Published in · 7 min read · Apr 20, 2020
Picture what you last ate. Were you sitting at a table? What was the food? Was it separated or all mixed together? Did you eat off a plate or a bowl? Did you use utensils? Was it dark or bright in the room? These questions should help form an image in a part of your brain called your mind’s eye.
First off, what is your ‘mind’s eye’? Despite the name, it’s not a giant eye in your mind. It’s actually the place in your head where images are recalled and created. Everything you’ve ever pictured or imagined was in your mind’s eye. I like to think of it as a giant movie screen at the front of my head like in the movie Inside Out. It lets you see memories, remember images, and even see new pictures and ideas. Most people will see these images as slightly unclear or hazy, as if you’re looking at them through a dirty piece of glass, but some people have conditions where their mind’s eye is extreme.
Aphantasia
The first one is called aphantasia. The word aphantasia comes from two greek words, “a” which means without, and “phantasia” which means imagination. Together, they mean that you ‘have no imagination’ and cannot form mental images. This seems crazy right? To people without the condition, it seems impossible to not see anything as it comes so naturally to them, but most people with it describe what they see as nothing or black. Some even call it the void. Basically, when people without it picture what they ate, they can see it, but people with aphantasia cannot.
The idea was first described by a psychologist back in 1880 named Francis Galton. He described it as a condition where one cannot visualize imagery. His idea was not taken up and there was little research on it until 2015 when behavioral and cognitive neurologist Adam Zeman came across the condition. He had a patient who came to him saying they lost the ability to visualize things after a surgery. They could still see images while dreaming, but they could not voluntarily visualize things. After some research and testing, Zeman named the condition aphantasia. He stressed that this is a condition and not a disability because it does not permit someone from doing things and there are benefits to it.
Benefits and disadvantages to aphantasia
Some of these benefits include that people with it excel in math or logic dominated fields because they have a more analytical approach. It also shows that they make fewer memory errors as they can’t get confused by picturing alternate scenarios. There’s early research into the idea that they are not as affected by PTSD because they can’t vividly recall the hardships they went through. This leads into the idea that they live more in the present because it’s way less likely to get stuck in a past or a future they can’t see.
As with anything, there still are disadvantages. Many people with the condition say it’s less fun to read because they don’t see any images. If the author describes a breathtaking ride on the back of a dragon over oceans and forests, while we see this picture, aphantasia people don’t and it’s just a bunch of words to them. While they have fewer errors in memory, it’s all based on facts so trying to remember how a landscape looked is a lot harder. It also makes it a little harder to learn certain things that use mental images like art.
People with aphantasia
That being said, it is not at all impossible to do. The former president of Pixar and Walt Disney animations, Ed Catmull, has aphantasia. It didn’t stop him from revolutionizing 3D graphics and leading a ton of animated movies like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Inside Out, and many more. He explained that many of his colleagues have the condition too, including an artist who worked on Frozen, but that doesn’t stop them from doing what they love. This and more can be found in an article about him by BBC.
Along with him, Blake Ross, the co-founder of Firefox also has aphantasia and he thrives in programming and developing. Craig Venter, a biochemist who led the first draft sequence of the human genome, has the condition too. This goes to show that in no way is a career limited because of aphantasia. It is just a different way of thinking.
Hyperphantasia
The opposite extreme of aphantasia is called hyperphantasia. This is a condition where you can see extremely detailed and clear images in your mind with little effort. These images are able to be manipulated as if you’re actually there, so if you imagine an apple, you’re able to turn it and see a 360 view of it. Some people call this condition an overactive imagination because it’s possible to see anything.
I found that I have hyperphantasia and I would describe it in the same way. Imagining things comes so naturally and clearly to me that I didn’t realize most people don’t see things as clearly or at all. When I think of images, I see them like I am there and looking at them with my eyes. It definitely makes reading way more interesting.
Benefits and disadvantages to hyperphantasia
This condition comes with many benefits, but also some disadvantages. Being able to visualize helps a lot in non-logic dominated fields like photography, art, or writing. With photography and art, people with hyperphantasia can visualize how they want the picture to look and adjust their camera or paintbrush accordingly. In writing, they can see how the story will play out and run through scenes in their head to make sure it has the right emotion and feel to it. Hyperphantasia also helps with achieving goals because people can vividly picture the outcome, all the steps to get there, and how it will feel when they reach their goal.
Some disadvantages are that it’s much easier to get stuck in the past or the future because they can so clearly see every mistake they’ve made or how they want their life to be. They can get easily distracted by daydreams and become maladaptive daydreamers, which is not helpful when trying to get work done. Some people get so lost in their mental images that they have trouble picking out what’s real and what’s not, which can sometimes lead to PTSD or schizophrenia.
People with hyperphantasia
Not many people with hyperphantasia are known, but it is suspected that the famous composer Mozart had the condition as it is said that he could hear a piece of music and play it perfectly on the piano. It would also explain how he was able to come up with music so easily and arrange it so that it would sound good with multiple parts, but also as a solo.
It’s also suspected that the great inventor Nikola Tesla had hyperphantasia because he invented so many objects. It’s said that he would build inventions in his mind so that he could see what parts and materials he would need and how it would all fit together. It would help him test out inventions in his mind to see if they would work and how to fix them if they didn’t.
How to determine your image vividness level
I’m sure that by now you’re a little curious about your level of mental imaging so here’s a quiz by The Aphantasia Network that, if answered honestly, will give you an accurate idea of your level. It should take about 5–10 minutes, but if you want a quicker (but less accurate) test, close your eyes and imagine an apple. When you open them, compare your mental image to the chart below. If you saw nothing like in image 5, you have aphantasia, and if your image looked like 1 then you probably have/are bordering on hyperphantasia.
Key Takeaways
- Your mind’s eye is where images are created and recalled
- Aphantasia is a condition where you cannot form mental images
- Hyperphantasia is a condition where your imagination is extremely vivid
- Neither conditions limit you, they are just a different way of thinking
Thank you so much for reading my article on the mind’s eye! I hope you enjoyed it and learned something new. If you have any questions, comments or just something that you liked leave a comment down below! If you want to read more of my articles, check out this one on creating the future.
