quote:

Originally posted by Sigfest:
I’m a 5. I can’t visualize shit.

Well at least I’m not alone!

I’m a 5 as well. I asked Mrs. Cooker this question (knowing the answer), and she’s a 1.

We are very different in this respect. She can read a story and watch it as a movie. I simply gather the facts and process as necessary.

When I think of an Apple, it’s weird, as I cannot visualize an Apple. I cannot make one up out of thin air, but I can recall a picture of one, or what a store display looked like. I can’t just make up a visualization from the thought of one though.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
No, it doesn't have anything to do with my physical eyes. It's like a mental picture in the middle of my forehead. I guess that's where they get the "third eye" that describes so-called clairvoyant ability.

This right here. I also don’t have to close my eyes to do it. In fact, I’m visualizing picking out an apple at the store right now while I type this as a thought experiment.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
I see a red apple and I want to be black.

Wasn't your grandmother Dutch?

I see like #1. I envision -- pull up a photo , rotate it, read a sign...while I am awake.
I do not remember most of my dreams, but the ones that I do are more akin to a movie than a book. Photographic memory runs in my Mom's family and I have all the info but not a reliable retrieval system.
I just thought every-one 'sees' like this. It was Science class in 7th grade that a teacher accused me of cheating on a test--my answer was lifted from the book with memory. They much as called me a lier till i insisted they test me than and there. No apologizes but later that week my dad ripped them a new one.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
I see a red apple and I want to be black.

Wasn't your grandmother Dutch?

Injun. Feathered, not Dotted.
Osage Nation. Different kind of apples.

(and yeah, I forgot a word. That shit can be important. Like my grammer... )

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:

quote:

Originally posted by Doc H.:
What the eye sees and the mind interprets, or imagines, are very interesting differences among humans. I had a friend who, when asked "What color is that house?" would respond "It's white. On this side."

It's a take on a remark in a Robert A. Heinlein book "Beyond This Horizon". The incident is when the hero is conversing with a person called a "True Witness". He asks her if she can see what color the house on a hill is painted and she answers "It's white on this side." (A "True Witness" only states what it knows to be true, and it could not see the other side of the house.)

flashguy

Yep, describes him perfectly.

quote:

Originally posted by SgtGold:
Laurel.

Yanny.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
I see a red apple and I want to be black.

Wasn't your grandmother Dutch?

Injun. Feathered, not Dotted.
Osage Nation. Different kind of apples.

(and yeah, I forgot a word. That shit can be important. Like my grammer... )

Was “it to be” or “to paint it” what you were looking for. Somehow, reading what you wrote, my mind immediately parsed it as the latter.

The first.

As in. "I see the apple, but I want to be like the people who don't see the apple."

The second is "too easy" (the lyric), and sort of misses the thought I had.

But it was also a pun.

(The more balls I can hit in one lap, the more baskets I can get in a touchdown!)

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
The first.

As in. "I see the apple, but I want to be like the people who don't see the apple."

Serious question: Do you mean that? Do you feel it more of a curse than a blessing from God? I'm not challenging you, I'm seeking to understand.

I can't imagine a life where I can't imagine life.

Not at all. I just cannot "not see" stuff, and would like to experience it in order to understand it better (I guess an odd sort of empathy and the desire to understand what others perceive in order to understand more of other people's place in life). While it does have some downsides due to negative memories, even those are all well with me.

I can sort of "shut my eyes in my mind", but I still "see" that, the nothing. I "see it", (as odd as that my sound.

I talked with a blind friend once, many years ago, (who lost sight as a young boy) and he told me that he no longer "sees images". He said for a while, he could "see some imagery of memories as the applied to the "now" from the sounds and smells in a situation. So if he was out walking, and heard cars and things, they would be accompanied by memories that "fit". He said over time it just slowly stopped, and one day he realized he was not "seeing memories" automatically, but had to really work to recall them. He said that bothered him and made him feel like he had gone blind all over again.

But, he said that passed over a few months and it did not bother him anymore.

And, yes, the thought of going blind is one of those things I really have a fear of having occur, (and have never told anyone before).

I am very "visual" dependent.

Hope I have not derailed this discussion. It was not my intent, but I do love "exploring thought". Ergo....

Well, I appreciate your reply and I understand what you're saying. I've also visualized events that happened to people close to me as part of mentally processing what happened that I wish I could "unsee." If you tell me a story involving people I know, I see it happening in my mind as you tell me and look me in the eye, and I hear those people saying what you tell me they said in their own voices as you speak the words. I can't turn it off. It's just how my brain works.

I, too, hope we're not derailing the topic according to the OP's standards, but simply expounding on, and exploring the heart of the matter.

I relate pretty strongly to everything you just said. The thought of going blind terrifies me. I think I'd rather go deaf, if I had to choose, and that would pain me greatly.

When I first read "Close your eyes for a moment and visualize an apple. Think of the color, the texture, really try and ‘see it’." I saw #1. But now, no matter how I try, i see #5.

This post broke me.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge

Serious question: Do you mean that? Do you feel it more of a curse than a blessing from God? I'm not challenging you, I'm seeking to understand.

I can't imagine a life where I can't imagine life.

I feel having a vivid imagination and the ability to see things like that would be a curse. I have trouble sleeping because I am always thinking about work, or process improvement, all sorts of crap. I turn on the TV to something interesting enough that I watch it and don’t think about real life things, but the program has to be boring enough that I don’t care how it ends. Then I can sleep.

Seeing, and feeling things when I think about them, I would go insane. Seriously, I wouldn’t be able to handle that. I think I would be considered autistic if I could see, and feel the way you guys are talking. It would be absolute sensory overload.

I don't think in pictures, but I can conjure an image in my head of a memory or a place.

I woke up this morning around 5:00 and thought of this thread. I laid there and thought of a red delicious. I saw it, but I couldn’t make it red. It was grey and I was looking at it from slightly above. Interesting

Pretty interesting stuff, I have always had a vivid imagination. I can easily create people, places, and things or see real people, places, and things.As far as reading books then seeing movies, it's always different for me, but for some reason the one that really gets me is the radio personalities, they always look very different than I imagined.
Thinking back to art classes or what not in school, I used to have an easy times of imagining things or dreams and was able to draw them out on paper. That was always pretty neat seeing my dream or thought on paper.

quote:

Originally posted by Beancooker:
I feel having a vivid imagination and the ability to see things like that would be a curse. I have trouble sleeping because I am always thinking about work, or process improvement, all sorts of crap. I turn on the TV to something interesting enough that I watch it and don’t think about real life things, but the program has to be boring enough that I don’t care how it ends. Then I can sleep.

I grew up with afib, and I learned to help control my heart rate with my breathing. I thought everyone else's heart worked the same way and didn't discover that my heart was misfiring until I thought I was having a heart attack at age 34. I was in very heavy afib. What I grew up with was always normal to me. I suspect it's much the same thing with how we think.

I can't multitask worth a shit. I try, but it's not my strength. Hyper-focus for long periods of time on one task is easy. When I choose to, I can shut my brain off, in essence. Or, if I want to relax and sleep, as I mentioned, I can imagine a relaxing scenario and it's as real to me as anything. Lying on a warm beach, or sitting in the woods listening to the rain. And then I'm asleep. My wife is more like you and often takes forever to fall asleep, as she'll think about the whole day and everything that is stressing her out. Me, I turn on my "brain movie" and drop off in no time.

quote:

Originally posted by Beancooker:
Seeing, and feeling things when I think about them, I would go insane. Seriously, I wouldn’t be able to handle that. I think I would be considered autistic if I could see, and feel the way you guys are talking. It would be absolute sensory overload.

Well, I'm definitely a member of "the spectrum" and one of my deficiencies is that I can't focus on more than one or two things at a time. If I get interrupted, it tends to discombobulate me. When there's multiple conversations going on around me, it totally screws with my ability to follow the one I'm having. I'm sure that, and the visualization thing are intertwining issues.

It's a blessing and a curse, but like I say, we grow up and adapt and what we deal with everyday is what we perceive as "normal" until maybe some day in our mid to late 30's, we discover that it's not.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
... [snip] ...
Well, I'm definitely a member of "the spectrum" and one of my deficiencies is that I can't focus on more than one or two things at a time. If I get interrupted, it tends to discombobulate me. When there's multiple conversations going on around me, it totally screws with my ability to follow the one I'm having. I'm sure that, and the visualization thing are intertwining issues.

It's a blessing and a curse, but like I say, we grow up and adapt and what we deal with everyday is what we perceive as "normal" until maybe some day in our mid to late 30's, we discover that it's not.

I have read and heard many times that most men are incapable of multiprocessing. That is certainly true for me. Some tasks that are mostly automated I can do while doing something else, but neither is getting the proper focus or attention.

I remember in college being able to carry on one conversation while listening to two or three more at the same time. Those days are long gone. Whatever part of the brain processes auditory input must have rotted because it is now very hard to have a single conversation and tune out external noise. Sigh...