Okay, so I had aphantasia before my TBI and afterwards I could literally picture things in my mind. It's wild. You don't hallucinate the picture per se, but the imagined sensation really is like seeing a picture in your mind.

Imagine the feeling of seeing something. You get the same feeling when imagining a picture of it. You can examine the picture and look at it from different angles and perspectives, but like, there isn't literally a ghost image floating around your head like a cartoon. It just feels like seeing.

It's almost like lucid dreaming while awake? You know it's in your mind and not real, even if you also feel like you see it.

idk you'd think having lived on both sides of the fence I could explain it but this probably sounds fucking bizarre to you lol