No Visual Memory / Can't Visualize / "Blind Inside"

[Flyndaran]

I probably have weak visual memory / visualizing. My dreams don't always have visual aspects. Even when they do, it's blurry and with washed out weak colors. I've even had a few with absolutely zero imagery at all, not blackness, just nothing.

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Um, just to keep things straight, profile pictures and avatars are not the same thing.

Hey, yeah, that's technically right, and I know both don't need to match. However by discarding the aforementioned term, one has to acknowledge that the images appearing with each post under the user name are also sorts of user profile pictures. If you are aware or think of a better alternative term please let me know!

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

My dreams don't always have visual aspects. Even when they do, it's blurry and with washed out weak colors.

Thanks for answering to this. I guess in dreams there're lingering feelings and happenings which can be felt or evoked without images.

[Flyndaran]

The silly thing is that I don't remember dreams being blurry until after I needed glasses at age 12 or so. It's like my subconscious knows that I need them to see, but don't wear them in bed.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Um, just to keep things straight, profile pictures and avatars are not the same thing. You can click sir_pudding's profile to see both (which are not the same at all). Some profiles have one or the other or neither.

Yeah, one of those things is a photo of me and the other one is a photo of a different mammal.

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by JCurwen3

Quirk or not, what penalties might be associated with this, and in what situations?

Another GURPS trait I can think of as affected by this, is Blessed, if 1) it requires meditation, and 2) if that meditation requires active visualization (for worshiped divinities with every detail, movements, and other imaginal procedures). The same for Disciplines of Faith if the same kind of meditation is required.

Of course statues and pictures can be helpful like in the case of drawing with the help of models, but with meditation of sacred imagery, as it can be according to orthodox teachings, techniques, and scriptures, ultimately there's the need of "internalization" along with the "withdrawal of the senses" from the corporeal experience.

Also, the Dreaming skill could be affected, and the Flashbacks disadvantage couldn't be available. Likely there are some more examples around.

[JCurwen3]

Originally Posted by demonsbane

Enigmatic and interesting.

Adding to my question above: JCurwen3, do you dream sometimes while sleeping? There are internal images in dreams without any help of external models. But if it were a visual memory issue (inability to summon images from remembrances), I wonder how it'd be possible to answer a question like this! Unless there's some kind of remaining trace.

I have been researching what I have, aphantasia, after William posted his reply and finally named it for me - THANK YOU AGAIN!!!. In answer to your question, like most aphantasiacs (aphantasics? aphantastic?), I do dream, and there isn't a connection between aphantasia and not having visual elements in dreams, so I do have visual imagery, just as vivid as my actual sight while awake. It seems that I do have a visual memory, I just can't visualize or form mental pictures of any kind. I am unable to access my actual visual memory consciously when I want to, it only gets accessed in dreams or when I'm actively looking at stuff (recognition).

[Flyndaran]

That is very interesting. I wonder why my dreams always have very weak or even absent visual components when people with actual aphantasia like you have normal ones.
Then again, mine almost always lack "real" sound as well. They're usually more like how my inner voice sounds, informative but obviously not real sound.

[JCurwen3]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

That is very interesting. I wonder why my dreams always have very weak or even absent visual components when people with actual aphantasia like you have normal ones.
Then again, mine almost always lack "real" sound as well. They're usually more like how my inner voice sounds, informative but obviously not real sound.

That's strange about your dreams. That's definitely a separate and different thing to aphantasia. It's interesting though. In people with aphantasia, there is actually more activity in the visual cortex, but lower activity in the prefrontal cortex, the opposite of those without aphantasia. I wonder how your brain activity differs from mine and others when studied during dreaming under fMRI.

Could you describe an example dream of yours? I'm fascinated to understand your dreaming experiences, given what you've said. What is the level of clarity and vividness of the other senses in your dreams (smell, taste, touch, equilibrioception, motor sense, touch, pain, introspection, etc.)? Sorry if I'm probing, I'm just very interested. I love neurodiversity!

[Flyndaran]

I've only had two dreams with any physical sensation at all, both painful and probably caused by accidental kicking furniture in real life. Never any odors, which is really odd as for most of my life I had a near superhuman sense of smell.
I do have sense of position, and information conveyance like internal monologues, but no sound. So while the sensory information says blurry muted colors to full colorless mess, I still know who and what someone/something is.
Lack of taste is annoying for those few eating dreams.

[JCurwen3]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I've only had two dreams with any physical sensation at all, both painful and probably caused by accidental kicking furniture in real life. Never any odors, which is really odd as for most of my life I had a near superhuman sense of smell.
I do have sense of position, and information conveyance like internal monologues, but no sound. So while the sensory information says blurry muted colors to full colorless mess, I still know who and what someone/something is.
Lack of taste is annoying for those few eating dreams.

What sorts of things or stories happen in your dreams? I'm curious, given what you've told me about your senses in dreams.