Justin Scott

I had never heard of aphantasia until about 2 years ago when I was doing a project over former Disney animator, Glen Keane. When I found out he has aphantasia, that opened my interest in finding out more. I am one who has always been able to see things in my head, so to discover there are people who can’t was fascinating. That being said, it wasn’t until the other day when I found out about hyperphantasia! I love to come up with/write stories any chance I get, but every time I would explain my process to someone, they’d never understand. To me, I’m making perfect sense! I didn’t understand how they don’t understand. To make it even more complicated, one friend I was talking to said she can’t really see much of anything at all! For me, I like to say I have free will in my head. I don’t just see images, I see videos too. When I think of stories, they play in my head like a movie. I tend to tell my friends “it’s like it’s a movie that’s already made and I’m just transcribing it to paper. It’s like my characters tell me who they are and what their story is.” I can speed up, slow down, and pause the “movie”. I can move around to get a different view of any angle (like a free-cam, if you will). I can change whatever color or detail I want to. I can “zoom in” or out. Basically I can do whatever I want to, when I want to! It’s almost like my brain has a library of “movies” in my head and all I have to do is think things like “I want to make a ___ story” and then eventually one comes up! I couldn’t tell you the amount of times I’ve been woken up from a sleep with an idea, or thought of a story as I’m falling asleep. This led me to google why I can see things in my head that are clear as day, why I can see videos, why I can do any of this but others can’t. I thought how I see things, even down to tiny details, was how most people saw things! Turns out, I have hyperphantasia. It still blows my mind that most can’t see things how I can see things.