[Aphantasia is the inability to visualise images in the mind. The term was coined in 2015, and has been popularised in recent years by this scale, representing the ability to visualise an apple in the minds eye. I’m a desaturated 1].

…interest in aphantasia isn’t reserved for those who experience it. 

Instead, it serves as a salient reminder of the uniqueness of conscious experience. It helps us understand that we don’t all experience the world in the same way, and I hope, helps us build empathy for those around us. 

Tom Ebeyer, Some can hear it, but others can’t…

This is exactly why I’ve been so fascinated by aphantasia. I remember learning about it in 2014 or so,* and instantly adding it to my list of ways that we ‘literally don’t understand each other.’**

Aphantasia is a perfect example of how enormously varied our cognitive processes are. And the fact that we’re still able to surprise each other by how we individually process the shared world around us.

*Coincidentally, it was Jamie, who I mentioned two post ago who learned about the idea and shared it in the office.

**’We Literally Don’t Understand Each Other’ has been the working title of my imaginary TED talk since 2011 (when TED talks were at the peek of their popularity, and) when the OED changed its official definition to acknowledge the informal, non-literal use of ‘literally’ to mean ‘figuratively’.

Rather than just a 15 minute rant about that (because you can’t really argue with it, because the English dictionary is a documentary, not an edict), this placeholder talk title is what I’m exploring here, within the communication and cognition circles of my Venn diagram.

Update, 13 September. I totally forgot that I’d already briefly (and slightly inarticulacy) written about my daydreamed TED talk back in 2017.