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What were you surprised to learn wasn't actually normal?
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this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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Not being able to see anything when closing my eyes and not constantly hearing a voice in my head. I have aphantasia and thought people were always seeking metaphorically about seeing things in their head.
I only more recently learnt that people actually hear things as well as in like an internal monologue. To me, the whole thing sounds exhausting.
Very exhausting, especially when your stupid brain makes you roleplay possible future conversations with people in your head all day. Difficult to focus and so exhausting
Oh, I have that as well, it's just more like ... data, I guess? I think sometimes what I wrote makes people think I have no imagination or creativity; I definitely do but it's just different.
Oh, we can do that, just without the voice.
how can you think of words if not... thinking of the words? That's really interesting
I am thinking of the words, I'm just not hearing them. Why would those be one and the same?
wdym, they're words?
If you're curious when i consciously think about words, my mouth will move a little as if i'm sort of trying to say words, but otherwise generally i just type words as i need them. I cannot formulate an entire sentence without writing it down first. I often go back and completely rearrange and rewrite things because of this.
If you think this is weird, imagine how we read. Should be impossible by that definition.
I assume it's the way I think of 3d objects which is that I have some sort feeling of its shape and the distance of a point to one of its surfaces. So just something that doesn't mimic a standard sense.
I still have the voice (and the music…) just no pictures, except when I'm really tired and it's dark. It's funny because a friend of mine has the exact opposite (pictures but no voice).
It is indeed exhausting! Warm regards, Joe(s)
Think I have this. Only time I can really picture anything. At least above a part of a vague shape or higher resolution, is when I've recently woken up. Even then it's a hit or miss. Wonder if it's a wall to creativity.
Fwiw I suck at visual art but was a musician who at least made some money at it (all original music), and ran d&d campaigns and such.
What happens when you think? There's not a voice? How about when you read?
In both cases, the words just... go straight from words to comprehension? It's kind of hard to answer that question, because introspection of the process isn't possible. I mean, I just look at words and know what they mean. From experience, I think I read about 3 times faster than most other people, what with not having to wait to hear them spoken by an internal voice. (Subtitles in the same language as the audio are maddening, because I can't not read them, and then have to wait so long for the speech to catch up.)
The subtitles thing is odd. I also read them instantly but it's not a bother. Spend the rest of the time focusing on other things ksyaed of what they're trying to say. It's lovely
actually this, but it goes both ways, spoken voice and written text can go fuck itself, and subtitles on spoken words can go fuck itself. Actual comprehension hell.
I have the same experience including the thing with subtitles. What’s the connection between the no-internal-voice and the maddening subtitles?
Just that I read them so quickly, I'm ready for the show it movie to move on to the next scene, and have to wait for the dialog to catch up.
My inner monologue, is just a stream of words, it isn't encumbered by a voice.
To me that sounds like "I just walk around without taking any steps."
If you think that is strange, I can rotate 3D objects in my head but there are no images.
i can build concepts in my head, without words or images. And just put them down, ofc i fumble a bit, because i'm not perfect, but i intuitively and innately understand concepts. Just based on my experience with that particular thing, much like an LLM can spit out actual real grammar and words that make actual real sense when you ask it to.
I understand that.
Because I don't need to tie it to a visual metaphor, a lot of complex concepts, especially math, I find quite easy.
yeah, it's literally just an abstraction of something that you understand enough to be able to cope with that adaptation.
the ability to visualize something is really useful when you don't fully understand it, because it gives you more leverage.
reading you can sort of mentally supplant. It's really weird, but i'm very immersed into reading, like i comprehend the world building, and the writing, and the characters, and all the interactions, i can feel the environment. I can't see anything, or hear anything, but i know what it looks like (at least i think) and i know what it sounds like.
Think about it as if it's a dream, and it starts to make more sense, it's just like a conscious dream, spurred by really good story telling.
There's a whole episode on that topic here
https://pca.st/episode/ff2685cb-5ee7-4299-9fe6-fa430d9fe591
I was 41 when I realised...
it's weird if you're an aphant, because you adapt by just speaking outloud, and internally understanding things, the only real situation where it becomes problematic is when someone tries explaining it to you, because you're on the other side of a cliff, basically.
No monologue for me but I do have aphantasia
I'm still pretty fucking angry everyone else gets a super power