I’m very good at entering the auditory matrix—I can “listen to” music without needing to have an external source, though sometimes the record player in my mind gets stuck on certain parts. Most of my thoughts are auditory/verbal, as if I am constantly talking to myself. (And when I collaborate with someone or have an intense conversation I prefer to type it, because I feel like I can’t think when I can’t listen to my internal monologue—I feel like I am slow in conversation because the time I’m listening to someone else I’m not doing any thinking myself. It may just be in comparison with my SO, who speaks quickly and has no problem thinking and listening at once.)
There’s no other sense where my mental recreation of it is at all comparable to really experiencing that input. I can visualize things I already remember well, or with non-spatial alterations. There are not many visual things I remember well, and anything that requires spatial skills beyond the most basic (“picture this rotated 120 degrees and turned inside-out”) is quite difficult. I don’t try to imagine physical sensations much, so it doesn’t surprise me that trying to do so now is quite difficult. Smells are so-so; it doesn’t really feel like it’s real, the way I really hear the music in my head.
I’m very good at entering the auditory matrix—I can “listen to” music without needing to have an external source, though sometimes the record player in my mind gets stuck on certain parts. Most of my thoughts are auditory/verbal, as if I am constantly talking to myself. (And when I collaborate with someone or have an intense conversation I prefer to type it, because I feel like I can’t think when I can’t listen to my internal monologue—I feel like I am slow in conversation because the time I’m listening to someone else I’m not doing any thinking myself. It may just be in comparison with my SO, who speaks quickly and has no problem thinking and listening at once.)
There’s no other sense where my mental recreation of it is at all comparable to really experiencing that input. I can visualize things I already remember well, or with non-spatial alterations. There are not many visual things I remember well, and anything that requires spatial skills beyond the most basic (“picture this rotated 120 degrees and turned inside-out”) is quite difficult. I don’t try to imagine physical sensations much, so it doesn’t surprise me that trying to do so now is quite difficult. Smells are so-so; it doesn’t really feel like it’s real, the way I really hear the music in my head.