Aphantasia - What the Heck?

I teased this in my last blog and promised to come back to comment on it, so... Ta-da!

I recently read about this malady and thought to myself *Horrors!* Aphantasia is the inability to "see" images in thought. Such as, if someone says to you "imagine a tree" you wouldn't be able to summon the image of a tree--or its setting, or its leaves or bark--in your mind, only some subject-specific words about trees in general. 

Wait! Whut???

The author further went on to explain how he also couldn't "hear" music or sounds in his thoughts. You know the term "earworm" -- that favorite song that you just can't get out of your head? Yeah. Doesn't happen. The author mentioned the Star Wars theme. When I think "Star Wars theme," I can absolutely hear those iconic first notes of an inspiring overture like I was the third chair clarinet inside my mind. It must be horrible to not have the ability to do that. And yet, he was quite far along in his life before he figured out he was lacking in the sensory imagination department.

Yet, he still was able to successfully write.

How?  I mean....HOW?

He explains in his post. It has something to do with what he calls "grey words."

I found it utterly fascinating.

Obviously, I don't have aphantasia (thank the Good Lord!) because when I write, or pre-write, or work on basic story context or scene ideas, I do it in my head in living technicolor and stereo sound. When I'm head-writing a scene in my current work, I can see the deep aquamarine eyes and subtle smile of Nakondus. I can hear his voice. I can picture Shanna's shining red hair and confused expression when she poses a question to him. It's a mind-movie for me. I couldn't even begin to fathom how someone could write without this capability. And yet the author talking about discovering this handicap...well, let's just say he's done a lot for an imagination-challenged soul.

I won't regurgitate his lengthy FB post here (which included texting snippets of his dawning revelation with other peers and a fascinating dialogue on how his mind does work), but I will drop the link below if you'd like to check out all his musing on the surprising revelation. Be sure to check out his credentials at the end. (Um...wow.)

Aphantasia: How it Feels to be Blind in your Mind

I'd like to segway that into a note that this blog has now developed its own form of aphantasia. It seems I can no longer post images, for some unknown reason. I apologize profusely, since I love to break up the long blocks of text by illustrating with related pictures, but that's no longer possible. (And getting help from Blogger...good luck with that.)  So sadly, this "blog" is going to be a bit bland going forward, though I will keep working the problem -- like Mark Watney in a Martian dust storm.

Hope you have a day filled with vibrant thoughts. I'll be Bach.