Imagine a red star

[mace_]

Close your eyes and imagine a red star. What picture do you see?

 

 

For me it's 1.

[Suigin]

1 😶

[AcornCarvings]

i was imagining an actual astronomical star

 

edit: I'm pretty sure I didnt get the question lol

[NickyTannock]

I didn't picture any of those, I pictured a Red Sun in the sky, like the one in the skies of Superman's birth planet of Krypton.

[Life With Masks]

I pictured a red star that looked like sun, but red

[Zinerva]

1.
I have aphantasia. Anyone else incapable of imagining anything might want to look it up. Suddenly a lot of things make sense. Also turns out the others were not faking that one time you were doing a relaxation thing and the instructor told you to imagine a beach. Yep, just us.

[firewallflower]

15 minutes ago, MichaelTannock said:

I didn't picture any of those, I pictured a Red Sun in the sky, like the one in the skies of Superman's birth planet of Krypton.

Same here.

[Guest]

6 but with a white background. 

[Duke Memphis]

I also imagined it as a sunlike star.

[Blenny]

Same but I didn't actually see it inside my eyelids

[Lemonsky]

I imagined it like the 6th picture but the star had four points instead of five.

[ButterflyBlues]

It's possible you have Aphantasia

 

That's where one does not possess a functioning mind's eye and cannot voluntarily visualize imagery.

[iam135]

These questions always kind of weird me out because I don't see anything when I close my eyes, but I can still think about and picture things perfectly fine in the back of my head. So I pictured a very vivid, bright red star perfectly fine in the back of my head (though it was a Bethlehem star instead of the shape above), but I didn't see it in my eyes, if that makes since. Also, I just put "something else" for the survey because I got tired of thinking about it 😆.

[ColeHW34]

All I see is the red star as a symbol of communism.

[ButterflyBlues]

@iam135 Yeah, I myself don't see the physical star but more image what I want it to look like in the back of my head.

[Skycaptain]

Another one who pictures an astronomical star, akin to a setting sun

 

Don't think picture stars appear in my imagination 

[Lunala]

A lot like 6. My memory is very visual-ish so I can think of pictures/videos in my head

[Tree snake]

1.

I have congenital aphantasia, mind-eye blindness. 

[Karst]

I saw a red-dwarf type star.

[Kitteη χ]

I imagined something more like this:

 

[R_1]

6,7,8,9... Dunno the numbers, but I can easily imagine 20 or 108 sided star if I wanted to. I'm a hobby coder specializing in image processing myself.

[everywhere and nowhere]

When I try to imagine anything, I ACTUALY SEE nothing. However, I can... something like "think about how it looks like". Are other people able to actually see something when they imagine it, or is seeing and imagining distinct for everyone?

[mace_]

11 hours ago, Nowhere Girl said:

When I try to imagine anything, I ACTUALY SEE nothing. However, I can... something like "think about how it looks like". Are other people able to actually see something when they imagine it, or is seeing and imagining distinct for everyone?

Apparently many people can actually "see" things in their mind. I can't and I'm still having a hard time grasping others can. That's why I created this poll. As other members pointed out here this is called Aphantasia. It's not a disease but merely a different way of thinking.

As far as I understood (please correct me if I'm saying something wrong or tell me if you experience things differently) it's not like they actually see things through their eyes, but they get something in their mind that they do describe as a picture. There is the expression mind's eye for this.

Again (as almost everything discussed on this site) this is a spectrum, so some people can visualize only barely and others can visualize in great detail. And some can't at all.

There is an essay by Blake Ross (he's co-creator of Firefox) where he describes his discovery of Aphantasia. You can also find more information about Aphantasia when searching on the Internet.

 

It's also interesting to see how different people think of different representations of a star. Currently there a about as many answers for "6" as are for "something else". Many have also written here what their image looked like. But I think everybody who voted "something else" had an image in their head, else they would probably have chosen "1".

[OmegaTheMetamorphicDreamer]

I imagined a bright red dot in the night sky just like a normal star but red instead of white. Except I forgot to close my eyes.

[Homer]

My first association was Red Star Belgrade. This is the club crest:

 

 

#6 comes the closest

[iam135]

15 hours ago, Nowhere Girl said:

When I try to imagine anything, I ACTUALY SEE nothing. However, I can... something like "think about how it looks like". Are other people able to actually see something when they imagine it, or is seeing and imagining distinct for everyone?

I have heard of people being able to literally project images onto their eyes with their mind, which is what I thought this question was initially asking (hence my confusion in my first post). However, I just visualize stuff directly in the back of my head and am able to do so relatively vividly (which sounds like what you're describing here as well). I don't know how common or uncommon that is in comparison to the "eye projection" way of visualizing stuff, but I think both ways are either different means to the same end, or different levels of proficiency in the "skill" of visualizing.

 

TL;DR: It varies.

[Apollo11]

On 1/27/2019 at 12:20 AM, Nowhere Girl said:

When I try to imagine anything, I ACTUALY SEE nothing. However, I can... something like "think about how it looks like". Are other people able to actually see something when they imagine it, or is seeing and imagining distinct for everyone?

I can actually see what I'm imagining. I can project the image very vividly onto a space in front of my eyes, as if on an imaginary screen that's closer than anything else in my visual field. The image is just as vivid if I picture it with my eyes open. 

 

In fact, I create constantly these mental images, when somebody tells me a story or when I read something. I find I have a very hard time understanding concepts or actions that I cannot visualize in any way (e.g. in maths, I was doing good in geometry, but really poorly in algebra).

[Salmiakki]

6

[Marlow1]

I don't see anything. I have Total Aphantasia. But now that I am following a very strict Ketogenic Diet, I am beginning to dream in pictures. 

 

My brother, he has Aphantasia too. He has bern using Ketosis longer than I have. Since doing so he does now get some pictures. They are usually stills and he has to concentrate to get them. But this is an improvement for him, and he does seem to be delighted

 

 

 

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and I cannot diagnose or cure anything. My doctor is fully aware that I am using ketosis to try to help myself with my Aphantasia. If anybody here wants to use ketosis for this or indeed any condition I strongly advise them to seek medical advise from a trained professional

[Grumpy Alien]

On 1/25/2019 at 3:59 PM, Ceebs. said:

This, more or less.

 

Same.