Oct 8, 2020

Can you imagine not being able to visualise scenarios and playback memories?

– Kathryn Nicolai

Imagine not being able to remember a person’s face or picture a scenario in your mind. That’s what aphantasia is. Here’s what’s it like living with mind blindness, and why it’s actually a blessing in disguise.

Picture yourself standing along the bank of a slow-moving river. Can you see the way the sunlight reflects on the water? Can you imagine, in your mind’s eye, the color of the grass and the shape of the clouds drifting through the sky?

You can? Wow.

Really? Huh.

I can't.

Like many people with aphantasia – the inability to form mental images of real or imaginary people, places, and things – I never realised that when people spoke about picturing things, they were being literal. I always assumed they meant something like, “think through the details of” or “hold this idea in your head.” So when I found out that many people can actually see things in their minds, well I was kind of bummed out. I felt like there was a special experience almost everyone else was having that I was not, a party I didn’t get to go to.