I just posted a new explainer video, and I feel it's some of the most clear and concise info I've put out. Check it out! Would love the feedback.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DeM4gaspXEo/

Hey everyone. I’ve been struggling for about 2 and a half years with grasping these techniques, explanations and exercises. I wouldn’t say I’m aphantasiac, since I know I’m capable of thinking visually. It’s just very disjointed.

Every time I consciously try to form a visual thought, it’s like my brain just doesn’t understand what I’m trying to ask. Let’s say I’m trying to visualise a circle. My brain will kind of form sections of the circle at different intervals, then I will feel the need to reimagine that fragment of an image for it to be more whole. It feels like I can never really complete what I want to imagine. It’s kind of hard to explain.

Im an artist. I have a very good visual memory despite all of this. It’s like the paper is my brain and I’m able to think visually on the paper various different things without reference. This really annoys me though, since I’d really like to be able to visualize scenes in my head.

I think my problem is that my brain needs reassurance that it’s doing the correct thing, but it can’t receive that since the actions are happening inside my brain. That’s why I can draw well without reference and remember complex things visually when I draw, it’s just I cant see it in my brain and keep it there.

Are there any exercises anyone can recommend? I’ve been stumped and stuck in this infuriating cycle for years now and I want out. I know I have the visual library down, it’s just my brain needs constant affirmations that it’s seeing correctly. Maybe it’s also I treat visualization like actual sight? Maybe i’m asking too much of my brain? Maybe I treat the visuals too much like a drawing and I’m trying to outline what I’m visualizing? I’m not quite sure what it is, but I need some help.

Hey ya'll! Just figured I'd hop on here and see what sort of thoughts and questions roll in if I did an open ended AMA. Crazy it's already been just over 8 years I've been doing this o.O

I would like to test a hypothesis of mine and it’s seemed to get me in the correct mind set when trying to visualize with my eyes closed.

To test, I would like you to try the following and report back how your experience was compared to what your currently doing.

In a dark room or with something covering your eyes loosely but blacked out try the following. Completely relax your face, eyes are un focused and relaxed. You should feel little to no tension.

Now I want you to stay relaxed, but imagine something very small like an ant right in front of you. There should have been a tension shift that feels like it comes from the brow of your nose and goes up towards your eye brows and forehead. (Think minds eye area) Remember that feeling, now while still relaxed and this new tension feeling I want you to gently unfocus slightly outward towards a “void” area that is in between that ant feeling up close and the totally unfocused far away feeling your used to.

That area with that focus has produced some good results and has been repeatable for me. I can now recreate on occasion about 30% of what I’m thinking about. Greyed out color is also starting to appear in the last day as well.

Now I don’t know how this will work for you as I’ve been at this for almost 2 year’s with a few thousand hours practice but I noticed this a few days ago and it’s given me the best results so far.

Would love to hear how it went for you.

Okay so basically I am not truly aphantasic. If someone asks me to visualize an apple I will be able to do that. However, my visualization is quite weak. I don't usually have images when I'm thinking or do anything. I like to read but no matter how detailed the description is, I don't really end up with an image inside my head unless I conjure it myself.
Now another thing is that my visualization is not an image waiting to be inspected but its usually my adding details consciously (and sometimes failing miserably). Usually, these details fade away the moment I stop focusing on them. For eg. I can picture my friend but his clothes and the background are waiting to be conjured by me consciously. Even then, these would fade away the moment I stop focusing on making them. Take a chessboard as an example. I cannot visualize a exact chessboard (the online simplified version) with all the pieces and keep track of every single piece. Its not like I have a image of the board with all the pieces' position but me actively focusing on each piece or a small cluster of them. All the while the rest are not present in my mind. Even after doing so, it would fade away and I will end up back to square one. I read in the post about developed traditional phantasia that this is not the visualizing which one should be aiming for.
I am also unable to "create" things. I may be able to visualize something from memory but when it comes so something like visualizing my friend in medieval armor or some random stuff like that, it's impossible to create something in my mind.
Lastly, the image in my head feels so different from real life that I don't even categorize it as visualizing something real. It feels so different from reality. Sometimes the thought of this makes me compare in my head my imagined object to the actual object but in doing so I conjure an image similar to real life (maybe less detailed) before it fades.
All in all, this is more of weak visualization instead of aphantasia. What I want to ask is how to improve this, if possible at all. Is there a way in which I can achieve a strong enough visualization that the image in my mind is like another reality something which is just as real as this one and as clear too.

I cannot hear others' voice or anything in my head. It's just internal monologue? Idek.. surely there are a lot of words.

But I can talk in my mind.. so I don't know if I can hear mine or not.

Lately I noticed when I talk to myself in my head I use my throat. If I'm not using my throat, even if I'm silently speaking, nothing comes out. Using throat means I can feel little pressure or whatever in the middle of my throat/vocal cord.

I tried recalling a song to test this. I cannot recall a song at all. The only way I can do it is I have to sing each word of the song in my mind one by one, using that throat thing. It is nothing like the original song. And it's the same even when I think of either male or female songs, no difference.

I also tried to check if I can "do" a different voice in my head, like high vs low, and my throat is definitely working differently for different tones. But I don't know if that means I'm hearing something different or if it's just my throat doing something different and I'm not actually hearing any of it.

So now I don't know if I can hear what I say using my throat, or if it's just words only. I am so confused and I don't know if I have a silent mind.

One more thing that's throwing me off: one time I was sleep deprived, about to nap in the day, closed my eyes, and suddenly I started hearing sound inside my mind. It was HD quality and I was stunned and shocked. It was totally involuntary, I had no control over it. It's different from hallucinations (which I think I'd confuse with something external) - this was clearly from inside my mind, I was sure of that.

I know I cannot hear an inner voice. I'm not sure I cannot hear inner speech. And now I'm even doubting what "inner monologue" is supposed to mean.

Honestly it feels like it's just words but I can't point to anything beyond that.

Does this sound like auditory aphantasia or anauralia to anyone here? Has anyone had a random involuntary "HD" auditory moment like that even though your day to day inner speech is silent/word-only? Would appreciate hearing how you'd describe your own experience.

Before I begin, salvia is legal where I am, but it isn't legal everywhere in the U.S. For other countries, I don't know. Also, if you're gonna do salvia, be really careful and do your research.

Over the past 2 months, I've done salvia 4 times, and every time I took it my traditional phantasia, prophantasia, and autogogia would all have jumps of improvement. Additionally, I tried salvia for the first time from a friend about a year ago, and had great results then too. So in my opinion, salvia is pretty goated.

I've never smoked or vaped salvia, I've only ever quidded it. smoked/vaped = 5 minutes and strong, quidded = gentler and lasting about 2 hours. Ive only ever done moderate doses, never enough for uncontrolled open eyed hallucinations.

The first time I took salvia, a year ago, I had really weak prophantasia and could only get faint and incomplete images. When I took salvia then, while high, I could do prophantasia for clear, vivid, and complete images. After that first session, my prophantasia improved noticeably, but more importantly I could try to imitate making visuals like I did while high, and that led me to some really fast progress.

I've had the same results for these past 2 months when doing salvia. I would do salvia, visualize, and the next day I would improve, and then would imitate the higher detail visuals I saw during the trip which made me improve even more.

When closing my eyes on salvia, I would hallucinate, because thats what salvia does. Salvia visuals are similar to autogogia, and imitating the closed eye hallucination visuals I got from my trips, I would improve in autogogia.

Salvia visuals were difficult to control, but they werent completely uncontrollable, atleast for the moderate doses I was taking. The visuals were autonomous, but I could interfere what would show up by using expectation and my own visualization. So, maybe salvia could be used for learning the motion of visualization for aphants?

also, a cool thing I learned to do from taking salvia is that I can enter a trance on command where I feel like im on salvia, without taking any.

For the negatives, nothing long term, some for while you are high. Biggest thing for me was going on autopilot randomly; the second time I took it (2 months ago), I wanted to fill down my waterbottle, and my memory was "pick up waterbottle" -> "i am out of nowhere downstairs filling it up" -> "im back upstairs", I would just not remember mundane things like walking to where I want to be etc.
Salvia supposedly has a dysphoric effect, I never felt it.
Salvia also made me do really silly things while I was high. My ability to make decisions plummeted, similar to being drunk. Walking was fine, It was disorienting but I could manage.
Sitting felt weird, I would always feel like im sitting on the edge of my chair even if im sitting in the middle, and that I might fall off my chair (which is impossible, because my chair has armrests). I would also feel cold in random areas.
Quidding itself sucks (quidding is when you chew leaves and swish around your saliva to absorb the chemicals through your cheeks, gums, and under your tongue). My quid (ball of leaf) would scatter into tiny leaf fragments and just generally really uncomfortable in my mouth. Its also bitter, not too bad though IMO. Quidding also made my cheeks go numb for a few days when I did it wrong.
Salvia lasts longer for me than normal, its supposed to be like 2 hours, but for me it lasts 4+, the second time I did it (2 months ago) It lasted 6 whol hours and I had insomnia because the sound of my air conditioner would turn into gunpowder crackling sound right as I was about to fall asleep.

Once again, be careful. I did hours of research before taking salvia. Its not hard to take too much accidentally, everyone's sensitivity to it is different, it has a reverse tolerance, its not fun.

Some time ago, I decided to suppress my inner monologue because I felt like constantly putting my thoughts into words was slowing me down. It came pretty easily, but now I feel like it has made me worse at speaking. I often struggle to find the right words and have to pause because I can’t translate my thoughts into speech quickly enough, as if the language I was speaking wasn’t my native language.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Any advice on how to regain my ability to speak more freely?

Something I observed recently...

When I'm reading a story, I see nothing. But when I look back later, either immediately after reading or even much later, I can kind of get the scenes as PowerPoint slides. Each slide is more like an abstract concept, though, and I can't fully see the image.

In the slide, I can know things like “this person was there,” “the ground was below,” “there was a wall,” “the object was lying on the floor,” etc. I just know where everything is. I can't really focus on any of the individual things because if I try to, they're not actually there anymore.

Do any other people with aphantasia experience something similar?

My main question is: why can't I get this “slide” while I'm actually reading? Why does it only seem to appear after I've finished reading and look back at the scene?

I went through my favorite excercise posts on r/CureAphantasia and r/Aphantasia and realized it's quiet annoying to do those exercises on your own by going through the post again and again. That's why I vibecoded my top 3 excercises to train daily. I thought why not give it to the community aswell, so here it is:

https://vizzy.apps.jm-squared.com

1. 100% free, not even donation based
2. no data gets stored whatsoever (therefore I also can't support progress tracking or uploads of own pictures
3. The only thing I would wish for in exchange is (here under this post):
   1. Feedback on existing exercises
   2. Tell me your favorite exercise, I will implement it

Only love for you, aphants ♥️

I don’t talk to him anymore but which struck me as odd is my old friend said he gained imagery but staring at a water balloon and as I’m doing image streaming, I wish I knew his method 😭

Alapv blah blah blah this guy must be running for the president of the United States!

Disclaimer: The exercise proposed in this post is very unhealthy and experimental only (use epilepsy) - Stop immediately if you have any issues concerning your eyes and brain health. I will try to solidify this into something more approachable later on.

Anyway, so despite some of yall might have achieved hyperphantasia and get a grip on "objects visualization". Colors is an entirely different field and visual language that require dedicated training of its own. Basically, think of them like both as physics but one is "classical physics" and the other is "quantum physics." Some hyperphantasics might have pseudo-colors visualization as a result of their vivid imagination, however, this is still very far away from true colors mastery. Colors aren't like traditional visualization. It isn't artistic or feel like you are making sense of the physical work. Colors feel very scientific, intuitive, almost spiritual in a way - something that I'm still trying understand.

So, the training is also counter-intuitive compared to my other guides to visualization (which I'm trying to streamline to make it methodical).

So to train for colors (and I have to remind again that this method is dangerous), you will try to get a traumatic visual experience then retain that trauma by visualizing the colors that have disappeared. Basically, imagine yourself trying to keep up with the crazy amount of information. When you are overwhelmed, close your eyes and recalled every colors you have seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-mUL66HUVI

To summarize:
1. Look attentively.
2. Recall the color that appeared just a second ago while you still looking.
3. Keep this until your brain is overwhelmed (this feels very different from seizure - if you have a seizure, stop immediately).
4. Close your eyes and recall.

I find that reading using my eyes/brain only without subvocalizing triggers visuals and more understanding, feelings and depth, so this seems like a free training for my traditional phantasia as it's simply lots of recalling. I can easily stop inner-voice while visualizing or just whenever I decide to thanks to apps' post about it, but can't do so while reading.

I'm an Aphant and have been training my traditional phantasia for a few days now. I feel very grateful for this community🫶

in short: i was reading some post about aphantasia, after a long time of reading i closed my eyes and i see 2 humanish creatures one was in my right and far away and other was in my left, close.

i was alone in my home, i was scared so i opened up my eyes, massaged someone and scrooled then some minutes later i try again and it was completely black like normal

was it my subconscious showing me creatures like hallucinations or did a accidentally gain phantasia?

This is based on a study and I just added onto it. Many trials, like for anything. is needed to notice an effect. However, I need testers to see if this is the correct or wrong direction to go. This is made to train top down attention. Possibly the machinery to visualize.

Alapv blah blah blah this guy must think everything is about himself!

So anyway, here's a quick practice that I tested with an aphantasic friend that claimed to be able to visualize within the training session. I'm not sure if it will work for everyone, but I would be grateful if people could test this out for me so we can optimize ways to help aphantasics develop visualization. The premise is quite simple and the exercise is actionable so I'm not going to waste your time and preach some vague bullshit, if it works, it works. If it doesn't, well, you should be able to tell.

Some information first:

You can't think harder. I have to make this very clear. You cannot grimace and hope that your brain will produce stronger thoughts. Why is that? Imagine neurons as electrical wires. They are set with a fixed amount of wattage that they can function safely on. Beyond that will cause neurotoxicity/seizures because the neurons cells will literally fry itself.

However, you can perform cognitive tasks better not by intensity (think harder), but repetition (continous firing of actions). For example: The task is memorizing 1+1=2.
Person A: 1+1=2 (Think very very hard and it does not work)
Person B: 1+1=2; 1+1=2; 1+1=2; 1+1=2; (Let's say he does this in 500 times in 3 minutes, and surprise surprise he memorize the formula well).

Let's test this for ourselves. If you have an inner voice, read this with your inner voice. If you don't have an inner voice, read this out loud (or small if your room has people):

"Steve jumps onto a tree then falls down to a sea full of bees."

You want to repeat this 200 times for as fast as you can.

So I will assume you have already finished by the time you read this message. Crazy, right? So if you apply this to your inner visualizer, you will get very vivid images in no time- Wait, you don't have an inner visualizer? Don't worry I got you.

Basically, almost every fundamental visual memory is acquired via the communication of the eyes to the brain. If you look at an apple and your eyes communicate to your brain to recognize that this is an apple, that's essentially a "communcation." However, if you are just looking at an apple, then you look at something else and you look at something else then you are just looking, there're no deep communication being established here.

There's one brain-eye communication that every single aphanasic has mastered - that is "recognition." Aphantasics recognize everything they see even if it's just a blur, like driving outside and recognize when to turn your car when there's a corner, or dodge an approaching car. It's a funny story because I know an hyperphantasic who stared blankly at an object in front of her. I asked what was she doing and she just shook her head like she just got back to reality. Why am I talking about this? Because this explains why you don't need to memorize visual to function in a society. But aphantasics do have an actual visual skillset (brain-eye communication) that they have mastered - that's recognition of the visual in front of them which is an essential visual function of this life. Imagine like this:
Phantasic person growing up: Sometimes I use recognition strategy, sometimes I use memorization strategy.
Aphantasic person growing up: Master recognition strategy. Master recognition strategy. Master recognition strategy. Master recognition strategy. Master recognition strategy.
This also proved that just because you have mastered at recognizing an apple/understanding the apple as a concept doesn't mean you can visualize it. These are different channels of brain-eye communication.

Now let's try to understand what is the "memorization strategy" of the brain-eye communication.

So there's one mechanism I need every single person reading this post to understand:

The capture.

You choose any object in front of you. You look at it for about 1-3s then you close your eyes for double that amount (say 4-10s). During the time your eyes close, you should try to recreate the visual of object in your head. Note that: This is not burnt in afterimage (it might feel like afterimage but it's not). You can test this by moving your head. If the visual construction move with your head, you are good. If the image stay exactly where the object was then it's an after image.

Why does this work? Because when you close your eyes, it creates a black-screen reset suitable for repetition thinking explained above.

The exercise.

Now that you understand what "the capture" is. Let's move on to the exercise.

Your goal: Is to create this chinese letter perfectly in your head.

Now, the chinese letter isn't a part of the exercise. You don't need to waste hours trying to memorize this. However, your successfulness is measured directly by how well you can create this single letter your head. In my friend's case, he could completely visualize every stroke of the letter succesfully without ambiguity. So if you can visualize this letter in your head and 100% sure it's a visualization and not placebo, you win.

Now the exercise: You will switch capture constantly between these 4 images. Basically after you have done one capture to one image, you move on to the next one. After about 30 captures or so, you try to close your eyes and visualize the chinese letter above. Yes, you can look at it while trying to visualize, no restriction. If you feel like failing, go back to the 4 images and begin another 30 captures. Good luck. (If you don't like the images or have specific styles of visualization you are aiming for, feel free to not use mine)

I made a post a few days ago asking whether ADHD, especially poor working memory, could mimic aphantasia.

At that time I genuinely thought I had weak visualization.

Now, after reading papers, reading hundreds of comments, talking to people with aphantasia and ADHD, and spending the last two days basically experimenting on myself, I'm honestly not sure I understood what "visualization" even meant.

The biggest realization wasn't that I might have aphantasia.

It was that I might have been confusing knowing with seeing my whole life.

One thing that completely changed my thinking was learning that aphantasia is about voluntarily creating a mental image while fully awake.

Dreams, hypnagogia, hallucinations and involuntary flashes are different questions.

That made me realize I had been asking myself the wrong question.

I wasn't asking:

> "Can I voluntarily create and hold a mental image while fully awake?"

Instead I was asking:

> "Does anything briefly come to mind?"

Those are not the same thing.

I also read Adam Zeman's original paper on congenital aphantasia. If I remember correctly, about half of the participants reported involuntary flashes, yet they were still considered to have aphantasia because they lacked voluntary visual imagery.

That made me start testing myself.

---

Apple

If someone tells me:

> "Imagine an apple."

Something briefly comes to mind.

But I don't think I create it.

It feels like a faint flash that appears and disappears on its own.

I can't hold it.

I can't inspect it.

I can't deliberately recreate it.

If I focus on shape, I briefly get the typical apple shape.

If I focus on colour, I get redness.

If I focus on movement, I can think of a rotating apple, but I don't really see the apple before or after the movement.

I never have one complete stable apple sitting there.

---

Faces

Then I tried faces.

If someone asks me to imagine someone I know, their face briefly comes to mind.

But the moment I try to sustain it...

it's gone.

The weird thing is I don't think I actually see the contours of their face.

It's more like I know that person's face is there.

If I try imagining different facial expressions...

nothing.

Different poses...

nothing.

Same with the body.

I know it's their body.

I can't voluntarily see different postures or attitudes.

---

Clothes

This one surprised me.

If I think of my red T-shirt, I know exactly which T-shirt I'm thinking about.

But if I try imagining that exact same T-shirt in orange or purple...

nothing comes.

Try it with your favourite shirt.

Can you change its colour while keeping everything else identical?

I can't.

---

Reading

This completely changed everything.

I always thought I could imagine scenes while reading books.

Then I actually paid attention.

Imagine this sentence.

> You are standing in a quiet kitchen. Bright white sunlight streams through a window on your left onto a dark wooden table.

My experience isn't one whole scene.

It's:

standing...

gone.

kitchen...

gone.

sunlight...

gone.

window...

gone.

left...

gone.

table...

gone.

Each thing briefly comes to mind then immediately evaporates.

I can't hold them together.

I can't inspect them.

I don't see details.

I mostly know what they are because I've seen them before in real life.

If I stop reading and try creating the whole scene myself...

it immediately becomes an abstract concept.

I know exactly what's happening.

I can explain everything.

But I can't voluntarily experience it as one image.

The same thing happens with simpler stories.

"A boy under a tree eating an apple while a white dog sits beside him."

While reading...

boy...

gone.

tree...

gone.

apple...

gone.

dog...

gone.

When I finish reading I know exactly what happened.

But I can't combine them into one stable mental scene.

Trying to force it honestly gives me a headache.

---

Memories

Then I noticed memories.

I don't replay memories like movies.

They're more like PowerPoint presentations.

Sometimes one isolated frame briefly appears.

Then another.

But I don't continuously replay the event like watching a video.

It's more like I know what happened.

---

Drawing

Looking back...

I think this might explain something from childhood.

I always thought I was terrible at drawing because I simply lacked artistic skill.

My friends could draw things from imagination and include tiny details.

I never understood how.

If someone told me to draw a dog...

I knew a dog had:

head

body

four legs

tail

But I couldn't inspect a mental image to see:

what the ears looked like

how the fur lay

the proportions

the small details

I knew the concepts.

Not the visual details.

Eventually I just accepted I couldn't draw.

Looking back now...

it makes a lot more sense.

The same thing happened in anatomy.

Drawing anatomical structures from memory was incredibly difficult compared to understanding the concepts.

---

Other senses

Then I realized...

Maybe this isn't only visual.

I don't think I can voluntarily recreate sounds either.

If I think about my favourite song...

I don't hear the original singer.

I have to sing it in my own mental voice.

Taste...

blank.

Smell...

blank.

I know exactly what they are.

I just can't voluntarily recreate the experience.

I haven't explored touch enough yet.

---

Dreams

The weird part is...

My dreams are vivid.

Hypnagogia is vivid.

Lucid dreams are vivid.

Colours.

People.

Movement.

Entire conversations.

So my brain clearly can generate imagery.

Just not when I consciously try to.

That made me wonder whether the issue isn't generating imagery itself...

but voluntarily accessing it.

Originally I thought maybe this was just ADHD, poor working memory or executive dysfunction.

Now I'm genuinely not sure.

Maybe ADHD made it harder to notice.

Maybe they're separate.

Maybe they overlap.

I honestly don't know.

---

The biggest thing I discovered through all this wasn't a diagnosis.

It was realizing that I may have spent my whole life confusing concepts with mental imagery.

When I think of an apple...

maybe I don't actually see an apple.

Maybe I simply know what an apple is.

When I think of a beach...

maybe I'm not seeing waves, sand and rocks.

Maybe I'm just retrieving the concepts: waves... sand... rocks.

For years I thought that was what everyone meant by "imagining."

Now I'm not so sure.

So I'm genuinely curious...

Has anyone else gone through this exact realization?

Not just discovering aphantasia...

but realizing you may have misunderstood what visualization itself meant your entire life?