Minds With Aphantasia

Although all conscious beings share some similar experiences, some aspects of their experiences may be quite different.  Can you summon an image in your mind?  If so, how long can you sustain it?  How vivid is it?  How clear?  How does this feature of your mind affect your everyday life?  Whatever the answer, not everyone can necessarily view these mental images.  Those who cannot have a condition called aphantasia, which some might not even be aware is an actual condition.

Aphantasia is an inability to form mental images (or possibly a very weak ability to form them, just as asexuals can have faint or undirected sexual desires).  People without aphantasia could easily just assume that everyone shares their capacity for visualizing images in the mind, but assumptions are not reliable.  Clarity and ease of summoning mental images can vary from person to person, with some people being unable to conjure them up at all to begin with.  Just because something is a majority experience doesn't mean that every single person has the same ability.  Aphantasiacs are reportedly a very small minority.

Aphantasia can affect the impact of visual learning by affecting memory.  When someone cannot recall what a chart or book page looked like, he or she may struggle with memorizing or recalling the contents.  Maybe someone with aphantasia has to actually see a room to remember just where he or she left a certain item.  Of course, people with aphantasia can still have great memories and can grasp concepts, just not in the same way as others, as they must recall without the aid of mental images.  An aphantasiac can certainly still have a thriving mental life, but that life will simply not involve mental images or only involve them to a minimal degree.  Imagination can refer directly to someone's ability to create and sustain images in the mind, so I will not use that word to refer to such an aphantasiac.  Comprehension is far more than just visualizing something in the mind.

Despite their condition, aphantasiacs can dream--inability or a weak ability to form mental images while awake does not mean that one's mind cannot form images while the body is asleep.  For some reason, sleep can enable or unlock the ability, although those with aphantasia may experience dreams more infrequently.  Someone with aphantasia might even perceive mental imagery of some kind during the time right before he or she is about to fall asleep.  This imagery might be weaker.  It might be less memorable.  But it can exist under these circumstances, although the person cannot create such imagery while not sleeping or falling asleep.

Understanding aphantasia can help people understand the possible differences between one person's experience of consciousness and that of another person.  All beings with conscious minds will share some identical aspects of their experiences--all of them, to even have conscious minds, must perceive in some way, for instance.  Still, in some ways, the specifics of how a person experiences thought might differ from the way that another person experiences thought.  Aphantasia is an example of this.  An aphantasiac might resent or be content with his or her condition, or be apathetic towards it, but, whatever his or her attitude towards it, that person still has much in common with all other conscious minds.