Is your imagination limited to what you can experience in reality? The ability to see in 3D implies you are creating 2 viewpoints, could you make a third viewpoint? Are you able to visualize a 4 dimensional space? Can you imagine the feeling of happiness and pleasure to simply will yourself to constant satisfaction? Are you able to imagine yourself in a different body, like the body of a bird or a dog? Can you stop yourself from feeling something real by imagining that you aren't feeling it, similar to how some can obstruct their vision with their imagination? There are colors that are impossible in reality but possible for us to perceive, like sygian blue, are you able to imagine colors you don't see in reality?

If any of you use old Reddit and have been on the sub in the past 12+ hours, you may or may not have seen the multiple changes in appearance. If you did, you were probably confused and I completely understand why you would be. I was too for what it is worth. Due to this, you really do deserve an apology.

For people who don't use old Reddit or missed it, to boil it down there were frequent changes and some major layout disruptions.

If this affected you, I am very sorry.

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What happened?

I took it upon myself to try and program a stylesheet. While I did start with the stylesheet of another sub I frequent, I also made changes of my own. I struggled to find resources at my skill level were difficult since I'm not a complete noob to programming, but pretty much am to CSS. This lead to me getting assistance from ChatGPT. It did not write my code for me (more on this later), as I didn't want to go that route and I also wanted to be able to make changes and edits myself.

Pretty early on, I made the decision that I didn't love how other subs were handling the sidebar and content size. The more common way I saw was to just leave it alone, but I wanted to keep the sidebar gap there when the sidebar was done. The other way is to set the widths based off percentages. I wanted it to, ideally, be one percent until it hit a certain screen size then swap to a different percentage. While I did try to figure this out myself, I ended up asking ChatGPT for ideas. It told me about using flex to control it instead. This caused so many problems.

After a few hours, I gave up on perfection. In practice this was acting more like a % with a max size and I just went with it with the plan to look at it again later. I did not consider going back to the basic width setting, which was a mistake.

Once I finally programed everything on the main sub page and got it RES compatible, I switched to looking into more specific things, like inside a post. Not used to old Reddit, I did not clock the issue other than thinking it an odd design choice until I was comparing notes with another subreddit. What was the issue? The post showed to the left of the comments. It was quite ugly and a terrible waste of space.

I tried fixing it, I got ChatGPT to try, I even consulted my sister on it since she has more experience with RES. Nothing. My sister had me go back through the previous revisions until I found one without a bug. I compared the code, found the only changes, reverted back to the latest one, and started swapping flex back to width. While it achieved good results, I am sure it was annoying if you were trying to browse the sub as I kept changing the revisions to see what it did. I really do wish this was where the story ended.

Instead, I swapped one problem for another. The post showed above the comments, but now the comments didn't start until right underneath where the sidebar ended, no matter the window size. Both my sister and I tried brainstorming and scouring the 600 lines of poorly done code. I even asked ChatGPT, again. What caused it? No clue. I still have no clue. I couldn't keep throwing mud at a wall, so I just asked ChatGPT to optimize my code. It was able to make it 1/3 of the size, but it also is missing plenty of things.

This is a semi-temporary fix. There is still some stuff that is mildly messed up and I realize that. If it bothers you, feel free to turn off the subreddit theme for now. While it is okay (not good, just okay) with RES in light mode, I wouldn't even consider using the theme with RES in night mode. Once my limit resets, I plan to see if 4o is any better at it optimizing my code than 4 mini. Assuming it is better, I will swap them. If it needs only a few minor fixes I will do so then. If it still needs major or plenty of fixes, I will have to wait a few days. I am disabled and it is a wonder my hands and I have got this far today. Regardless, when I am able, I wish to take a further look at it and organize it for myself along with putting notes in.

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TL;DR: I tried to program a stylesheet, was picky and needed ChatGPT to assist. I was not thorough initially and it caused plenty of issues. After realizing the extent of the issues, I searched for a fix, but was left with extra problems. We are stable now thanks to ChatGPT optimizing my code, but have minor issues for now. I am really sorry.

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I will do my best to update this if anything changes.

Update: Ran it through 4o TWICE and both were significantly worse before I even got off of the preview page (which doesn't even show the whole picture.)

Will shortly be updating some of the sidebar mess ups as they're easy and seen all across the pages of the sub.

Update 2 11/30: I think we are pretty good across the board. If you see anything, please say something. It should be RES and RES night mode compatible.

Is it right angles you can see both at the same time? Is it more like seeing both sides of things? Is it like being clueless?: it's like seeing a TV show within a TV show..., Yeah in a yeah..., one ruby pinecone.

I started to notice that I can project “VR and AR” into my physical sight, so if it was a…cat!

I could literally feel them against my skin, imagine they crawled into my lap and feel their weight, and that is more vivid than my actual imagery,

And at maximum concentration, if I saw a picture of a field of flowers for instance, I can project myself into it, with my eyes open for a good 30 seconds or so, and though the physical sensations are slightly more static, I feel it as well,

it might be linked to the fact I’m a synaesthetic, but I’m not sure.

Rotate it in 4D. Seamlessly rotate it inside out, lemme know how it goes.

Well not entirely predict but at random times a scenario will flash in my head for example my parents getting me a pc as a present but it never happened, whenever I imagine something to certainly happend well it never happend. I have proved my theory multiple times and well it was true, if I imagine or something just flash in my mind even if the chances of it happening is is like 100% if wouldn't happend since I saw it in my imagination so yah my whole life is unlucky asf, I don't know if it's just me or there are other ppl like me.

P.S : excuse my bad English I'm not really good at it

Based on me reading stuff on this sub I'm probably hyperphantasic. I can visualize(both ar and vr type) just about as well as I can imagine doing so without stepping over into hallucination. I want to bridge this gap. I feel like I'm close enough to maybe being able to do it if I were somehow able to train. Anyone have similiar ideas or some success?

It's holotropic breathing. I will describe it at the end, for those who are unfamiliar.

Bottom line, when I practice holotropic breathing my visualization improves dramatically. I only noticed this a couple of days ago, so I am still experimenting, but this is very exciting! It isn't only while I am doing it, but it seems to last for awhile after. My visualization goes from my normal of a momentary flicker to a fairly vivid image that I now seem to be able to sustain for at least a second, and sometimes more. I am hoping with practice it will teach my brain I want this.

Holotropic breathing was developed by Stan and Christina Grof in the early 70s after psychedelics were banned. Having administered something like 4000 therapeutic LSD sessions in the 60s and 70s, Grof began to examine his notes from these sessions and noticed that in a lot of cases towards the end of the trips people would have profound insights. Since the LSD had long been synthesized out of the system, he was curious what if anything was causing them, and a simple pattern emerged - hyperventilation. So that is all holotropic breathing is, breathe in and out as hard as you can and keep on going until you feel energy charging through you. Whatever the cause (maybe that much oxygenation frees energy allowing you to access your subconscious?) it works. And, as I said, I have begun to see notable improvement in my ability to visualize. If anyone else tries it, please let me know if it had such an effect on you!

I am asking because I do, and I feel it's not really hyperaphantasia but some other conditions.

It only happens at the edge of sleep when I am still fully self-aware. I literally see things with closed eyes. I have very little control of what I see. But I can focus to parts of scene to see details. If you have similar experience or knows what it is called, please let me know.

Like, I do have a very vivid imagination, everything feels like a hallucination I can touch but i know it’s not real and I know IM thinking of that thing, and I can think of something else at anytime. Sure random stuff comes in all the time but that’s still in my control.

But sometimes something will appear that “I” didn’t think of, that’s very vivid (I still know it’s not real), but “I” can’t make it leave. It is usually over what I’m imagining, like my imagination is a screen with a crack in it. The crack is out of my control, it’s just there. It appears out of nowhere.

I’ve even imagined exactly that, literally a glowing bright crack over my thoughts, and I can’t get rid of it.

Or, a a poorly rendered spear will be in the corner of my vision for absolutely no reason hovering above my thoughts and mind like why are you there 😭💀

Anyone else have this or know wtf it could be? It’s not super common occurrence unless I’m having a episode of very vivid daydreaming or somthing

I have a super vivid form of synesthesia, that allows me to see colors and shapes along with music without trying. But, I also have hyperphantasia, so when I listen to music I feel like I have a generative AI model in my head that effortlessly creates entire scenes and films in perfect detail in my head. I cannot fully draw or visualize this on paper yet due to my lack of experience drawing. Does anyone else have any similar experiences?

For example like trauma or seeing images of a loss loved one when thinking about them.

I can visualize things in great detail, but of course it isn’t the same as actually seeing it in person. What’s it like for you?

I can visualize things pretty much as well as someone could render them in a 3D program. I can change them in any way I see fit. I can smell and hear and taste things like I'm actually using that sense even when I'm just visualizing, and I can alter these senses in any way. I can imagine and feel myself moving body parts in ways I can't, and I can imagine and feel myself moving body parts I don't have(like wings, extra ears, and a tail). But I simply suck at remembering. Personally, I still say I have hyperphantasia, but my ADHD Dx is what messes with the memory portion. The best I've got is the ability to watch memories while sitting in a movie theater in my mind, but even then the memory might as well be stored on decaying rolls of film.

TL;DR My question for y'all is: do you have the intensely detailed memory?

Please share what you did mentally to come up with the answer, I’m really curious what approaches people will take.

Edit - of course this is open to non hyperphants too. I’m interested to hear all perspectives of how someone might answer this solely their head.

I do not have an official diagnosis, but I am certain from asking friends and family that my visualization skills are far beyond those of my peers. I have always had a vivid imagination and it wasn't until I heard of Aphantasia that I understood really how detailed my mind's eye was in comparison. A couple of years ago I read "Mastermind: how to think like Sherlock Holmes" by Maria Konnikova and used the instructions in the book to create a "mind attic". At first it was just a recreation of my house, and thanks to what I now know was my Hyperphantasia, I could use the memory technique to an impressive degree for the little time I dedicated to it, and recall information for a long time after I placed it. However, slowly my "mind attic" shifted, and became a completely imaginary place and building, all of it in rich detail. To not make this post any longer than it needs to I will leave the exact details out of it. In this place, not only can I recall information, but it is as if I have full control over certain parts of my mind. I can create constructs and manipulate them as if I was in Viritual reality (closest thing I could think of). I can even overlay this world on my own, letting me for example move furniture around a room, figuring out how I want it before actually moving anything. After a couple of years of using this place as a safespace for thinking, creating and meditation, I have gained fairly decent control of it. I only now thought of finding more information which is how I landed on this subreddit. Now I am generally curious if anyone else has had a similar experience.

hai, i thought i had a form of aphantasia because i can mostly see a concept of things in my head rather than just things but then sometimes, especially when relaxed or about to sleep, i can see extremely vivid 4k images, super detailed faces with perfectly changing facial expressions but they look like memories how they show in films - everything around a face or a thing is pitch black - and the moment i focus on them, my brain panics and erases them and i again just see conceptual outlines.

does anyone know what this is and if there is a way to make my brain not freak out?

for context i'm autistic and adhd. i cannot meditate and drugs only make me anxious.

okay so im very creative and my minds eye is my most powerful tool but back in august of this year some major stressors happened and it caused my minds eye to become borderline aphantasia, it's been 3 months since then and im wondering if it's possible to regain my mind's eye through practice or guides, any advice is welcome as visualizing is very important to me.

As the title says. When I close my eyes, I see black and purple aura in my eyelids. I see the hypnagogic visuals but behind the area of aura. How do I dissolve the aura? when I open my eyes and look to see aura I see the aura like smoke while I'm looking as well. I saw a door one day when it lightened up one day many years ago but the aura went back on my eyes shortly after. I'm learning to see aura soon as I can see anything just yet.

I am wondering. How does one do this? I have hyperphantasia for visuals,audio , and smell and proprioception but not taste. I can create vivid images in my head sometimes, but sometimes it doesn't feel 'real'. Is visualisation really like real-seeing for some of you, and if so, what are your thought processes. How can I improve for such consistency

. And an extra question when reading, what pace do you guys read at as you conjure images in you head. I find that reading faster makes it feel more like a film but it doesn't seem quite realistic as it usually.

If you’re an artist, you’ve likely heard of Kim Jung Gi. From what I can observe in his work, he seems to visualize the final drawing on his canvas and then 'trace' over the imaginary lines he sees on the paper. Personally, as an artist with about average visualization skills, I can’t ‘see’ an entire drawing on my paper and trace over it. However, I can do this with smaller, simpler objects. For example, I can ‘project’ the image of a box onto the canvas, visualize its lines, and trace over them. Doing this greatly enhances my drawing ability. I’m currently working on improving my visualization skills to strengthen this technique.

For those of you with hyperphantasia, do you experience anything similar when you draw? Are you able to ‘see’ your imagination on the canvas and trace over it, or do you use your imagination in some other unique way?

So I am capable of conjuring up images in my head but I haven't heard anyone describe seeing it the way I see them. I would describe it sort of like an overlay over my vision, I am almost always picturing something in my head as it happens mostly automatically, but I am unable to deeply focus on an image and create any experience similar to like viewing a normal image. There is always a sort of spotty element to them despite an ability to recollect specific details, I'm also unable to create scenes of fluid motion and I have to resort to a series of still images. For some reason whenever I am in bed and tired I can create scenes in my head that are much closer to "watching a movie" like I've heard some people describe their mind's eye. So can anyone relate to this? I just feel like I'm missing out on having better picturing ability

I've heard it argued for both sides whether or not hyperphantasia increases intelligence, and it sounds like it would. What are your guys' IQ? Do you think aphants/hyperphants have differing intelligence?

So, you know how usually you get motion sickness if you read while you're in a car? Well, I usually get car sickness even when I'm not doing anything specific. For example, I just found out this subreddit and I was doing the hyperphantasia check and got car sickness from visualising an apple (maybe I got too much invested lmao).

Let me know if anybody ever felt the same.

Title. This year I have had 2 short windows (about a week or two) where it was just harder to visualize things. I’m not sure if it’s maybe some kind of deficiency (sometimes I don’t eat a lot) or I’m just overthinking it and worrying. During these times I also had headaches and migraines. I know stress can also affect it, but with the headaches my thought was either some kind of deficiency or perhaps lack of sleep.

I depend on my hyperphantasia for my artwork and I spend a lot of time keeping myself entertained by daydreaming and visualizing various situations. Before these two instances I had never really thought it was possible to lose this ability or have it get weaker. I have also noticed that when I think too hard about the hyperphantasia itself it’s harder to imagine something. It just comes naturally without thinking about it. I like to think about hyperphantasia as computer memory. Maybe after doing it for so long you run out and need to refresh and rest. But now that I’ve learned it’s possible to lose it I’ve been really worried that it will happen to me and my art will be heavily affected.

The first time this happened to me a few months ago I felt really terrible since I just wasn’t myself. I had woken up one day and it just… wasn’t working. I went to the doctor for a physical and told her about it but both the lady typing everything into the computer and the actual doctor didn’t know what hyperphantasia was. It kind of pissed me off a bit because I could tell she had no idea what it was but was just pretending like she knew anything about it and asking basic questions. That was the main reason I went, not the headaches. I just wanted my ability back and wanted to know if something was wrong with me.

If anyone knows if diet or anything like that or mineral deficiency can affect the state of your hyperphantasia I’d love to hear any information or similar experiences. This is my first time discussing it deeply with anyone, since most people I try to talk to about it simply don’t understand or don’t have it. I’m hoping it’s lack of sleep since my sleep schedule has been kind of messed up or if I just need to take vitamins.

If so, what’s the max word length you can fit on your mind’s screen at once?

I seem to have perfect hyperphantasia, visuals, sounds, feelings, smells and taste but i have a bad memory. Sometimes i dont remember what i ate the day before or things i done same day and a lot of my old memories, so i can very vividly come up with and imagine things that dont exist but struggle to visualse existing things accurately when they require memory. I dont know if its intertwined in any way but i also really struggle to make my mind up on things or to pick something to imagine. Does this mean i do not have hyperphantasia or just struggle with things that are intertwined with it?

I mean is your imagery purely visual or is it more semantic, meaning related?

I ask because it's a dream of mine to have a Mind Palace for thinking, not just for storing memories. I always thought that I have hypophatasia (while clearly having detailed versions of songs and other audio fragments, like movie quotes, scenes and so on, being able to mimic them perfectly), but recently, when I started practicing some exercises for visual recall and reviving distant memories, I realised, that I was just suppressing everything because of trauma. In my early years I started blinking off the harsh things at first, then reclused inside, to live in the inner worlds, when things were emotionally or sensory unbearable. But at some point my parents started bothering me and scaring me too much, trying to force their will upon me since I was pretty autistic and unresponsive in usual ways. So I kinda got stuck between outside and inside not fully belonging to neither. Too scared to go inside, because if others are around then I'm not safe. Too uninterested and clueless about what happens outside, also scared to interact, since to me they're unpredictable, hostile, volatile.

Anyway. Now my phantasia and memory is being revived. And even with small percentage of capacity revived I see that there's sometimes too much going on. And it's scary, too little control of what's happening.

And that's what I want to know about. How can one make this mental circus more controllable and orderly. I want to control it, like some sort of VR interface, in which I can open and close apps, manipulate everything and sort it by associations, like some sort of tags. Now whenever I look up some memories associations are too illogical and my mind can bring up completely irrelevant stuff linked to current images by some vague and unexpected associations.

Before, when I thought that I had hypophatasia, I had this weird idea of creating 3D mind palace/zettelkasten to store my notes in "physical" catalogue with fractal worlds inside the drawers, so I can combine benefits of Loci and index card system. Kinda like russian doll nesting situation or infinite zoom of some fractals. Now I think that I eventually would be able to create something like that in my mind. But I'm not sure of how to build with this imagination material. What are building blocks, how to create something stable and permanent and is it possible without repeating things over and over as you do when memorising.