The topics of the mind’s eye and the inner voice, and how they are born across the human population have been on my mind because I wonder how that affects something as nebulous as the world.

If worlding is what we do when we express our urge to should on others as ourselves, do we lack an organ to sense this world directly, do we lack a sense of it?

It is as if we can tell our muscles to walk but there is no proprioception of where our body is in space, there is no demarcation sensible between the self and the world, nor where we are in relation to each other (at least in WEIRD societies). Are we kosmophasic despite our success.

aphantasia

It is easy to feel that it is rude to use visual language with blind people “Don’t you see what I am saying?” and to replace this language with “Don’t you understand?”

It’s a whole other level of incongruity to become aware of the deep aphantasiacs in our midst. For starters they are not obviously blind or insensate in some way, and they long ago learnt how to cope. In any case it often did not occur to them that a mind’s eye was anything other than a metaphor.

However it does explain all those ‘visual thinkers’ I have meet, who have to see something you attempt explain in words. Basically they are not visual thinkers at all.

“You’ll have to show me,” they say.

Surely they can wire-frame a rough sketch in their mind’s eye. But not even that.

I used to think this meant that they just did not have as much visual processing as I do, like the way some people turn maps to align with the direction travelled. Less processing power, less cognitive loading…

But no. They see nothing, or have access to nothing, perhaps it is related to blindsight.

I cannot imagine this, have I got an-aphantasia?

I asked my friends and acquaintances, can you see an apple in your mind’s eye?

Yes. No.

If you can can you spin the apple in your mind’s eye?

No, I walk around it one said (aligning the map with the direction travelled I guess).

It varies is occurrence and the presence is not all the of the same quality. It is a wonder we can even argue with each other, let alone agree. we world on regardless.

Our mind’s eye models of reality and its worlds, are not theirs, or, aphantasiacs do not have access to them in the same way, even if they are there. As if the shadows on the wall of Plato’s cave are smeared out by the soot of the candles, or, as if candles were ignorance-suckers not understanding emitters.

We also hope that raising awareness of the different experiences people have when they think might encourage tolerance when people express different thoughts.

Arnold, Derek, and Loren N. Bouyer. 2024, March 31. ‘“A Blind and Deaf Mind”: What It’s like to Have No Visual Imagination or Inner Voice’, The Conversation. [ http://theconversation.com/a-blind-and-deaf-mind-what-its-like-to-have-no-visual-imagination-or-inner-voice-226134.]

Vennells, Louise. 2024, March 28. ‘A Decade of Aphantasia Research: What We’ve Learned about People Who Can’t Visualise’, News. University of Exeter. https://news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-health-and-life-sciences/a-decade-of-aphantasia-research-what-weve-learned-about-people-who-cant-visualise/.

Zeman, Adam. 2024. ‘Aphantasia and Hyperphantasia: Exploring Imagery Vividness Extremes’, Trends in Cognitive Sciences 0(0) [https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/abstract/S1364-6613(24)00034-2]

endophasia

More recently discussed is the lack of an inner voice or narrative: endophasia. I cannot image not having this either. Have I an-anendophasia?

I think this blew my mind more than aphantasia and the lack of a mind’s eye as I had seen that in action when trying sketch in words some idea or potential I had, and they would say, “Can you show me? I am a visual thinker.”

“And you can’t see it already?”

No inner monologue? Are these all the calm non-anxious people around me? No cruel self-thought? I suspect they do, but to do it without words? Where is the punchline there. Just the whip?

One fellow recounted that he remembered have an inner voice when younger, until mid-teens. I understand that people who gain blindness can maintain a sense of colour, but if the voice is gone what do they remember? Surely remembering the voice would just be the voice…

Like I said, I have no ability to understand this, and my mirror neurons and thus my empathy fails me.

Stares sideways at something like compassion. 

Nedergaard, Johanne, and Gary Lupyan. 2023. ‘Not Everyone Has an Inner Voice: Behavioral Consequences of Anendophasia’, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society 45(45) [https://escholarship.org/uc/item/93p4r8td]

Loving the Aliens

Slimak spends a bit of time in The Naked Neanderthal, considering the aliens of science fiction comapred to our inability to getto grips with what the material culture of the Neanderthal may indicate, knowing we will never know. Are they, like aliens or elves, just like us except for some element turned up to 11, or is it a gulf too far.

Given that among recognisable humans in the same family, the same blood relations, can have both, or neither, or one of a mind’s eye, and an  inner voice, and we didn’t really notice until recently, then may be his gulf does not matter. Unless of course whatever makes us human in worlding over that gulf of experiential consciousness, is what makes us Homo sapiens.

How do we test that?

TL;DR

If worlding is what we do when we express our urge to should on others as ourselves, do we lack an organ to sense this world directly, do we lack a sense of it?

It is as if we can tell our muscles to walk but there is no proprioception of where our body is in space, there is no demarcation sensible between the self and the world, nor where we are in relation to each other (at least in WEIRD societies).

Are we kosmophasic? Are we fish who cannot sense the water we swim in?

Crossposted on substack.com