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In our world there are people who live without knowing what it means to dream with images. Nor can they remember the face of the person they love or the house where they grew up.

What is aphantasia and why does it occur?

Aphantasia is a type of neurological deficit that is as striking as it is curious. It affects 3% of the population. The sufferers do not know what visual imagination is. They live in a formless void, in a blind mind where neither images, nor faces, nor landscapes exist. These men and women do not know what dreaming is. They have never mentally escaped to a haven of peace to calm their stress or to lose themselves in parallel universes where the possibilities are infinite.

Neurologists define aphantasia as a type of mental blindness. We have known about this disease since 1840, Sir Francis Galton, a famous British psychologist, anthropologist, explorer and geneticist, described several cases, he estimated that between 2 and 3% of the population could suffer from this mental problem, this inability to create mental images. In 2016, the scientific community is once again interested in aphantasia. Dr Adam Zeman, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Exeter, gave the condition this name. That same year, Blake Ross, co-creator of Firefox, published an essay in which he described his own experience with this new neurological condition. As a result of his work, aphantasia began to go viral on social networks and to attract the attention of experts.

What are people with this neurological condition like?

A person suffering from aphantasia mainly faces an inability to remember in the form of images. They cannot recall faces and this usually causes them discomfort. These people also cannot even dream with images. Those who suffer the most from this condition are those with acquired aphantasia. Usually, as a result of an accident or brain injury, they actually end up developing this deficit and in this case the reality is more complex
There is currently no cure for aphantasia. Certainly, living with this condition does not limit the daily life of people who suffer from it, they are aware of lacking something. Finally, nothing is more comforting than thinking with images, imagining...
This article refers to the article The impact of the absence of light on the human being and you can also watch this video, it allows you to train your mind: I have APHANTASIA (and you may too...without realising it!)