@Rhaevnn Xeno?
On another note (aimed at mostly Jack, I suppose), a random thought-question that another thread elsewhere provoked, and I know I briefly contemplated, but never really asked.
Namely, as you or might not recall, I have always been able to conjure mental imagery and auditory info with relative ease in my mind, and with some practice (once I actually realized what I was doing, and that these all are pretty much the same thing) have further honed it and extended it to other senses (like the ability to feel pressure, pain, hot or cold) ... and maybe taken it a bit farther than even just senses or easily observable things like heartrate.
Among other things, I've commented on how I pretty much envision all roleplayed scenes in my mind (I will generally all my roleplayed - and solo-written, for the matter - scenes as if a floating camera would, for the lack of a better description; background-info and other meta isn't passed through this process, though), deriving my characters' actions not too unlike I would predict the actions of any real person I know more than only superficially, and
then translating what I see/hear/know as happening back into words and somewhere along the lines adding the various meta (now when I think of it, it might actually be more accurate to say I switch between
three separate processes - the "simulation" that I see and hear and then try to describe, my characters' thoughts and the prediction of their actions, which is somewhat separate from the "simulation" that tells me where everything is, and then there is the part that is responsible for the background-info (which, for the matter, does not run in simulation-time, which is how how long blocks of text between action happen ... those are
not what the character(s) is(/are) thinking, it's just background-info for the reader so they'd have some context)). Atop of everything, I don't really normally think in either worlds or images; I'm overwhelmingly an abstract thinker and only - for example - have a mental dialogue when I'm trying to formulate things to actually write them down as text or say them. (I recall having a conversation with Yoshua over that...) I'm not sure whether it's always a good thing ... being an abstract thinker. It can make your thoughts significantly harder to properly convey, for one.
I know we vaguely talked about the body/feeling altering thing a while back (a couple of times, actually), mostly in relation to what the Wardens do, but also in the way of real-life phenomena and general curiosity. What we did not talk about (unless we refer to one of the dream-conversations and my brief notion of occasionally sleep-type dreaming when not fully asleep), though, was the mental image/real image overlap. And Gerald's Shadow Image.
Apparently, some people do not have "mind's eye" like that, or it's fairly weak (I've known that for a while, just that was being discussed). When conjuring an image while awake - such as when making a new creature or a machine, or when writing or roleplaying -, I actually do "see" both the real space in front of me and my mental image, but am only really paying attention to one at a time.
If you asked me what was in front of me, I'd know. I suppose it could be compared to being suddenly addressed while concentrating on something else - in that my automatic reaction might be to go "Ah, what?", but within half a second or so my brain would have caught up and I'll actually know what was asked without there being a need for repetition. (Which can be a bit awkward, the "Ah, what?" followed by a half-a-second pause and then the actual answer, as generally I'll start to properly reply when the person has also (almost) begun to repeat the question.) Not sure whether explanation helped, but in any case - I am only paying attention to one "layer", but I am nevertheless fully aware of both. (Mind, I can also substitute other sensations this way, though the "paying attention" part might slightly interfere with doing anything else at the same time.)
Would there be similarity between the Shadow Image experience and visualization/mental construction/sleep-type dreams while awake and also sensing your body? Would people with functional "mind's eye" have easier time with the experience?
((Sidenote: Very tired, didn't proofread, may do so in the morning. Pardon for any possible nonsense.))
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