D&D General I've Been a DM for 30 Years and I have Zero Imagination.

[Celebrim]

Anyway, curious if anyone else can relate!

It's always fascinating to me how different the minds of people are internally and how the same actions and settings can be totally different experiences.

I'm curious though, given that I have almost the opposite experience of the world you do, in as much as I have to be careful when driving to not give my imagination full sway, for fear I'll stop seeing what's in front of me at a conscious level, what the attraction therefore is in reading or playing a role-playing game, which to my mind hitherto I would have thought to define as a game of imagination. Indeed, I've always been reluctant to use battlemaps and the like for fear that it would mislead players into imagining themselves outside of their character, of imagining a game, rather than imagining themselves inside the character inside the world we are sharing in joint hallucination.

So what aesthetics are you enjoying when you read or play make believe?

 

[Seramus]

Anyway, curious if anyone else can relate!

One of my favorite authors, when asked if their audiobook voices came close to the voices they imagined, admitted they didn't hear the voices of the characters they write - not even their direct dialog.

This author has written 17 million words. I love their work. The characters have distinct styles, but... they just don't hear their voices.

 

[Jahydin]

So what aesthetics are you enjoying when you read or play make believe?

Oh, I'm still imagining... just not visually! For instance, I could hear, "A creature scream in agony down the long, twisting passages before you" and still imagine the pitch of the scream, the echo around the passages, the pain the creature might be feeling, the fear my character would have to fight through, etc... No need for a "picture" of any sorts.

Reading books is a bit different though. For one, I mostly read non-fiction (love math and quantum mechanics). But when I do read fiction, most of the enjoyment is not imagining the scenes in my mind, but trying to puzzle out the overall themes the author is trying to get across. Because of this, I can read pretty fast, but to most I would think the way I parse information would be pretty boring.

For instance, one of my favorite fictional series is Harry Dresden, which has a lot of action. When I get to those actions scenes though, I just quickly scan through 5 page of "Harry doges the ice spell and blah, blah, blah..." and it just becomes: "Harry exchanges spells with his old mentor and it was a close fight, but Harry won" and I move on to the next section... What's important to me isn't what exactly happened in that fight or what it "looked" like, but the implications of fighting one's mentor and what that could mean to the story moving forward.

This last book though, I really took my time with it and tried to not just summarize these sorts of things, but actually picture it in my head. It took me FOREVER (over a year of off and on reading), but realized how satisfying it was to have a neat little pictures in my head that I willed into existence! What would have just been the word "Scientist" in my head was now an actual person I could see! I really did have a lot of fun with it.

 

[Jahydin]

Clearly, visualization is not necessary to lead a full and happy life, so they do not need my pity, and they sure as hell don't need anyone being negative about it. Instead, there is hope for situations like this one, where effort has opened doors of perception that were previously closed, or at least mostly closed.

This. I really can't stress enough how "normal" I felt my entire life. I never once realized there was anything I was missing out on and never experienced any difficulty relating/communicating with others. Did really well in high school too (except auto-shop; I hate grime), art being my best subject.

Might have mentioned this before (and I'm too lazy to look), but the only situations that I've realized it's a handicap are driving (no mental 3D situational awareness sucks!) and navigating (same reason, no mental map to follow, just instructions like ye'old Yahoo Maps before GPS).

Oh, and describing people. One of my greatest fears is being the sole witness to a crime. I wouldn't even attempt to pick someone out of a line up because I know how flawed my judgement would be.

 

[Scott Christian]

Then came Dungeon World. My friend asked me to play and it sounded fun, but quickly realized how difficult it was for me to play. I could see everyone was drawing the scene in their minds and then narrating what they saw; but for me, it's just blank. My brain just doesn't do that.

It made me realize that I don't even imagine scenes when I read books. I enjoy following the logic of the story, but not once do I "visualize" the characters, scenery, or action. At best, I just get small "flash" if I concentrate really hard.

Anyway, curious if anyone else can relate!

This might be from a different angle, but since I teach high school English, I can tell you it is a skill, not an innate ability.

When we read a rather descriptive passage, I literally stop the students and try to train them on how to visualize things. This visualization comes in several forms:

• Attaching it to real life experiences
• Using sensory cues
• Latching on to strong action words or specific nouns

In a way, it's a bit like empathizing with another person. Reading cues, putting yourself in a place to feel what they feel, and then letting those feelings actually come through. (I'll admit, I am a much better sympathizer than I am empathizer when it comes to real-world interaction, and not just books.)

We read two short stories where I specifically focus on this story: "Through the Tunnel" by Doris Lessing and "The Seventh Man" by Haruki Murakami. The stories revolve around water, so I will even have kids come up and see how long they can hold their breath. Anything to get them to attach sensory experiences to the reading. Here are two of the slides we use. Hope it helps.

 

[soviet]

This might be from a different angle, but since I teach high school English, I can tell you it is a skill, not an innate ability.

When we read a rather descriptive passage, I literally stop the students and try to train them on how to visualize things. This visualization comes in several forms:

• Attaching it to real life experiences
• Using sensory cues
• Latching on to strong action words or specific nouns

In a way, it's a bit like empathizing with another person. Reading cues, putting yourself in a place to feel what they feel, and then letting those feelings actually come through. (I'll admit, I am a much better sympathizer than I am empathizer when it comes to real-world interaction, and not just books.)

We read two short stories where I specifically focus on this story: "Through the Tunnel" by Doris Lessing and "The Seventh Man" by Haruki Murakami. The stories revolve around water, so I will even have kids come up and see how long they can hold their breath. Anything to get them to attach sensory experiences to the reading. Here are two of the slides we use. Hope it helps.
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This is false. You can't learn not to have aphantasia.

 

[Maxperson]

It's always fascinating to me how different the minds of people are internally and how the same actions and settings can be totally different experiences.

I'm curious though, given that I have almost the opposite experience of the world you do, in as much as I have to be careful when driving to not give my imagination full sway, for fear I'll stop seeing what's in front of me at a conscious level, what the attraction therefore is in reading or playing a role-playing game, which to my mind hitherto I would have thought to define as a game of imagination. Indeed, I've always been reluctant to use battlemaps and the like for fear that it would mislead players into imagining themselves outside of their character, of imagining a game, rather than imagining themselves inside the character inside the world we are sharing in joint hallucination.

So what aesthetics are you enjoying when you read or play make believe?

I'm the same way. My imagination is very vivid and I will often get lost in it. I guess I have a look that my wife has learned to recognize, because sometimes I start thinking about something during dinner, movie night, etc. and in the middle I'll hear my wife say, "Hey Maxperson, come back to us. You have the look again."

 

[soviet]

Pretty much the same here. I remember being shocked and a little alarmed at the idea that there are folks who cannot form mental visualizations, and likewise people (often but not always the same people) who do not experience an internal monologue. It was really really hard to even understand how someone could live that way, because I have an extremely active imagination, intense visualizations, and if anything perhaps too much internal monologue. (I don't really get "stream of consciousness" narratives, because they aren't like how I personally think, or at least every one I've read reads like a muddy sea of utterly random craziness, almost totally unlike my own thought-experience.)

Thankfully, once I got over my initial shock, my primary response was to try to achieve greater empathy with anyone that has this lived experience. Clearly, visualization is not necessary to lead a full and happy life, so they do not need my pity, and they sure as hell don't need anyone being negative about it. Instead, there is hope for situations like this one, where effort has opened doors of perception that were previously closed, or at least mostly closed.

Your sympathy and empathy are misplaced. Not forming images or sounds in your head (including an inner voice) is not a signifier of less intelligence or less imagination. It's a signifier of that intelligence or imagination having a different expression. I don't understand less, experience less, think less, or imagine less than you do, in fact I strongly imagine it is the opposite.

 

[Jahydin]

This is false. You can't learn not to have aphantasia.

My experience alone should be enough to disprove this blanket statement. Maybe not all people can improve, but certainly others can with therapy and training. I've never seen any medical advice say otherwise.

 

[Scott Christian]

This is false. You can't learn not to have aphantasia.

Having aphantasia is different from not having practiced visualization. One is hardwired, one is having not practiced it. Like learning spatial geometry, or heck, even spatial awareness, one can cognizantly practice and become better. The brain is pliable and has the ability to grow and develop, even later in life.

Aphantasia is hardwired. Although, like many hardwired things, the ability to alter is still possible, the change is simply lessened. And sometimes, it's not worth the time and effort.