Randal Wright

Heard about this on RadioLab a few weeks ago. Always thought picturing something was just having a concept in your head, not actual seeing. To me it's more of a feeling in 3 dimensions. Sometimes I'll get a split second faint image when I try to visualize. I do have vivid dreams. When I try to go to sleep I've learned to try to visualize. I don't have too much control over what, but it's usually people/faces. When the images start getting more vivid that's when I fall asleep. When I can't fall asleep it's because I'm thinking too much about other things--the day's events, politics, etc. There has been a few times when an image is "burned in"--early childhood embarassing incident which grew into a phobia, and a few later "trigger" experiences. I read some fiction, though next time I'll have to pay attention to whether or not I see images or just concepts. I like to make rustic furniture and until now thought I had to picture the whole project first before starting, but that picture is really just a concept. I have a pretty good memory and can find things fairly easily--what cabinet has which dishes, etc. I don't "see" what's behing the door, I just know, though my wife has less definite ideas of where things belong, and she can "visualise the apple."