I think the visualizer/conceptualizer distinction needs refinement. I am multi-sensory aphantasic in the sense that I have no sensory experience when I imagine things. However, I think more visually than conceptually. When I think “horse”, I don’t think of or about the various attributes of a horse. Rather, a horse appears in my imagination. It has no attributes of a visual image, but it has a presence. The closest analogy I can think of is seeing a horse in a field from a mile away when you have been told that there’s a horse, and no other animal, in the field. It’s too far away for you to have any visual information, except perhaps whether it’s stationary or moving, but you know you are “seeing a horse”. Now, think about that distant image being present in your mind as an object that’s much closer, but with no additional detail. That’s more or less what I perceive (without actually "seeing" even that vague image) when I think “horse”. When I imagine a table with a ball on it, I have very few details to offer (except that the table has legs and is not round), not even when I’m asked the specific questions. But when I do that act of imagining, there is a “table” object present in my mind, not merely a set of attributes and functions. When I say I think visually, my best example is trying to remember where a mislaid household object (e.g., keys or a wallet) is. I try to visualize (without seeing) where I last saw it and run through various possibilities until I have a sense of the object being present.

When I read “If you were an egg, what type of egg would you be?” nothing came to mind except the idea of a chicken egg, lying flat on a table, taunting me with its plainness. Then I told myself, “Treat this as a serious question!” and immediately the answer swelled up inside me as though it was there all along and I simply hadn’t bothered to look for it. I am a large Faberge egg, a couple of feet taller than I am, lavishly decorated with colors that I, as a color-blind person, would not be able to see and, as an aphant, certain cannot visualize. On the surface of the egg is a doorway, slightly shorter than I am so that, when I step out of my egg self and contemplate my egg self from my human perspective, I have to stoop a little to walk through. Inside the egg is an infinite space that embraces everything I choose to imagine. I think it’s glorious that it’s possible to imagine these things so richly without visualizing them at all.

Three meanings came to mind. For each meaning, what I describe below flooded me instantaneously. 1. Tip, as the tip of my tongue. I had a proprioceptive feeling of my tongue, moving generally from the middle to the end, along with a semi-visual sense of narrowing. 2. Tip, as an additional amount given to a waiter. I had a sense of a large, open, indoor space that could be filled with tables and chairs, as in a restaurant, but as yet had nothing in it. 3. Tip, as in tilting to the side. I had a sense of sitting in a small shell of a boat, kind of a cross between a rowboat and a canoe, very round on the bottom and therefore unstable, with a width that enabled me to grip both sides simultaneously in an effort to remain upright, and a length about the same as my own body. My knowledge of the dimensions comes from the feeling of being inside it and simultaneously seeing it from above, as often happens in a dream. In my waking dream, I was not able to hold the boat steady and felt as if I might tip over.

I think the visualizer/conceptualizer distinction needs refinement. I am multi-sensory aphantasic in the sense that I have no sensory experience when I imagine things. However, I think more visually than conceptually. When I think “horse”, I don’t think of or about the various attributes of a horse. Rather, a horse appears in my imagination. It has no attributes of a visual image, but it has a presence. The closest analogy I can think of is seeing a horse in a field from a mile away when you have been told that there’s a horse, and no other animal, in the field. It’s too far away for you to have any visual information, except perhaps whether it’s stationary or moving, but you know you are “seeing a horse”. Now, think about that distant image being present in your mind as an object that’s much closer, but with no additional detail. That’s more or less what I perceive (without actually "seeing" even that vague image) when I think “horse”. When I imagine a table with a ball on it, I have very few details to offer (except that the table has legs and is not round), not even when I’m asked the specific questions. But when I do that act of imagining, there is a “table” object present in my mind, not merely a set of attributes and functions. When I say I think visually, my best example is trying to remember where a mislaid household object (e.g., keys or a wallet) is. I try to visualize (without seeing) where I last saw it and run through various possibilities until I have a sense of the object being present.

When I read “If you were an egg, what type of egg would you be?” nothing came to mind except the idea of a chicken egg, lying flat on a table, taunting me with its plainness. Then I told myself, “Treat this as a serious question!” and immediately the answer swelled up inside me as though it was there all along and I simply hadn’t bothered to look for it. I am a large Faberge egg, a couple of feet taller than I am, lavishly decorated with colors that I, as a color-blind person, would not be able to see and, as an aphant, certain cannot visualize. On the surface of the egg is a doorway, slightly shorter than I am so that, when I step out of my egg self and contemplate my egg self from my human perspective, I have to stoop a little to walk through. Inside the egg is an infinite space that embraces everything I choose to imagine. I think it’s glorious that it’s possible to imagine these things so richly without visualizing them at all.

Three meanings came to mind. For each meaning, what I describe below flooded me instantaneously. 1. Tip, as the tip of my tongue. I had a proprioceptive feeling of my tongue, moving generally from the middle to the end, along with a semi-visual sense of narrowing. 2. Tip, as an additional amount given to a waiter. I had a sense of a large, open, indoor space that could be filled with tables and chairs, as in a restaurant, but as yet had nothing in it. 3. Tip, as in tilting to the side. I had a sense of sitting in a small shell of a boat, kind of a cross between a rowboat and a canoe, very round on the bottom and therefore unstable, with a width that enabled me to grip both sides simultaneously in an effort to remain upright, and a length about the same as my own body. My knowledge of the dimensions comes from the feeling of being inside it and simultaneously seeing it from above, as often happens in a dream. In my waking dream, I was not able to hold the boat steady and felt as if I might tip over.