Close your eyes and picture a sunrise. For the majority of people, the ability to visualize images - such as a sunrise - seems straightforward, and can be accomplished 'on demand'. But, for potentially some 2% of the population, conjuring up an image in one's mind's eye is not possible; attempts to visualize images just bring up darkness. Although identified back in the 19th century, Aphantasia remained under the radar for more than a century, and it was not until recently that it has been rediscovered and re-examined. It has become clear that Aphantasia is a fascinating and often idiosyncratic condition, and typically more complex than the simple absence of an ability to visualize. People with the condition - Aphants - commonly report effects upon their abilities to recreate sounds, smells and touches as well; many also struggle with facial recognition. Paradoxically, many Aphants report that when they sleep, their dreams incorporate colour images, sound, and the other senses. Put together by lead author Alan Kendle - who discovered his Aphantasia in 2016 - this title is a collection of insights from contributors across the world detailing their lives with the condition. It offers rich, diverse, and often amusing insights and experiences into Aphantasia's effects. For anyone who wishes to understand this most intriguing condition better, the book provides a wonderful and succinct starting point. Foreword by Professor Adam Zeman, Professor of Cognitive and Behavioural Neurology, University of Exeter

"She wanted an adventure. She never imagined it would go this far. It begins with a reality TV show. Twelve contestants are sent into the woods to face challenges that will test the limits of their endurance. While they are out there, something terrible happens--but how widespread is the destruction, and has it occurred naturally or is it man-made? Cut off from society, the contestants know nothing of it. When one of them--a young woman the show's producers call Zoo--stumbles across the devastation, she can imagine only that it is part of the game"--Provided by publisher.

The human imagination manifests in countless different forms. We imagine the possible and the impossible. How do we do this so effortlessly? Why did the capacity for imagination evolve and manifest with undeniably manifold complexity uniquely in human beings? This handbook reflects on such questions by collecting perspectives on imagination from leading experts. It showcases a rich and detailed analysis on how the imagination is understood across several disciplines of study, including anthropology, archaeology, medicine, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and the arts. An integrated theoretical-empirical-applied picture of the field is presented, which stands to inform researchers, students, and practitioners about the issues of relevance across the board when considering the imagination. With each chapter, the nature of human imagination is examined - what it entails, how it evolved, and why it singularly defines us as a species.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From “the poet laureate of medicine" (The New York Times) and the author of the classic The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat comes a fascinating exploration of the remarkable, unpredictable ways that our brains cope with the loss of sight by finding rich new forms of perception. “Elaborate and gorgeously detailed.... Again and again, Sacks invites readers to imagine their way into minds unlike their own, encouraging a radical form of empathy.” —Los Angeles Times With compassion and insight, Dr. Oliver Sacks again illuminates the mysteries of the brain by introducing us to some remarkable characters, including Pat, who remains a vivacious communicator despite the stroke that deprives her of speech, and Howard, a novelist who loses the ability to read. Sacks investigates those who can see perfectly well but are unable to recognize faces, even those of their own children. He describes totally blind people who navigate by touch and smell; and others who, ironically, become hyper-visual. Finally, he recounts his own battle with an eye tumor and the strange visual symptoms it caused. As he has done in classics like The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and Awakenings, Dr. Sacks shows us that medicine is both an art and a science, and that our ability to imagine what it is to see with another person's mind is what makes us truly human.

Aphantasia is derived from the Greek word "phantasia", which translates to "imagination", and the prefix "a-", which means "without.Mental Sensory Perception or MSP, is the ability to see, hear, smell, taste, and touch in one's mind (Don't bother googling MSP, I coined the term 5 minutes ago).Aphantasia is a mental condition characterized by an inability to voluntarily visualize mental imagery or to recall sounds, smells, tastes, or sensations of touch; the individual simply doesn't have mental sensory perception. What!? Most people walk around with the ability to see, hear, smell, taste and touch in the minds?Wait...some people can't see, hear, smell, taste and touch in their minds?Are you kidding? Whether you do or don't have mental sensory perception, most people don't even realize this is a real "thing" and "discover" Aphantasia by accident? And why isn't Mental Sensory Perception a common term? ESP is but MSP isn't? How about we put MSP in the psychology books, at least then people can ask questions, like, for instance, "what is it?". We have all heard the term Extra Sensory Perception or ESP, rejected by the science community almost entirely for lack of physical evidence. It is a condition completely based on anecdotal evidence yet is considered our sixth sense. MSP is literally a sixth sense. Mental Sensory Perception is a real ability that is as mysterious and unexplained as ESP but it is based on a factual "unacknowledged" ability unlike ESP which is a suspected "extra" ability. Having MSP absolutely is an "extra" sensory perception precisely because about 2% of the world population doesn't have this ability and just about all of them were born this way.That about sums up the general state of understanding for people that come to learn about Aphantasia. It is really quite the riddle. Some people simply do not have mental sensory perception. But why do we call people that don't have MSP a name that means without imagination? Everyone with this condition has an imagination, they just can't "see, hear, smell, taste, or touch" with their imagination. But more importantly, why is such a big deal not a big deal?Yes, it matters whether you do or do not have mental sensory perception. After all the research on Aphantasia since my moment of discovery, I'm not sure having MSP is a benefit or detriment to people unless they know the power of either gift. However, knowing this information helps to explain the way you learn, the way you communicate and the way you integrate yourself within society. It's a big deal! In fact, the first thing I did when I learned this was a "thing" was to ask my 7 year old son if he could see images in his mind. Why? Because if he couldn't, it would help to understand his behavior, his interests, and his capabilities to learn, experience, and grow.This book does not discuss the science of Aphantasia, primarily because there really is none. Even following Professor Zeman's study, 5 years ago, there still hasn't been any concrete scientific research conducted to understand this condition.Instead, this book simply serves to provide the reader, whether you are an aphant or a phant, with a clearer understanding of what aphantasia is in relation to mental sensory perception, how most people come to discover this condition and some insights, strategies and tactics to adjust their daily living in order to live with or without a condition that may or may not have hindered your forward progress.

How we see and how we visualize: why the scientific account differs from our experience.