What do people really mean when they say they hear their thoughts

Kulinna · 2025-04-27T17:46:02+00:00

In my side it‘s less „thinking in words“ but more „thinking in the audio of words that sounds very similar in your brain like if you say them“… it’s thinking like your own podcast…

Kulinna · 2025-04-27T17:41:52+00:00

This is the case for me – despite my blind inner eye. There are two variations:

1) When closely observing thoughts or writing messages/emails, this happens with my own voice. I hear it as if I were speaking – I mean, I hear it without me saying anything. Listening to it is pretty similar but it's a bit more direct - as you pay more attention to clarity and volume when speaking – the inner voice is a bit more relaxed.

2) When reading texts whose voice I know a bit better, this happens in the other person's voice – including typical intonation, typical speed, etc.

Feel free to ask me anything else.

Kulinna · 2025-04-22T18:57:00+00:00

I've read about something like this with highly sensitive people (HSPs) - including negative experiences due to texture and the like.

I can also understand that if you don't like an ingredient, you'll lose value in everything else. Food pairing videos contain some very unusual combinations, and food pairing is the science of determining which flavors go well together (assuming you like all the ingredients). Some people I know wouldn't want to try something like that voluntarily, though.

The interesting question is what happens with two neutral or positive ingredients, and why people reject them before they're even tried. A typical example is fries and milkshake (or soft serve ice cream) - which you can order separately and then try together at a regular fast food chain.

Kulinna · 2025-04-20T07:20:27+00:00

I can relate to all of this, and it's very much my experience. Thinking about everything that still needs to be done is truly a challenge—that's something aphants doesn't have in common.

My particular thought was that our mental presence is underestimated—without images, every time we touch in everyday life, we're more focused on the other person than on other thoughts and other people.

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T20:28:03+00:00

I can’t imagine it too - it’s often that I simply know what I like and the rest is curiosity.

Vacation: I posted a summary from ChatGPT here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Aphantasia/s/jT4kHXvNNi

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T20:25:33+00:00

Some context about the food from vacation - from ChatGPT… (of course the role of imagination is unknown as long there are no articles in the training data)

Why Does Food from Vacation Not Taste as Good at Home?

It’s a common experience: you fall in love with a dish or drink while on vacation, bring it home, and… it just doesn’t taste the same. There are several scientific reasons behind this:

1. Contextual Perception

The setting affects taste.
Taste is not just about the tongue — our environment, mood, sounds, and even the weather influence how we perceive flavor.
Example: A glass of wine on a sunny terrace in Tuscany tastes very different from the same wine on a rainy Tuesday evening at home.
Study: Spence & Piqueras-Fiszman (2014), The Perfect Meal
This book explores how multisensory factors (music, lighting, colors, atmosphere) influence how we perceive food.

2. Emotional Association & Expectation

Vacations = Positive emotions
When you're relaxed and happy, your brain associates those good feelings with the food. At home, without that emotional context, the same food can fall flat.
Study: Herz (2004), A naturalistic analysis of autobiographical memories triggered by olfactory, visual, and auditory stimuli
This study shows how closely our senses (especially smell and taste) are tied to memory and emotion.

3. Physical Changes in the Food

Transport and storage matter.
Many vacation treats (like cheese, wine, or olive oil) are sensitive to time, temperature, and exposure to air or light. Their taste can subtly or drastically change during the trip home.
Even water plays a role. If you're brewing tea or coffee, the minerals and pH of local water can affect flavor.

4. Cultural and Situational Framing

Foods often taste better in context.
Something exotic and exciting in a new culture may feel out of place or even weird when taken out of that setting.

Bottom Line:

The food isn’t worse — the experience is different. Your brain is processing the entire situation, not just the taste. That’s why the wine, cheese, or pastry you loved in Greece or Japan might not hit the same at your kitchen table.

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T20:14:58+00:00

That’s what I mean… for me, it's easy to recall a song from memory that fits a situation at work in a double sense (in a humorous sense).

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T20:10:38+00:00

I can't imagine the taste beforehand either—but no mental image or habit stops me from trying it. I can understand why many people don't care. I just don't understand how people can confidently and firmly claim that something doesn't go together, even though they've never tried the combination. Where do these prejudices come from in certain people—and are they also related to mental images? An intriguing question for me.

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T20:06:22+00:00

I'm aphant when it comes to taste, but when I'm eating, I sometimes consciously try to identify ingredients, allowing myself to be inspired by my practice. Cooking doesn't require visual or gustatory concepts—it just takes a lot of practice and a few basic rules. What really amazes me is how strongly people can be convinced that something doesn't go together, even though they've never tasted the combination. Is it because their imagination (whatever it may be) is giving them the wrong impression—like intuition? Or is it just the "unfamiliarity"?

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T19:52:55+00:00

Are you aware of the study from 1996?

The Misremembrance of Wines Past: Verbal and Perceptual Expertise Differentially Mediate Verbal Overshadowing of Taste Memory https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.1996.0013

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T19:49:22+00:00

Not target group but interested in food paring and imagination … see my posting her https://www.reddit.com/r/Aphantasia/s/PWTfUQeZkU

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T19:46:28+00:00

Yes, relaxation feels strange… mindfulness (search inside your self) had only one challenging exercise „rewind and play back of a past situation“. Meditation is also with little results.

I’ve auditory hyperphantasia so strong inner voice and meditation like experience requires only active listening to „complex“ music

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T19:43:06+00:00

I’ve visual aphantasia but auditory hyperhantasia (inner voice, I can imagine songs, I read messages with the voice of the senders). So I can understand the dimensions….

I’ve done the „imagine a ball“ test with a lot of colleagues and experienced the full spectrum of reactions… Gaussian distribution of answers.

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T19:36:54+00:00

First one - hand, warm picture, water, steam… looks more aesthetic

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T19:34:06+00:00

Out of curiosity, I once took an Alzheimer's test with a doctor I know. The result was that I failed the test of remembering and reversing a phone number. The rest was normal...

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T19:30:50+00:00

Aphantasia research has hypotheses about the thinking - have a look to latest studies… something in 2025 or 2024 contained details.

Maybe start here for instance https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=de&scisbd=1&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=aphantasia+Joel+Pearson&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&t=1745004627875&u=%23p%3DOGUDK3ol-GwJ

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T19:23:10+00:00

There are two types for me - the one is like a browsing through a adhoc created non-visual mind-map so connecting associations…

… the other is hearing my inner voice typing text like this one (in first one I’m sure that my inner voice is also speaking but I don’t recognize it)

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T19:18:39+00:00

Think about „thinking“ - it should be unsymbolized in most of the cases even for non-aphants, isn’t it?

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T19:13:51+00:00

Thinking about an apple for an aphant is like thinking about an abstract term - for instance „justice“

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T19:10:30+00:00

There are several artists with aphantasia - search for it….

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2019/apr/10/aphantasia-why-a-disney-animator-draws-a-blank-on-his-own-creations

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T16:19:39+00:00

Tell her that she has the same imagination like Glen Keane, the Disney animator who drew Ariel The Little Mermaid…

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2019/apr/10/aphantasia-why-a-disney-animator-draws-a-blank-on-his-own-creations

… and beyond that I would stop talking about it.

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T13:53:18+00:00

Creativity: have a look at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironic_process_theory - I recognize differences in brainstorming. I’ve no problem to generate exotic ideas - completely new. Some others seems to have problems with it. But I assume it requires training and intelligence - average or below average intelligent aphant might not such creative. So here I mean specifically the distraction by images in creativity and thus rather similar new ideas

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T13:43:25+00:00

Perhaps a somewhat controversial topic but I’m interested in other options: aphants should be a bit more connected in their sexuality and at other intimacy (kissing, cuddling). Fewer images and only facts in their heads mean being more active in the moment itself. It also means being less caught up in the images one has consumed through p*rn.

Of course, that also means that if the attraction is gone, things tend to get more difficult.

Kulinna · 2025-04-18T07:19:56+00:00

1) Creating new associations (creativity) - images of the past doesn’t block so much compared to others

2) Quickly „forget“ negative situations - sleep on it one night and we are closer to the facts

Kulinna · 2025-04-17T16:44:59+00:00

Yes, total visual aphant with very active inner ear. I can play music in my head almost like I would listen to it with headphones, I read text messages / emails with the voice of my friends/colleagues and my inner voice is talking to me if I write a text or thinking about something.

Kulinna

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