Visualising things (what does that even mean?).

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I read the thread someone started about aphantasia and just felt like I wanted to ask someone about the following:

I have a poor imagination and I have a very hard time visualising things. When I try to do so I can't see pictures or anything. Instead, when I try to visualise things the result is some kind of mixture of words and some kind of feeling. Not pictures. Never pictures. At least I don't think so (I find this is difficult to explain). Not the way I think of pictures when I hear the word anyway. If you were to ask me to imagine talking to a friend in a bookshop, for example, I wouldn't see anything but just "know" that the friend is there, that we're surrounded by books and that we're talking. I don't really see the friend or the books in front of me. If you were to ask me to try to describe that friend I could explain it to you because I simply "know" what the friend looks like, not because I can see it in my mind. I can sometimes "feel" what they look like (that doesn't really make sense, does it?) but the "picture" is very unclear. It's mainly just words and some kind of feeling (not sure what it is).

The same thing happens when I read. I don't imagine settings or the appearance of the characters etc. I just read the words and process them.

I wanted to take the aphantasia test linked in the thread about aphantasia but I got stuck on the first question: "Conjure up an image of a friend or a relative who you frequently see; how clearly can you see the contours of their face, head, shoulders and body?" I got stuck because I'm not sure I understand how "see" is defined in this case. What do people mean when they say the can see the things they imagine? Do people mean they really see things in their mind the way they see things "in real life"? I definitely can't do that but I'm not sure I'm incapable of visualising things since I think can imagine things, though not necessarily in pictures.

It's frustrating not being able to properly explain this. Does anyone understand what I mean? Anyway, wondering if someone else experience things the way I do?

Yes, "seeing" in the mind is like seeing in reality, - sometimes more vague - sometimes very strong, with smells and other in connection to it.
I guess it is connected to synaesthesia.
Most people are synaesthetic in some way.I have met some people, who experience things like you do, and you apparently aren´t visually synasthetic.
Do you experience accompanying smells, sounds or any tactile sensations when you think words or "feel" how your friend and the surroundings are like?

I can visually think very easy especially when I am relaxed as well. I plan my activities in a visual way too. Yes it is linked to some kind of synaesthesia for example a spatial sequential synaesthesia and social skills can be learned using an emotion-colour synaesthesia but what it important that thinking in pictures is what some autistic people can do and some can't do or visualise as well. Thinking in pictures, synaesthesia and thought vocalisation are all connected and a sign that someone is a picture thinker and synaesthete especially if on can see open eye visuals that mediate interpersonal interaction as well.

Yes, imagined vision is "seeing with the mind's eye" and very like seeing. If I am really concentrating on something I am visualizing, I may see it with greater clarity than the actual sight provided by my eyes.

For whatever reason, I have a hard time visualizing faces, even faces I know very well. I believe this is part of a mild prosopagnosia. I find it strange because I can recall other visual detail very well. For example, if I were to imagine the salient difference between a Boeing 767-200 fuselage and an Airbus A320 fuselage, the details of shape, angle and proportion are easy to visualize. I could draw a somewhat accurate one from the one I can visualize. I can't do the same for faces.

I think in pictures. It's literally like that - like a bunch of 3D pictures floating around in space in front of me. I can move them around, zoom in and out, and re-arrange them.

I relate to you OP. I'm not a visual person but I also have a rare low vision disorder & my brain sometimes has problems processing things I do see like when I'm looking at something I can see well.