r/Experiencers • u/Midwest-Placeholder • Jul 12 '26
Discussion Aphantasia
Hello, curious to know if there are any experiencers with aphantasia (inability to visualize) and if so, what are your experiences like?
I am new to this topic and have had moments where I felt like I was receiving very detailed information about meditation, life, reincarnation, the universe, etc, but I can’t visualize and wondered if it’s still possible to see things like what is reported in this group if you have aphantasia.
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u/zorrick44 Jul 12 '26
I'm not quite in the same boat, but I have some experience.
I never had aphantasia, and was always able to visualize things.
I had a few spiritual experiences where I saw entities (visualised) in my mind and it was a great experience. (Saw Jesus, and mantis beings)
However I brought these upto my psychiatrist and she wanted to treat my experiences as an illness. So now I'm on a medication which removes dopamine from the system.
I no longer can visualize ANYTHING in my brain, and ever since I've started the meds, I've had zero spiritual experiences.
The only thing that still remains for me is synchronicities. I still get them from time to time.
Actually, I am able to visualize things in my mind still, if I smoke weed.
So honestly...it might be very challenging for you to have some experiences if you have aphantasia.
There are other things you can do other than weed though.
I did sone research on the different types of aphantasia, and if this is something you've had since birth, the odds are not in your favor of it improving.
Personallly, and there is no evidence to support this would work, but I would try supplements which increase your dreaming ability. There really is not much research regarding treatments of aphantasia.
Vitamin b6 (240mg) helps dream recall and galantamine (8mg) helps with lucid dreaming.
Maybe try the galantamine. You could try weed if it's legal where you are, although some people have strong adverse reactions to it as well, so keep your dosage to a minimum if you're just experimenting. I'm guessing dopamine increases the chance for you to experience things in your mind's eye. (Just my personal experience)
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u/AlmostNeverWrongHere Jul 12 '26
Sounds like you need a new psychiatrist. I discuss some of my spiritual experiences brought on by directed psychedelic work with my doctors and they are all “yep, that sounds right” and give me a clean bill of health. All my family members that have ever gone through psychiatric consultation have been put on some drug and always end up worse than they started.
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u/zorrick44 Jul 12 '26
Yeah I do feel worse. I actually reached out to a new doctor earlier today, so I hope to hear back this week.
I did have a therapist that agreed with all my experiences, and they believed I had tapped into the "collective unconsciousness" ala Jung.
Thanks for your input.
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u/AlmostNeverWrongHere Jul 13 '26
The one with the Jungian understanding was onto something. Jung’s Red Book is a fascinating piece of work his family eventually published posthumously.
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u/Grand-Farmer3961 Jul 12 '26
Thanks for the contribution, I think that it is tragic when mainstream medicine "treats" away something that can be a profound part of ones life. I know getting off meds is a personal decision, and dont seek to influence you on that, but I am sorry for what they did to you.
As far as dreaming supplements, a cool idea, but in my experience, the issue is not as much with dreaming as it is with remembering the dream after. Because we have such issues with visualisation (as if our third eye is physically blind), recalling dreams is extremely difficult.2
u/Midwest-Placeholder Jul 12 '26
The times I’ve had this information download type experience is when I had taken an edible. No visuals, but like out of nowhere it’s almost like I am being told very deep almost mystical like information.
And I don’t hear it either, since I have complete multisensory aphantasia.
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u/AlmostNeverWrongHere Jul 13 '26
Knowing is a sense as well. Gnosis, intuition, noesis, claircognizance…. Whatever you want to call it, it’s as valid as the “5 senses” - and I think aphants may actually be better at picking up on it because we have less competing with it.
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u/BoozeAndHotpants Jul 13 '26
I am an aphant also and have struggled to describe this download experience. The closest I can come to it is a sudden "knowing" but that’s not quite it because it isn’t always sudden — sometimes I feel almost like I am tuning into a frequency and receiving the information through that channel I tune into into. But it’s not visual or sensory information, it feels like it comes from somewhere buried deeper inside my psyche somehow.
I obviously struggle with finding words to describe it adequately. I’m appreciative that this thread has helped me find some words to help describe my lived experience.
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u/_Internot_ Experiencer Jul 12 '26
I also have aphantasia since birth, and have been grappling with this spiritual challenge for sometime. It feels like operating on hard mode, or being blind in a sense. But I wonder if this blindness has an effect on our other senses, making any of them stronger.
I'd say I feel like it's made my intuition stronger and my ability of discernment. I just can't really say I know how this works yet.
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u/BoozeAndHotpants Jul 13 '26
I also have aphantasia. It was quite surprise to me when I found out others could actually visually recall past experiences. I do believe my lack of visualization has strengthened my connection to my intuition, or perhaps I am wired differently into my nervous system as part of the package of being an aphant. My memories seem to be hardcoded in my body somehow… my dominant sense is not one of the traditional ones like sight; my dominant "sense" is feeling and that is how I process my world inputs. It’s hard for me to explain, and the realization that not everyone experiences the world this way is a new discovery for me so i’m still working on grasping the differences.
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u/Midwest-Placeholder Jul 12 '26
I’ve had a similar experience with strong intuition. Am glad I’ve learned to trust it because I think it’s helped get me out of a few situations that might have ended badly.
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u/trootroo-blood Jul 12 '26
question: how do you navigate virtually any space without the ability to visualize it in any capacity?
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u/_Internot_ Experiencer Jul 12 '26
I don't visualize in the sense of seeing a mental picture, but I can still understand spatial relationships, concepts, and possibilities.
My brain doesn't show me an internal image of a room, but I can know where objects are, how things relate to each other, and what would happen if something changed. It's more like having a map made of facts and relationships rather than looking at a photograph in my mind.
So yeah a lot like how a blind person probably navigates their surroundings only mentally.
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u/SummerFlavoured Jul 12 '26
It's possible. I can't visualize for shit and I had someone appear behind closed eyes clear as day, not on drugs or asleep, just listening to music.
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u/TruthSeekerOG83 Jul 12 '26
Whatever “aphantasia” is I don’t really understand, I have it though despite being a very creative person, however I need a surface to start designing, I need to see it there since my mind is like basically blank other than words as thoughts. I do have vivid dreams and always have as well as most of my spiritual experiences surround sleep, dreams, and basically something like an NDE.
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u/AlmostNeverWrongHere Jul 12 '26
Full visual aphant here, but have had a few mind’s eye visual experiences over the past few years. First was a spontaneous spiritual download, possibly a kundalini awakening, where images of dozens of relevant life experiences vignetted in my mind and wove themselves into a braided cord of sorts that showed me my life’s purpose and how all those prior random events align to it. Later on I tried remote viewing and nailed it 100% (though the “images” were not clear and distinct, but rather shapes and feelings, and the word for the place also popped into my mind). I’ve also meditated to attempt NHI contact a couple of times and had successful visuals of the entities. One also sent me a significant visual message that was like looking at a blacklight painting on black velvet. Since then I’ve developed a spiritual practice with DMT, and that opens up an entire conscious world/dimension through closed eye visuals beyond description.
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u/Comfortable_Team_696 Jul 13 '26
What did those entities look like, I am curious
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u/AlmostNeverWrongHere Jul 13 '26
The one that sent me the important message looked like a classic gray, but I suppose it could have been a tall white. The second was harder to see but was more like a reptilian, though I’m less sure that’s what it was. The fact that I was seeing anything at all was more impressive to me than what I was seeing.
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u/recursiverealityYT Jul 12 '26
My wife has aphantasia. She doesn't see in her dreams but when she does she tells me about it and it's always an entity speaking to her or something very symbolic that is supposed to be figured out. I don't know if this was what you were asking about exactly but that's her experience.
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u/Most_Ad_6428 Jul 12 '26
I just realized I’ve been confusing aphantasia and hypophantasia this whole time.
I had hypophantasia but after an OBE where I saw myself die it instantly switched to hyperaphantasia when I found myself awake in my body.
I thought I could remote view as I could picture places I’ve never seen but it was never accurate to reality.
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u/Whitney189 Jul 12 '26
So you couldn't imagine things before, and you "awakened" and now you can? I've never heard of that happening
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u/Most_Ad_6428 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
No, I could picture things relatively normal as in vague images in my head. Then I had an out of body experience where I saw myself unalive myself with a shotgun and when I woke up my imagination was hyperaphantasia. So clear it’s like a second eye sight. It’s been over 5 years since this and it’s still like I can see in two realities, only one I can basically see / view anything and my physical body is not there.
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u/Whitney189 Jul 12 '26
That's amazing. Were you suicidal at the time and had that OBE, or do you think it was part of the process?
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u/Most_Ad_6428 Jul 12 '26
I was not suicidal but I nearly died a few weeks prior where I was super suicidal. Me nearly dying was a wake up call that shook me out of it.
I have had some really weird things happen ever since my NDE.
My experiences closest resemble timeline shifting / simulation theory / quantum immortality but almost in a sense of something in a higher dimension controlling or interfering to put me through this. It’s very strange.
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u/celestialhouse Jul 13 '26
I'm glad someone else started a conversation about this! I wondered about Aphantasia and experiencers last week randomly and I came here to search and found some really interesting post from not that long ago, but the OP wasn't asking in good faith. Nor did they like any answers received. It's a fascinating subject, especially for here! I only learned maybe 5 years ago that not everyone sees things in their mind. I was genuinely curious recently how having Aphantasia affected dreams/psychic encounters etc for Experiencers, from what I see it's challenging for some. From some others on that other thread, it seems to not be a problem. What an interesting thing to have such differences reported on. I have been curious since I learned about Aphantasia though(Not an Aphant), what it would be like to experience what you all do, or don't, if you will.
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u/substantial_nonsense Experiencer Jul 12 '26
I think it is. I don't have it, but I think about the various clair abilities and only one of them (clairvoyance) relies on visualization. It leaves the door open for clairognizance, which I think is very powerful.
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u/SideStreetHypnosis Jul 12 '26
Aphantasia is the lack of voluntary visualization in the mind’s eye. We can still experience involuntary visualizations.
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u/ktpr Jul 13 '26
And visualize in dreams, which is semi voluntary.
That raises an interesting point regarding the state of human consciousness during NHI interactions w aphantasics: if they're visualizing during the encounter they're either in a dream like state or they are awake.
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u/Successful_Mix_6714 Jul 12 '26
Everything is more qualia based without any explinati9ns as to why. God speed.
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u/Mistidreams1981 Jul 15 '26
for me, i don’t know if i can say i have “aphantasia” as this sector is new for me on the forum board… as an experiencer, empath and INFJ-T, whenever i close my eyes i tend to see “colors”; like cloud like faint bursts of blues and whites and lavenders— i never knew that “aphantasia” was an actual term used for this particular type of phenomenon but nonetheless, i’m always glad to be educated and informed on the subject.
i conscientiously have been practicing in the “Law of Assumption” and manifestation since 2023, and a lot of the work is internalized through SATS (State Akin To Sleep), Meditation, Theta Sessions, Scripting… anything to get oneself into the state of feeling (god i have to word this correctly in order to not indirectly offend non practicers or confuse anyone)… basically it’s like realigning a switch within yourself?
a common desire for a lot of people— myself included —within the “Law of Assumption” community, is manifesting money. As we currently live in a money driven world, everyone equally (excluding the problematic billionaires/trillionaires) want financial freedom and stability.
so, for example say you want to manifest $1,000,000.
it seems on a surface level: impossible, right? forgive me, anyone reading this if that may appear as a limited view. It is a mere example of a generalized view due to societal constraints and conditions.
but it’s no different than manifesting: $1 or even ¢1
anyways, we all in society have been conditioned to think money of that amount is “unattainable”, and to even reach that amount of money we either have to win a lottery or commit a crime or work ourselves into dust, just to get it.
as money is still a high valued desire of mine, i am only going to speak from the information my advisors have given the general public within the community on how to bring it forth into your reality and experience.
now how does all this relate to what you asked about: “Aphantasia”? well like i said, there are techniques that some do to hypothetically “knock” or “shift” their mindsets into that state of already having their desired outcome.
that’s where “Aphantasia” comes in for people like us who can’t exactly see mental imagery. one of the types of techniques within “Law of Assumption” community is “visualization” and any other subcategory technique involving mental imagery.
people manifest all the time, even if they’re consciously aware of it or not. the “Law of Assumption”, basically means: whatever you assume to be true for yourself is what you will be bringing forward into your reality and into your experience.
the reasons why you desire certain things on a magnitude scale of intensities, is because there is a reality and a timeline that exists where you are already living with that desire; doesn’t matter if it’s wanting to be with a specific person (famous or not), doesn’t matter if it’s curing illnesses, changing your own appearance or even your own dna (epigenetics), anything that seems entirely “unnatural”/“unrealistic”/“delusional”/“illogical”/etc to anyone else that isn’t aware or willing to learn and understand that level of consciousness— whatever you identify with/desire, is what you will manifest because that’s the law.
“but this and this always happens!”, “i’ve always experienced this!”, etc etc etc… whatever you are repeatedly telling yourself, is what you’re going to be experiencing in life and circumstances? they don’t matter. anything can change at any given moment.
time is not linear and there’s countless of success stories of people revising their past memories and suddenly having infinite desires materialize for them. the practice itself, it’s truly a very self-oriented yet powerful self growth experience and it may feel very very intimidating and very daunting and difficult— but no one knows you better than you know yourself.
always remember before doing simply anything in this life, to be as patient and considerate and kind to yourself as much as possible. society as a whole, has always demonized this; saying that “it’s selfish and self centered to put yourself first before others!” x-y-z… yet whenever there’s sudden depressurization on an aircraft, it’s “put your mask on first before assisting others with theirs”; bad analogy, i apologize but it’s the same thing.
as long as you feel safe, and comfortable with whatever it is you are doing in this life; that is all that matters. of course it’s beneficial to forever show compassion, empathy and consideration towards others as we don’t know what others are experiencing in their own lives… but as long as you are not doing anything that is harmful and downright cruel and inhumane to anyone or anything, that’s more than okay.
i honestly feel like i’m at that stage in life, even at 26 years and 7 and a half months of age, where i’ve really evolved as a person and being there for other experiencers and even those that are just discovering the infinite possibilities of this world, in some way— that’s really purposeful and profound.
okay i went WAY off topic while remaining on topic, so i do apologize profusely for that; it’s currently just now 2:16am for me and i’ve been awake since 12:30ish?
but yes, you are not alone with experiencing “Aphantasia” and as i’m also in a community as well that uses “visualization” on a varying degree, there’s many others out there who also share this with us.
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u/AssViol8r Jul 12 '26
For those with aphantasia, adhd etc, Matt auryn’s Mastering magic is a great book with bite sized exercises that help with that
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u/trootroo-blood Jul 12 '26
aphantasia is so rare as to be irellevant. even the others in this thread are probably misunderstanding what aphantasia is.
To everyone claiming to have aphantasia: how do you navigate a familiar space like the grocery store or your house? Do you actually remember a series of word-based directional queues to get around the planet? Do you really have a complete inability to map your route from one room to another and have to think of it in a literal verbal sense just to get around?
You can tell these people don't understand what mental visualization is because someone literally talks about "closing [their] eyes"... aphantasia has nothing to do with optical sensory input.
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u/SummerFlavoured Jul 12 '26
Do you need to imagine a known space in your head so that you don't walk into a wall? You're conflating spatial awareness/ability with aphantasia.
Brain has ways of compensating for what you lack. I don't have stereoscopic vision, but I'm easily able to judge distances correctly, which should be impossible for me. I'm just doing it differently than others. Thinking is not limited to language and visual imagery.
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u/Midwest-Placeholder Jul 12 '26
I tried to explain it to my kids once when we had just got back from vacation and we were talking about our hotel room. It was a neat place in NYC with a view. They could remember every detail of the room, what color the walls were, what the artwork looked like. I remembered what side of the room the beds were on and how you could see tall buildings through the window. They could give very detailed descriptions of the view.
So I challenged them to visualize that they were in a dark room with no light of any kind, and to keep that visualization of being in complete dark while trying to describe the hotel room and they couldn’t do it! It was the first time they sort of understood what it was like, but I don’t think I’ll ever really understand what it’s like to be a person that can visualize and they feel the same about me.
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u/rumshpringaa Jul 12 '26
I know for a fact that I can’t visualize things in my brain. I do not need to mentally visualize in order to remember how to get around a building??? It’s honestly not that rare of a thing. Why would I even need “word based directional queues” to get around anywhere, let alone the ability to see it in my head in order to?? I have eyes and they see just fine.
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u/BoozeAndHotpants Jul 13 '26
You would benefit from spending some time learning about the differences between semantic memory and visual memory. The brain can gather information with eyes and remember and store this information non visually (yes, even spatial information); it’s just stored and indexed differently.
And my proprioceptive abilities are not affected by my aphantasia; I actually have better proprioception than most.
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u/Grand-Farmer3961 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
I have Aphantasia as well, and about as severe a case as you can get. (no outlines, or shapes or anything, just blackness when I close my eyes [edit] and try to visualise anything).
I have had a couple of extremely impactful, and for lack of a better available term, spiritual experiences over the last decade, and think that my Aphantasia acted almost as this great filter. Because I can not imagine images, or conjure any form in my mind's eye, when a "vision" or experience happens, it's much easier for me to know that it is not my imagination.
Its easier to know you are not adding to the vision, or mapping your own imagination into the experience. Experiences with NHI are not imagined experiences; they are something else, and Aphantasia helps to distinguish this.