Mental imagery is the experience of representing something in your mind without directly sensing it at that moment. It can involve sight, sound, touch, movement or other sensory qualities.
Think of a song you know well. You may hear something of it inwardly without seeing any picture at all.
Your imagination isn’t obliged to be a cinema.
Some people have vivid visual imagery. Others work more through words, spatial understanding, sensation or a simple sense of what is present.
In I AWAKE’s guided imaginal practices, that difference doesn’t need to become a problem you fix before taking part. You can notice a figure’s presence, imagine what you would say or feel your response to a scene without producing a detailed internal film.
The relevant question is what form the experience takes for you, not whether it looks like somebody else’s description.
Imagination covers the broader capacity. Imaginal practice explains how a scene becomes something you participate in, rather than merely picture.
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s entry on imagination examines different forms of imagining and their relationship with perception. It provides context without assuming that every imagination is predominantly visual.