No, not with their eyes. Hence the “mind’s eye”. The darkness of your eyelids isn’t replaced, it’s just that your focus is on a mental image of what an object feels like and not just on the darkness of your vision.
When I rub by eyes, the darkness of my eyelids is definitely replaced by yellowish dots that fade in and out and move around. I'm definitely seeing them even though my eyes are closed. I'm not just imagining them.
This article is saying the effect is like that, so it seems to be different than just imagining something with your eyes closed.
When I imagine something I don't "see" it at all the way I "see" the yellow dots after rubbing my eyes.
