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Apparently I blew my mom's mind with the concept of aphantasia.
I mentioned it offhand as part of telling her about a thing yesterday that involved a guided meditation -- which has never worked for me, but now I at least know why -- and I could practically hear her thoughts screech to a halt, and she spent twenty minutes asking me about various things and going "huh".
The best metaphor I was able to come up with was -- the number 1 has a visual representation but there also is the concept of one, and I can hold in my mind the concept of one-ness but don't get a numeral or a word or a representational dot. So I can have the concept of a tree or beach or sunset in my mind, but there's no image.
(I do have the aural equivalent of visualization, though most often it manifests as uncontrolled earworms, not deliberately generated sense memory. I also do dream in images, which isn't true for all aphantasics but isn't uncommon either, since again it's a conscious vs unconscious divide.)
My mom was just ... floored by the whole thing. I guess if my revelation/discovery about people actually being able to see things is like someone who's colorblind being told red and green are actually different for other people, she's allowed to be surprised at colorblindness existing.
I mentioned it offhand as part of telling her about a thing yesterday that involved a guided meditation -- which has never worked for me, but now I at least know why -- and I could practically hear her thoughts screech to a halt, and she spent twenty minutes asking me about various things and going "huh".
The best metaphor I was able to come up with was -- the number 1 has a visual representation but there also is the concept of one, and I can hold in my mind the concept of one-ness but don't get a numeral or a word or a representational dot. So I can have the concept of a tree or beach or sunset in my mind, but there's no image.
(I do have the aural equivalent of visualization, though most often it manifests as uncontrolled earworms, not deliberately generated sense memory. I also do dream in images, which isn't true for all aphantasics but isn't uncommon either, since again it's a conscious vs unconscious divide.)
My mom was just ... floored by the whole thing. I guess if my revelation/discovery about people actually being able to see things is like someone who's colorblind being told red and green are actually different for other people, she's allowed to be surprised at colorblindness existing.