Tom Ebeyer is the founder of the Aphantasia Network, the world’s largest organisation dedicated to understanding the invisible differences in how people experience mental imagery — or in some cases, don’t experience it at all.

Aphantasia is the inability to visualise images in the mind’s eye — a condition that affects how we remember, dream, feel emotion, and even plan for the future. Most people who have it don’t even realise it.

Expect to learn how Tom discovered he couldn’t picture anything in his head, how aphantasia can protect people from PTSD, why some artists and scientists thrive without mental imagery, how memories and dreams are fundamentally different in people with aphantasia, why it might make you a better thinker, how it shapes creativity, attention, and emotion, what’s actually happening in the brain — and why most people have no idea what their own inner experience is really like.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:55 Understanding Aphantasia: The Basics

04:59 The Spectrum of Consciousness

07:52 Mental Health and Aphantasia

10:48 Coping with Aphantasia

13:57 Memory and Aphantasia

16:55 The Creative Process

19:51 The Impact of Labels

22:53 Dreams and Inner Experience

25:43 Diversity of Conscious Experience

42:42 Exploring Inner Experiences and Prosopagnosia

45:40 Attention and Sensory Awareness

50:23 Understanding Aphantasia and Brain Activity

54:03 Current Research and Future Directions in Aphantasia

58:26 The Mission of the Aphantasia Network

01:02:15 Training and Adapting to Aphantasia

01:07:03 Navigating Life with Aphantasia

01:12:15 The Future of Aphantasia Research

01:19:30 Advice for Those Discovering Aphantasia.

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