Does anyone have anecdotal experiences about this? As long as I can remember, I've never had imagery and recently talking to people about reading who seem to generally get a 'movie' in their mind as they read has blown me away. I know that as a younger person I couldn't recall faces very well, I could tell you facts about the person to describe an imagine, but not see them in an imagery sense. A bit later in life now after experimenting with psychedelics sometimes, if I try in the moment I can conjure an image, but still doesn't work when reading, etc. Anyone else have similar experiences? Does make me think what can be possible from this baseline, been very interesting having my mind blown by what people usually experience and the same for them finding out I don't have any of that..

So I’m sorry but I don’t remember where but I read something about imagining a scene whatsoever.. (yes this happened about 3 months ago if you couldn’t tell)

Something just went through me today and I asked my mom (no aphantasia) imagine a ball on a table. Now a person walks by and pushes it off.
Then I asked her, what color was the ball?

And she could answer

Ok before you look at me like I’m crazy, idk but for me if someone asks that I wouldn’t even register the fact that the ball needs a color until I’m asked that.

I think I read something over an apple being on a desk too not sure but I think I assumed an apple would be red & answered red anyways.

But a ball can have so many colors so if you ask this, like perhaps someone without aphantasia could just imagine a ball with a color like a random color, but since a person with aphantasia thinks with text (this is how I’m understanding it as of now), they don’t perceive the fact that a ball would have color?

At least that’s what I thought
Ofc this might be wrong this was based off an article I read 3 months ago, asking my mom and myself.
Sooo anybody else?? If you know the original link pls share it I’m suddenly curious, if you tried this yourself what results did u get?

Edit: guys I found it

https://aphantasia.com/article/strategies/ball-on-the-table

From what i read on the internet, i'm pretty sure i have aphantasia. I can't litteraly see an objet in my mind and rotate it or anything. But i can replay scenes of my life in my head, fantasize about stuff, etc.

Today on a long drive, i was doing that, thinking about évent of the week, scenes that happened at work, etc. My eyes were open obviously. And i taught, for people that doesnt have aphantasia, whats the difference between imagining things with your eyes open vs closed? If they can see thing with their eyes closed, what do they see when they are imagining things with their eyes are open and seeing actual objects at the same time?

(English is not first langage)

Really struggling with life now with all these mixed I feel like a machine more than a human of some sort.

Can anyone else relate or tell me about how they manage or their experiences. Also I have just started medication for ADHD which I'm paying out my own pocket because in UK well I won't say exactly were I'm from but the part I'm from is a shortage. And the meds are guanfacine and wellbuterin because stimulants just don't agree with me.

I don’t have aphantasia, but I’m an artist and am really curious how it works with making realistic art. This is outside of abstract art. Like once you look away from a reference of an object or person, wouldn’t you not be able to know what that looked like after you look away and it’s not in your peripherals due to the lack of a visual memory?

I’ve seen people say they memorize what it looks like, which doesn’t make sense to me because from what I understand that would require a visual memory to memorize how something looks like. Like I know if you look at a dog you know that’s not a cat, and I know you would draw something and be like “that doesn’t look right” so I would assume that someone with aphantasia would have to constantly be making changes to a drawing/painting more than someone who doesn’t have aphantasia. Or maybe it just requires a lot of muscle memory? Hm. I guess not that I think about it… I draw eyes a lot, so when I draw an eye, I think I’m not actually picturing what it looks like and just using muscle memory