Aphantasia is a fascinating example of how our minds can work differently. I was recently explaining that I’m aphantasiac to my collegue and she couldn’t fathom how I’m able to think and recall things at all. For instance, when she has to recall something from the memory, say a phone number, she visualizes it and then when she “sees” it she can just “read” it. She couldn’t understand how my memory works without the ability to see stuff in my imagination. Of course her method seems completely abstract to me. Yet we both can recall whatever we need just fine and we could very well go our entire lives without realizing how differently we think.

I did not even know it was a thing, did a test online and it seems I am one of them people. No wonder I struggle with guided meditation that calls for visualisation. Weird how you think that it’s just normal without realising that other people’s brains work completely differently!