Do you qualify for Hyperphantasia?

jmal2000

jmal2000

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Hyperphantasia is a relatively new term used to describe extreme or far above average mental sensory imagery occurring both when we imagine and when we recreate memories stored in our brains.

Hyperphantasia Checklist

Consider this something of a checklist or guide of sensory completeness and simulation in imagination. I think it might be a good idea to have people ask questions about exactly how detailed and accurate their imaginings are.

Visual - Picture an apple on a plate.

  1. What color is the apple?
  2. What variety is the apple? (Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Macintosh...)
  3. Which direction is the light coming from?
  4. Is there a specular reflection - ie, a shiny spot, as if light is being accurately reflected by the skin of the apple?
  5. Are there imperfections in the surface? Roughness, subtle variations in the color of the apple?
  6. Is there reflected illumination from the plate onto the apple?
  7. Can you easily zoom in on the apple, rotate it, etc? How faithful to an actual 3-D physical object is this in your mind's eye?
Audio - Imagine a song, one with vocals and instruments. Pick one you're familiar with.

  1. Does it have all the instruments?
  2. Are the vocals changing pitch, tone, etc?
  3. Are the vocals actual words, or just sort of gibberish fitting the role? (Try singing along to whatever is going through your head out loud if you're not sure)
  4. How sharp are the drums?
  5. Can you change the tempo?
  6. Can you make the singer sound like they huffed helium?
  7. Can you swap out instruments? Swap out lyrics wholesale?
  8. Can you change the key or mode of the song?
Touch/Proprioception - Imagine your hand and an object, any object, in front of you.

  1. Can you mentally reach out and touch it?
  2. Does the object feel like it should? Hard/soft, hot/cold, smooth/rough, etc...
  3. Could you feel your own imagined hand and arm? Were you aware of the physical movements in the same way that you know where your physical arm/hand/fingers are without looking?
  4. How heavy is the object you imagined? The right weight?
  5. Can you change that weight?
  6. Close your eyes (mentally or physically, whatever works) and concentrate on that imagined hand. Start with the thumb. Tap it to your palm. Do the same with your index finger, then your middle, ring, little finger. Any problems?
  7. Can you keep going? In other words, can you continue to 'tap fingers' with fingers you don't have - imagine that you had extra fingers - despite not having a real-life analogue to compare to?
  8. Can you go a step further, and imagine the feel of wholly alien things (bird wings, say) that will require entirely fictitious input?
Smell - Imagine a flower, preferably one with a strong smell

  1. Can you smell it at all?
  2. Does it smell strong enough, or just a faint whiff?
  3. Is the smell accurate - a rose smelling like a rose?
  4. Can you make it smell like something else - fresh cookies, say?
  5. Multiple smells at once? Rose, cookies, old stinky socks?
Taste - Seems to be pretty rare, but... imagine a few foods.

  1. Can you taste them?
  2. If you imagine something salty - like a pickle or potato chips - and add imaginary salt to it, does it taste saltier?
  3. Can you distinctly tell apart the taste of distinct items, like, say, two flavors of chips, or two kinds of candy bar, or two different wines?
  4. Kind of the acid test: if you imagine a few foods and what they would taste like together, can you go in your kitchen, get those foods, eat them together, and have them taste the same? That is, are your imagined tastes demonstrably the same as the real thing to a degree that it would be useful cooking?
 
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Furry

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jmal2000 said:
Hyperphantasia is a relatively new term used to describe extreme or far above average mental sensory imagery occurring both when we imagine and when we recreate memories stored in our brains.

Hyperphantasia Checklist

Consider this something of a checklist or guide of sensory completeness and simulation in imagination. I think it might be a good idea to have people ask questions about exactly how detailed and accurate their imaginings are.

Visual - Picture an apple on a plate.

  1. What color is the apple?
  2. What variety is the apple? (Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Macintosh...)
  3. Which direction is the light coming from?
  4. Is there a specular reflection - ie, a shiny spot, as if light is being accurately reflected by the skin of the apple?
  5. Are there imperfections in the surface? Roughness, subtle variations in the color of the apple?
  6. Is there reflected illumination from the plate onto the apple?
  7. Can you easily zoom in on the apple, rotate it, etc? How faithful to an actual 3-D physical object is this in your mind's eye?
Audio - Imagine a song, one with vocals and instruments. Pick one you're familiar with.

  1. Does it have all the instruments?
  2. Are the vocals changing pitch, tone, etc?
  3. Are the vocals actual words, or just sort of gibberish fitting the role? (Try singing along to whatever is going through your head out loud if you're not sure)
  4. How sharp are the drums?
  5. Can you change the tempo?
  6. Can you make the singer sound like they huffed helium?
  7. Can you swap out instruments? Swap out lyrics wholesale?
  8. Can you change the key or mode of the song?
Touch/Proprioception - Imagine your hand and an object, any object, in front of you.

  1. Can you mentally reach out and touch it?
  2. Does the object feel like it should? Hard/soft, hot/cold, smooth/rough, etc...
  3. Could you feel your own imagined hand and arm? Were you aware of the physical movements in the same way that you know where your physical arm/hand/fingers are without looking?
  4. How heavy is the object you imagined? The right weight?
  5. Can you change that weight?
  6. Close your eyes (mentally or physically, whatever works) and concentrate on that imagined hand. Start with the thumb. Tap it to your palm. Do the same with your index finger, then your middle, ring, little finger. Any problems?
  7. Can you keep going? In other words, can you continue to 'tap fingers' with fingers you don't have - imagine that you had extra fingers - despite not having a real-life analogue to compare to?
  8. Can you go a step further, and imagine the feel of wholly alien things (bird wings, say) that will require entirely fictitious input?
Smell - Imagine a flower, preferably one with a strong smell

  1. Can you smell it at all?
  2. Does it smell strong enough, or just a faint whiff?
  3. Is the smell accurate - a rose smelling like a rose?
  4. Can you make it smell like something else - fresh cookies, say?
  5. Multiple smells at once? Rose, cookies, old stinky socks?
Taste - Seems to be pretty rare, but... imagine a few foods.

  1. Can you taste them?
  2. If you imagine something salty - like a pickle or potato chips - and add imaginary salt to it, does it taste saltier?
  3. Can you distinctly tell apart the taste of distinct items, like, say, two flavors of chips, or two kinds of candy bar, or two different wines?
  4. Kind of the acid test: if you imagine a few foods and what they would taste like together, can you go in your kitchen, get those foods, eat them together, and have them taste the same? That is, are your imagined tastes demonstrably the same as the real thing to a degree that it would be useful cooking?
Click to expand...
But I don’t do that.
 
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jmal2000 said:
Hyperphantasia is a relatively new term used to describe extreme or far above average mental sensory imagery occurring both when we imagine and when we recreate memories stored in our brains.

Hyperphantasia Checklist

Consider this something of a checklist or guide of sensory completeness and simulation in imagination. I think it might be a good idea to have people ask questions about exactly how detailed and accurate their imaginings are.

Visual - Picture an apple on a plate.

  1. What color is the apple?
  2. What variety is the apple? (Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Macintosh...)
  3. Which direction is the light coming from?
  4. Is there a specular reflection - ie, a shiny spot, as if light is being accurately reflected by the skin of the apple?
  5. Are there imperfections in the surface? Roughness, subtle variations in the color of the apple?
  6. Is there reflected illumination from the plate onto the apple?
  7. Can you easily zoom in on the apple, rotate it, etc? How faithful to an actual 3-D physical object is this in your mind's eye?
Audio - Imagine a song, one with vocals and instruments. Pick one you're familiar with.

  1. Does it have all the instruments?
  2. Are the vocals changing pitch, tone, etc?
  3. Are the vocals actual words, or just sort of gibberish fitting the role? (Try singing along to whatever is going through your head out loud if you're not sure)
  4. How sharp are the drums?
  5. Can you change the tempo?
  6. Can you make the singer sound like they huffed helium?
  7. Can you swap out instruments? Swap out lyrics wholesale?
  8. Can you change the key or mode of the song?
Touch/Proprioception - Imagine your hand and an object, any object, in front of you.

  1. Can you mentally reach out and touch it?
  2. Does the object feel like it should? Hard/soft, hot/cold, smooth/rough, etc...
  3. Could you feel your own imagined hand and arm? Were you aware of the physical movements in the same way that you know where your physical arm/hand/fingers are without looking?
  4. How heavy is the object you imagined? The right weight?
  5. Can you change that weight?
  6. Close your eyes (mentally or physically, whatever works) and concentrate on that imagined hand. Start with the thumb. Tap it to your palm. Do the same with your index finger, then your middle, ring, little finger. Any problems?
  7. Can you keep going? In other words, can you continue to 'tap fingers' with fingers you don't have - imagine that you had extra fingers - despite not having a real-life analogue to compare to?
  8. Can you go a step further, and imagine the feel of wholly alien things (bird wings, say) that will require entirely fictitious input?
Smell - Imagine a flower, preferably one with a strong smell

  1. Can you smell it at all?
  2. Does it smell strong enough, or just a faint whiff?
  3. Is the smell accurate - a rose smelling like a rose?
  4. Can you make it smell like something else - fresh cookies, say?
  5. Multiple smells at once? Rose, cookies, old stinky socks?
Taste - Seems to be pretty rare, but... imagine a few foods.

  1. Can you taste them?
  2. If you imagine something salty - like a pickle or potato chips - and add imaginary salt to it, does it taste saltier?
  3. Can you distinctly tell apart the taste of distinct items, like, say, two flavors of chips, or two kinds of candy bar, or two different wines?
  4. Kind of the acid test: if you imagine a few foods and what they would taste like together, can you go in your kitchen, get those foods, eat them together, and have them taste the same? That is, are your imagined tastes demonstrably the same as the real thing to a degree that it would be useful cooking?
Click to expand...
Yes
 
jmal2000

jmal2000

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Do you guys remember the first time you had imagination? That you saw visually? In your minds eye or maybe over reality.

You know what I like to do with my imagination, is read a book and visualize it naturally as i compile visual focuses turned to auditorial focuses turned into mental focuses that build up and eventually generate an image for you naturally reading. Anyways, I visualize the scenes. And after I'm done with the book. I recall all the visuals I made in order to make a movie for myself in my head. You guys do this?
 
Foler

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jmal2000 said:
Do you guys remember the first time you had imagination? That you saw visually? In your minds eye or maybe over reality.

You know what I like to do with my imagination, is read a book and visualize it naturally as i compile visual focuses turned to auditorial focuses turned into mental focuses that build up and eventually generate an image for you naturally reading. Anyways, I visualize the scenes. And after I'm done with the book. I recall all the visuals I made in order to make a movie for myself in my head. You guys do this?
Click to expand...
Yes
 
Nester

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jmal2000 said:
Do you guys remember the first time you had imagination? That you saw visually? In your minds eye or maybe over reality.

You know what I like to do with my imagination, is read a book and visualize it naturally as i compile visual focuses turned to auditorial focuses turned into mental focuses that build up and eventually generate an image for you naturally reading. Anyways, I visualize the scenes. And after I'm done with the book. I recall all the visuals I made in order to make a movie for myself in my head. You guys do this?
Click to expand...
When I was a kid I would attempt to “watch and make up” a full baseball game in my head. I could never keep it together for 9 innings, maybe 4/3 before it got too messy or I got bored. I read about it in a book about baseball and was fascinated by the idea.

WRT to the OP I have the visual and audio down and go do all the tasks. Touch is about half and diminishes more on smell and taste.
The last two where hard, I could not taste or smell most things in my mind. However if I concentrated I could get a small bit of taste and smell. It worked a lot better for strong things that include an emotional component. Bacon was successful for example while others were not. I could “taste” things I did not like like sardines….

fascinating stuff, I have been interested in this since I learned about Aphantasia as well as some spiritual teachings about visualizations.
 

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Foler

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Go read Moonwalking with Einstein.
 
BoozeCube

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These all seem like pretty basic standard things anyone with basic senses could do without issue. What % of people actually cannot do all of the above at a pretty reasonable or lifelike standard?

It does honestly astonish me that basic 5 senses we use daily aren’t easy enough to replicate via imagination. Then again the first time I heard that a great deal don't have an inner monologue shocked me as well.

How much of the world is handicapped?
 
jmal2000

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I do cool things with my imagination, I can taste in my minds eye any food I vision. So when I lift weights and push the weight, I vision chocolate over my muscles and in my minds eye tasting it as I push. After I perform the lift with the imagination. I do an instant recall of my body lifting with the chocolate taste stacked with it. I've done this so much that I can easily vision chocolate icecream and transition it into a lift where I feel the weights in an out of body body almost. When I let go of the weights, I vision vanilla ice cream. I perform same instant recall move to bind vanilla to letting go of something. I also bind vanilla to thought block. I put greek statues up in my minds palace of them holding vanilla and chocolate ice cream. I do fun stuff with imagination.
 
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moonarchia

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BoozeCube said:
These all seem like pretty basic standard things anyone with basic senses could do without issue. What % of people actually cannot do all of the above at a pretty reasonable or lifelike standard?

It does honestly astonish me that basic 5 senses we use daily aren’t easy enough to replicate via imagination. Then again the first time I heard that a great deal don't have an inner monologue shocked me as well.

How much of the world is handicapped?
Click to expand...
13% at the very least.
 
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Masakari

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BoozeCube said:
These all seem like pretty basic standard things anyone with basic senses could do without issue. What % of people actually cannot do all of the above at a pretty reasonable or lifelike standard?

It does honestly astonish me that basic 5 senses we use daily aren’t easy enough to replicate via imagination. Then again the first time I heard that a great deal don't have an inner monologue shocked me as well.

How much of the world is handicapped?
Click to expand...

It tells us why so many Americans fall for toothpaste brain propaganda.
 
jmal2000

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Ability: Spiral of Focus

I'm obsessed with geometry and spirals. So I draw a spiral from the outside to inside in my vision, as i draw the spiral, i identify the object its on top of briefly with feeling the word on the spiral and object. I do this until I reach the center of my spiral. I have gustatory lexical synthesia, so when I do it when food is in my vision, I taste the food as the spiral goes over it.
 
fris

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I can still relive dreams I had as a kid. I can close my eyes and watch some if my favorite movies. I can still taste and smell some of my favorite meals, some going back to when I was a teenager.

Audio is probably my weakest. I can "hear" Bohemian Rhapsody anytime I want. And I can tell when the guitar comes in/out, drums in/out. I can imagine the singers singing it way to high pitch, probably due to some time spent at karaoke bars. But I can't swap out different drums, or really change what the drums are doing.

I dunno if I can really "imagine" weight of weight changes, at least with a way to measure accuracy. I can imagine lifting in my garage and doing a weight I can, then one I can't, lift. I dunno if I can really imagine 2 apples and imagine their weights really being different.


But why ask? Just some sort of IQ sort of survey?
 
jmal2000

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It's just fascinating to me because I didn't develop it till I was 27. I'm 36 now. I practice it all the time. Not everyone can do it tho. Not everyone dreams. I think the afterlife will be a dream world so I think having good memory and imagination will play a huge role in life.
 
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