Im trying to figure out if I dream in pictures or not.. Im curious how you determined that you dream as if reading from a book compared to picturing something while dreaming and then waking to remember it as if reading from a book? I don't have the answer yet I'm trying to figure out how I dream since i found out I have Aphantasia but I'm not convinced in either direction yet.. I remember my dreams like a foggy memory and I know it was a dream but I dont yet know how I know that.. maybe my brain knows there was no visual component? but I can still think about how something looked in the dream, but did I just fill in the same contextual characteristics that I would if seeing something and remembering it later? Are my dreams pictures that I remember with Aphantasia later or are they picture free dreams that I treat like any other memory where I log the information and pull from it when i want to recall it?
Yes! math, physics and math some more.. I went into engineering because I hate memorization and I think it has something to do with aphantasia.
when you "listen" to the song do you hear all the beats in your mind in the proper instruments? or do you just kinda think the beat in your own "voice" like bumbumbum beda bumbum as if you were to sing it out (but in your head)
I had this conversation with my wife the other day.. I don't think I can smell or taste or hear things in my mind. I can also not picture in my mind. I definitely can think about the beat or tune of the music and I can hum it or sing it in my head with my internal dialogue "voice" but I cant hear it in its "natural sound". When i think of food I think of how it could taste but I don't taste it, my mouth waters and I get hungry and long for the food but I wouldn't describe it as tasting it at all. I do find I get itchy or uncomfortable in my skin when I see someone get hurt or think about touching a hot surface I get a body wide shiver of sorts sometimes. I don't think I'm feeling a burn but I definitely have a physical reaction to seeing someone else get hurt or thinking about putting my hand on a hot stove or getting a bad cut. Maybe that's a form of physical imagining?
Im in the same situation, just found out a week or so ago.. very odd to learn about.
I think I have full multi-sensory aphantasia but I do certainly have empathy and can easily feel the emotions of others (I cry in sad or touching movies, I relate heavily to characters in tragic circumstances, I cringe and feel uncomfortable if someone gets hurt (even sometimes feeling a not quite pain but very uncomfortable itchy feeling in my limb while watching someone else breaking or getting a cut or something.) Not sure if that helps or not but I feel that I am more connected to the physical and emotional pain of others and feel those things readily.. perhaps this is because of my lack of imagery. I am very present in the moment and so I take in all the information around me and really internalize it in the moment rather than letting my mind conjure up images of past of future.