“This image has been around for a few years but it just came into my awareness a few weeks ago.
I have to say, my mind was rather blown.
What is it? It’s a visual imagery meme that askes “where do you fall when you are asked to imagine an apple?
Do you close your eyes and see the apple? Or do you close your eyes and see black?
I see black.
But I can describe the apple to you in detail.
My husband, on the other hand, sees the apple. He’s a 1, I’m a 5.
Our conversations have begun to devolve into…
Him: ok so a house… I imagine a house, I see a house
Me: Ok, got it, house, it’s beautiful
Him: how do you know??
Me: I just do…I imagine a house, and I can tell you what it looks like, it’s got a cute little porch, it’s on a mountain, there’s a swing…
Him: but you can’t see it
Me: nope…I just know
And that ladies and gentleman is how I work as a psychic.
I just know.
I’m clair-cognizant…clear knowing.
But I never knew until a few months ago that other people have actual visions when they’re told to visualize. I just thought everybody was like me…they just imagined it.
But it turns out, this lack of visualization skill isn’t such a handicap. In a Harvard Study, participants were asked to visualize a person walking into a room and knocking a ball off the table. Some people were able to tell you the color of the ball but not the height or hair color of the person. This is a phenomenon called “non-commitment”. Interestingly, the others who saw nothing in their mind’s eye were able to fill in many more details.
“There was an association between these measures of vividness and how many properties people visualized, but it was very weak, suggesting noncommitment has little to do with vividness. “You get people saying the image in their head is ‘super vivid, like real life.’ Then, when asked the color of the ball, they say, ‘Oh, I didn’t bother with that,’” Ullman says. “Conversely, people say they don’t see an image in their head but still say, ‘The ball? It was red, why?’”
This lack of ability to form a picture is a neuro divergent quality called “aphantasia”. In the last few weeks, I’ve tried to become more aware of what I see when I close my eyes, I’ve even tried practicing and willing a vision to come.
Meanwhile, my guides are “trying” to help…either that or they are standing off to the side and laughing at me. One never knows.
I was in meditation one day trying and trying to get my eyes to see something while they were closed.
Nothing.
I thought…”ok, let’s try to visualize a mountain. “
Black…a few little sticks of lighter colors kind of float in, a bit like a triangle, then disappear.
One of the gang pops into my consciousness and says “you’re trying to see with your eyes, that’s not that part that visualizes”
“Great…thanks.” I reply to my helpful guide and mentally roll my eyes at him (while keeping them closed)
I refocus my attention and stop trying to “see”.
Waiting…black…
I think “well, ok, that isn’t working, but how do I usually do it?”
I take a deep breath. I open my heart and I breathe again and I think
“Mountain”
It feels like my mind is flipping through files for a moment
I briefly flash on a scene where I’m sitting on a mountainside in a field of blue flowers.
Then another scene “unfolds” with a blue mountain in the distance, with a cabin below and a meadow, it’s rather dark…
And then…it’s there.
I’m sitting in front of Kendrick Cabin in Flagstaff. It’s July, monsoon season. My nephew and his family have run into town to the store. I’m alone…completely alone.
To my right is the historic rock cabin, with its warm wooden interior and rock fire place. It’s tiny kitchen and loft a cozy reminder of days past when the Forest Service used this as an outpost for the forest rangers.
Beyond that, a meadow and horse corral, with another cabin off in the distance.
I’m in the front yard, the long driveway stretches before me. It’s humid, and I can hear the thunder of a monsoon off in the distance. Kendrick Peak rises before me across the meadow, looming in beautiful purple and blues, the sky is a light blue with sketchy clouds floating across. I’ve got my feet up on the fence.
I’m at peace. The air…is just so…sweet and fragrant.
Aren’t our bodies amazing?
This was a memory from 2015 and I can travel back to that moment and feel how wonderful it was. I don’t know that I would trade the ability to see it in my mind for the feeling in my body. There is such peace in this knowing
I don’t know that being a 5 is better than being a 1 or vice versa. I’ve begun to consider that because of my aphantasia, I’ve developed other skills.
I recall another piece to my jigsaw puzzle; that when I began teaching others to connect with their Spirit guides, I taught them that imagination is a connection to the Divine.
I’ve tried to recall where I got that piece of information. I can think of no explanation except that I’ve heard creative people often describe the process of creating as an out of body experience; as though the words or art just formed from deep within them, and poured forth.
How could it be anything BUT the Divine?
All of us have a Gift and we are all individual expressions of the One because we are One. Whether I “see” a vision or feel it with my heart, I recognize the source of my inspiration is beyond anything I can ever truly grasp. And I am grateful for the mystery.
So…where do you fall on the scale?
And how has this affected you? Does your ability to clearly visualize mean that you have a tendency towards Clairvoyance? (clear seeing)
Does your lack of ability to visualize mean you have a tendency towards Claircognizance?
What will you do with this knowledge? How will it help you in your quest for understanding?
