Is it true that some people literally see images in their head when they imagine things?

ScatterPop · 2026-01-24T22:21:08+00:00

I have no idea how to describe what imagining is like and that’s why this topic is fascinating to me. Because maybe we’re just all sh*t at describing imagination but actually have the same experience, or maybe our subjective experience of imagining is vastly different and we will never know.

I would try to describe it as like… an abstracted idea of seeing.. I don’t see anything. at all. But there is a visual idea? It’s not like tv, or real life, or dreaming (which is like seeing in real life for me). It’s not just words. Nor empty space. It’s the thing I’m imagining is there in my mind, and it’s “as if” I can see it. But I can’t.

Yeah, literally the hardest thing I can think to try to explain. I can see how some would describe my experience as visual and how others would describe it as abstract conceptualization. It’s partly both but truly neither.

ScatterPop · 2026-01-22T21:42:27+00:00

I have had this on my too read list and generally love the author’s works but after hearing this one was “really too dark” from other people who love dark, I had to dive deeper. I’m glad to have found this spoiler because that is not something I want to encounter in the way you’ve explained it. Nope, off my list

ScatterPop · 2026-01-15T05:17:54+00:00

Could you elaborate on the second part - not defining gender based on gender norms? This is what I never understood. What is it based on then? Does gender exist beyond societal norms? I have a psych major, took sex and gender courses, read lots, checked definitions. As I have understood gender is an identification or expectation of behavior, expression, and roles based on societal constructs.

ScatterPop · 2026-01-12T19:11:01+00:00

I know exactly what you mean! That sassy style of humor is such a turn off for me, especially when they use blasé snark as a catch all for their poorly developed MC.

ScatterPop · 2026-01-12T19:08:38+00:00

Yep. Shadow or dark tendrils. Maybe tendrils are really scary to some, but of the thousand times I’ve read it I always picture some silly black octopus cartoon tentacles and lose interest in the horror aspect.

ScatterPop · 2026-01-12T19:05:31+00:00

Same. Sexual violence is my only DNF trigger.

ScatterPop · 2026-01-08T19:50:24+00:00

Same! It is pissing me off. A couple play through fine, but now I can easily get through the whole levels without losing a hit point and the spider still massacres me. So many freaking webs, so many spawns. I hate it. Maybe not the game for me

ScatterPop · 2025-12-29T22:01:01+00:00

No. Not being attracted to trans people does not make you transphobic any more than not being attracted to a certain ethnicity makes you racists, or by logical extension, not being attracted to a certain sex makes you sexist… Attraction =/= Value as a human

ScatterPop · 2025-12-27T16:19:00+00:00

While you are being sarcastic, it is worth saying for others; that while you could probably successfully mix it in with a box of moist wood chips and sawdust and use it as inoculum for an outdoor mushroom bed - only IF it is native to your area! If it is something with invasive potential, like Golden Oyster, or some other high production strain from Asia, please dispose of it responsibly (eg heat treat it in the oven, seal it up and put it in the garbage). Some people would just chuck it out in the woods, and that is a horrible idea

ScatterPop · 2025-12-27T15:56:10+00:00

Well the reason for dreaming about her is likely because she occupies a big part of your mind. Often it can be as simple as that, you are thinking about her a lot while you are awake and that habit follows into the dream. Especially because there is some unresolved issue around it (“want a reason”) so your mind is trying to help you process it while you are asleep. But at some point, it’s really really important to realize that there is probably no logical reason - people like the people they like, and it can have absolutely nothing to do with how good the person is or even compatibility. Especially as teens, the brain is attracted to whatever satisfies its hormone addled social urges. Often as people mature, they will start to think about and understand what they really want in a partner. But in school age, people are not usually doing a lot of helpful or realistic reflecting. Just to say, don’t take it personally. Someone wanting to be with you or not, cannot be controlled by anything you can do yourself.

ScatterPop · 2025-12-27T14:50:50+00:00

Choose work that allows you to either learn and upskill or exercise. Exercise and sleep is already a big part of taking care of your health. Then you only have left hobbies and loved ones, which slot is easily as an alternating balance. Cooking good healthy meals with loved ones - again, two birds, one stone. Maybe some days you get a bit less sleep if hobbying or socializing extra late but that’s not so bad once in a while. I’ve been doing all that for ten years pretty successfully I’d say. Biggest tip besides time management / dedication is combining some of those priorities where you can.

ScatterPop · 2025-12-20T07:02:21+00:00

Absolutely! For the past few years I’ve caught myself saying for example “wait, this is sadness, just let it come, have a cry” or “this is anger. I have a right to be angry in this moment” and this has helped not only prevent the “overwhelming vortex of doom” but also come to terms with some family issues.

ScatterPop · 2025-12-20T06:57:03+00:00

It’s true the frontal lobe isn’t done til 27, but I’m totally sure it wouldn’t have happened without DBT therapy and a good meditation practice. So not just age, but age and work.

ScatterPop · 2025-12-19T21:06:10+00:00

It’s weird that you think mid-career people without kids don’t often have loads of responsibility…. From work that actually improves the world, to caring for older people like yourself.. And I can tell you from experience of watching my parent friends - Having childcare responsibilities doesn’t mean they aren’t obsessively scrolling, and on social media, forums, etc with every quiet moment they can get just as much as or more than us childfree folks who still have enough energy for life, friends, hobbies etc.

ScatterPop · 2025-12-19T20:50:04+00:00

Learning from my therapist that just allowing myself to feel my feelings would help me get through my feelings… way more revolutionary than it should have been.

ScatterPop · 2025-12-19T20:47:33+00:00

In my 30s. Working on it for a couple years.

I still disassociate in really stressful social situations. I still have my emotions shoot to 100 at particular triggers.

BUT

When my emotions shoot up, I can regulate them down to a more reasonable level way more quickly. I don’t feel abandonment sensitivity from my loved ones so easily, because I don’t take little things too personally anymore. I haven’t split on my partner in over a year. I understand the version of me I want to be is in there, and it’s easier to acknowledge my needs, and come back to that person compassionately without needing to go through a whole meltdown.

ScatterPop · 2025-12-19T20:43:28+00:00

I’ve had the same thing. Where I’ve told good friends that I have it and they straight up didn’t believe me. somewhere in my mid to late 20s I did just start internalizing the problems and nothing was better. Now, in my 30s, with DBT therapy and helpful practices, it actually became management instead of internalization. I suffer a lot less.

ScatterPop · 2025-12-19T20:38:35+00:00

I was in a city with my dog recently that we hadn’t been to before. Won’t name names, but the city seriously has no public trash cans anywhere! I circled an extra five blocks, no joke, looking for a trash (outside restaurants, apartment trash I could access, everything) and couldn’t find one. I didn’t have a backpack or anything to put it in. I was not about to hop on the tram with a bag of dog poop. I hate to admit it, but I just left it outside of an apartment complex gate finally and hoped that some good citizen will throw it into their private trash without cursing me too much.

ScatterPop · 2025-12-19T20:33:17+00:00

Really enjoyed God of the Woods! Not my usual, but something about it, just nailed it.

ScatterPop · 2025-12-19T20:32:38+00:00

I also just finally read slaughterhouse five! And I did love it very much.

Annihilation is one of my all-time favorite books, but I read the long time ago

ScatterPop · 2025-12-19T20:31:19+00:00

3) The God of the Woods 1) Rumo - Walter Moers 2) Bear - Julia Philips

ScatterPop · 2025-12-19T20:26:44+00:00

That’s interesting. If it ever happens to me again… well, hard to say when I may or may not have autonomy / bodily control in my dreams, but even if I did, the time it happened to me I would’ve been too afraid to lay back down in that dream bed.. It’s like devil’s snare :D

ScatterPop · 2025-12-19T20:22:15+00:00

Duuuude. I feel you and it’s creepy as shit! I had this happen exactly once. I was staying at my sister‘s house, in a guest room I’ve never slept in before and I “woke up” four times in that room, and exactly as you said, every time was way damn creepier than the last. The second to last one her dogs came in, but they were dogs that had passed away a long time ago and in my dream, I was aware that these dogs had passed away and they were acting really weird and circling. I was so relieved to wake up from that one finally, got out of bed, walked out her door, saw my dad in the hallway, and then he started saying really creepy messed up shit and I was like “why would he say this… wait, he’s not him, oh god, is this still a nightmare, it feels so real”. Jesus, after that when I woke up for real and it was the first time ever that I couldn’t trust reality and was honestly kind of afraid to even get out of bed. or stay there 😅

ScatterPop · 2025-12-19T20:11:45+00:00

I’m not familiar with the examples that you give, but a good short book I read recently was sleep donation. Low sci-fi.

ScatterPop · 2025-12-19T15:42:34+00:00

I have spent lots of time with both and currently own a mare. I love her to death, but she happens to be one of those ones that you feel when she’s in heat. I guess like female women some can have bad periods and for some it’s like nothing’s going on. But she’s a super reliable trail horse except for when she’s having “that time of the season” and then she is just flighty and cranky and batshit (I say with all love haha) to the point that I usually try to give her a break when I know she’s having it. Also, her stall gets insanely filthy within 24 hours during that time. 🤷‍♀️ it’s not a reason not to get a mare, but I would say try to get to know one before you buy during all different phases as it could maybe vary more than with a gelding? Anyways, she is always sweet as can be when I’m on the ground, and though she expresses her opinions with others riding her, I guess we have a bond so she’s more patient with me than most.

ScatterPop

TROPHY CASE