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0 pointshackingthelema4y ago0 comments

I think I have aphantasia and no inner monologue. Mind you, I can summon an inner voice to compose a sentence before saying it, but when I'm thinking about something being discussed and someone asks me what my thoughts are so far... I never have any idea what to say. My mind is blank! It's always blank! There are never any discernable words or images in there to give you. If I need to communicate my thoughts, I have to spend significant amounts of time translating to words and choosing words before I can actually summarise what I was thinking, which is much more nebulous to me than words or images.

My 'thoughts' are closer to a mouse cursor changed into an hourglass while waiting for a computation to finish than 'First we need to do <XYZ>, but to do <XYZ> we need <X>, <Y>, and <Z>. To get <X>, <Y>, and <Z>, we need to ...'

I find it really hard to operate in live/in-person discussions because of this. I physically end up just as silent and blank as my mind!

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tarentel4y ago· 1 in thread

I find this kind of stuff, including the authors article, weirdly fascinating. I try to do what other people describe, such as yourself, and it really is impossible. It just makes no sense to me. I'm sure I have ways of thinking as well that probably baffle other people. It's all very strange.

With that being said I wish my mind was blank sometimes, I wish my inner monologue would shut up every now and then. :)

cgriswald4y ago

I was surprised when I learned that everybody doesn’t have a spatial calendar. Mine is a rectangle with the first six months on top and the last six months returning in the opposite direction on the bottom, forming a cycle. (I also “feel” mathematics and code spatially.)

I’m curious why these differences happen and to what degree it’s difference in thought versus difference in conscious perception of thought.

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