> Most can't visualize a circle and toggle its color, let alone anything complex.

What? I’m doing this right now. I can do it with a white tiger. I can see Barrack Obama in a marching band on Mars.

I have a friend who cannot picture anything in their mind, so it’s probably a spectrum. You might be projecting your experience onto others.

'One of the creators of the Firefox internet browser, Blake Ross, realised his experience of visual imagery was vastly different from most people when he read about a man who lost his ability to imagine after surgery. In a Facebook post, Ross said:

What do you mean ‘lost’ his ability? […] Shouldn’t we be amazed he ever had that ability?

We’ve heard from many people who have experienced a similar epiphany to Ross. They too were astonished to discover that their complete lack of ability to picture visual imagery was different from the norm.'

https://theconversation.com/blind-in-the-mind-why-some-peopl...

Every aspect about the way people think is on a spectrum. There is also the split between those who have an inner monologue in their heads the those who don't. There's also studies showing these two populations astonished that the other exists.

...there are people that don't have a monologue in their heads?

I know, weird right? Here[0] is a link with some more information about it.

[0] https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/some-people-dont-have-...

> So for myself personally, I see the words a person is speaking as they would appear being typed on the page of a computer screen and never once will hear the person’s voice speaking them, nor my own.

This sounds like a perversion of synesthesia to me. This is like LSD.

Do these people have strange accents like people born deaf?

I have aphantasia, and I have specifically invoked lucid dreams. I use the SSILD method (which stands for senses induced lucid dream). I have no ability to visualize during the waking state at all, but I do obviously remember what I see during the day. When I have lucid dreams, they are visual, and detailed. They can be blurry, but there are techniques to increase their clarity. I specifically examine closely what around me when I realize that I am dreaming, and that tends to make things more detailed. In fact, my dreams are visually more detailed and clear than in my waking life, because of my failing eyesight. There are other techniques people use, such as spinning around quickly or simply asking loudly for clarity.

Aphantasia seems to be a defect in (or a difference in, I don't know) one portion of the brain whereas dreaming seems to use a separate portion of the brain. I can also see images when I'm between being awake and asleep, which seems to be related to dreaming. I've had a couple of dreams where I've successfully used the WILD technique (wake induced lucid dreaming) where you use hypnagogic imagery to create an environment and (if you're successful at it) go directly from being awake to being in a lucid dream. It's an experience that will lead you to believe that you do actually visually experience your dreams, since there was no apparent break between lying on your bed and entering a dream. I've also watched a dream fade before, and woke up immediately afterwards with no apparent loss in consciousness.

You don't have to believe me, of course, that's up to you. I'm as surprised as anyone that I can visualize while dreaming but not at all when I'm awake.

Are you sure you aren't suffering from aphantasia and extrapolating that to other people?

No, I am not. Or I wouldn't be able to draw from imagination. Most people get a brief, vague glimpse and act like they can hold an image in their mind.

You aren't holding it if you can't draw from it. End of story.

>You aren't holding it if you can't draw from it.

That doesn't sound plausible.

In my personal case, I can maintain a clear image but be unable to translate it accurately to paper or to another medium (electronic or not) since it involves skill. The fidelity I am able to attain has improved as my skill has improved, and I can clearly see the frustrating differences between the image in my mind and what I then drew without yet being able to remedy it. If the proposition were correct neither of these things would be possible.

Aphantasia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia