dyanne DiRosario

"I am 80 years old and aphantasia is relatively new to me. I always knew I was "different" but attributed to being an INTP on the Briggs-Meyers personality test. Like so many people who are aphantasic, I thought visualizing was just a figure of speech when people used it."

"I saw a "what do you see when you close your eyes and think of an apple" meme circulating on social media. It wasn't the first time I'd come across them. At first I thought it was just another click bait hoax, but luckily this time I looked into it more closely. It's pretty wild that most of humanity is apparently at a level of mental visualization ability that I thought was a very rare gift of photographic memory."

"During a discussion about my lack of direction. I'd narrowed the discussion down to locating all the shops on the street I lived at, and noticed other people I lived with could recall every stair, every shop, every building, every nook and every cranny, and every other random object on the street. When I asked them how they did that, they said they see it. I was like ???? and decided to do some investigating. I came across Aphantasia and had a light bulb moment."

"I first discovered aphantasia the year before last when listening to the BBC podcast 'Curious cases of Rutherford & Fry'. The episode is called 'The Case of the Blind Mind's Eye' in series 21 if you've not already come across it. I still didn't think at that point that I might have aphantasia. I was still under the the impression that 'visualising' is was just a figure of speech and didn't think much more of if until today. Like Maxine, I just listened to the BBC Radio 2 program about someone who has aphantasia. This time it clicked, I close my eyes and imagine something I don't see anything, only black. Do other people actually see images in their mind? Now, like Maxine, I need to go and annoy my work colleagues and ask them of the actually see things."

"Karen James I heard the same radio program as Maxine and I too was truly blown away! People can actually see images? I went straight to my husband and asked him what he saw as I thought this can't be real. He confirmed that he could picture a very clear image as if the object was really there in front of him. I'm 63 and still trying to understand this. It seems like others have a super power. I'm also finding it hard to believe that I didn't know until now. I've always found it hard to meditate and 'put myself on a beach'. Now I know why."