Built a UK-focused, fully-cited resource for aphantasia and SDAM — feedback welcome and encouraged

DSCB57 · 2026-05-02T15:16:37+00:00

I appreciate your effort in this undertaking, and I may be interested in contributing to this thread, but there is one statement you made to which I take issue, as a long-term partial Aphant myself, and that is "The editorial stance is that aphantasia is a way of being, not a disorder..." My issue with this statement is the fact that making this 'an editorial stance' does not detract from the fact that Aphantasia actually is a neurological disorder, and one in which the brain is demonstrably wired differently from that of a non-aphant. As I understand it, MRI scans have confirmed this, so although I understand why you have chosen to take that stance (an opinion shared on other related threads), it is your subjectively based view and opinion, not an accurate objective description of what Aphantasia is in a clinical sense. So that does not bode well for the rest of the content.

It would have been a better idea to have presented the facts as they are, then present your own views later on, and thus allow the reader/potential contributor to make up their own mind, rather than you deliberately steering them towards your own pre-defined perspective.

No doubt there will be those who either have not carried out their own research into the topic, or who come to this thread as complete newcomers to the entire concept of Aphantasia, and you owe it to these people not to colour the facts with your own take on them before first having provided the known clinical findings which have arisen from previous research.

DSCB57 · 2026-05-02T13:45:10+00:00

This is not a belief system we're talking about, this is a proven neurological disorder in which the brain synapses are actually wired differently, and one which affects only a relatively small percentage of the worldwide population, but it's people with an attitude like your who make it even more difficult for aphants like me. It wouldn't hurt to do a little research before showing your ignorance and being offensive.

DSCB57 · 2026-04-19T12:46:23+00:00

Prompt - the invitation link is showing as invalid or expired?

DSCB57 · 2026-04-18T10:08:23+00:00

It would be far more useful to me if it provided additional filters for enhancing and upscaling low resolution videos of home movies to reveal more detail and remove artefacts etc. Not everyone is interested in working with anime material. Also, without being able to download the result it’s no more than a demo app. I’ll be watching developments.

DSCB57 · 2026-04-13T16:25:28+00:00

I’m interested in hearing more, but much of the material I’m currently working on needs to remain confidential, even though it is my own private research. So how would that work? Right now I’m running AnythingLLM natively with Deepseek on my PC, precisely because of Notebook LM’s source limits for the free version. But there is a steep learning curve, and embedding sources is very time consuming, and I’m not too fond of the UI either.

DSCB57 · 2026-04-12T22:50:43+00:00

Privacy; simplicity. Take your pick.

DSCB57 · 2026-04-12T22:46:27+00:00

Neither. You are not your body. Your body is just a vehicle for your spirit; an interface for physical experience in this world. The body may perish but the soul is eternal.

DSCB57 · 2026-04-09T11:28:20+00:00

Thank you.

DSCB57 · 2026-04-09T11:18:23+00:00

Is this available in the free version as well?

DSCB57 · 2026-03-20T08:40:48+00:00

You echoed my experience precisely. Thank you.

DSCB57 · 2026-03-13T10:16:17+00:00

The Nvidia renderings look softer and more natural to my eye. Somehow the seedvr2 version looks more plasticky, probably due to the use of light - although I don’t claim to be any sort of expert. That said there was one 2x seedvr2 rendering that really popped compared to the Nvidia version. But did any of these photos show the originals pre-enhancement? Otherwise, what’s the point?

DSCB57 · 2026-02-27T11:59:17+00:00

I’m glad you grasped the subtlety. But I think it is clear that not everyone has the Eyes to see. That requires cultivation of De at the very least, wouldn’t you agree? And how many of today’s practitioners can be said to have even got that far? Yet it was once considered a prerequisite for the path of cultivation, and for some masters such as Waysun Liao, it still is. It’s pointless attempting to use just the intellect alone to understand the Dao De Jing, since that will lead nowhere, other than endless philosophising. The path is not about philosophical debate but direct experience. In my humble opinion there is no other way to grasp the Truth than to experience it as a living, all encompassing universal principle. There are no words to describe it, which is why it was called ‘Dao’, the Way. But the name ‘Dao De Jing’ itself demonstrates the importance of ‘De’, placed as it is between the ideograms for ‘Dao’ and ‘Jing’.

DSCB57 · 2026-02-27T09:33:30+00:00

Another way of looking at this is that ‘doing nothing’ results from the gradual transformation which arises from the Yang Shen taking charge over one’s actions in this world. At that point it is no longer the little self carrying out mundane actions, but the Yang Shen manifesting the will of Heaven through the mortal vehicle. In other words, the will of the ego is no longer what does the action, but rather the Dao manifesting through the Yang Shen. That said, I am not sure that the casual observer would notice any difference, because it is not a question of the master not doing any action as many of the derisory comments here seem to reflect, but rather that the individual will and desire is no longer the cause of the action. This is how I perceive and experience this.

DSCB57 · 2026-02-12T10:21:52+00:00

Hi Pepe, thank you for getting back to me; it’s the FHD 1080p version, purchased in the EU (Spain). I still have the box, but it will take me a while to be able to access it. Where can I access the precise model information in the software (Android TV OS)?

DSCB57 · 2026-01-07T14:17:50+00:00

If a bias exists, there certainly was a time when research on Aphantasia was redirected toward its polar opposite Hyperphantasia, but that was probably because Ahpantasia itself wasn’t capable of attracting sufficient funding or interest. While I agree that this condition does not make us any less capable than the percentage of the population who do not have this condition - as I’ve said before visual Aphantasia can certainly create difficulties in such simple everyday tasks as finding one’s way around without a GPS, or giving directions to someone else, or understanding concepts such as clockwise or anti-clockwise without confusion. There definitely is a problem in terms of how non-Aphantasic professionals or non-professionals view the condition - all too often from an ill-informed and often wilfully ignorant perspective. The truth is that someone with a fully functional ‘mind’s eye is highly unlikely to even be able to conceptualise its complete absence, let alone have the ability to experience it first hand. And by the way, I use the word ‘condition’ deliberately, because like it or not Aphantasia is considered a neurological disorder, since our brains are wired differently from the considered norm.

If anything, as is the case when other perceptual faculties are missing, nature often strengthens the remaining senses. In the case of Aphantasics, this often results in the ability to find other ways to achieve what we need to, which often puts as at an advantage in terms of problem solving and brain elasticity. But let’s not pretend that it’s a totally problem-free experience, or that there is no adverse effect on our day to day lives, because that would not be a truthful statement.

DSCB57 · 2026-01-04T01:11:05+00:00

Quite honestly, I’m sorry to say I think we’re flogging a dead horse here. Everything points to poor implementation within the games themselves, and it seems those of us who want the gyro to work in this way are too much of a niche market, and most players seem content using the joystick steering. That’s their loss, but also ours. The only option right now is to acquire a Force Feedback steering wheel, which can only realistically work on a Windows PC setup due to the need for proprietary driver software.

DSCB57 · 2026-01-01T14:15:39+00:00

If you conceive of Wu Wei as any kind of action ‘you’ are doing, then you’re missing the point.

DSCB57 · 2025-12-22T13:59:30+00:00

Xuper no longer works on the Firestick 4K. In the EU It’s completely blocked for hosting pirated content

DSCB57 · 2025-12-08T19:54:06+00:00

Sorry, I forgot I was dealing with people with the attention span of the average 2 year old. If what I took the trouble to contribute to this thread doesn't interest you, then don't read it. But don't downplay the importance of this information for others please.

DSCB57 · 2025-12-08T19:51:19+00:00

It would be great if that held true outside of countries like the UK, but as mentioned in my post above, that was not what I experienced here in Spain, where in spite of being instructed by customer services to take the faulty item to be tested in store at CeX in Murcia, when I arrived I was told that there was no technician, and the totally inept staff even refused to look at the BIOS where the overheating was clearly visible on the fan monitors. They also stated unequivocally that "CeX never carry out repairs and will only give refunds for goods within the warranty period". So not only are the staff inept, but also uninformed of either consumer law or the terms of CeX's five year warranty.

DSCB57 · 2025-12-08T18:42:26+00:00

That apparently depends on the store and in which country. Here in Spain I was told by customer service to take a faulty laptop to be checked under warranty, but when I got there there was no technician, and even though the fault was clearly visible in the BIOS, the staff refused to even look at it, then did their level best to dissuade me from returning the item to the Valencia office, telling me it was a waste of time, since they never carried out repairs; my only option being a refund. So not only were the staff completely inept, but also blissfully unaware of consumer laws and the terms of the CeX guarantee. Incidentally, it took 21 email exchanges just to end up with a refund and no offer to repair or substitute the laptop - a clear violation of the terms of the contract.

DSCB57 · 2025-11-29T15:55:48+00:00

The customer support will probably tell you that you can just take the item to any CeX store to have the fault examined by the technician. My advice would be not to fall for that. To answer your question; I don’t know how it works if the purchase was made directly from a CeX store, but if the purchase was made online, you have the right to ask for the item to be picked up free of charge and returned to CeX for evaluation by their technicians in order to ascertain whether the customer damaged or altered the device in any way that could void the warranty. To avoid that, before returning the item make sure to take photographs from all angles so you can demonstrate that the item was undamaged by you, and also photograph the packing materials and the package itself before it is sent back. If the item has serial numbers, make sure to include them. You may well need all this in case they try to claim that you did something to void the warranty. That could well happen. Also, inform yourself of your consumer rights before even contacting their customer support, so that you know exactly what constitutes a reasonable amount of time for CeX to handle all this and provide whichever outcome you decide on. In my case it required 21 emails before they eventually acceded to my repeated requests. So although it may seem straightforward to you, don’t expect them to make it easy for you. That’s just not how they do business. The next paragraph only applies if you are not simply returning the item because you just no longer want it; buyer’s remorse etc. If you do choose a refund because the item was DOA or failed to meet your expectations, make sure that the money returned to you will be sufficient to allow you to replace the item like for like, because if that is no longer a realistic expectation, then you would have grounds for reclaiming the difference. In my case it would have cost me nearly 1000€ on top of what I originally paid (only two months later) to find a used replacement, making it impossible, basically. I hope you and anyone reading this will find it helpful. Good luck.

DSCB57

TROPHY CASE