Comment by lefrenchy
10 hours ago
I struggle with this. I think i'm Aphantic, but then again I can imagine a red apple in my mind. But if i have my eyes closed, it's not like I see it in the black of my closed eyes. I just imagine it, with some detail but also limited detail? I guess that puts me slightly on the aphantasia side of the scale, but it feels very hard to understand my own subjective experience in contrast to the written version.
You are not aphantic. We can argue whether that's average or below average, but people with aphantasia can't do it at all. TFA uses the word "hypophantasia" at least once.
> But if i have my eyes closed, it's not like I see it in the black of my closed eyes.
Only the excessively literal think that this is what people mean when they say they "see" an image in their mind. Everyone else understands what you describe (imagining an object and conjuring up an image in your mind) as what the metaphorical "seeing" in "seeing in your mind" means.
What you describe, about imagining an apple, that's what people mean when they talk about seeing something in their mind.
Isn't this contracted by comments in this very thread? e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49469205
Ever been lost in thought and ignored your external senses? That's what they're describing, but with visual imagery included and not just however you may normally experience thoughts.
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> that's what people mean when they talk about seeing something in their mind.
That's an oversimplification. I have a friend who says that they can visualise things mentally exactly like in real life, with their eyes closed or open, and that they can also make changes to those images, such as changing the colour of an apple from red to blue, or rearranging furniture in an imagined room.
Of course they might be lying, but if we ignore that possibility, it definitely doesn't sound like a figure of speech.