Jeff Sloan

I first read about aphantasia in Quanta Magazine (Aug. ’24) and realized “that’s me!” I have never been able to picture things in my mind’s eye. I see nothing. I never realized that others actually saw an image floating before them (I assume it “floats”), often with all the clarity of ordinary sight. I can’t even picture my wife’s face (God help me if I have to describe her to a sketch artist.) She, on the other hand, probably tests nearer to hyperfantasia.I am an engineer, and have good spatial memory, and usually a good sense of direction. But I cannot pre-visualize potentially new furniture in a room, or mentally walk through plans for a soon-to-be-renovated room. I can recall features of things I am close to daily (my house, my car), but the details fade away as I try to recall more distant experiences. There are myriad experiences of my past that I cannot recall, yet if my brother, or friends, mentions them, partial recollection occurs. “Yeah, I was there…” but it’s only a partial memory it’s obscured, without sounds or smells, or interaction with others there at the time. I thought this might be part of my habit of remembering where to find information, rather than remembering the information itself, but perhaps not. I am terrible with written descriptions of story characters - my mental images bear little resemblance to the author’s descriptions.I am not upset by this “lack” - it is the only way of life I have known. I am a bit envious. I’m also envious of tall people, but there is nothing I can do to correct my height, so I accept that, too.