How do blind people dream?

I don't think i've ever read or herd anything about this? what do you guys think? If there are any blind people reading this speak up! (just joking)

Seeing isn't really important unless your desires say so.

Dreaming for a blind person is like Dreaming for us. When we dream, we experience much that isn't comprehensible to our senses. so when we wake up, we have a broken, partial dream thats vague to remember.

Same with blind people. they have the same dreams as us, except the sight part of remembering is left out due to their brains ability to decode.

All in all, they just cant comprehend the sight parts of the dream. their brains will not let them take that back with them from coming from the astral plane.

This is not bad or good. Just the same as everyone else. There is no disability, or no extra gain.

reply to post by hautmess


I did a search for this on Google just now and this is what I found: a scientific study on blind people dreaming! I haven't read the paper, but the summary that I did read said basically that, if a blind person was blind from birth, they don't have visual dreams but auditory. Of course, the other senses will be present as well. Going further, let's say that someone was blind and deaf from birth. Their dreams would have elements of smell, taste, and touch.

If someone wasn't blind since birth though, they would still dream normally, incorporating what they had seen; shapes, colors, and all.

reply to post by gandhi


Indeed. But perhaps the question is more in the line of how/what do people dream that have been blind all their lives? Do they dream in colour? They've got no visual point of reference...

Edit: Aha. Octotom has that basecovered.


[edit on 26-12-2009 by Gemwolf]

Originally posted by gandhi
Seeing isn't really important unless your desires say so.

Dreaming for a blind person is like Dreaming for us. When we dream, we experience much that isn't comprehensible to our senses. so when we wake up, we have a broken, partial dream thats vague to remember.

Same with blind people. they have the same dreams as us, except the sight part of remembering is left out due to their brains ability to decode.

All in all, they just cant comprehend the sight parts of the dream. their brains will not let them take that back with them from coming from the astral plane.

This is not bad or good. Just the same as everyone else. There is no disability, or no extra gain.

how does the ability to decode images within the brain in a dream require the eyes tho? Is it the fault of eyes that create blindness or the brain? what are we seeing then if our eyes are closed within a dream?

Originally posted by hautmess
I don't think i've ever read or herd anything about this? what do you guys think? If there are any blind people reading this speak up! (just joking)

Just joking huh, is that supposed to be funny or are you just "THE most ignorant person on the face of the Earth?" Do people like you even "think" before you try to communicate with others? How old are you?

What's the sense in even.................. Fricken pathetic.

reply to post by hautmess


"how does the ability to decode images within the brain in a dream require the eyes tho? Is it the fault of eyes that create blindness or the brain?"

If someone is blind from birth, the visual centers of their brain get recruited to help do other things and stop being visual centers. These people are then generally incapable of having visual experiences of any kind. As for where the fault is, people can be blind for many reasons. Damage to the eyes or certain parts of the brain can cause blindness. If someone loses their eyes after many years of sight, they are likely to have visual dreams for the rest of their life.

Originally posted by OnceReturned
reply to post by hautmess

 

If someone is blind from birth, the visual centers of their brain get recruited to help do other things and stop being visual centers.

I have seen work by Dr. John Kennedy of the University of Toronto where he noted the blind being able to express motion in drawings of objects, among other surprising things...
tspace.library.utoronto.ca...

I think perception would apply to dreams as well...but a good question!

Very profound question. I really couldn't even wager a guess. Like someone said, what would be their point of reference? How can you dream in sound? Wow. Too bad the average person cares more about who is on The View opposed to deep thoughts like this question. Great friggin question. I love it and....I wish I knew.

Originally posted by gandhi
Seeing isn't really important unless your desires say so.

Dreaming for a blind person is like Dreaming for us. When we dream, we experience much that isn't comprehensible to our senses. so when we wake up, we have a broken, partial dream thats vague to remember.

Same with blind people. they have the same dreams as us, except the sight part of remembering is left out due to their brains ability to decode.

All in all, they just cant comprehend the sight parts of the dream. their brains will not let them take that back with them from coming from the astral plane.

This is not bad or good. Just the same as everyone else. There is no disability, or no extra gain.

I don't want to start 'fighting' because this is a great topic of conversation but....where are you getting your information from? It makes absolutely no sense. What do you mean, they dream just like us? How do you know that and how is that even remotely possible?

We always dream of things that are comprehensible. However, the storyline sometimes is incomprehensible. We don't dream about images we've never seen before so again, where are you getting your misinformation from?

I would suggest that a simple answer would be for one of our ATS members that has a blind from birth partner/sibling/child kindly ask on our behalf what they "experience" whenever they dream.

Then relate that explanation back to us ... I for one would be most interested.

reply to post by hautmess


Well, let's see: Do you dream with your eyes open? Oh yea! No!

Apparently light is not involved in the process of seeing mental pictures.

Knowing what those mental pictures or shapes are in a different story. But, knowing does not define dreaming. Most of us do not remember our dreams.

Try to be more mature...