Many believe that humanity today knows much more about space than about the work of the brain. So, it’s fascinating to look at the studies of the imagination. It turns out that there are 3 types of imagination: aphantasia, standard, and hyperphantasia. It is worth saying that none of these types of imagination mean that you have a disease; however, it can significantly affect a person’s life. If you think your imagination is much more active, you should take the hyperphantasia test. Today we want to talk more about this fantasy type and understand how it affects a person’s life.
Aphantasia is a complete lack of fantasy. When they close their eyes, an ordinary person can easily imagine almost any image they have ever seen, while a person with aphantasia will see only darkness. There has not been a global study of this issue, but recent data show that about 2% of the planet’s total population have this feature, but this is not the result of any disease.
Hyperfantasy, on the other hand, is a state of highly vivid mental imagery. It is in complete opposition to aphantasia because a person can present almost any image in bright colors. Hyperfantasy includes all five senses in vivid mental imagery; however, the literature is dominated by research on visual mental pictures, and analysis of the other four senses is lacking. In addition, the number of people with hyperphantasia is slightly larger than aphantasia – about 3% of the world’s population. In other cases, it could be possible for people to go for other types of test including paternity test while pregnant or mentality test to determine different solutions.
Hyperfantasy, on the other hand, is a state of highly vivid mental imagery. It is in complete opposition to aphantasia because a person can present almost any image in bright colors. Hyperfantasy includes all five senses in vivid mental imagery; however, the literature is dominated by research on visual mental pictures, and analysis of the other four senses is lacking. In addition, the number of people with hyperphantasia is slightly larger than aphantasia – about 3% of the world’s population.
You can easily do a hyperphantasia test sitting on your couch. To do this, you need to try to visualize your breakfast:
So, by answering the above questions, your brain should create an accurate picture of what is happening. If you can render everything with photographic accuracy, you may have hyperphantasia. You can also conduct several additional tests to check the rest of the senses (hearing, taste, emotions, and others).
You can also do an MRI of the brain. This will show that the area of the brain responsible for imagination is more active.
Practice shows that people with hyperphantasia have a perfect memory. In addition, some studies show that such people can “mentally travel through time” and vividly imagine what happened to them.
In addition, many people with hyperphantasia choose creative professions; for example, they begin to get involved in art and work in the media and the entertainment industry.
It is worth saying that hyperphantasia is not a sign of severe brain diseases; however, if you do not learn to cope with such imagination, it can lead to frequent anxiety, major depressive disorders, and bipolar disorders.
Practice shows that hyperphantasia can also aggravate a person’s condition in case of post-traumatic stress, Parkinson’s disease, and schizophrenia. Studies in 2008 show that hyperphantasia is associated with the phenomenon of synesthesia. After selecting a large group of synesthetes, they found that people with synesthesia reported more vivid mental images than control groups.
If a hyperphantasia test shows a positive result, this does not mean you have reason to worry. People often live with such a phenomenon and do not even know about it.
It is worth saying that the study of this phenomenon began relatively recently (only at the end of the 20th century), and people lived with hyperphantasia for hundreds of years; otherwise, how else can we explain the unusual ideas of Leonardo da Vinci or Nikola Tesla?
Imagination research is a fascinating process. The human brain has many secrets we have yet to unravel. For example, hyperphantasia can significantly benefit its owners, but if you do not learn to control it, it can also cause irreparable harm to you.