(Possibly foolish) question for aphantasics: is visiting traditionally “beautiful” places less rewarding to you than it seems to be for others, since those places don’t produce vivid visual memories to enjoy afterwards?
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Fascinating comments! Maybe unsurprisingly, people seem to experience this quite differently. Bushra did a great job of articulating one cluster—remembering the *feeling*:
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Replying to @andy_matuschak
I’m probably on the extreme end of aphantasic. Everything I make has to be beautiful, or it doesn’t hit the right spot. I love being in beautiful places. Probably because I notice and feel something in them and while my visual memory is terrible, I can store the feeling forever
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Another group felt that the aphantasia seems to push them to be more “in the moment.” This is so interesting! Despite hundreds of hours of meditation practice, I still usually have to “summon” being “in the moment” in such places.
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Replying to @andy_matuschak
not at all! in fact, i'd say the inability to picture it after the fact almost makes the desire to be there and "take it all in" even stronger. and although i may not have visual memories of a place, i'll still remember its qualities, sounds, smells, and how it felt to be there.
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I was also charmed to learn about vemödalen: twitter.com/odbljesci/stat
This thread brought to you by last night’s stunning sunset stroll in Yosemite Valley! Now off to Tuolumne...
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Replying to @andy_matuschak
vemödalen - n. the frustration of photographing something amazing when thousands of identical photos already exist—
youtube.com/watch?v=8ftDje
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no, if anything i’m more into natural beauty and art than most people i know.
i can conjure up a slight visual memory but it’s very very sketchy
photographs exist for a reason, but also i always remember how i felt
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Do you have an idea why you might be more into natural beauty?
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I can’t recall taste or smell, but remember whether I like a thing and how it makes me feel. That doesn’t take away from my enjoyment of food, if anything maybe I enjoy eating the same things over and over more than others.
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Interesting question! I think it's a lot about the feeling of a place to me: I remember how I felt about and in a certain place, rather than "photos".
I find it similar to music: listening to certain songs makes me feel the way I felt when I first/mainly listened to them.
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