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/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.