Aspies see the world differently? what does it mean?

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Roo95
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23 Jul 2017, 6:26 pm

Hello, I hear people say this a lot, that autistic people see the world differently, but I am curious as to exactly what it means. Does it mean it literary with our senses or how we think? As an aspie obviously I wouldn't know as I don't know any different



SaveFerris
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23 Jul 2017, 6:42 pm

maybe this?

Image


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Roo95
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23 Jul 2017, 6:49 pm

SaveFerris wrote:
maybe this?

Image


Those pictures really do make so much sense to me. I'm amazed with the small details of things such as medieval churches while my NT friends don't think anything of it. They don't seem too see it like I do



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23 Jul 2017, 7:08 pm

Roo95 wrote:

Those pictures really do make so much sense to me. I'm amazed with the small details of things such as medieval churches while my NT friends don't think anything of it. They don't seem too see it like I do


that cartoon is the only thing that sprang to my mind with your question , it could be something else though.


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23 Jul 2017, 8:07 pm

I agree with what SaveFerris posted; autistics tend to see details that others don't and find "mundane" things interesting.


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23 Jul 2017, 11:37 pm

Hmm. One example for me is people. I'm assuming (as agreed with the OP, I don't know any differently for sure, just going on what others have told me) that others just see a person. The whole thing. Not much attention paid to it, save perhaps a note of their hair colour, height, sex etc.
For me a person is a composite of phenomena. For sub-example I just met a tattoo parlour logistics woman. To me she was the physical presence and proximity of her, the details of her tattoos against her skin tone, the sound of her voice, the sounds and the quality of the movements as she moved, the light in the shiny dyed-black of her hair, the information she was relaying, the bones visible beneath the skin at her collarbone and wrists, etc.
I tend to be faceblind so it wasn't her face, can't make eye contact so it wasn't that - it was all these peripheral things that made up my perceptions of her.


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Trueno
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24 Jul 2017, 12:51 am

Some good examples. I find that when I'm walking down a street, My vision is flitting from one tiny detail to another, but not taking in the whole picture, so I can walk right past someone I know.


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24 Jul 2017, 11:27 pm

I have a unique pea-flavoured way of looking at the world. My eyes are always searching for round objects that are pea green. I love peas and objects and characters that look like them. I call them Sweet Peas. I also call kind-natured people Sweet Peas.


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24 Jul 2017, 11:47 pm

Roo95 wrote:
Hello, I hear people say this a lot, that autistic people see the world differently, but I am curious as to exactly what it means. Does it mean it literary with our senses or how we think? As an aspie obviously I wouldn't know as I don't know any different


well in a true sense, everyone sees the world differently. no one sees the world exactly the same way as any one else.

that is quite a lonely thought really, but i had that thought when i was in my teens, and i have long since forgotten how isolated it made me feel at the time.

i was driving in traffic and there were many cars also coming the other way, and it suddenly occurred to me that everyone bunched here together are going to different places and have had different lives, and in a visual sense, all have a different perspective on the objects around them.

simply and visually, no one can ever see anything i see with my eyes that is happening at any time.
if you had your head pressed hard against mine and we were looking at the same thing, we would see it from a slightly different angle, and therefore not see exactly the same thing.

add to that the subjective interpretation all of our brains have is had in the dark inside our skulls, and can only be conveyed via communication. the thought freaked me out for days.

but your question is more broad i suspect.

i think the essence of autism is hyper-sensitivity to "miniscularities". i will leave it at that.



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25 Jul 2017, 12:51 am

C2V wrote:
For me a person is a composite of phenomena. For sub-example I just met a tattoo parlour logistics woman. To me she was the physical presence and proximity of her, the details of her tattoos against her skin tone, the sound of her voice, the sounds and the quality of the movements as she moved, the light in the shiny dyed-black of her hair, the information she was relaying, the bones visible beneath the skin at her collarbone and wrists, etc.
I tend to be faceblind so it wasn't her face, can't make eye contact so it wasn't that - it was all these peripheral things that made up my perceptions of her.


i love that description, thank you. poetic in a way.

more or less this is how i see people that i'm very close with, excluding family members...or strangers whose beauty is simply overwhelming and captivates all my senses.

smell is incorporated, as is touch.

shame that sometimes it is underestimated just how capable smells are for evoking nostalgia.


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25 Jul 2017, 12:32 pm

I remember a good example. One of my friends at work would always say hi to me but I would ignore her. Apparently I was hyper focused when coming in to work so somehow I would completely zone her out. She thought it was so weird and I couldn't explain it to her.

I always notice things that other people don't. "hey look at that over there" and everyone finally notices what I see.



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25 Jul 2017, 8:34 pm

Not sure how to describe with words, but I do know I'm more interested in the details of the world than the over-all picture of it. Here is a good example -- I made videos of the seasons & related seasonal changes on my property that not very many people were interested in -- but they all rather watch me working on my tractor. These season videos I made are my favorite because of the details >> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... kCoS73GqkA even though not many other people like them, probably because they don't seem to have a point. I know what the point is, but no one else does & I don't know how to explain my point of view.



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25 Jul 2017, 11:05 pm

I have a few examples of seeing the world differently, although I am not sure all of them have to do with being an Aspie (self-diagnosed, that is):

Because of my heightened ability to visualize things in my head, I understand the universe at multiple levels and dimensions at the same time. From light, to matter/antimatter and all forces in between regardless of size or strength. It can be a blessing and a curse. Currently, I am working on using it to potentially solve some of the problems that have stymied scientists for a long, long time. Maybe someday it will get published (45 pages so far). Time will tell.

I am a finder of things that others simply walk past and never notice. In the past year, I have found probably over a thousand dollars worth of small lost jewelry items while going for walks in the city. I cannot explain it but diamonds tend to "sing" to me when I am nearby. Many times, things like small earrings and rings end up in cracks in the pavement with very little showing. For some reason, my eyes are tuned into locating these things naturally. Do not get me started at antique shops.

When it comes to coins, I can perceive details much better than the average collector can when it comes to US large cents and half cents. What someone sees as completely worn out copper disks, I can usually decipher dates and varieties, even in very low grades like Poor-1. No need for a magnifier lens, my eyes are usually better than a 10X on details. That sometimes can pay off handsomely if I cherry pick out the good ones from the bad at coin shows. Coin dealers hate me for this ability.



Roo95
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26 Jul 2017, 4:25 am

QuantumChemist wrote:
I have a few examples of seeing the world differently, although I am not sure all of them have to do with being an Aspie (self-diagnosed, that is):

Because of my heightened ability to visualize things in my head, I understand the universe at multiple levels and dimensions at the same time. From light, to matter/antimatter and all forces in between regardless of size or strength. It can be a blessing and a curse. Currently, I am working on using it to potentially solve some of the problems that have stymied scientists for a long, long time. Maybe someday it will get published (45 pages so far). Time will tell.

I am a finder of things that others simply walk past and never notice. In the past year, I have found probably over a thousand dollars worth of small lost jewelry items while going for walks in the city. I cannot explain it but diamonds tend to "sing" to me when I am nearby. Many times, things like small earrings and rings end up in cracks in the pavement with very little showing. For some reason, my eyes are tuned into locating these things naturally. Do not get me started at antique shops.

When it comes to coins, I can perceive details much better than the average collector can when it comes to US large cents and half cents. What someone sees as completely worn out copper disks, I can usually decipher dates and varieties, even in very low grades like Poor-1. No need for a magnifier lens, my eyes are usually better than a 10X on details. That sometimes can pay off handsomely if I cherry pick out the good ones from the bad at coin shows. Coin dealers hate me for this ability.


Very fascinating post, I do hope you do get that published as I'd love to read it. I can relate also, I do see details that others don't, details that are also useless to others but fascinate me, I remember being at a friends house where he had a large Victorian fireplace and all I was interested in was a small manufacturer mark inside it that I pointed out to him and he was puzzled that I noticed it and was fascinated by it. I also do a lot of metal detecting here in the UK where I find many silver medieval coins up to 800 years old and the details on them are absolutely stunning, I try show them to friends but no one cares. Often me and my housemates will go out to smoke a joint usually at a ruined medieval abbey or in the woods, I noticed they don't really seem to care about the surroundings and take no notice, for example at the medieval ruins, my eyes are constantly scanning every feature, scanning each and every one of the 1000s of bits of flint that make up the walls, staring at all the architecture and every feature I look at tells a story. I also notice ancient carvings on the walls but again i try show others but they don't care. When we are in the woods I find the beauty of the trees and plants amazing, every leaf and twig, it all gives me a feelings of euphoria, I feel at home when I'm outside in places like that. That's provably why im obsessed with natural beauty like waterfall's and mountains



Roo95
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26 Jul 2017, 8:02 am

CockneyRebel wrote:
I have a unique pea-flavoured way of looking at the world. My eyes are always searching for round objects that are pea green. I love peas and objects and characters that look like them. I call them Sweet Peas. I also call kind-natured people Sweet Peas.


You will love my car then, I drive a 1986 Nissan k10 in pea green lol



Roo95
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26 Jul 2017, 1:55 pm

Trueno wrote:
Some good examples. I find that when I'm walking down a street, My vision is flitting from one tiny detail to another, but not taking in the whole picture, so I can walk right past someone I know.


It's Good to know im not the only one who does this. I didn't realize it Is an aspie thing. I work at a Volkswagen Audi dealership, and often I have to walk through the mechanics workshop and I find the short walk to the other side overwhelming and confusing because my eyes just want to look at every detail in the room from the steel beams in the ceiling to the drainage grate on the floor as well as all the shiny tools, and I have to restrain from doing this as I'd look very weird to everyone else if I was walking around looking at everything and studying it in my head like I do so I have a hard time knowing where to look so I appear normal