>People who don't have aphantasia see objects in their visual field, occluding reality? That sounds like hallucination, and very unsafe unless you have a high degree of control over it. An imaginary horse pops into your visual field while you're making a tricky maneuver on the highway...
Does the image from your left eye occlude the image from your right eye? No, it doesn't.
It's the same for mental imagery. It's a third "image buffer", alongside the two from the eyes. It coexists in the same coordinate system as the other two, but it doesn't occlude them.
Can you imagine a song in your head? If so, does it drown out the sound of the real world? Again, no.
Does the image from your left eye occlude the image from your right eye? No, it doesn't.
It's the same for mental imagery. It's a third "image buffer", alongside the two from the eyes. It coexists in the same coordinate system as the other two, but it doesn't occlude them.
Can you imagine a song in your head? If so, does it drown out the sound of the real world? Again, no.