Have you ever heard of Aphantasia? I hadn’t until I was scrolling through Instagram one day just a couple of years ago. I saw a video of this sweet looking blonde woman explaining that she had a “condition” for lack of a better word. She grew up without the ability to picture images. But since she had been like that for as long as she could remember, it was normal. She believed everybody was this way. She thought people were just exaggerating or being figurative when saying “picture this…” or “can’t you see it?”

After seeing the video, this concept just wouldn’t leave my mind. I mean, it all made sense. This was something that I too was experiencing every single day for as long as I could remember. So, I did some research. I discovered that people really do see things in their minds (which was absolutely mind-blowing to me).

Living with Aphantasia: 

It’s not much different than you’d expect. I go through my day like any other. Although, it makes meditating very difficult. But I already think yoga is relatively boring so that isn’t much of a problem for me. What can be quite the struggle though is reading. I’ve always hated reading, even since I was little. I thought there was no point; It was just words on pages. But when I discovered that the rest of the world (practically) creates these characters, scenes, and events all in their heads while reading, it made so much sense to me why I hated reading so much.

Another interesting aspect of this whole ordeal; I can dream. I really don’t understand it honestly. I mean, if I don’t have a sort of “mind’s eye”, how can I still picture things while unconscious? There’s not much research on this characteristic so hopefully we’ll know soon but for now myself and about 1% of the population will continue to live in curiosity.