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Comment by gnaritas | Hacker News Reader

Apparently aphantasia doesn't appear to affect dreams (from research I've read), when sleeping I do have visual dreams, but awake, nothing but black even with eyes closed no matter how hard I try to imagine a picture.

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If you are not blind then you can see pictures. So this would be interesting to follow up ...

Not sure I understand what you're implying, I'm not blind, and only recently realized other people actually see pictures in their mind while awake. But dreaming while awake would be awesome if achievable.

I'm saying that you don't see what is on your retina, but something that is manifested by your brain (and this is why you can see images when you dream).

So I'm guessing that there is a path for you to imagine images. It could be very similar to how most people who think they are tone deaf can be helped to hear pitches quite accurately.

Ah, yes, I'm hoping this is true as well hence my interest in what you said about learning to dream while awake. If you don't have any specific recommendations I'll continue researching on my own.

My personal experience is it's not as much "seeing" as "feeling" whatever I "see". Like with open eyes staring at but not looking at something, instead mentally focusing on peripheral, where the peripheral is more of an idea than the impression of photons hitting your retina. I often almost feel like I'm drawing the diagrams or interfaces I might think of, with sweeping gestures and so on. I definitely think it's something that gets better with practice.

Sure, but most people have actual visuals when they imagine, most with color. That's where I want to get.

I mean, I CAN have visuals like that, as I don't have aphantasia. But I don't believe most of my ideas originate from the visual imagining. It usually starts with concepts, is connected through logic, and then along the way images may or may not be generated, depending on what I am ruminating about.

Try doing some after images and see what happens ...

Will do; thanks.

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