Do Blind People Dream?

by jam 5 Replies latest jw friends

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  jam

  Depend......Sorry, I have A lot of time on my hands...
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  cameo-d

  Every time you go to a KH you are surrounded by blind people. It's obvious they do dream. Ask them about paradise.
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  blondie

  Blind from birth

  or

  Blind later in life?

  Do Blind People Dream?
  

  There is no evidence that the unconscious (or subconscious) mind holds any sort of store of visual symbols independently of the brain's development of systems for interpreting visual input through visual stimulation from birth on. Without that kind of stimulation, the brain has no more ability to imagine images than the blind person would have to see images while awake.

  In An Anthropologist on Mars, Oliver Sacks tells the remarkable story of a 50-year-old man who, after being blind since shortly after birth, has his eyesight restored by a cataract operation. When the bandages are removed, the man sees something, but he doesn't know what it is or what it means. A blur of movement. A vague pattern of color. A contrast of darkness. He is aware of novel sensations, to be sure, but they are confusing and hard to interpret. He might be inclined to ignore those sensations altogether if people didn't press him to focus on them, to understand them, to relate them to what he perceives through his other familiar senses.

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  About the Author
  

  David Gamon, PhD Dr. David Gamon, one of the original writers at ScienceIQ, studied cognitive science at U.C. Berkeley, where he received his Ph.D. in Linguistics in 1997. He is the author of many popular books about the human brain, including Building Mental Muscle, Use It Or Lose It!, and Brains That Work a Little Bit Differently. His current projects include books about gender differences in the brain, the brain’s construction of sensory reality, and psychopathy.
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  jam

  Thanks Blondie for the info.
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  Lady Lee

  Yup they do.

  Blind from birth - dreams involve the other senses - I lived with a man who was blind from birth and that is what he said

  Blind as young adult - well the one I knew had been a photographer so his dreams were filled with images

  and I also knew people with varying levels of visions from birth and like the post above - their level of visual dream is dependant on their level of vision

  BTW same is true for deaf - those who have never heard sound don't hear speech. If they use sign language then that is how communication is expressed in their dreams
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  jam

  lady lee I never tought about deaf people, interesting..