Forums » Smalltalk » When you close your eyes, do you see objects?

I was just thinking about a conversation I had with a friend a couple years ago. One of us read something online about how there are various types of ways people "see" when they close their eyes.

It was interesting because he explained when he closed his eyes, he saw things in 3D. Like if he thought about an apple, he could see it like it was real life and he could reach out and touch it.

When I close my eyes I just see black, but if I think about something I can understand it's shape and I know what it looks like, but I don't picture it.

Lately I've been trying to see if I can "switch" my brain into seeing things like they're 3D and the other night I was successful in imagining some random street with houses, but as soon as I realized what was happening I got too excited and snapped out of it. I wonder how something like this affects people's ability to draw or remember things. Like is it tied to spacial awareness or trauma or something?

When I close my eyes, I see everything as it is, but the people that are there disappear, and what is not there appears.

Not sure if that's normal though.

This reminds me of a thing I read about a condition called Aphantasia -- where some people have trouble picturing visual things in their minds, or sometimes literally just don't.

Check this out! If you want. It's this guy's experience with his own Aphantasia. But fair warning, the post has some mild curse words in it -- but mainly just to explain how amazed he is that other people can picture things visually!

https://m.facebook.com/notes/blake-ross/aphantasia-how-it-feels-to-be-blind-in-your-mind/10156834777480504/

I do see in pictures, but I really struggle to hold an image in my head for a long period of time. I've actually wondered if that's why I'm a bit of a 'struggling artist'

I love this exercise! I can usually see the thing, but when I’m drawing anatomy for example, I’m doing less visualizing and more... it’s hard to describe, but more like I feel out the planes and how each connects, like I’m sculpting a low-poly 3D model in my mind and then refining as I go. The whole process feels more sculptural even if I’m doodling on an empty page.

Do you ever see things when falling asleep or waking up? Sometimes I get a kaleidoscope of geometric shapes fade in juuuust about when I’m falling to sleep. I’m not sure I’ve heard of anyone else who shares that.

If I ever spend many hours of a day studying art I often see 3D cubes and things like that while I'm lying in bed

I normally see random shapes. Normally circles and squares.

Huh. Now that I think about it, I don't see anything at all. Like, I can conjure things in my mind regularly but when I close my eyes it's just. Black.

If there's any light at all in the room I see the light with my eyes closed usually with some purple and red lava lamp splotches.

If I'm in a completely dark room, eyes closed, then I see faint white feathery caterpillars of sorts that are almost made of static but not quite. Once I start drifting to sleep I sometimes see a bunch of colors but usually I see whatever story or memory I am thinking of/making up.

On the other topic: I think most often not in shapes, few words, or concepts but rather in full moving visual scenes and dialogue. This is why I am a much better novelist than artist. (I picture the art in my mind as a far more realistic style and as a moving piece. As such my hand isn't quite up to speed half the time) Doesn't stop me from pursuing either tho.

I sometimes see vivid Northwest Indian Totempole type patterns when my eyes are closed.

My eyelinds👀👁

Yes, I see objects when I close my eyes. When I open my eyes I never really see things as it is, there are always this faint small colorful dots everywhere in my vision, and when I close my eyes this colorful dots become more vivid, and then it will turn into more complicated shape like dancing cosmic sound wave or random scenery, it depends on what I am thinking about, what kind of sounds and smells that I am sensing too.

i suffer with this c:
i've always thought it was normal for me not to be able to see anything when i close my eyes. but after a few school exercises, i realised that it's not. if someone tells me and another person to visualise an apple, i can't at all; not even a rough outline, but someone else might be able to whether its an outline, 3d shape, etc. it's always fascinated me how people can ;;

I see diffrent colors, when I was younger I also had this when my room would be pitchblack then it slowly changed to diffrent colors. I also have this when I close my eyes.

I think the best way of describing what I experience is, like... I almost remember having visualized the thing rather than actively visualizing it, but I remember it in full detail. Either that, or like having the data for an abstractly fine wireframe of the object. But it also all... feels like I'm "looking" at the memory/wireframe through the top of my forehead? '^v^ like, where it starts to curve to the top of my head?

I might just be really weird, no idea.