What is being described is a course (and book) by Wally Minto, and most of what follows is from Wally's work with permission.
For some, the colors, flowers, or type of vase kept changing; for others, once the image was there it never changed. Only one person saw no image. After each shared in detail what they saw, Wally explained the three general types of inner-mind response: "fixed imager," "changing imager," and "non-imager".
The non-imager is usually the type of person a company hires to take different ideas of a project and put them together in a logical manner. One of their greatest talents is to take random ideas and form logic because they are not distracted by mental pictures. A child who does not image needs to learn through rote. An adult non-imager will easily remember anything that makes sense; that seems logical, yet it can be very difficult to remember something that does not make sense. (Research for the course was in the l970's and showed 5-10% of the population were non-imagers.)
Non-imagers may not be self motivators because they do not see pictures in the mind. However, each person is different and any "type" can blend into another. Types are tendencies, not cast in concrete, and can be changed with determination once they are recognized. Non-imagers are great communicators and put ideas across by comparing them with something they are already familiar with. They constantly use examples and comparisons. They also make a good jack-of-all-trades, which must be why I can enjoy fixing almost anything, for, as it turned out, my inner-mind process was that of a non-imager.
The exercise showed my wife was a very vivid fixed imager (which was an enlightening discovery to a non-imager after 30 years of marriage!). Wally described the non-imager's inner-mind process to those who _do_ image in this way: "the non-imager's mental screen is blank, not that of what imagers see at all. They reason by association and logic."
In the next several months I discussed this with a number of clients. If one was a non-imager, once they learned the vast difference, it became clear why they often were frustrated with each other. It also explains why an employer and employee may not "see eye-to-eye" if their inner imagery process is so very different!
An application of recognition of different inner-mind abilities is that major companies have deliberately used talents of three different type people to do a project or promotion: one to put the ideas together, make an outline or blue print; a second to put the project in motion and iron out the kinks until it works smoothly; then a third to manage the project to its completion. (continues next week)
Cary Mangum, W6WWW - E-mail: cary.mangum@macnexus.org