Comment by chippy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by chippy | Hacker News Reader

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I would suggest researching a bit about "modalities" in NLP. If you have heard of NLP before and it rings alarm bells, forget the magical thinking stuff about NLP ...the interesting beginnings of the project began on some good scientific research in how people imagined things in their mind. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_systems_%28NL...

In essence, people can think visually, kinetically (feeling), aurally (sound).

Most folks imagine with pictures, but many don't. You are not alone.

For example: I'm sure you can imagine what it felt like when something really funny happened to you, right? And you could probably also remember listening to a song you heard on the radio. Now - recall what it felt like when you were on a beach (or a snowy mountain), and recall what it sounded like. If you cannot remember, imagine the feeling of the sun, sound and imagine the sound you might hear.

I'm not Blake, but I think you're falling victim to the typical mind fallacy.

> I'm sure you can imagine what it felt like when something really funny happened to you, right?

I can't. In fact, the entire notion of how I "felt" in the past seems like a metaphor to me.

> And you could probably also remember listening to a song you heard on the radio.

I can remember the fact that I heard a certain song on the radio. I certainly cannot hear it.

> If you cannot remember, imagine the feeling of the sun, sound and imagine the sound you might hear.

I've been to beaches and snowy mountains and absolutely could not imagine those things. I know in the abstract that a beach is warmer than a mountain, but I don't feel those memories differently—they're just textual descriptions, like what you'd read in a book.

> For example: I'm sure you can imagine what it felt like when something really funny happened to you, right? And you could probably also remember listening to a song you heard on the radio. Now - recall what it felt like when you were on a beach (or a snowy mountain), and recall what it sounded like. If you cannot remember, imagine the feeling of the sun, sound and imagine the sound you might hear.

Did you read the whole article? I'm pretty sure he cannot do these things. He mentions he can't really imagine music or sound either and has a hard time recalling experiences in general.

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