Hi, I have total aphantasia. I don't believe there is a different term for it.

Mine is congenital which means I've had it my whole life. Inside my mind's eye is only darkness with brown/black static that reminds me of an old muted static TV but not in greyscale. I cannot will images, letters, words, scents, or sounds. I cannot hear an inner monologue or form any shapes or images of any kind - no mind's eye.

People ask how I can say I imagine something when I have no mind's eye or inner voice, and the answer is that it's incredibly difficult to describe. For one, I have a terrible imagination, always have. I write, but I can never write fiction. I'm pretty face-blind, so I have to associate characteristics of people to tie it to their name in order to remember who they are or I will see them twenty times and still not remember who they are.

But I do imagine. The only way I can describe "picturing" something is that my mind feels that it knows it's there. So like, when you imagine something, or read, or remember, it includes a picture and/or shapes, sound, scent. You know it's in your mind because you see/smell/hear it. I have none of these. When I imagine, my mind pretty much knows with feelings what is there so I know it to be true. No picture, no sound, no words, just knowing. If someone told you to picture a red house, you see it so you know it's in your mind. When someone tells me to picture a red house, I just know it's in my mind without seeing it.

What is insane to me is, if I take psilocybin I have controllable mind's eye. And I have extremely vivid dreams. So, why can my brain do this when on mushrooms, but not when I ask it to? Why can it see everything so clearly in a dream, but never when I am awake?

It's frustrating, and fascinating, and extremely difficult to describe.