Can You Picture Things in Your Mind? I Can’t | Alex Rosenthal | TED

Imagine you have a special picture book inside your head that you can flip through whenever you want, but some people don’t have that book.

Visualizing is like being able to see pictures in your mind, even when your eyes are closed. Some people can do this easily, like flipping pages of a storybook. But Alex Rosenthal, the person in the video, says he can't, it's like trying to read a book with no pictures.

Imagine you're drawing a cat on paper, but you can’t see it. You just remember what a cat looks like and try your best. That’s how Alex feels when he tries to picture things in his mind, he has to rely on memory instead of seeing the image right there.

Other people have something called a mind's eye, which lets them see pictures inside their head as clearly as they would on paper. It’s like having a tiny screen in your brain where you can watch movies or look at drawings, even when your eyes are shut.

But that doesn’t mean Alex can't imagine things, he just has to use other ways, like drawing or talking about what he sees.