What It ’s Like to Be ‘Mind Blind’

When you close your eyes, what do you see? For me, it’s always been a black screen, sometimes with the static of a crackling TV. My dreams are tangles of thoughts, but when I try to remember them, I can’t actually see anything. I don’t need to pinch myself to see if I’m dreaming, because my dreams never resemble reality. I have a condition called aphantasia, mind blindness. I can see clearly with my eyes but not in my mind. When I think of a memory, I can conceptually understand and answer questions about it, but cannot project it into my mind or imagine myself in it. I hold all the projector slides and have all the information, but can’t see the actual picture. Four percent of people are estimated to experience aphantasia, but we can go our whole lives without knowing we have it. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] I only realized when I was 21, sitting at a coffee shop with my best friend. She animatedly spoke about an article she had read on aphantasia and how she couldn’t imagine what it would feel like. Suddenly, I realized that I saw the world differently. I had always assumed that daydreaming, counting sheep, and picturing myself on a beach were metaphors. I couldn’t imagine what mental imagery would feel like. After telling my family, we discovered that my mom has it too. Aphantasia is familial, with research showing that if you have congenital aphantasia, there is a 21% chance that your first-degree relative (parent...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Source Type: news