Claim OwnershipDiscovering Your Mind - Aphantasia and Beyond
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The Discovering Your Mind Podcast is dedicated to research and discussion surrounding all aspect of the mind's eye from Aphantasia to Hyperphantasia and everything in between. Using our in-depth questionnaire that we call the "Discovering Your Mind Protocol", we unlock and discover your unique way of visualizing and bask in the beauty of our differences.
76 Episodes
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Send a text In this episode we discover how Rebecca James' mind works. Rebecca found out that she has aphantasia just a few months ago and she thinks that it will be considered a disability in the future. I disagree, but we do take some time to discuss our opinions on the matter. It seems to me that Rebecca tends to approach aphantasia with more absolutes than I do, perhaps because it's new to her and I have been marinating in it for nearly 30 years. I enjoyed many of her unique descriptions ...
Send a text In this episode, I talk with Aaron, who has synesthesia. Synethsesia is where stimulating one sense automatically triggers another sense. Synethesia can present itself in many different ways but in Aaron's case, it mostly occurs with numbers, letters, and shapes being automatically linked to specific colors. Also, different types of music are often linked to specific colors, patterns, and scenes. As always, they thought it was "normal" and everyone was this way. Aaron shares some ...
Send a text In this episode, we bring back Kali and Alex (this time together) to talk about how finding out about aphantasia and hyperphantasia has affected their relationship. They discovered that Alex has aphantasia and Kali has hyperphantasia through experiences with hypnosis. Alex explains how he felt "broken" before he found out that aphantasia was a thing. We explore many topics, including empathy, reading, school, focus, memory, careers, words, phrases, music, and more. It's remarkable...
Send a text In this episode I talk with Andrea. Her struggles with depression and anxiety led her to meditation. Her struggles with meditation led here to discovering that she has aphantasia. Her initial struggles with aphantasia blossomed into an understanding that she's not broken, which led her to finding alternate meditation techniques, which led her to writing her new mediation book for people with aphantasia and ADHD, "Living is easy with eyes closed." She also describes how learning ab...
Send a text In this episode we discover how Edward Jones' mind's eye works using the Discovering Your Mind Protocol. Edward has aphantasia and compares his inner experience to echolocation. He goes on to explain that thoughts are not something he consciously experiences in this head but something he feels in his body. He talks about how he can trust his internal wisdom to come out in a beautiful way without tangible thought or internal feedback. Edward also has some fascinating descriptions a...
Send a text In this episode, I talk with Brenda Winkle, a psychic medium, reiki master, and somatic coach who, in my opinion, also has hyperphantasia. We start out by finding a little bit about how her mind and internal senses work, as I think it is important information as we move forward into her spiritual gifts. She talks about how she discovered her spiritual gifts, and I ask her about knowing the difference between spiritual intuitiveness, and just normal visualizing. We talk about...
Send a text In this episode, I have an interesting conversation with Kristin Warry about her insights and experiences with aphantasia and more. Kristin has aphantasia, face blindness, autism, SDAM, vertigo, and ADHD. She explains that she has little to no conscious thought or forethought and that she thinks by speaking. She has an astonishing awareness of data in what she calls her mind matrix and although she does not experience visualization she does have a very strong "sense" of things. We...
Send a text In part 2, Louis Silverstein continues to say some very interesting things, like how listening to music he is very familiar with helps his brain turn off audible thoughts and focus on visual thoughts, but if he needs to focus on the audible thoughts, he can't listen to music with lyrics because then he will start visualizing and it will be distracting to the audible thoughts. He also has some fascinating things to say about how he experiences the other senses in his mind. Find out...
Send a text In part 1, I have very interesting conversation with Louis Silverstein about what is happening in his mind, and he in turn, also asks me a lot of questions about how my brain works. He explains how what he visualizes is a photorealistic 3D hologram. Louis is very much on the hyperphantasia side of things. We discuss reality vs imagination, knowing something vs seeing something, and unbelievable detail vs vague concepts. We also talk about being surprised by what I say, menus witho...
Send a text In this episode we discover how Bruce Silverstein's mind's eye works using the Discovering Your Mind Protocol. Bruce has aphantasia and describes what the words "imagine" and "imagination" mean to him and how it has evolved. He also talks about how most of his dreams are not visual, how he thought that portrayals of memories in movies was just artistic license, and how he gets bored by lengthy descriptions when reading fiction. I appreciate Bruce's insights on many interesting top...
Send a text In this episode I welcome several guests with aphantasia or hypophantasia to share their outside the norm experiences with visuals. Lindsey shares her experience with a spiritual vision, Edward shares his experiences with psychedelics, Kristin shares her experiences with hypnagogia, and Donna shares her experiences with possibly all three. We discuss spiritual and scientific explanations for these experiences, how trauma plays a role, and.... trees... Support the show Here i...
Send a text In this episode we discover how Kali Walsh's mind's eye works using the Discovering Your Mind Protocol. Kali has hyperphantasia and visualizes multiple videos in her mind at the same time from many different angles. Her mind's eye tends to overpower her actual eyes but usually in a very optimistic way. For example, she sees vividly the potential of something more than the reality of it. She says her inner monologue is more like an inner "visualogue" because instead of hearing the ...
Send a text This is a mini episode derived from a discussion that a few of us from the Aphantasia, Visualization, and Grief panel discussion had about the possibilities of using AI as a tool for grieving the loss of a loved one. We talk about the potential upsides, downsides, ethical concerns, and more. Support the show Here is a link to the apple graph, the nature picture, and the carnival picture. https://www.shanesbraindomain.com/aphantasia You could be on the podcast with YouPhant...
Send a text In this episode I bring back several guests to discuss how visualizing or not being able to visualize interplays with how we grieve or experience the loss of a loved one. I appreciate my guests willingness to be vulnerable and talk about this sensitive topic. We discuss how our differences manifest in each of our individual experiences with grief and loss, including aphantasia, hyperphantasia, SDAM, trauma, regrets, fading memories, the present moment, counseling, the other mind's...
Send a text In this episode, we bring back Dr Paulina Trevena to further discuss her work and experiences within the worlds of aphantasia, hypnosis, and mental health. Paulina has aphantasia, SDAM, and ADHD. She tells us about how she discovered aphantasia and how she got into hypnotherapy. We talk about how other internal senses can play a role in hypnosis, how she tried to develop the perfect hypnosis protocol for people with aphantasia, the links between aphantasia and mental health, FOMO,...
Send a text In this episode, we bring back several guests to participate in some hypnosis processes and protocols to explore how aphantasia and visualization interplay with different hypnosis techniques. 3 people with aphantasia and 3 visualizers are guided through two different hypnosis protocols by hypnotherapist, Dr Paulina Trevena, and we discuss our experiences. Dr Paulina Trevena is a hypnotherapist, wellbeing consultant and researcher. After years of working in academia, Paulina discov...
Send a text In this episode we discover how Lindsay Rice's mind's eye works using the Discovering Your Mind Protocol. Lindsay is a 3rd grade teacher / presenter with ADHD, autism, and aphantasia. We agree that this is kind of a weird subject to try and talk about and it's difficult to get anywhere concrete with trying to understand someone else's internal mind experience. She has a mind's ear but only hears her own voice in her head. She experiences what she calls "webbed thinking", reads out...
Send a text In this episode we discover how Isaac Mathew's mind's eye works using the Discovering Your Mind Protocol. Isaac is a musician who can visualize and hear in his mind. It's interesting to hear how much of his song writing is coming from his mind and how much is coming from his physical hands on a physical guitar. Effort plays a big role in how well he can visualize and hold the images, when he reads, he hears the narration in a soft, clear woman's voice, and his answer to the questi...
Send a text In this episode I talk with Dawn Rossbach who is a very talented artist who has aphantasia and SDAM. We note that some folks assume that people with aphantasia cannot be artists. We discuss why this is not the case, and what Dawn's personal experiences with art are like. We talk about Dawn's recent grant project that revolves around art and aphantasia and how she is hoping that it brings more awareness about the condition. We also discover that she would make a terrible court witn...
Send a text In part 2 with Kristen Erickson she continues to boggle my mind because the way she describes her experiences really does sound like she can visualize to me. For example, her "imagination" or whatever it is, is in 3D. How can something that isn't there have dimension? And when we get into the other senses, it's just as confusing. However, when she talks about her dreams, it becomes more clear to me that although her aphantasia experience is wildly different than mine, she does hav...
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