> are people normally actually seeing images, with their eyes, when they imagine what something looks like? Like, the brown-blackness of the back of your eyelids gets replaced with something you actually see, like it's projected there?
No.
>I can imagine what something looks like, and I guess I sort of 'see' it, but closing my eyes doesn't make it any more real. It doesn't seem to involve the eyes or any part of the visual system at all - it's somewhere else in my head.
Yes. That's all it is. Although it does seem to be indirectly related to the visual system, likely whatever part of it lets people "see" things when they dream, despite not actually processing visual stimuli through the eyes. It's just dreaming while awake.
No.
>I can imagine what something looks like, and I guess I sort of 'see' it, but closing my eyes doesn't make it any more real. It doesn't seem to involve the eyes or any part of the visual system at all - it's somewhere else in my head.
Yes. That's all it is. Although it does seem to be indirectly related to the visual system, likely whatever part of it lets people "see" things when they dream, despite not actually processing visual stimuli through the eyes. It's just dreaming while awake.