Where Is My Mind's Eye?

For a long time, I thought I was just a normal everyday human being. Turns out, I'm not even that.

It never occurred to me that I was missing out on some spectacular part of living, until recently (after bingeing Sherlock on Netflix) I began to question peoples' brains and way of thinking. I was enthralled with the idea of having a "mind palace" where you could store your memories in an organized structure for future reference. I've always had troubles with my memories. I rely prominently on photos to jog my mind and help me to recall certain situations I've been in, or even the faces of people I know when I can't seem to remember exactly what they look like. So because of this, you can understand my interest in the mind palace. I decided to look into it to try and understand how it's done and maybe, just maybe, begin to train my own brain to store memories in an orderly fashion.

Well it turns out, it isn't that easy. Obviously. Don't get me wrong, I knew it would take commitment to get this to work, but in my searching I found something that was much more challenging for me to understand. Visualization.

I've done some digging. Apparently (and I would love any input on the matter) the majority of the human population has the ability to close their eyes, focus, and visualize the things they are imagining. It can be anything from a pen, or an apple, to an intensely intricate web or a castle with all the works. Myself, however, cannot. I have tried my very best, taken immense amounts of time and seen various professionals to help me through this, but I simply don't have the ability to imagine and see things through my minds eye.

Even without this common ability, I have a very usual life. To be honest, I wasn't aware that this was something most people could do. I have to admit that now I know I am missing out, I do feel rather jealous (or is it envious? who knows...) of the majority of the human race. It does however explain my lack of cognitive ability. My relative failure to be "creative." Even the problems with memory. If you cannot imagine the things you've done, they tend to be rather insignificant and ultimately are forgotten.

Growing up, I often wondered if I would ever be special. As it happens, I always have been. According to many recent studies, only about 2-3% of the human population is affected with this issue. One could say that I won the lottery, but I'm not sure this is something I would ever wish for if I wasn't a part of this small community. In all honesty, I hope that science develops a way to fix this. Instead of drooling over mind palaces, or super-intelligence, I now drool over the simple idea of seeing something in my own mind.

With that, I want to invite you to try this out for yourself. Take some time to yourself to do this little exercise. Find a comfortable place in your home, or a quiet park, and close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths and relax your mind. Then try to imagine and visualize an apple. A red apple or a green apple, doesn't matter. Focus on the apple, and try to interact with it. Turn it, smell it, even taste it. I want to know if you can do it! So, if it works for you (or doesn't...), make a post on Facebook and use the hashtag #MindsEyeApple. I hope it does!