When we imagine things, how are we able to see the event without actually seeing it?

Question

When someone is imagining an event, how can they see the event even though they’re not experiencing it? How can they see what they imagine even if it’s not real?

In: Other

Answer 1

People born completely blind don’t tend to internally visualize. Similarly, people born completely deaf don’t tend to have internal voices, including an inner voice. (They might experience virtual noises, but I would not call them voices.)

This extends to dreams.

Consider hallucinations. It’s essentially just firing up your brain like the “real thing” would.

For most people, thinking about an object and experiencing it fire up the brain in very similar manners. Like viewing an image of a flower in an fMRI vs being told to imagine that same image of a flower appears quite remarkably similar.

You should understand your reality is an emergent construct of your brain. Everyone creates their own reality in their brains and this extends throughout the central nervous system.

Your word choice is incoherently misguided. As they imagine an event they are absolutely experiencing it. What is real to a person is merely the product of neurochemical reactions. This is the subjective experience of all life as we know it. Versus a corpse. You can touch it, open the eye lids, talk to it. No internal reality for that corpse is detectable. Even though for you it’s real.

It’s like when you tell your dog, “cookie”, it salivates. It is imagining that taste of the treat. You can even warp this somewhat. Like Pavlos dog, train a dog to associate the ring of a bell with a treat, and that Bell accomplishes the same as saying, “cookie”, the dog salivates with anticipation for something it has previously experienced and can recollect.

As far as people are concerned, and this extends to all intelligent life, from mammals to insects to even plants, it’s only real because they can imagine it.

Then we get to mirror neurons and empathy and theory of mind. Being able to put yourself in some other mindset, external to your own. Whether a friend or a pet or that saber toothed tiger that is salivating in your direction.