What do blind people dream about?

[BooGiMaN]

I have always been curious, since our dreams are visual do they dream about sounds and tactile sensations or not at all, and since ATOT is all knowing i thought id ask here.

 

[djheater]

Google knows all

 

[notfred]

I've heard about blind people who used to be able to see that dream like they always did.... Don't know about people blind from birth.

 

[CPA]

I was going to respond with something witty or sarcastic, but when I read your question again it got me thinking about it also. If they've never seen something how would the brain know what it looks like in order to give it visual representation during a dream?

Hmmm, who here is blind? Can you help us out? 😛

 

[djheater]

heh

Scientist's agree that google knows all.

 

[Spoooon]

That's kind of interesting. I wonder though what a lucid, auditory dream would be like. I couldn't imagine just manipulating sounds and feelings because so much of my experience is derived from images.

 

[yowolabi]

link 1

link 2

Yes they dream. If they could once see, they see in their dreams. If they never could, they have auditory dreams.

 

[brxndxn]

Now I'm curious.. I wonder if I could ask my former Calc 2 professor. He's the nicest, happiest guy you'd ever meet.

And, he has the special ability to keep right on teaching the class when the lights go out. (He's blind. Duh.)

And.. he writes on the board just fine. When he draws a graph, he has to ask the class to point him back to the origin. He answers 12 and 15step calculus integrals just fine. And, he'll remember your name by your voice. Cool guy.

I was in his office getting help from him once and somehow I started telling him about Maui Teriyaki (a fast food place here in Gainesville that has good, healthy, cheap food). He asked me where it was.. I told him 13th and University.. He was like "Strange.. I never saw it all the times we drove by."

I've never seen anyone use a computer without a monitor before..

He never once mentioned his being blind, though. It was like he totally ignored it.

 

[BooGiMaN]

Originally posted by: brxndxn
Now I'm curious.. I wonder if I could ask my former Calc 2 professor. He's the nicest, happiest guy you'd ever meet.

And, he has the special ability to keep right on teaching the class when the lights go out. (He's blind. Duh.)

And.. he writes on the board just fine. When he draws a graph, he has to ask the class to point him back to the origin. He answers 12 and 15step calculus integrals just fine. And, he'll remember your name by your voice. Cool guy.

I was in his office getting help from him once and somehow I started telling him about Maui Teriyaki (a fast food place here in Gainesville that has good, healthy, cheap food). He asked me where it was.. I told him 13th and University.. He was like "Strange.. I never saw it all the times we drove by."

I've never seen anyone use a computer without a monitor before..

He never once mentioned his being blind, though. It was like he totally ignored it.

has he been blind from birth..cuz if you became blind after living for a while id imagine you still had regular dreams but blind from brith is where my curiousity comes in....

 

[Heifetz]

Well I can imagine that because of the mechanism for dreaming, where your brain tries to rationize irrational impulses, a blind man's dreams will consist of images which he has created in his own mind. When people say that your world is what you perceive it as, it is really true in this case. A blind man will probably have synthesized visual perception of the world in his own mind, probably drastically different from reality, and his dreams will incorporate those images.


Heifetz

 

[Spoooon]

I'm guessing that some people haven't clicked on the links provided above which state that people blind from birth will experience auditory dreams. I imagine if you can see enough to differentiate light from dark, somehow that would be incorporated as well.

 

[Nohr]

I asked my wife who's been blind since she was 10 months old. She basically agrees with what the links say. She doesn't "see" in her dreams or see colors or anything. She says, "It's like real-life, but weirder."