I was thinking about how dreams are just our brains processing visual data from our waking lives. But if someone has never had visual data to begin with, what does a dream actually look like to them? Is it just a radio play with physical sensations? Has there ever been a study on this?
Only a VERY tiny number of people see complete black. Most blind people are more functionally blind than literally so. That is, their vision is so bad that they need some sort of accommodation to adjust. They DO see the world but not in the way that typical vision does.
To be fair, I’m not blind and I’m not entirely sure I “see” things in my dreams. I don’t remember my dreams very often and when I do, it’s more knowing what happened and less images. Then again, I’m pretty sure I’m somewhere on the aphantasia spectrum. But my point is, it’s really hard to tell and thus to study.
I have very strong visualisation abilities and I still don’t always see in dreams. But I’m from the void beyond reality.
Here is a study i found titled
Mental Imagery in Dreams of Congenitally Blind People
Just fyi: MDPI-published research does not have a good reputation.
Im assuming thier dreams would be the same as how they experience life, just like us
The vast majority of blind people can see the sun. Blind really means that their vision is so bad that we cannot correct it to anything close to normal and not that they see anything at all. Each experience is different, but likely they can see enough that for purposes of your question they are not blind.
I was thinking about how dreams are just our brains processing visual data from our waking lives.
Do you not have sounds and or other sensory experiences in your dreams?
Actually, now that I think about it, kind of but mostly no. Things that happen in the waking world get incorporated into my dreams, but in my actual dreams, I mostly just tell myself I heard something, but I don’t actually hear it in the moment. I.e., if I hear music, it’s more like I’m reciting the lyrics in my head and working backwards.
Wild, I hear things in my dreams. One time I followed the song Sleep by MCR to a phonograph and when I took the needle off I woke up. If I hear real sounds while I am sleeping my dreams will incorporate them. Actually, now that I’m typing it what I am typing is also wild. Dreams are crazy.
No, people born completely blind do not see visual imagery in their dreams, but their dreams are far from empty.
see anything
Define: see?
As OP is asking about dreaming, I think “seeing” means pictures or brains produce during dreams that appear to the dreamer as if they were perceived through their eyes.
Yes
as if they were perceived through their eyes.
This is just another term that may be totally undefined to a person who is blind from birth.
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