vividness,” or “imagery” differently than the test intended. Later questions clarified the intent, and my answers shifted accordingly. The term that currently feels most accurate for my experience is: immersive spatial imagery with low visual phenomenology This doesn’t fit neatly into aphantasia vs. hyperphantasia binaries, and it highlights a limitation in many instruments that conflate visual brightness with imaginal richness. I’m sharing this in case others recognize a similar pattern and have struggled with how to categorize or describe their imagery. If there’s existing research or terminology that better captures this, I’d be interested to learn more.

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Neal White•recently•edited

My understanding is that if you experience "associated sounds, textures, and the feel of wind" AND visuals, you'd have hyperphantasia. Given your description, it does sound like you have aphantasia. Apparently, the senses people can imagine vary more than most people realize. I can imagine sounds, but none of the other senses. As for the cat in the tree, I can imagine the tree's structure and could sketch it, but it's not in shadow. Instead, it feels like it's behind a wall of black glass. Somehow, I know it's there, but all I see is black. I can sometimes get vague visuals when I (rarely) have a lucid dream, and can sometimes even punch a hole in the wall for a few seconds and see something, then it's back to black.