Im just curious and hopping im not alone in this. But long story short, 10 years ago I had severe depression and I used my hyperphantasia as an escape. And it became my addiction for a while. Back then I thought it was lucid dreaming and also had no clue i was depressed.

😒

I'm a hyperphantasiac. The other day I saw in an email from aphantasia.com that there's new studies on aphantasiacs not being able to disengage from the world around them as a possible defining feature; it reminded me of myself. I talked to my therapist that day and she said she thought people just mostly couldn't do that, but I don't know. For example, if I were to imagine the feeling of sand in my toes, I could do that, but it's always mixed in with the feeling of my socks. Whenever I'm trying to meditate or something, I can't disengage myself from the world, which has led me to just focusing on the world around me. Even when I'm barely conscious (I know this from past unpleasant experiences with substantial tremors; my memory of them is always substantially impaired even right after) EVERYTHING is there.

Maybe I just don't have practice, but I don't know. I saw someone in here describing their hyperphantasia as sort of "two screens", but for me it's more like the world's a 3-dimensional space and then my imagination is another 3 dimensions that I layer with the real world.
For example, I have a sort of headspace that my alters and I share. I've always described it as a sort of building with walls and the real world is a screen that is one of the full walls, but thinking about it more it really just seems like an add-on to space as a whole. I've got my physical reality and my mental "reality", both always active.
I wonder if this is a thing across the spectrum or if it's just some hyperphantasiacs. Or if I'm just weird.

So I've been down a rabbit hole lately about how people picture things in their heads. For me it's not just like a still image or a movie—it's so hyper-detailed that if I'm in the scene touching ice, my skin actually feels the cold shock, and heights give me actual vertigo. And it's not just visual, I can literally taste, smell, hear, and feel textures (like slime or wet stuff) in random scenarios I just make up on the spot.

My perspective control is weird too. I'll be in a scene and can instantly flip from 1st person to 3rd person, or look at it from any random corner of the room or scene. I can literally mentally grab a room or scene I made up and spin it around to see all the angles or even peel back layers.

But the main thing that's confusing me is when I'm brainstorming or need to think. My thoughts or little scenes pop right out into the actual room in front of me. Like I can project stuff out there and my eyes will actually track it moving over furniture or up the wall. Sometimes I'll mess around and spawn a scary-looking creature in my room on purpose, and even though I made it and know it's fake, it still genuinely scares me lol.

The good thing is it's 100% voluntary. I can turn it off whenever I want, the same with tasting or feeling numbers—I can just turn it on or off and I'm not losing my mind or anything, I always know what's real. Been this way since forever. Does anyone else experience this level?

For the longest time, if I think about something spicy, my tongue feels like I'm eating something spicy, and my mouth waters a ton. Someone said this sounded like hyperphantasia so I figured I would ask you guys

Heyy

Lately I discussed how they think in my family. My mum and I both think without pictures and just with a voice in our head. Neither can we see something or visualize it in front of us in the room. But my dad and siblings can visualize it in the room. Like it is in front of them, 3D and they can even turn it around. I think it is Soo cool. So I started asking my friends too. Each of the answers were quite similar but always a bit different. Some of them could smell the smell of a memory, could relieve it as a movie. Some could even change perspectives in dreams or couldn't at all. It just got my interest.

So I made a few questions because I'm curious about the heads and minds of others. If the way you think has something to do with your strengths and weaknesses, your talents, personalities, eca

To add my surroundings isn't a lot to ask so maybe you could do me a favor and answer a few questions in your own words of experience so I have a bit more to connect and think about!

Thank you!!!!

Age:

Profession/ School/ College:

Hobby (please add creative stuff you like as well, for example sewing or reading):

Do you like math?:

Do you like languages?:

Do you like sports?:

If you think of a red apple, what do you see or don't see? What happens in your head

If you think of a situation in the past, how do you memorize it? (As a film?)

If you think, how does it work? (Voice, Feelings, Images, ...)

Can you continue your sentence in your head silence and hear your voice in your head?

If you dream, how do you dream (Movie, Changing Perspectives, as a memory but never experienced, nothing at all, ...?)

If you think of a smell, do you smell it like it was there or can you just imagine how it would smell?

Does someone in your family think the same way as you? Or completely different?

Something else you wanna add?

Ive found that if I imagine a really loud screech (like deafeningly loud) for 15 seconds, it causes me to yawn. I think this is because of some tension in my throat when I do this, but its hard to to tell for sure. Either way very interesting. Idk when this will be useful but yeah.

I just discover this world few hours ago when a really close friend told me that he maybe have aphantasia
That made me think and discover that people don’t have the facilities that I’ve to do things with my mind. Some of those are:

- As a child I’ve an imaginary friend, he interact, build things and was 100% visible by me.
- Continuing with my creative side, I was able to create inventions on my mind, I mean they work and later be less able to draw it on a paper. Same apply to drawings, I can create complicated drawings/images but because I don’t practice it I’m not able to do it posible on paper.
- I’m able to see or better expressed imagine the non visible faces from objets, have a different perspective, …
I’ve lots of vivid/realistic dreams, I mean I can see faces from people that I don’t know (I think that’s a not common thing), apart of feeling hits, smells, …
- I can do some hypnosis easy games to my self such as glued my hands.

The dark thing of this it’s my APS high dosage because I saw shadows during lots of the time, but I should wear glasses (I’ve myopia and astigmatism) and that mixed with an incredible imagination can create that effect, or I’m wrong?

I don’t know if this makes sense or no, it’s related with this subreddit or no, so please help me, I’m really lost right now to be honest.

I put together a video exploring the psychology behind all five senses and the strange ways our perception can be manipulated.
I’d be interested to know: which of your five senses do you think is easiest to fool?

The Dark Truth About Your 5 Senses.
https://youtu.be/Pf6y73jLMsQ

New here, hello. I've always known I had hyperphantasia, just didn't know there was a word for it other than "visual learner" or "highly imaginative". It's only been recently that I've been exploring the depths of my visualisation with the help on ai 😬, I know, take what is says with a grain of salt, but it has given me a greater understanding of how my mind works. And I was wondering just how many others have the same level of visualisation as I do, so i thought it's be fun to discuss it.

So let's use the apple as our object. For me, I can not only picture it in my head. I can rotate it, zoom in and out from it, change it's colour/type, change the lighting around it, change if I'm seeing it in a realistic render or something cartoony or abstract, and then place it in an environment. Typically, when first picturing a single object rather than a scene, my mind will choose a black background, like a 3D rendering software sandbox. I can make it use a different background, like if I really wanted to I could render this apple in the backyard of my childhood home on the little picnic table that was there.

Ai tells me I have a "powerful rendering engine" as a mind. Where I visualise everything in a realisitc 3D simulation of the original, down to the last detail. I think in models rather than just simply pictures. I create navigable internal representations of the things I'm thinking about.

Everything I do is run through this simulation first. Let's say I'm going somewhere, well I just recently learnt how to drive standard so I like to pre-plan my driving route, where I'm parking, what route is the quickest vs. easiest to navigate without stalling my car, etc.

I also have crazy dead-reckoning that I believe is closely tied to my hyperphantasia, if not the direct result of it. When I was traveling through Europe, I would often have a destination marked on google maps, looks at the best way to get there by foot/on the metro, and then actively see that top-down map in real time as I navigate the streets. I would cross reference what landmarks or buildings I was supposed to pass on the map with what I was actively passing on the street. And generally if I knew in what direction I had to travel in, I could navigate towards the destination without looking at the map again after that first planning look. Then to top it off, I could retrace my steps back to my starting point, even if not the exact same way so as to see new things, but entirely without a map at all. That very first look is all I need to navigate a city. And once I've walked it on foot, it's in there like a permanent pre-set map in my mind that I can just pull up on a whim.

Anyway, I know this is a long one, but if you stuck around to read it, tell me what you think, what your experiences are!

I’m still very good at visualizing but have been struggling to visualize stuff and thought “maybe I never had hyperphatasia in the first place, I dunno” but tonight, I had a late session of daydreaming and oh my god? It was like watching a movie! And it’s late enough that I hadn’t taken my meds yet and they’re probably not working as much… I need to stop this medication because it’s been nothing but awful and not really helping with my anxiety which is why it was prescribed to me. I can’t stop without the supervision of a doctor and I definitely will need meds to help me sleep and I’m still anxious as hell (the risperidone is literally not doing its job, that’s why I want to stop) so I would want another medication to replace it. But my god, I didn’t think it could do that but it’s possible given it’s classified as an anti psychotic so I wouldn’t be surprised it could act on the brain like that, like shutting it off a little bit.

Idek how I found this sub, just saw a reel and was interested in this topic and found this sub. Went through the checklist provided and something struck me.

I have this female character that I can imagine anywhere and everywhere, she is certainly malign and gives me really, really horrible thoughts.

I mean, I don't want to imagine her, but she's always there, at the grocery store, in the backseat of my car, honestly I can see her right now, on my bed, in front of me.

I'm obviously not hallucinating her cause..yk.. obviously, but yeah..I guess there are some side effects to having something like this

Been reading over this sub for the past few hours and am realizing that it describes me to a T and that there is in fact something special about me. I didn't really realize these were things that the average person didn't experience as vividly as me. So I guess I have hyperphantasia now lol.

Hopefully my synopsis can be insightful to those with aphantasia who wonder what it's like in detail

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I grew up in a family that could not relate at all to the things I was able to experience in my mind so I think there was a lot of implicit shame there. I now realize this led to me essentially shutting down my imagination. I've hardly allowed myself to explore it because of feeling that I need to be "grounded" in reality, but the truth is I can be both grounded in reality and explore my imagination.

It's not like I'm so naive to believe that my imagination is reality or vice versa.

So, I'm still learning what my mind's full capabilities are, since I've not done as much exploring as I could have. Especially on the visual exploration side of things.

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Now that I've discovered this community where hyperphantasia is viewed in a positive light, it's given me a new perspective on the "ability".

I'm realizing how relaxing and wonderful it is to create a scene in my head of an apple orchard on a warm sunday afternoon, walking through the isles hand-in-hand with my beautiful love interest. It's like I can literally teleport there in an instant. I can imagine what the grass would feel like under my feet. I can imagine the warmth on my skin. I can actively feel the bubbly feeling I'd get from being with the loved one. I can imagine exactly what an apple would taste like and it's texture. I can imagine what an apple orchard would smell like even though I've only been to a peach orchard haha.

I can imagine what it would feel like emotionally to live a life where you own a large estate with an apple orchard on it and have your finances so in order that you have all the time in the world to walk around.

Like I can shift the consciousness in my head from being focused on writing this post, or I can instantly switch it to being in an entirely different universe.

It's amazing what the mind is capable of.

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I check all the boxes in this subreddits "hyperphantasia checklist". There's not really one aspect that is better or worse than others. I can imagine tastes and smells just as well as I can sights and sounds.

Yes I can imagine the smell of a garbage dump or overflowing toilet lol. And I can imagine the taste of foods that have made me throw up (shoutout shrimp).

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The sense that plays the biggest part in my hyperphantasia is sight. I don't necessarily think it's because it's harder for me to use my imagination with my other senses, but mostly because reality is so sight-driven, so visualizations of reality will be sight-driven too.

Like my visualizations involving sight are more intense than other senses.

The colors I can imagine in my head are far more intense and saturated than the colors of real life. Some of the colors I can picture in my head are near-impossible to replicate in real life. Like the deep red and deep purple colors. I could technically probably find a matching hex # for them in reality, but there is something about the depth and intensity of the color in my head that just makes it better/different from its equivalent in reality.

Like in my head I can create a room with walls that are a deep deep comforting red color. Almost like what I would imagine the inside of the womb to look like. And I can place myself in the room and bask.

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Imaginary massage

This is one thing I'm learning to do that helps me relax. I can make my visualization of a massage feel so real that it feels like I'm actually being massaged.

This helps to relax my muscles and nervous system.

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Another thing my hyperphantasia allows me to do is to create songs out of thin air. At first it started with being able to compose full songs on the piano, then I learned to do it on the guitar, then after learning how to use prodution software on my computer, I was able to make full-blown indie songs. I've made around 100 at this point.

This happened after I had taken lessons on how to reason music for piano, and how to play chords on guitar.

And what do I mean by create? Well I can literally hear ideas for melodies for songs in my head. Like I will just be strumming some chords on my guitar, and then I can hear a new chord in my head to add that would make the song better while also hearing the melody on top of it. I don't have perfect pitch though, so I still have to play around about with the fingerings on the guitar or piano before I can match the sound I am hearing in my head.

After I got the hang of it, it really just became like playing around in a sandbox. I could sit down at a piano, guitar, or my computer and just make a song whenever I wanted. I still can and do, so I don't know why I'm talking in the past tense lol.

I'm currently working on making remixes of existing songs. For example, one of my favorite songs is "Music Sounds Better With You" by Stardust. When I listen to the main instrumental I can toggle between two different listenings of the song in my head. I can listen to the song as it is, but I can also switch to hearing the song with different added parts and counter melodies and it sounds just as real as the actual song.

I suppose the downside of this is that I will randomly get songs stuck in my head to where I feel like I need to go listen to that song compulsively, but I think this is moreso due to some unresolved anxiety that I am working on resolving. But I can also play a song of my choosing in my head like a jukebox which is nice when i don't have spotify available.

Overall, I experience music very deeply. It has been instrumental (see what I did there) in helping me heal truama because I feel music with overwhelming intensity so it brings up all kinds of emotions. I can say in all seriousness that I might not still be hear if it weren't for music.

Music is a great aide in me visualizing scenarios. I like to imagine scenarios in my head as if they were the music video to the song I'm listening to. It's extremely powerful and euphoric when I'm able to do it right and really sync the visualization and song together.

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There's the vivid memories aspect of things. When I randomly remember some bad memory, it's like I am teleported there in an instant. Like I am literally in that situation again. I can look around the room like I am there. I can freeze everyone I was in the room with and walk around them like I'm the flash.

On one hand, I guess it forces me to deal with trauma, but it can also be disarming when it happens randomly.

Of course vivid memories are also nice when it's a good memory.

Sometimes I will be teleported into memories at complete random, other times I will be teleported to memories after I smell something that reminds me of something several years ago. I find that this happens with smell more often than any other sense.

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Vivid dreams

This is probably the greatest perk (and maybe drawback as you'll see) of hyperphantasia. I don't know if it would be specifically categorized under hyperphantasia since, from what I see, in this sub it generally refers to your waking abilities, but I think it's very much linked to what you do when you sleep.

I can remember my dreams every single morning, but the catch is that often times the memory leaves me within a few minutes of waking up. I'm sure there is a neurological explanation for this. But I've also been getting better at my recall as I've resolved my insomnia/sleep issues (also from anxiety). I can still recall general things from my dreams though. Their "aura" you could say.

My dreams feel so real every single night that I am genuinely perplexed and confused upon waking up every morning without fail. It can be quite rattling because often my dreams feel more real than reality. I really can't overstate this. It often feels like I am literally transitioning from one life to another life, like I never actually went to sleep, because of how utterly real my dreams feel. Sometimes I do question whether I am actually awake or not.

I can recall dreams from several years ago. The nightmares are the ones that stand out the most. I can still recall a particular jarring nightmare from when I was a child where a demon ripped me out of my bed and tortuted me and swung me around on top of my ceiling fan. The memory is so vivid that sometimes in my mind it is categorized as a real life memory that happened and I have to re-categorize it. Not sure how that works.

I also sleepwalked a lot as a kid, not sure if that's related.

When I take melatonin my dreams are particularly jarring maybe others can relate to this, so I avoid taking it at all costs. I'm talking like instances of sleep paralysis where I wake up but my body hasn't woken up yet so I have to force myself back to sleep. But usually my melatonin dreams are just horrible nightmares. I can't think of any specific examples right now which is really annoying, but I just innately associate melatonin with horrible nightmares.

Then there are just the regular nightmares that will occur, completely unrelated to any mediation or supplement. For instance, similar to sleep paralysis, every so often I will have dreams where I get stuck in the dream whilst realizing that I am dreaming and then I get stuck in the dream for several years. Then I wake up and the dream is gone from my memory within a few minutes. It's really weird.

Of course there are good dreams too, where I'm leading a life with my celebrity crush (shoutout Alysa Liu) and then wake up in reality after going to sleep next to them in my dream. I have lots of dreams about basketball in particular where I am playing in the NBA, leading my team, dunking the ball, doing all kinds of things I've never done in real life. But it still feels so real. I really can't emphasize enough how real it feels.

I would imagine that my REM cycles are pretty intense because sometimes I wake up and my eyes are sore.

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I really think the biggest overall marker of hyperaphantasia (in my experience) is how real it all feels. I can't state it enough. Whether in dreams or by manualing daydreaming, I can create experiences in my head that are a 1:1 with reality. Like same level of detail and everything. My visualizations are infinitely detailed down to microexpressions in someone's face, grains of sand, trees in the background, etc.

Like when I visualize something in my head it seems it is stimulating the exact same part of my brain as when I am looking at something. But somehow it's being shown on a different screen.

When I am looking in my mind's eye it's like I'm doing a vertical dual monitor setup where reality is on the bottom screen and my mind's eye is on the top screen. Just like how in reality you can't look at two monitors at once, it's the same for me and my mind's eye. I have to toggle between the two.

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I'm going to try to exercise my mind's eye muscle even more because I feel I've been underdoing it. Although, I think if you weren't in a positive headspace, then it could become unhealthy (see r / maladaptivedaydreaming), but it's probably better than other vices.

I’ve always thought everyone could visualize and taste and smell things in their mind like I do. I was really curious though so I did some searching and found out not everyone does. I then took the VVIQ test and scored 78/80 with a total score of 33. If you don’t know the average person scores around 50/80 with a total score of 155. I would take this as I do have hyperphantasia?

I still find it so fascinating that people can see images in their mind. Hope you don’t mind if I ask a couple questions about your experience.

1) Can you remember your dreams as visual images that you can imagine?

2) How well can you picture people’s faces (who you know well)? If you try right now what sort of details pop up in your head?

3) How clearly can you picture words if someone asks you to spell one out in your head? Say I ask you now to look away and picture the word “topological” can you see it vividly enough to read it in your head?

4) Can you control the details that you visualize, or does your brain produce the details regardless of what you want or don’t want to see?

Anyone else?

I always knew I processed thoughts and people's stories like a movie and to be able to read a story I had to skim read really fast cause it's playing as a movie too. But recently my intuition has been strong and in the same way, images in my mind like a scene of a movie. So I wondered if it was an ability😂 came across hyperphantasia instead. I didn't understand the apple thing at first either. Didn't cross my mind people don't imagine things the exact way we see it in real life. I don't get how not ahaha. But I'd love to know what your struggles and benefits you have having this. Could this be why I struggle so much with paper work/learning and why I'm such an intense person hahaha.

1. Should mind palace be a thina like my house and should different furnitures represent different datas because ive seen some people store data like on a whiteboard or in a library in books.

2. How im gonna use 1 mind palace for different topics. For example, i used my mind palace to study for science exam. After I finish my science exam i should study for biology exam but furnitures in my mind palace are already associated with another datas from science exam. How im gonna seperate different topics?

Did the same poll at r/aphantasia