Imagine an apple

When you navigate a city, what is your inner experience? Do you see detailed overhead maps, or street-level views of landmarks, or neither? Vynn Suren and Francis Irving interview Anna about how she uses her imagination to find routes, program a computer and remember names. Anna describes how she sees both an overhead map view and street-level views of landmarks. She switches between them dynamically. What’s a visual map vs a spatial map? What features are salient? What is a waypoint? How do the imagined maps vary in quality between different cities? What does the marker look like that shows where you are? There’s then a discussion about how people work out the route to take on the map, and what happens when they get lost. What’s the inner experience of being lost? How do you find yourself again? The conversation switches to use of imagination while computer programming. Anna describes the abstract concepts she sees in a spatial structure. What then happens  when you’re interrupted? Does this apply to other tasks, e.g. getting quotes for insurance? To wrap up, the team talk about names and faces and how well people remember them. If you visualise writing is it serif or sans-serif, is it white or grey? Timestamps: 00:55 Imagine an apple 02:17 Inner background music 05:00 Navigating a city 08:26 Spatial vs visual 11:07 Finding the best route 20:17 Typical waypoints 22:49 Sense of direction 26:33 Getting lost 30:18 Variety of experience while navigating 34:08 Imagination while computer programming 38:56 Interruptions 41:02 Smoky grey shapes of thinking 44:35 Inner experience during collaborative tasks 46:29 Remembering names and faces Show Links: * This isn’t f***ing Dalston! [https://sites.google.com/view/tifd/home] - mapping the cognitive boundaries of part of London * The Image of the City [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Image_of_the_City] - book about how people make mental maps * Mind’s Eye Mentorship [https://www.gorcdc.com/visualization-training] - 1:1 coaching, used to be called AphantasiaMeow * Guugu Yimithirr language [https://www.naturalnavigator.com/news/2010/09/guugu-yimithirr/] - uses north/south where English uses left/right * Country Driving by Peter Hessler [https://www.peterhessler.net/country-driving/] - getting lost in rural China * Statistics of mental imagery by Francis Galton [https://galton.org/essays/1880-1889/galton-1880-mind-statistics-mental-imagery.pdf] - either this, or William James referencing it, mentions the smokey grey shapes * 1946 birth cohort study [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Survey_of_Health_%26_Development] - NHS research project Contact Details: Please follow us, get in touch, tell us about your inner experiences! Twitter: @imagine_apple [https://twitter.com/imagine_apple] @SurenVynn [https://twitter.com/SurenVynn] @frabcus [https://twitter.com/frabcus] Email: imagine@flourish.org [imagine@flourish.org] Theme written, performed and recorded by @MJPiercello [https://twitter.com/MJPiercello]

Welcome to another episode of “Imagine an apple”! In this episode, we tackle the issue of spiritual experience. How do these vary between individuals, and how do they vary between human cultures? Twitter: @imagine_apple [https://twitter.com/imagine_apple] @SurenVynn [https://twitter.com/SurenVynn] @frabcus [https://twitter.com/frabcus] Timestamps: 01:40 What are spiritual experiences? 03:30 Oneness with the Universe 05:30 Nondual experience with Vynn 08:20 Rejection from life goals triggering nondual experience 09:30 Jessica’s move to Madrid and starting new job 10:49 Lucid dreaming 14:01 Hearing voices 19:20 Changing perceptions of reality 20:15 Scales of enlightenment experience 21:00 What were you reading? 22:02 Alan Watts and Buddhist Koans 23:30 Effing the ineffable 25:28 “I am God!” 27:27 The experience of love 30:15 How do you live day to day? 34:26 Psychedelics 35:35 Sense of self 38:15 Research on spiritual experience 41:15 Neurophenomenology 43:00 Mental health disorders associated with spiritual experiences 44:05 Vocabulary around mental experience 45:00 EPRC Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium 45:50 Kundalini Awakenings 48:40 Wrapping up 49:00 Can you recognize another? Theme written, performed and recorded by @MJPiercello [https://twitter.com/MJPiercello]

What are the limits of our imagination? Can we imagine an apple 100 miles away, or a sound higher pitched that we can hear? Can we project our imaginations into our actual vision? Vynn and Francis are interviewed by video games designer Berbank Green. He stretches our imagination with a series of exercises (see full list below). Can you imagine a smell that knocks you out? Can you imagine an apple as large as the moon? How accurate are our imaginations? Berbank describes his “prophantasic” ability to put an imagined apple on the actual table in his real vision, and how he used this in childhood. Timestamps: 00:48 Detail of imagining an apple 05:10 Imagining a distant apple 09:00 An eagle’s perception 11:18 Microscopic and earth-sized apples 16:13 Thinking of lots of apples at once 19:30 4D apples 23:48 Inner experience of designing a video game 27:07 Imagining emotions in video games 30:35 Limits of audio imagination 35:17 Prophantasia - imagining things in the real world 40:10 Imagining being something else 51:40 Noticing where language comes from 57:23 Dreaming and the subconscious 64:02 Apple having an eccentric British accent Show Links: * Teach Your Monster to Read [https://www.teachyourmonster.org/] - a video game Berbank made * Berbank’s Twitter account [https://twitter.com/berbank] * Miegakure [https://miegakure.com/] - a true 4D puzzle-platforming game * Fire Kasina with Jane Flowers [https://zencastr.com/z/BhH1iPLN] - earlier episode of this podcast * Consider Phlebas [https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/iain-m-banks-3/consider-phlebas/9780356521633/] - novel with mind fragmenting Berbank’s Imagination Exercises: Imagine an apple - what does it look like? - where is it? - can you smell it? - taste it? - feel how heavy it is? - does it make you remember anything? OK now test limits: - Can you see the apple if it's behind you? - How far away can you make the apple before you can't see it?   - What is your perspective of the apple at this distance? - How small can you imagine that apple?   - What happens when it gets too small?   - How heavy is that?   - Can you make it lighter?   - Can you feel how light your max imagination is? - How large can you imagine it?   - What happens when it gets too large?   - How heavy is that?   - Can you make it heavier?   - Can you feel how heavy your max imagination is? - How many apples can you think of at once? - How powerful can you make the smell of the apple?   - Can you imagine it to the point where it's overwhelming? - Can you imagine a 4 dimensional apple? - Can you imagine an apple that has a face?   - That's actually in front of you?   - That's floating in front of you with sparkling effects and crackling lightning?   - That's talking to you in an eccentric British accent? etc. etc Contact Details: Twitter: @imagine_apple [https://twitter.com/imagine_apple] @SurenVynn [https://twitter.com/SurenVynn] @frabcus [https://twitter.com/frabcus] Email: imagine@flourish.org [imagine@flourish.org] Theme by: @MJPiercello [https://twitter.com/MJPiercello]

WHAT IS THE EXPERIENCE OF IMAGINING A GREMLIN ON SOMEONE’S SHOULDER? HOW DO PEOPLE IMAGINE MUSIC, SOUNDS, TIME AND EMOTION? HOW IS IMAGINATION USED TO FIND KEYS AND REMEMBER NAMES? Vynn and Francis chat with Ronja about her imagination, covering a wide range of topics that may inspire you to ask your own friends and family what happens in their minds. As someone mostly aphantasic, Francis quizzes Ronja about how she imagines a gremlin on a friend’s shoulder. How solid is it? Does it rotate with the world? Is it alive, and to what extent is it under conscious control? The conversations continues on the topics of imagining emotion, smell and music. Then it gets practical, discussing how imagination can be used to find things lost in your house, navigate to a destination and assemble furniture. What are different ways people remember names, and what techniques can improve that? How do people imagine while watching movies and reading books, and what is it like to imagine emotions? Timestamps: 00:48 Gremlin on your shoulder 04:27 Aliveness of the gremlin 05:43 Emotion, smell and sound 07:07 Imagining music 10:20 Sounds and memories 13:40 Harry Potter 15:10 Looking for keys 19:13 Phantasia coaching 21:27 Shape rotating 23:42 Navigation 28:02 Names and faces 34:14 Visualising time 39:15 Emotion, books, movies 46:16 Imagine an apple Show Links: * SET by PlayMonster [https://www.playmonster.com/product/set/] - pattern matching card game * Mind’s Eye Mentorship [https://www.gorcdc.com/mem-info] - formerly called AphantasiaMeow * Mind’s Eye Courses [https://rcdc-courses.teachable.com/] - also by AphantasiaMeow * Visualisations of calendars [https://twitter.com/shanhorandraws/status/1775749356672663638] - Twitter thread * Manar’s Twitter account [https://twitter.com/manarh] - the gremlin was on his shoulder Contact Details: Please follow us, get in touch, tell us about your inner experiences! Twitter: @imagine_apple [https://twitter.com/imagine_apple] @SurenVynn [https://twitter.com/SurenVynn] @frabcus [https://twitter.com/frabcus]Email: imagine@flourish.org [imagine@flourish.org]Theme written, performed and recorded by @MJPiercello [https://twitter.com/MJPiercello]

What is it like to have intrusively strong romantic feelings? What are the causes, and what techniques can improve it? Vynn and Francis interview life coach Michelle Akin about what it is like to experience limerence. This is a common, yet not talked about, obsessive love addiction which can repeatedly break relationships. What is the difference between limerence and love? How do limerent people behave with their object of desire? What does it feel like inside their body? The conversation goes into the possible causes of limerence, both innate and relating to attachment in childhood. Michelle describes different methods of therapy and group programmes that can help with it. How do people visualise the object of their limerence? What is the impact of attending to negative traits of the object of limerence on bodily feelings of despair? To finish, Michelle describes how many people messaged her directly when she posted on social media about limerence, and advice she gave them. Timestamps: 01:15 What does limerence feel like? 02:45 Is it a physical experience? 03:22 Sex and Love Addicts 05:57 The commonness of limerence 07:44 Dorothy Tennov the coiner of limerence 11:00 The difference between limerence and love 13:56 Is limerence a type of crush 17:17 Anxiety in limerence 18:21 What causes limerence? 21:56 Vibrational Harmonic Healing 22:30 Limerence therapy specialist 26:20 Limerent connection as healing the father wound 28:10 New friendships 28:27 Visualising the objects of limerence 32:10 How to handle limerence 34:16 Number of people being impacted by limerence Show Links: * Limerence: What Is It And How Do We Let It Go? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l5ALCPEBkc] - video by Heidi Priebe * Michelle’s AMA about limerence [https://twitter.com/MichelleAkin/status/1751203085270011998] * Michelle’s Twitter account [https://twitter.com/MichelleAkin] * Inconvenient Epiphanies [https://michelleakin.substack.com/] - Michelle’s substack * Dorothy Tennov [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Tennov] - Coiner of Limerence Contact Details: Please follow us, get in touch, tell us about your inner experiences! Twitter: @imagine_apple [https://twitter.com/imagine_apple] @SurenVynn [https://twitter.com/SurenVynn] @frabcus [https://twitter.com/frabcus]Email: imagine@flourish.org [imagine@flourish.org]Theme written, performed and recorded by @MJPiercello [https://twitter.com/MJPiercello]