Anauralia and Anendophasia

"In the silent tenebrous abyss, feelings ebb and flow. Thoughts swim like fishes, in the eternal depth below the surface of my mind, where knowing likes to grow" - Impossible Language.

The vocabulary for mental perception is expanding. It is satisfying to see the key is holding out as science works to categorize this new frontier:

Aphantasia (Vision/Eye)

"The inability to form mental images of real or imaginary people, places, or things."

Alexithymia (Emotion/Heart)

"Alexithymia is when a person has difficulty experiencing, identifying, and expressing emotions."

Anauralia (Sound/Ear)

"Anauralia is the phenomenon of an absence of auditory sensory imagery - not hearing anything in one's inner ear"

We can now add;

Anendophasia (Speech/Voicebox)

"Recent research introduces 'anendophasia' as a term for the absence of inner speech, revealing that not everyone experiences internal dialogue. The study compared adults with low and high levels of inner speech, finding significant differences in their cognitive abilities."

As stated in prior musing on the topic, I understood these were separate only because I have an inner voice that I 'know' but that I cannot hear. My mind has no sound, sound in my imagination is the same as vision. So from this, just considering those 2 senses, we might infer that you can potentially have;

• Inner Sound and an Inner Voice
• Inner Sound and No Inner Voice
• Inner Voice and No Inner Sound
• No Inner Sound and No Inner Voice. 

Anauralia (lack of inner sound) and Anendophasia  (lack of inner voice) are divided in opinion scientifically, but like Aphantasia (lack of inner vision), they all come under the heading of Mental Perception.

I am of the opinion it is far too confusing to name the entire topic of mental perception as aphantasia or even multisensory aphantasia, especially now there is growing public understanding about the word regarding mental vision, specifically. The 'A' prefix denotes an absence, but there are those with;

• Aphantasia (lacking or conceptual sense of mental vision)
• Hypophantasia (low or below average sense of mental vision)
• Phantasia  (regular or average sense of mental vision)
• Hyperphantasia (high or above average sense of mental vision)

Based on what I hear of others experiences, I would assume that regarding all the mental senses, there are those with a low sense, regular sense and high sense also. E.g;

• Anauralia (lacking or conceptual sense of mental sound)
• Hypoauralia (low or below average sense of mental sound)
• Auralia (regular or average sense of mental sound)
• Hyperauralia (high or above average sense of mental sound)

Or; 

• Anendophasia (lacking or conceptual sense of mental speech)
• Hypoendophasia (low or below average sense of mental speech)
• Endophasia (regular or average sense of mental speech)
• Hyperendophasia (high or above average sense of mental speech)

Or even;

• Alexithymia (lacking or conceptual sense of mental emotion)
• Apathy (low or below average sense of mental emotion)
• Empathy (regular or average sense of mental emotion)
• Hyperempathy (high or above average sense of mental emotion)

I have aphantasia and anauralia but not anendophasia or alexithymia. I would say I have hyperendophasia and hyperempathy. So, you can see how using the terms aphantasia or multisensory aphantasia, is not really appropriate to define the entire topic of mental perception, but I can understand how the main researchers wish to maintain the lead on their discovery, it opened the door to this new frontier.

I feel that the term Dysikonesia or other such word, would be more appropriate as the collective heading for the topic of 'Mental Perception', those lacking all the mental senses listed could then be classified as 'Adysikonesic' (without mental perception), but the key works so far, whatever words we swap in as they get defined, and more importantly, it works to detail what I have. So thank you again to all those in the aphantasia groups who assisted, from this highly Yedasentient and 'Yedacognizant' mind!   

And it looks like the scientific community may already be working on defining spatial imagery (listed in the 42 'Yedaspatial'), and potentially, tactile imagery ('Yedatangency') next, as the current headlines on the topic state; "Aphantasia linked to abnormal brain responses to imagined and observed actions."

This sudden understanding of mind is still being categorised by the scientific community, it is exciting to think what we might learn about ourselves and others as our understanding grows!

Or to present it another way:

Vision/Eye: Visual Imagery - Yedavoyance
To know the sense of mental imagery
e.g. being able to imagine the vision of an apple.

Sound/Ear: Auditory Imagery - Yedaaudience
To know the sense of auditory imagery
e.g. being able to imagine the sound of your mothers voice.

Smell/Nose: Olfactory Imagery - Yedaalience
To know the sense of olfactory imagery
e.g. being able to imagine the smell of perfume.

Taste/Tongue: Gustatory Imagery -Yedagustance
To know the sense of gustatory imagery
e.g. being able to imagine the taste of wine.

Touch/Skin: Tactile Imagery -Yedatangency
To know the sense of tactile imagery
e.g. being able to imagine the sense of being touched.

Emotion/Heart: Emotional Imagery -Yedasentience
To know the sense of emotional imagery,
e.g. being able to imagine the feeling of emotions.

Intuition/Gut: Intuitive Imagery - Yedacognizance
To know the sense of intuition and instant cognition
e.g. "ah-ha" moments, when you "just know".

Voice/Voicebox: Intraphonic Imagery - Yedaphonation
To know the sense of intraphonic imagery
e.g. being able to hear your inner voice.

Summary

I think it is safe to now assume there are at least 1,020 combinations given 8 sets with 4 variations (AI says my math is wrong and it is actually 65,536), just for the 8 main mental senses listed, let alone the variation of strength and all the other possible senses.

How does the key work for you? Let me know in the comments!

Thesis written up 08/12/24, here. 

Note: What did the AI make of the key?

I also asked ChatGTP to provide feedback on the key. I just copied and pasted the key, in quotes, and asked the AI to provide an opinion. I then went on to explain to it where I got the terms, when it made the suggestion to do so.

I explained how I used the newly scientifically defined words aphantasia, hyperphantasia and anauralia to develop the key, along with the language framework for the '7 Clair's' and the concept of the daimon (inner voice) to create the headings, then found yedasentience had also been defined scientifically previously (the 'knowing' sense), after this, dysikonesia and anendophasia were identified and defined by science also, so these were added to the key and its framework.

I then opened a whole new can of worms when I asked the LLM a hypothetical question about how it would apply the key to robotic systems integrated with LLM's. This is what is said:

Did ChatGTP just say LLMs have metacognition, but it could potentially have most mental senses with robotic bodies - expect its olfactory senses would be low and its emotional imagery and vocal imagery would be conceptual as in "simulated"?

What do you think it meant?

Update 20th Feb 2025: There is now a dedicated space for this type of discussion over at:

• mentalimageryresistance.co.uk