Aphantasia: Experiences, Perceptions, and Insights

by Alan Kendle

Close your eyes and picture a sunrise. For the majority of people, the ability to visualize images – such as a sunrise – seems straightforward, and can be accomplished ‘on demand’. But, for potentially some 2% of the population, conjuring up an image in one’s mind’s eye is not possible; attempts to visualize images just bring up darkness. Although identified back in the 19 th century, Aphantasia remained under the radar for more than a century, and it was not until recently that it has been rediscovered and re-examined. It has become clear that Aphantasia is a fascinating and often idiosyncratic condition, and typically more complex than the simple absence of an ability to visualize. People with the condition – Aphants – commonly report effects upon their abilities to recreate sounds, smells and touches as well; many also struggle with facial recognition. Paradoxically, many Aphants report that when they sleep, their dreams incorporate colour images, sound, and the other senses. Put together by lead author Alan Kendle – who discovered his Aphantasia in 2016 – this title is a collection of insights from contributors across the world detailing their lives with the condition. It offers rich, diverse, and often amusing insights and experiences into Aphantasia’s effects. For anyone who wishes to understand this most intriguing condition better, the book provides a wonderful and succinct starting point. Foreword by Professor Adam Zeman, Professor of Cognitive and Behavioural Neurology, University of Exeter

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Neuroscience, Science

ebook

First published December 1, 2017

Reviews

[Emma Sea · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's not like there's a big choice of books on Aphantasia (to be without a "mind's eye"). Still, this one was disappointing. It's ethnographic, 99% consisting of direct quotes from interviews with people who have Aphantasia, discussing such aspects as memory, imagination, sleeping and dreaming, academic and career achievement etc. Which was . . . fine? I guess I would have preferred a lot more analysis, but then without much primary source material, what could any analysis be based on?

I wouldn't rec this, however, unless it was to someone with aphantasia, wanting to compare one's own direct lived experience with that of others. And really, you could get that from the various FB groups and other online forums, for free.

If you have never encountered the concept of aphantasia, and then realize, yeah, you may have it, then this would be a good book. there is much comfort in realizing one is not alone in how one's brain works. You're not broken, mate.

I find aphantasia really interesting in terms of character description in fiction. Sometimes I see reviews saying, "I didn't like there wasn't enough detail given of the characters to really picture them," and I'm thinking, "You . . . picture the characters????" Now I realise, yeah, 95% of people craft pictures of the characters in their heads instead of labeling them sarcastic, smart, limps, works as a waiter, etc etc

Still, overall, a smidgeon above "only OK".

[Tyler Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved these insights into other experiences with Aphantasia! Showing there is a wide spectrum of experiences for those with Aphantasia and while one person may be one way in something due to it, it can be the exact opposite for someone else. All Aphantasia means is without mental images. We still think and are capable of doing anything we want. It has it's pros and cons, like anything else. It's just another way of thinking and going about the world.

I have annotated a lot and definitely plan on making a blog post about my personal experiences with it.

[Babsidi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting something with a bit more theory and scientific research to back things up. Alas, this is basically a collection of comments from the surveys that were sent around. Interesting over all, but not quite what I was looking for.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great and insightful book. Realised I had aphantasia a few months back and have been eager to learn of how others experience this phenomenon. Am currently exploring thought processes and my own aphantasia this semester of my art portfolio, this book was a great resource! Was also nice to read a book full of people who shared common experiences with me - i only know one other person who has aphantasia!

[Yannick Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for Aphants like me. The book starts with introducing the concept and then the whole book is pretty much "testimonials" of Aphants (people with Aphantasia).

Aphantasia is the inability to visualize and internally reproduce senses.
e.g. Close your eyes and visualize being at the beach on a sunny day. Are you describing the experience to yourself with words coming from your inner voice or are you actually seeing it and feeling it? Can you smell the ocean? Can you feel the sand on your toes? Can you see a loved one by your side?

If you can do these things and "live" the experience in your head, then you don't have Aphantasia and this book will be only "ok" (i.e. 3 stars) for you. If when you close your eyes, it's pitch black. This book might be a big revelation. Therefore is book is only for a very small % of the population. I'm one of the statistics.

[Christina ✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was interested in this book because part of my job is leading people through visualization-based meditations and teaching them tools to better visualize — or get the most out of their visualization practice. Getting a radically different perspective, I thought, would help me expand my view of the world and the human experience as a whole! I did get a little bit of that.

The bit that surprised me and, then, became a theme of my experience reading this book, though, was actually how misunderstood the process of visualization is. Granted, this could be because this book was written by someone with aphantasia talking to other people with aphantasia, so there was nobody to really clarify or ask follow-up questions or challenge assumptions when they came up? I don’t know. I’ll give some examples.

➝ When asked how not being able to visualize affected their experience in school, someone mentioned they weren’t able to complete the multiplication tables as quickly as others and that visualization would have been great. But memorizing multiplication tables is rote memorization even for visualizers. The fastest of us didn’t spend time visualizing multiplication tables. We knew the answers and wrote them down quickly. We didn’t pull up a cheat sheet in our brains.

➝ Later, someone else said they could visualize Venn diagrams or other charts/graphs but they don’t see things in great detail. But visualizing Venn diagrams is visualizing, and it does use a mind’s eye. So…🤷‍♀️?! Unless we’re saying this is not visualization? In which case, that begs the question: if visualizing a Venn Diagram isn’t visualization/having a mind’s eye, what is?

➝ There was also a lot of mention of “blackness” as a sort of distinction between aphants and visualizers, but I don’t think that’s really a distinction at all. Everyone that I’ve ever asked (I'd even venture to say everyone I've ever met) sees black when they close their physical eyes. If non-aphants want to visualize something, their physical eyes are still seeing the physical darkness. It’s something different entirely that creates and receives the visualizations. Is the author of the book thinking that when I close my eyes and decide to visualize a beach, that it’s like I’m actually sitting on a beach? Because it’s not, thank goodness, I hate sand.

I think, because we don’t have a clear definition of what is visualization and what isn’t, to better understand the experiences of aphants, I really needed more dialogue between aphants and visualizers. I needed someone to question assumptions and dig a little deeper with each person instead of just taking answers at face value and moving on to the next person. As a result, after reading this book, I have even more questions about aphantasia than I did before. Good? Bad? I don’t know. It's a good starting point.

tl;dr: All in all, the book was ok. It did help expand my view of the human experience which I really appreciated. I think I just wanted it to go a little deeper with each human, so I could really get what life is like for them. ★★

[Jón Absalonsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is basically a collection of answers to a questionnaire concerning people's experiences with having aphantasia. There isn't much scientific 'meat' in this book, but since there isn't much research done on the topic, and since there aren't many books written about it, I guess this is better than nothing.

[Yaaresse · Rating 2 out of 5]

TL; DR -- Pointless. No actual objective, verifiable information.

Long version:
This is a subject about which there is not a lot of information from experts in neurology, and this book is no exception. Is it even a real thing? Dunno. No one seems to be studying it, probably because there's no money to be made in it. As someone who has never been able to visualize anything whose partner has ability to visualize in detail that would photographs pale in comparison, I'm mildly interested in the topic and was hoping for something more Oliver sacks than Facebook forum.

Basically, the content of this book is just a bunch of opinions of laypeople about how they experience a condition they "self-identify" with because they read a magazine article, heard a podcast, saw a hastag, etc. So, none of these people offered up an objective, independent verification from any truly scientific test or source. They're just jumping on the "me, too!" bandwagon.*

*(Just to be clear: I mean the general non-empowering, non-hash tagged, pre-Tamera Burke, figure of speech "me, too", not the movement.)

The book is in Q&A form. The questions asked seem designed to try to provoke an answer that would have us think being "an aphant" -- which I refuse to capitalize as in the book because it's not a freaking proper noun -- is some horrible debilitating condition. The interviewer insists on phrasing questions that imply people "suffer from" this neurological quirk or that they need to "cope" or that it's somehow made their lives a living hell, yadda, yada, yada. Half the respondents seem only too happy to blame anything about themselves they don't lie on being "an aphant" and the other half just weren't buying into the whole victim mindset.

Of those who were sinking into that comfy couch of "poor me," all sorts of things they didn't like or felt them were n't good at got blamed on not having an ability to visualize. Most of those activities had almost nothing to do with the ability to visualize. Multiplication tables? Reading fiction? If you need to visualize to do those things, then congenitally blind people wouldn't be able to do them. I've known a lot of blind people, and most of them do math and read fiction just fine.

Honestly, unless you're the sort of person who bonds over trivial similarities with people, there's nothing of value here. It's like reading a transcript of random people in a coffee shop commiserating with each other over being left-handed or ginger. It's pity out cruising for a party and discovering that the gang all have other plans. What little non-opinion info there is in the book appears to be from Wikipedia or a BBC podcast, both of which you can access for free.

[Lisa Pielert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick read. It made me feel very seen! It was comforting to know others are dealing with this condition and the consequences that come along with it like having no sense of direction. Not being able to visualize family members and friends. Over all I enjoyed it. I just thought a lot of the opinions people had were very repetitive. Like I don’t care that nr and nj and bc and fd all feel that this condition doesn’t affect them in any negative way. We could just have said “8 or of 17 people said this” and that would have been better imo.

[Isabella · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ft. People talking about conflicting and/or mundane things and attributing it to aphantasia. No your aphantasia isn’t why you like to watch a lot of TV ffs.

[clivey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having recently realised I have aphantasia, I was excited to find a book that might help me understand it better. While I was hoping for a bit more science, I understand that this (though known about since the 1800s, at least) hasn't been researched much until recently and is probably fairly difficult to investigate. That said, it was interesting to see the range of people's experiences, and find the ones I resonated with. It also encouraged me to do my own investigations--who knows, maybe I'll write a book on this one day, too.

[DutchGirlReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aphantasia refers to the inability of individuals to visualize images in their minds. Aphants can mentally recall things mentally, but it is the essence of an image and the abstract nature of the thing. This also impacts the ability to recreate sensations such as sounds, smells, and touch, often leading to difficulties in facial recognition.

"Aphantasia definitely affects my memory. This is “part” of the GIFT that is my blackness. I can easily move on, forget, not hold grudges, no living in the past, and no dreaming of the future. This is it! I can live in the NOW."

I became aware of my Aphantasia a couple of years ago during an interview conducted by Anthony Padilla. Since then, my curiosity about this topic has grown, prompting a quest for more information. This book serves as a valuable starting point, especially considering the limited research available on the subject.

Exploring the experiences and perspectives of fellow Aphants within the book proved insightful. However, a more analytical or summarized presentation of the survey responses, rather than a compilation of sometimes repetitive answers, would have enhanced the overall reading experience.

A summary of the downsides of Aphantasia:
- Not being able to visualize and being unable to recreate people in your mind
- Difficulty with remembering faces
- Makes it more difficult to remember things, especially happy memories
- Harder to learn in traditional ways
- No visual imagery when reading
- Limited creativity without reference
- Inability to recreate music
- Cannot predict the taste of a new recipe
- Struggle to stay emotionally connected, especially with infrequent contacts
- Tendency to misplace items

A summary of the upsides of Aphantasia:
- Clarity of thought
- Immunity to reliving unpleasant experiences
- Freedom from negative memories with all senses
- Limited attachment to departed loved ones
- Easier to let go of the past and negative memories
- Lack of deep grief, grudges, or lingering anger
- Ease in moving on without looking back
- Living in the moment without dwelling on the past or future
- Clear and focused mind
- Supportive community of fellow Aphants
- Every experience feels like the first time
- Endless appreciation for familiar faces
- Unique ability to connect dots and envision possibilities

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was... not what I expected.

When another reviewer said it was 99% ethnographic quotes I thought they were exaggerating for effect. But no. Starring about 5 pages in, each chapter is a question, and what follows is short answers from 20-30 aphants who are identified largely by initials.

What is most frustrating is that most of the responses are a sentence long. Some are a paragraph. The author's tend to be longer. There is no analysis, no statistics applied even to the qualitative data collected. A few times the book highlights that many people share Alan's experience, but that's about it.

So. I bought it. I read it. It is the only book I could find about aphantasia. But I was really hoping for something a little more meaty, with analysis and references to the little research that exists.

[Abby Crow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally new concept presented to me via loved one with Aphantasia. Quite mind blowing.

“Before I knew I had Aphantasia, it didn’t even occur to me that imagination could be visual process. I just thought of concepts in a more abstract sense, and mentally added other elements or concepts to it as my imagination allowed. No images necessary.”

Can you “see” with your eyes closed? How we experience and perceive is still so interesting. The brain, right? How “seeing” or being blind in your minds eye effects imagination, sleeping and dreaming, memories, relationships, etc. Would love to learn more about this.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phew. Not sure how to rate this. If you have Aphantasia yourself and are trying to figure out what the experiences of other Aphants are like, this may be for you. If you aren't, it may not. It is mostly a collection of answers from a questionnaire of Aphants, so it consists of a lot of anecdotes and not a lot of scientific info on Aphants. Which is fine if this is what you go in expecting (also, there just isn't a lot of science on the topic yet). So, know what you're getting into, and you may like it.

[Mary-Lou Szoka · Rating 3 out of 5]

One side only

3/5 This is good although I think we haven't cleared up what part is visualisaton, memory, imagination. I don't think they all come and go together. // Now I'd like to read à bookk about how the other 97 % of the people function with all the differences in ability to visualise.

[Lindsey]

I was hoping for this book to be a bit more formal and scientific. I wish the author had analyzed the data and summarized his findings instead of presenting the reader with every answer the participants gave. This is a fascinating subject and I'm very interested, it just felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just recently discovered I have aphantasia, so this book was an interesting read for me. It mainly contains a bunch of other people's answers to questions on having aphantasia, which was helpful, in a way, to not feel so alone or different. I wish it was more scientific and fact based, but I recognize there hasn't been a lot of research done on it.

[Görkem Saylam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aphantasia: Experiences, Perceptions, and Insights | Alan Kendle
Scoring Rubric
1: baseline
2: creative contextualization bcs of "aphantasia" as groundbreaking theme
1: routine conceptualization bcs of no new conceptualization but the collection of the experiences across the world with the condition
4: total points by 5

[Lani · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is clearly self-published, but it's still reaffirming to read other people's experience with something I deal with. I'm grateful that it exists and that this book tries to put some human experiences into order to show the spectrum of how people remember and 'visualize'.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great information

I just realized I have Aphantasia but fortunately I have great memories of how I felt and auditory memory of the words said. I just can picture or smell things by memory.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone with aphantasia, I was hoping this book would provide a deeper understanding of the condition. While I did learn a few things, it ultimately fell short of my expectations. I expected more in-depth information.

[Eirik Moen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting reading what Alan Kendle wrote as introduction in every chapter. But the Q and A did not seem tought trough, so i skipped most of it.

[Pamela Burdick]

I don’t think I can rate this because it was mostly just responses. However it is life changing to read these experiences.

[Gabriel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Insufferably repetitive. Literally reads like a boring Reddit comment thread.

[Jake Crozier · Rating 5 out of 5]

(5)

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing.

As someone who discovered I have aphantasia by tripping over the infamous Blake Ross post back in 2016, I periodically google to see what's new in both research and discussion forums. I was excited about this book, expecting it to bring together what has been figured out by now, and give it all some coherence and thoughtful consideration.

Unfortunately, the book provides neither analysis nor insight, just raw data from the author's survey of a small number of people (who seem far from a random sample). Each chapter is simply one question, then a list of all of the responses verbatim. It's pretty much like reading the comments on someone's FaceBook page.

One frustrating result is that the answers are unfiltered, and so the book presents a whole lot of stuff as "aphantasia" that probably has nothing to do with it. For instance, in response to questions like "How did aphantasia affect you at school?" respondents provide examples like spelling or social difficulties that are more likely to have been caused by common unrelated issues such as dyslexia, (20% of the population!) or ASD (which a couple note they have).

All in all, so much less than I had hoped for from this book.

[Tina Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing

This was an excellent book to give me an overview of how others experience and cope with having aphantasia. Well worth reading.