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The 7 stages of Aphantasia

Just a Moment - The Aphant and The Now

 In the post Times Past and Times Future we spoke about how the limited ability to visualise the past or the future led to the Aphant potentially ‘living in the moment’. Superficially ‘living in the moment’ sounds quite attractive not dissimilar to ‘living for the moment’, that heady rush of being exhilarated by and having a heightened sense of the now, enjoying every breath “Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive. But to be young was very heaven” and all that. The Aphant though is perhaps more caught in the moment than living for it as in the absence of the cushion of visualisation the Aphant is forever in the bright headlights of the now.    Thoughts and ideas will pop into the Aphant’s mind sometimes fast and furiously. Unaccompanied, mediated or delayed by any accompanying visual images this rat-a-tat-tat of ideas means the Aphant can often think and respond faster than the visualiser. In certain situations like for example a quick-fire quiz round or a brain storming session this ca
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Times Past and Times Future - Aphantasia and Memory

 One area in which the Aphant is at a disadvantage when compared to their image conjuring cousins is in dealing with time past and time future. We might be tempted to call this memory and forward planning but that would be to oversimplify. Lets take memory first, the Aphant can perform as well or even better when remembering dates, phone numbers, titles or other data driven memory recalls. Similarly the Apahnt has no trouble in plotting out a series of to do tasks on a chart or diary. The Aphant struggles though to remember detail about their past for example time spent at school, in a job or even a relationship. The general mood and outline of the time as well as key dramatic moments will be recalled but the latter may amount to only a few incidents in say a five-year period. The average visualiser will be able to recall considerably more of the day to day.    An anecdotal example - I recently joined a Facebook group for former members of my primary school. I have a fond memory of the
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Conjuring For Beginners – The Visualisation of Images.

When the nascent Aphant first discovers that the majority can visualise or shall we say conjure images at will their first reaction is incredulity. What is this magic trick, how is it done, why do more people not discuss it more often and why is it not seemingly put to greater use? For example in a court of law one almost never hears a lawyer asking a witness to close their eyes and call forth an image of a scene or a culprit – instead they are asked to verbally recall from memory what they saw - which would seem far less accurate than calling the image to mind. Similarly the Aphant artist immediately assumes that the ability to conjure images of people and places would be an undoubted advantage when trying to create a life-like representation in pencil or paint and yet there seems to be a considerable gap between the conjured image and the ability to render it on paper. Similar arguments can be made in film and media in general having the ‘sandpit’ of imagining a scene should be a mar
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The Name Game

I was in my late 50s when I first heard about Aphanatasia. Specifically it was on a train coming back from work when an item on a Radio 4 new programme came on discussing the condition. My attention was immediately piqued. In keeping with point 2 and 3 of the 7 stages of Aphantasia the first reaction was incredulity - was this some kind of April's fool? As the programme progressed I realised it was deadly serious, the majority of people can call to mind detailed still and moving colour images but a small number myself included don't.  The next question was how had one not heard of this before, indeed how had in my case almost six decades elapsed without my ever having heard it being discussed? I  was familiar with the term "mind's eye" but had always assumed it was meant metaphorically not literally.   The most obvious reason for my ignorance is that Aphantasia was only christened as such in 2015 in a study  by Professor Zeman and his team  at the  of the Universi
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The 7 stages of Aphantasia

So here is what will be an occasional blog about  aphantasia.   A phantasia sometimes also know as the blind mind's eye is a 'condition' in which one has no or very limited ability to visualise.  Somebody with apahantasia can close their eyes and see - well pretty much nothing - except of course that until they hear about other people's ability to bring forth images of loved ones, cats, passages from movies etc, they assume that everybody else just sees black as well.  The following is a rough list of the stages many go through in learning about apahantasia.   1. Go through life blissfully unaware that one is any way different. 2. Hear a radio show, podcast or read article about aphantasia.  3. Stop in one’s tracks and ask WT… “I always thought people were speaking metaphorically when they talked about the mind’s eye”. 4. Ask friends and family whether they can visualise – nonplussed by the “of course I can” responses. Interrogate further but struggle to really
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