The Mind’s Eye

Close your eyes and imagine an apple.

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Which of the following images most closely resembles the level of detail you saw in your mind’s eye?

If your answer is to the left of the scale, congratulate yourself on your rich inner life! If you’re a 1, look into hyperphantasia, which is the technical name for having extremely vivid mental imagery.

If your answer is to the right of the scale, know that you’re also in good company! If you’re a 5, look into aphantasia, which is the technical name for having no mental imagery. (This Facebook post by Blake Ross is a great starting point.)

Wherever you are on the scale, recognize that other people may be on different points of the scale (it can be quite enlightening to ask where your friends and family are!). For example, Melissa is a 1.5 and Nick is a 4.5 (he thinks he’s technically aphantasiac, but his enhanced spatial ability allows him to have some very vague conception of things).

In your Project Quartz journal, reflect on what you’ve learned about your mind’s eye, and how it affects your life. (For example, Melissa loves to read fiction since she can visualize everything, while Nick can’t get into it because he can’t see anything but words.)

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Source

“Aphantasia: How It Feels To Be Blind In Your Mind” (2016) by Blake Ross

There are a variety of different versions of the 1-5 scale floating around, but most are blurry, so we made our own.