It’s interesting because we just assume everyone’s internal experience is like ours, and everyone else assumes the same of us.
When I was a kid, nobody told me I needed glasses, and I didn’t think anyone could see the board, but ok, this is how the world is.
And I’d been through years of “visualization” exercises never imagining that people were actually having vivid visual experiences; I interpreted all as metaphor (and also wondered what the big deal was–it was all so underwhelming!).
Have you ever done psychedelics? Is the experience for people like this purely visual and tactile? Or do wires cross and you get a glimpse into what people mean by internal visualization?
Shrooms are on my bucket list. I did have improved visual imagination on a prescribed psychotropic, Welbutrin, I think. It’s pretty cool.
Like I remember days when I wouldn’t be depressed and I’d get so mad because everything was so easy, and that’s how most people operate all the time?
But I don’t think it’s too hard to imagine what visualization is like because, you know, I can see with my eyes. I just imagine that it’s the same, with the added ability to manipulate everything.
Yes, the visualization one is confusing for me, because I have a sense of images -which kind of sounds like what you’re saying with ‘metaphor’ - but it’s not a literal image, but at the same time, it’s vivid like a natural image would be, even though it’s not.
Yeah that was a messed up thing to discover!
It’s interesting because we just assume everyone’s internal experience is like ours, and everyone else assumes the same of us.
When I was a kid, nobody told me I needed glasses, and I didn’t think anyone could see the board, but ok, this is how the world is.
And I’d been through years of “visualization” exercises never imagining that people were actually having vivid visual experiences; I interpreted all as metaphor (and also wondered what the big deal was–it was all so underwhelming!).
Have you ever done psychedelics? Is the experience for people like this purely visual and tactile? Or do wires cross and you get a glimpse into what people mean by internal visualization?
Shrooms are on my bucket list. I did have improved visual imagination on a prescribed psychotropic, Welbutrin, I think. It’s pretty cool.
Like I remember days when I wouldn’t be depressed and I’d get so mad because everything was so easy, and that’s how most people operate all the time?
But I don’t think it’s too hard to imagine what visualization is like because, you know, I can see with my eyes. I just imagine that it’s the same, with the added ability to manipulate everything.
Yes, the visualization one is confusing for me, because I have a sense of images -which kind of sounds like what you’re saying with ‘metaphor’ - but it’s not a literal image, but at the same time, it’s vivid like a natural image would be, even though it’s not.
Imagine an apple on a table.
Did you do it?
What kind of apple was it? What was the tabletop made of?
I understand there’s an apple on a table, and I have an idea of it, but it’s hugely abstract. There’s no specificity to any of it.
Apparently “normal” people have a very definite image in mind for this test.
It’s called aphantasia, I think, if you want to learn more.