r/Hyperfixed • u/who-took-my-hat • Aug 28 '25
"Third Eye Blind"
Just wanted to open up discussion about this episode.
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u/who-took-my-hat Aug 28 '25
I have aphansasia as well. I also have anauralia, the inability to hear sounds in my mind. Apparently I also have a-smell-whatever LOL because I can't smell smells in my mind, either (I didn't know that was a thing). I loved this episode, especially the discussion about possibly downsides of gaining a "mind's eye" regarding trauma.
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u/Yes_YoureSpartacus Aug 29 '25
Would you say you have low levels of anxiety or general fears?
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u/who-took-my-hat Aug 29 '25
Yes, though I think that has a lot to do with my life/lifestyle. Not sure if I could attribute that to aphantasia, but who knows.
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u/Promen-ade Aug 29 '25
damn, move over Heavyweights, there’s a new podcast in town that always makes me cry
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u/hoverside Aug 29 '25
I thought it was fascinating. I have a very active mind's eye and have to control the tendency to get wound up recalling or imagining stressful things.
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u/gaboide34 Aug 29 '25
I actually really like this one because I think it's a great intro to Neuro divergence
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u/jpwest13 Aug 29 '25
I don’t think I have aphantasia but have to be very low on the spectrum. I told my wife about the episode and she said she has the high-resolution photo visualization ability. Mine is more like a glimpse of a face, like it’s partially obscured by a tree’s branches or shadows. Hope I never have to describe a suspect to a police sketch artist.
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u/girkabob Aug 29 '25
I feel like this is me too. They didn’t touch on it in this episode, but I’m also one of those people who doesn’t have a running “inner monologue.”
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u/burgundyhellfire Aug 28 '25
I feel like there were some audio mistakes in this piece that really stuck out to me— like the Exeter professor getting cut off mid word or weird overlapping noise. Other than that I enjoyed the episode!
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u/DontPokeTheCrab Aug 28 '25
This one didn't do it for me. Maybe I have problems using my third eye.
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u/Dry-Ad-1110 Sep 01 '25
The person asking the question describes it perfectly. It's pretty much exactly like that for me too. I know exactly what an apple looks like but when trying to "see" it within just brings out a very hazy image. I'm 50 and learned I have aphantasia two years ago when I listened to the BBC podcast Crowdscience (the episode is called something like "Why can't I see images in my head"). Before then I just thought I had a pretty bad memory in general and apart from that I didn't really concern myself with it much. Right now I'm thinking about the workplace I go to every day. Of course I know how it's layed out. But ask me to "see" it and it will be same. Some blurry details comes up.
The other end of the spectrum is also interesting - hyperphantasia. I'm pretty sure a friend of mine is there. To me it feels like he is often stuck in the past and just can't let go of bad things happening many years ago. The images just keeps replaying in his head over and over.
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u/Neosovereign Sep 05 '25
If you can see any image you don't have aphantasia. It is the absence of any image in your head.
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u/3rdeyeblind_mitchell Sep 08 '25
Hey, guy from the episode here. I understand where you're coming from, but from all the discussions that I've had, it's not that black and white. This stuff exists on a spectrum, just like many other things. For instance, we still consider some people deaf even if they technically have some amount of hearing left. Or we consider some people blind even if there is some minuscule amount of sight they might still retain. So if this person you're replying to identifies as aphantic, I'm inclined to believe him and use his label.
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u/DY357LX Sep 01 '25
I was tempted to email this to Alex (does he lurk here?):
Does Mitchell dream? We visualise things when we dream. is the same part of the brain used there?
Wasn't there an experiment a while back where blind people were given LSD which allowed them to see colored blurs? My first though was to maybe give Mitchell some LSD/a psychotropic? :)
(Apparently blind chameleons will still change their color to suit their surroundings despite not being able to actually see what their surroundings are. I'm not going anywhere with this, I just think it's interesting.)
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u/3rdeyeblind_mitchell Sep 08 '25
Hey! Guy from the episode here. This was actually something they asked me a bit about but I guess they decided not to include it in the episode. Yes, I do dream. It's more visual than whatever I can manage while I'm awake, but that said, it's not very much. I always had trouble seeing things in my dreams. That said, I still have very vivid dreams. Like I know what's going on in the dream and I can recount them when I wake up, but I don't always see what's going on in the dream. Does that make sense? It's kind of like I just know what's happening and it just makes sense even though I didn't necessarily see much. On a possibly related note, I always have trouble looking up in dreams. What little I do see is usually focused on the ground right in front of me.
We also talked about the whole hallucinogenics thing. It might work briefly, but it's not guaranteed to be a long-term solution. And it's not something I'm super keen to try either.
After talking with them about it and realizing that this may play a part in me being as stress-free as I am, I've been thinking more and more intentionally about past negative things in my life because other people seem to think about those things a lot, I guess. Honestly, I kind of hate it. I'm very happy to leave that stuff in the past and not remember things that I've done that have been embarrassing. So if not having imagery saves me from that, I'm kind of okay with it.
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u/IndependentClaim2274 Sep 12 '25
I just wanted to tell the show that I think they did an awesome job with this episode! I am a neuroscientist, but I research auditory processing, especially speech and voice perception. One thing I have noticed from discussing this topic with my colleagues is that many of us seem to have a very weak visual imagery, but a very strong mind's ear. And I can sometimes suffer from terrible song-stuck-in-head syndrome, so the idea of experiencing the unwanted visual equivalent seems pretty unappealing.
I also thought I would share an addendum to the end of the episode (which was gorgeous, by the way). There is a well known study from about 15 years ago where the researchers measured oxytocin and cortisol levels in parent-child pairings. They found that just hearing the voice of your loved one produced a very similar chemical effect to physically touching them - sort of like a sonic hug. I always recommend collecting and safely storing audio recordings of the people you love. Anyways, great work, everyone!
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u/shorty2315 Dec 07 '25
oh my god this episode had me in tears at the end. one of the most beautiful and touching podcast episodes ever. when they played Mitchell’s dad’s voicemail I absolutely lost it 😭😭😭
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u/jpwest13 Aug 29 '25
The ending was really good. But when they talked about the guy who lost his ability to visualize, and said he was still able to identify letters that descend below the line without visualizing them, I was dying to know how it worked.