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10 imagination exercises

Imagination | Mind Games

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Googly eyes all over your face

Hook

Hey super humans! There are only an estimated 2.6 percent of people with the power of hyperphantasia, but if you have a mind’s eye, then this post might let you in on some unique abilities you didn’t even know you had.

History

Differences in our ability to visualise images in our mind have been known for a while, but it was only in 2015, when the word aphantasia made its way into existence and went mainstream. Dividing the world into those with a mind’s eye, who have the ability to think in images and those with a mind’s eye patch, who’s imaginations become dark once their eyes are closed.

For centuries we lived in blissful ignorance of each other’s realities. But now that our differences have been exposed, a lot of us have a growing curiosity about what everyone else’s minds are capable of. And some of us are even starting to wonder, “what is it that my mind is uniquely capable of?”

Mind’s Eye Scale

Assuming that the mind’s eye isn’t binary, where you either have it or you don’t, then there’s likely a spectrum of mind’s eye ability, where some people’s are stronger than others. Any idea where you’d land on the scale?

Based on surveys today, there are an estimated 0.7% of people who would be classified as aphants, the ones whose mind’s eyes are completely blind. Then as you move down the spectrum you have people who’s mental visualisations become more and more powerful. Until we finally hit the other end, where there’s an estimated 2.6% of people who’s mind’s eyes are so powerful that they would be classified as having hyperphantasia. **

Mind’s Eye Definition Difficulty

So what exactly is a mind’s eye? It may seem like an obvious question to those of us who can visualise easily, but, I’d imagine that people with blurrier visualisations might start to question “am I really experiencing the same mind’s eye that everyone else is talking about?” Because, barring any of you mind reading mutants out there, no one can know exactly what goes on inside of another person’s imagination. We can’t know for certain that my experience with my mind’s eye is the exact same as yours. But, while we can’t know another person’s experience, we can, through conversation, discover how it differs from our own.

It’s my understanding that many people with a mind’s eye patch are still able to experience vivid dreams. So, generally speaking, if we were to try to explain the experience of a mind’s eye in a way for most people to understand, maybe we could describe it as a lucid daydream. **

Mind’s Eye Features

But if we were to dig a little deeper, the 4 features which help to clarify its meaning for me are that:

Rationalisation-Instinct Scale

Can you solve this spatial orientation puzzle? How’d you do it? If you’re like me, then you probably used your mind’s eye to actively visualise the object rotating. And to my surprise, as someone who relies on his mind’s eye a lot, there are aphants who can totally thrive at puzzles like this and other mental-based spatial tasks by using other methods to conceptualise and rationalise their way to a solution. It seems to me that depending on where you land on the scale, there is often a balance between instinct and rationalisation. Learning that helped me realise the struggle that some people on the mind’s eye patch side of the scale might experience when trying to figure out if they have a minds eye. “I can kinda see something, but maybe I’m actually just rationalising and deceiving myself into believing that I’m seeing something.”

Other Senses Example

Perhaps you can relate to that confusion if you consider the other mind senses that exist. In my case, I feel like I have a really vivid mind’s eye and mind’s ear, but if you were to ask me to imagine the taste or the smell of popcorn for example, my natural instinct is to picture myself holding a bag of it and taking a whiff. The smell feels almost accessible, but also just out of reach. I can rationalise that its buttery and salty, but because those mind senses are nowhere as close to as potent as my mind’s eye or ear, I can tell that I’m relying on a rational process to fill in the blanks. I think that attempting to distinguish between these two processes could be a helpful way to figure out where we as individuals might land on these different mind sensory scales.

Memory vs Mind’s Eye

If you’re trying to figure out where you might land on the scale, I think that another important consideration would be to recognise that memory and the mind’s eye are two separate abilities. There is evidence that these two processes are connected (people with stronger mind’s eyes have been shown to have an easier time with episodic memory and recalling events from their life, for example). But I’d suggest that these processes simply go hand-in-hand, and are not one in the same.

Box of Objects Example

If I was to ask you to take a look at this box of objects, close your eyes, and then describe to me each of the items. You might have a hard time coming up with a clear picture and start to question the capability of your mind’s eye. But if I was to instead ask you to close your eyes, imagine a random box with a few items in it, and then describe that to me. You might not struggle as much. Our memory is only as good as how much attention we pay. So if you struggle to conjure up a detailed mental image of a saxophone, then perhaps that is more evident of the fact that you never paid much attention to saxophones, rather than the strength of your mind’s eye.

Mental Imagery Types

I think it’s also important to acknowledge that not all mental imagery comes equally to all of us. Some people, for example, claim to be able conjure words more easily than images. In my case, I’m not sure why, but I have a hard time imagining the faces and voices of people close to me. But if you were to ask me to visualise the face of any actor I’ve seen in a tv show, I’d have no problem.

Emotional Amplification

Studies suggest that the mind’s eye can act as an emotional amplifier, so perhaps another way to assess the strength of our mind’s eye could be to question how visual imagery in books and writings affect us.

Horror Stories Example

Are you a fan of horror stories? Because I am and I remember the time that I was reading Gerald’s Game by Stephen King. I was sitting alone on a bus coming home from uni; nose deep in my book. The plot was getting intense and I was gripping the pages roughly in eager anticipation. That was, until my body went limp. I felt the blood drain from my extremities and rush to my head. My hands could no longer form a fist and my book fell to my lap. And why? Because the story did too well of a job painting the picture of a gory scene in my mind and seeing all of its bloody details made me feel faint. To me, that feels like an experience that I couldn’t have had without mental imagery, but I do wonder if it would be possible for someone to rationalize their way to a similar state.

Powers Introduction

Finally, I would argue that our mind’s eye is much more than a single spectrum of clarity. That clarity is just one of several powers that we all have to different degrees. And that you or I might even be hyperphants — people with superior control of one of these other spectrums. So which of the following powers that I’m about to describe are you a natural at?

Based on what I’ve been able to devise from my own mind’s eye abilities, I’d say we have 6 core mental imagery powers: conjuring, transmutation, orientation, astral projection, playback, and double vision.

Conjuring | Image Generation

Limitless

Conjuring is the ability to generate images in our mind with accuracy. It’s what I’d imagine most people think of when they hear mind’s eye. What happens if I ask you to close your eyes and imagine this green balloon floating in front of you? Can you see it? People with powerful conjuring abilities would probably describe their imaginations as vivid and would have little to no problem replicating that green balloon in their minds. And, based off of self-reported limitations that I’ve heard people describe about their own experiences, perhaps there’s an element of duration that can be included in this power, where the ability to maintain that image for as long as we want is an offshoot of this power that we all have to varying degrees.

Transmutation | Trait Manipulation

Offspring

Transmutation is the ability to manipulate traits. I like to think of it as the augmented reality of a mind’s eye, where we have the ability to look at the world through a lens or a filter of our choosing. For example, people with powerful transmutation abilities probably wouldn’t have much of a problem taking that green balloon and imagining it red.

Orientation | Space manipulation

Queen’s Gambit

Orientation is the ability to manipulate space. It’s the telekinesis of our mind’s eye that allows us to move objects within our imagination. People with powerful orientation powers would be great at spatial orientation puzzles like these. They also likely wouldn’t have any difficulty shifting their perspective upward while imagining that red balloon floating into the air above them.

Astral Projection | Mind-Body Detachment

Memory palace | Art Attack | Charmed

Astral projection is the ability to detach our mind from our body. It’s kinda like being able to teleport our perspective. If I were to ask you to imagine yourself inside of that red balloon, could you do it? Powerful astral projection skills would allow a person to imagine seeing the world from any vantage point.

Playback | Recording Reproduction

Community: Abed | Spiderman | It dancing | Kyle XY

Playback is the ability to reproduce and manipulate mental recordings. It serves as the video controller of our imagination. People with powerful playback abilities can push play on their imagination and create active scenes. They likely have an easy time replaying memories from their past and might even be able to rerun their favourite scenes from movies and shows.

Double Vision | Eyes Open

And finally, double vision is the ability to use our mind’s eye while our body’s eyes are open. Along with conjuring, It would be the active power if I were to ask you to imagine the room you’re sitting in filled with balloons.

Memory Athletes

On their own, each of these 6 abilities enable us to bend reality to our will. And a lot of clever people have learned to harness and even combine these powers in order to perform impressive feats.

Can you conjure up an image of the home you grew up in as a kid? Can you astral project yourself into your old bedroom and walk to your bathroom? If you can, then you might have what it takes to become a memory champion. Memory athletes often use astral projection alongside conjuring in order to perform the method of loci — a strategy used to teleport their perspective into an imagined recreation of a place from their past. A place that they can use to store and organise information, that would otherwise have been floating around inaccessibly in the abyss of their mind space.

The top memory athletes in the world have been able to recall the order of over* * 500 shuffled playing cards. And most, if not all of them, were able to accomplish that by training these 5 powers in order to enhance their mind’s eye. And with a little bit of creative thinking, maybe we can train and hone our powers as well.

Outro

So what do you think? Do you agree with my superpowers? Which powers do you have that I didn’t consider. In my next video I’m going to put our visual imaginations to the test with 13 games that’ll test the limits of our mind’s eye.

Hook

Do you know how powerful your mind’s eye is? Well if you like to daydream and you’re in a playful mood, then I’ve got 13 games that’ll test the limits of your visualization skills.

Powers Recap

In my last post we chatted about what the mind’s eye is, how it might differ from person to person, and we explored 6 mental imagery superpowers that we all possess to different degrees.

There was conjuring: the ability to generate accurate mental images.

Transmutation: the ability to manipulate traits.

Orientation: the ability to manipulate space.

Astral projection: the ability to detach our mind from our body.

Playback: the ability to reproduce and manipulate mental recordings.\

And double vision: the ability to use our mind’s eye and our body’s eyes at the same time.

Games Introduction

These 6 abilities enable us to bend reality to our will. But my guess is that each of our minds has its own unique fingerprint. And that because of the specific wiring of our brans, those of us with a mind’s eye can use these powers to varying degrees and perhaps even in extraordinary and uncommon ways. So let’s put our mind’s eye to the test!

I’ve always considered myself to be a pretty dedicated daydreamer. My visual imagination has always been my favourite playground. So I thought it would be fun to compile a list of my favourite mind’s eye games that I’ve played with over the years.

I’ve got a list of 13 games. And in my opinion, one of the more interesting aspects of these conversations is better understanding how other people’s inner world experiences differ from our own. So as I go through them, I’ll grade how difficult of a time I have with them, that way you’ll have someone to compare your experience with if you decide to play with them yourself. I’ll use a stoplight grading schema: where I’ll give a pink to the ones that I can’t do, yellow to the ones that I have a hard time with, green to the ones that I find easy, and a bonus colour of blue to the few that feel almost completely effortless and instinctual to do.

Alright, let’s get started!

Game 1: DALL·E | Conjuring

Daydreaming tends to be a solitary activity, but for this first game I’ve got a friend for us to play with. Meet DALL·E, an artificial intelligence that can create realistic images and art from any description given to it.

The goal of this game is to test our conjuring abilities.

On DALL·E’s Instagram account, you’ll find a bunch of fun and challenging prompts to inspire your imagination.

With over 300 posts and prompts to date, you’ll be sure to find some fun ideas on things you can try to conjure up in your imagination.

Game 2: Augmented Reality Tooning | Transmutation + Double Vision

I once had a theory that I might be better at recalling details of scenes if I drew them up as cartoons in my head. The way I figured it, the act of cartoonizing something forces us to pay attention to the salient details while eliminating a lot of the noise. In the end, I’m not sure if it helped my memory, but it was a fun way to play with my mind’s eye while keeping my actual eyes open.

The goal of this game is to practice our transmutation and double vision abilities. And it’s pretty simple. Just look around you and try to imagine things as cartoon versions of themselves.

Game 3: Invisibility Cloak | Transmutation + Double Vision

This game, for me, is a level harder than the last one. Its goal is also to train our transmutation and double vision skills, but unlike the last one where we were editing things in our environment, this time we’re editing things out of our environment. So this time, look around you and try turning things in your environment invisible.

Game 4: Dissection | Conjuring + Orientation

Like every engineering savant on tv, this game is going to have you targeting your conjuring and orientation powers. All you’ve gotta do is visualize breaking objects down into their unique components.

Game 5: Honey, I Shrunk Myself | Astral Projection

Astral projection is probably my favourite power to play with. In this game our job is to pick a spot in our environment, imagine that we’ve shrunk down into the size of an ant, and enjoy the view.

Game 6: Mirror, Mirror | Astral Projection

You know that game in acting classes, where you pair up with a partner and mirror each others movements? In this game you’re your own partner. Imagine yourself looking at your reflection in a mirror, now teleport your perspective to your reflection and look at yourself through your reflection’s eyes.

Game 7: Distant Directions | Astral Projection

This game might be particularly challenging for those of us who are a little bit more directionally challenged than the rest. The goal: try to figure out what you would be looking at in another location if you were facing the same direction. So if for example you’re looking perfectly north-east right now, imagine what would you be looking at if you were pointed exactly north-east in your parent’s place. My favourite approach to this game is to imagine that I’m sitting in a rolley chair that isn’t able to spin and travelling to my target destination at super speed.

Game 8: Art inner-teleportation | Astral Projection

Totally inspired by Blue’s Clues, this is one of my favourite meditative games for playing with astral projection. The goal: find a scenic picture you like and imagine teleporting into it.

Game 9: Memory Palace | Astral Projection + Conjuring

In my last video, I mentioned the method of loci strategy that memory athletes use to store information. The memory palace is another name for it and I had to include it, because it’s such a powerful tool. And the foundation of it is simple, imagine walking around a place you’re familiar with and take note of the items and features of that environment.

Game 10: Spy Cam | Astral Projection + Playback

Be careful with this one if you haven’t had a productive day, because it might serve as a bit of a rude awakening. Imagine you’ve got a surveillance cam that’s been watching over you for the past day. Now imagine clicking rewind to when you got out of bed this morning and click play. Increase its playback speed to 2x and watch your day unfold from a bird’s eye view in double the speed.

Game 11: Rerun | Playback

You remember that fantastic pivot scene from Friends? If yes, then great! You just played Rerun! All you’ve gotta do is watch reruns of scenes from your favourite shows and movies in your head.

Game 12: Order of Operations | Astral Projection + Playback

Next

This one is probably the most practical of all the games I have. I use this exercise anytime I have a list of todos and want to figure out the most efficient order to carry them out. I essentially use astral projection to conjure up a clone of myself. Then I’d imagine him going through the tasks in different orders until I find one that I think works the best.

Game 13: TV/Movie inner-teleportation (World Building) | Conjuring + Astral Projection + Playback

Finally, my favourite game of them all! Tv and movie inner teleportation. For this daydreamy challenge you’re going to need to rely on all of the powers that we’ve been using. Pick your favourite show and movie and inject yourself into it as a new character. This game is daydreaming at its finest and essentially has you creating and visualising your own scenes and storylines in your head.

Conclusion

There you have it! 13 games to test your mind’s eye powers. How’d you do? Which ones did you find easiest? And most importantly, if those games managed to give you insight on which powers and power combinations you thrive at, then how can you use that insight to your advantage in life?

Simulation Theory of Cognition

Everything we can imagine is real. Have you ever heard of the simulation theory of cognition? It’s a neat concept you’ve surely experienced first-hand. It essentially proposes that when we imagine interacting with the world around us, the sensory and motor areas in our brain that would be associated with each actual experience become activated. If we imagine playing the piano, our brain wiggles its cognitive fingers. So these mind games might serve as more than a way to test and play with our powers. Perhaps they can also serve as a tool.

Tool for Comfort

A tool for comfort. Just imagine giving your mom a hug and the benefits should be immediate. Your brain is hugging your virtual mom, who is in turn virtually hugging you back.

Tool for Dream Productivity

Perhaps, a tool for dream productivity? I’ve heard that some people with aphantasia still have vivid dreams, so it seems that there might be a distinction between the mind’s eye we use for intentional imagination versus subconscious imagination. But since imagination can activate our motor cortex, perhaps harnessing our mind’s eye powers in combination with lucid dreaming allow us to practice and improve at activities while we’re sleeping?

Introduction

Researching the mind’s eye for these last couple videos has sparked a bunch of interesting thoughts like those. So I’m going to finish off with a bit of a rapid fire of 10 of the top lingering thoughts that this topic inspired.

1 | Personalised Education Advocation

One of the strategies used to teach children to read is to instruct them to see the story as a movie unfolding in their heads. The more we learn about individual differences in information processing, I wonder how we can do more to take a personalised approach to education? One where the emphasis is placed less on adapting our minds to the content and more on adapting the content to our individual minds. “By the end of this semester you’re all going to have read these 5 books and, even though half of you aren’t going to resonate with them at all, you’re all going to get to leave this course with the knowledge that you can find its summary somewhere online.” → “By the end of this semester you’re all going to have figured out your favourite literary genres and will have worked toward better understanding why those ones resonated with your individual mind the most”.

Speaking of reading, I also wonder how our place on the mind’s eye spectrum influences the way we read. Do people higher on the scale read at a slower pace because they spend more time conjuring visualisations of the scenes? Do those mental visualisations increase enjoyment? How does having a mind’s eye affect the genres that we gravitate to? I, for example, sometimes have a hard time reading scifi, because I struggle to picture the futuristic settings, whereas I perhaps I enjoy reading horror stories because oftentimes a descriptive setting is integral to the ambiance and plot itself.

3 | Natures vs Nurture

4 | Inducing Visualisations

And, for those who don’t experience much mental imagery, what are the ways it can be simulated or stimulated so that they can experience the mind of a hyperphant themselves? There are reports of aphants being able to experience a mind’s eye using psilocybin therapy, for example.

If I were to put myself in the mind of an aphant, I could see myself questioning the ethics of imagery. If there are people who have the ability to relive and re-view images in their mind, is there an ethical argument to be made against showing people disturbing images, and thus embedding a new memory into their minds that they might not have wanted and which might continue to haunt them afterward? This argument could become particularly relevant for showing graphic evidence to juries or presenting graphic documentaries to unsuspecting watchers.

6 | Mind’s Eye through Time

7 | Escapism

8 | Aphantasia as a Super Power

In these past couple videos I’ve explored some of the powers that people with a mind’s eye might posses, but I wonder about the advantages that might comes with aphantasia. Maybe it also comes with its own set of powers or maybe it’s a power on its own? I’d imagine, for example, that aphants would be less susceptible to false memories. There’ve been many times in my life, for example, where I wasn’t sure if I was remembering a scene from my own life or from the life of a character I saw on tv. I could also imagine that people with vivid mind’s eyes could be more susceptible to something like post traumatic stress disorder, since they’d have the ability to relive the visuals of their memories.

9 | Language Interpretation

I think that the discussion around the mind’s eye and aphantasia brings up some interesting questions about language and communication. I wonder if aphants, for example, might be quicker to default to interpreting something as a metaphor, while people on the other side of the scale tend to default to something being literal. I’ve read a lot of aphants explaining that when they heard people suggest to count sheep to help them fall asleep, they assumed it was some sort of metaphor. But then I question how they’d interpret something like Descartes “I think, therefore I am” theory, or the concept of daydreaming in general. The fact that even communication doesn’t guarantee shared understanding, makes me wonder what I interpret as figurative, which is actually meant literally, or vice versa. For example, when the villain in a show says to their opponent, “I can smell the fear on you”, is that real? Are there synesthetes who interpret emotions through their sense of smell?

10 | Other Mind Senses

While exploring this topic of the mind’s eye I was introduced to idea of tactile imagery, the mind’s ear, and other ways people experience sensation within their imaginations. And that makes me wonder how much more interesting this conversation can get if we consider our minds’ version of the other senses that exist (like temperature, comfort, movement, taste, etc).

Outro

So what do you think? Does this conversation about the mind’s eye spark any interesting thoughts for you? What was your favourite takeaway from all of this? For me, I’d say my favourite takeaway is appreciating the fact that all of our inner worlds are so personal and varied. And that even if the mind’s eye isn’t your forte, there are so many other powers and perspectives and abilities that only your mind is uniquely capable of taking advantage of. So keep your mind’s eye open and on the lookout for the things that make your mind special. Because your mind is special. Peace.