I thought everyone was the same, and "picture a beach" was metaphorical.

The fact people can actually do this in their minds has blown my mind - metaphorically. I'm genuinely still reeling from this.

Wait what, really? I can literally draw anything you ask me to in my mind, I can see things so vividly I can manipulate them with my mind if I want to. Fascinating that you can't, totally... blows..my...mind. :)

(edit: then as a note, you might find this interesting: https://medium.com/@jedgar/my-broken-mind-24bb98a1e793)

Most of us with Aphantasia can feel three dimensional models, however. My tests show I have a high accuracy of the items I'm feeling, but not necessarily a lot of detail. It could be compared to a 3D model with no texture mapping. I will also note that not everyone's visualization systems are the same, so you may be able to draw anything, but some may not be able to zoom, enhance color, rotate, change perspective, etc. I have one friend that can move icons of things around and draw lines between them, but can't imagine a beach.

Some more reading about the subject:

http://lesswrong.com/lw/dr/generalizing_from_one_example/

Fascinating. For being the same, we really are soooo different, aren't we? :)

Sorry about that. If it helps any, it would appear Aphantasiacs have purpose here. My kids have it. We're immune from commercial and "bad image" influence as well.

think of someone you know.. can you not think of what their face looks like?