Can Blind People Dream?

[Podge_Boro]

i always thought this was a good question
and i was wondering whether you guys had any views

Do you think blind people dream?
if so, what do they dream?

there should be some pretty interestin ideas and answers

[MastaChronic]

i think they do
ive thought about this as well

and ive come to two conclusions
1. a person that was born blind can only dream with four senses, they cannot have visual dreams because they have never been able to visualize things.
2. a person who was born with sight but then lost it may be able to have visual dreams some of the time.

i would much rather be born blind than have my sight taken away at a later time, because the dreams would otherwise taunt me for the rest of my life.

[Podge_Boro]

ye i thought people who have bcame blind in later life can dream

but as for the born blind people,
i think they just dream weird shapes and colours

and i agree with what you say, having sight taken away would be alot worse than knowing what its like to see. you would know what you are missing out on

[MastaChronic]

but as for the born blind people,
i think they just dream weird shapes and colours


yeah, i forgot to mention i think they could possibly be able to dream of shapes, but definitely not colors
colors area completely visual experience and somebody born blind couldnt have even a preconcieved notion of what they might look like because nobody could explain what they look like.

just try explaining blue without you using the word blue, try explaining what it looks like without making a reference to any color
you could say "faded blue", "dusky blue", "ocean blue" etc etc etc

but in order to understand it, you first have to know what blue is

[LIP]

I've never really thought about this. When you think about it, it makes you realise just how damn lucky you are. I take everything i have for granted, i never really think to myself, damn, i've got all this shit and some people dont, im really lucky. I only think like that when i think of stuff like this. If anything i just posted made sense, wow.

[Podge_Boro]

just try explaining blue without you using the word blue, try explaining what it looks like without making a reference to any color
you could say "faded blue", "dusky blue", "ocean blue" etc etc etc



cant be done in my opinion
iv just been sat here tryin to do it
well ok i agree wit you about the colours
but shapes they will have

[LIP]

They'll understand shapes, and humans, because they can feel the shapes... they'll know what they're face must look like or at least have a rough idea.

I guess they can have nightmares... cos anyone can imagine monsters and shit like that.

[Podge_Boro]

im not sure about the nightmares
because although we can have nightmares, thats only cos we have seen things and have a rough idea of what a monster could look like

and iv just been thinkin more about the shapes that they can see and thought...
how can they dream them, if they have no colours, otherwise there will be no background to see the shapes on
if they only have one colour, lets say black for instance, it will be a black shape on a black background, which you wont see
i guess the only way to find out and answer this question is to ask a blind man

[darkside]

check this out. Hurovitz et al.: Dreams of the Blind (http://mind.ucsc.edu/dreams/Articles/hurovitz_1999a.html)

[Podge_Boro]

There are no visual images in the dreams of those born without any ability to experience visual imagery in waking life.[/url]

well i guess that explains my question
thanks darkside

[orangeman]

Man that stuff is so unfair I swear. Blindness just shouldn't exist. I know there are some blind people that don't mind it and find it easy to deal with especially if they were born blind. That's probably all they've ever known but the world is so beautiful...if you go to the right places and do the right things lol. I wish I could heal the blind. I really would rather be deaf than blind...but I think blind people has visions in their dreams because I don't believe we have dreams by our selves. I really believe there is a different realm that our human minds can't even begin to grasp onto. We have some touch with our spiritual sides when we sleep. So I do believe they have visions.

[slipknotpsycho]

actually, blind peopel can build images in their mind using their other four senses... it may not be as accurate as sight, but i'm sure they can actually visualize things in their mind...

[Gatekeeper777]

blind people dream. Its a think most living organisms do. Dogs dream, cats ect ect.
Do your plants dream of burning in a pit(BOWL) of a firey hell?
Blind people dream of colors, they just dont know what colors they are.
They are no differant then you or me, but they cant see.

[Tom Swierzbinski]

Do blind people know pussy when they feel it?

[MastaChronic]

Do blind people know pussy when they feel it?
well...if theyve felt it before then yes
pussy is unmistakeable in every way...almost...if it isnt shaved it could be mistaken for the top of a black mans head...

[Tom Swierzbinski]

How is a black mans head wet?

[slipknotpsycho]

he walked under a pigeon

[Oneironaut]

Having known someone who has been blind from birth, I can confirm that yes, the blind do dream, but they do not see images if they have never seen anything before. Their dreams consist of sounds, textures, smells, tastes, temperatures, proprioception, etc. Basically, just like a dream a seeing person has, but without the seeing stuff part.

[Tom Swierzbinski]

Well those are pretty shit dreams then.

[Hardcore Newbie]

I'd imagine that blind people can see colours, kinda like when you close your eyes and put pressure on your eyeballs, kinda abstract and always mixing, impossible to describe without having colours to relate to, but I'm sure they see them.

When people lose their sight, I know the way they see the world is trapped in the time period they lost their vision, or so I've read.

[xblackdogx]

our eyes allow us to detect a certain frequency of light being transmitted from any light source. The eyes focus on a miniscule part of the FULL spectrum of light... and anything outside that spectrum (about 90% of light frequencies) we cannot SEE....
so a blind persons' dreams may be more elusive and truly more real, because sight is actually a setback when learning about things in their pure forms (ie: how hard is it to explain the color blue, given you've seen it, it's all you recollect, but there is a way to explain the color blue without saying the word)

[Skink]

I'm going to guess more vivid than the sighted...

[slipknotpsycho]

our eyes allow us to detect a certain frequency of light being transmitted from any light source. The eyes focus on a miniscule part of the FULL spectrum of light... and anything outside that spectrum (about 90% of light frequencies) we cannot SEE....
so a blind persons' dreams may be more elusive and truly more real, because sight is actually a setback when learning about things in their pure forms (ie: how hard is it to explain the color blue, given you've seen it, it's all you recollect, but there is a way to explain the color blue without saying the word)

yeah, let me tell you about the sound the color blue emits....

dude... i realize there are certain things that people who can't actually see, willl have up on us... but being able to detect and understand color is THE FARTHEST.... you can't feel the color blue, you can't smell the color blue, you can't hear the color blue, and you can't taste the color blue... color is a sight only thing.... no matter what... the only way you'll ever be able to 'detect' color is sight...

[Mrs. Greenjeans]

I'm gonna have to disagree with you Slip. October smells blue. Sometimes June does too. Miles Davis sounds blue. I have a pillowcase that feels blue for some reason, even though it's actually green. Green is a color I taste strongly.

I'm not putting any of this out there as fact, only personal perceptions.
I describe tastes and smells as colors quite often. I was smoking a blunt today, and I said it tasted yellow.

[Matt the Funk]

It would suck not to have any sense....I would also think they see things since when you dream you basically go on a highly psychedelic trip. I also agree with billionfolds post above.

[Mean Green Charlene]

I think everyone perceive things differently, but the same. Like the color blue. Perhaps the color blue, doesn't look the same color to everyone, but either way, we recognize that color to be blue. Or I could be just totally crazy. Your decision, I trust you'll make the right one.

:joint1:
YES!!! I said something like this in a thread and i thought i was only one:hippy:

[Podge_Boro]

I'm gonna have to disagree with you Slip. October smells blue. Sometimes June does too. Miles Davis sounds blue. I have a pillowcase that feels blue for some reason, even though it's actually green. Green is a color I taste strongly.

I'm not putting any of this out there as fact, only personal perceptions.
I describe tastes and smells as colors quite often. I was smoking a blunt today, and I said it tasted yellow.

i know exactly what your saying
i think quite alot of things smell and taste purple
to me that is the most popular colour to smell or taste
blue is also another thing i taste quite often
i dont know if anybody else understands
but i know exactly what your getting at

[Mrs. Greenjeans]

I'm with you on the purple. The other day I was eating some oatmeal, and I told my fiance it tasted "clear", LOL, and he was like "Whaaaa...?"

[xblackdogx]

yeah, let me tell you about the sound the color blue emits....

dude... i realize there are certain things that people who can't actually see, willl have up on us... but being able to detect and understand color is THE FARTHEST.... you can't feel the color blue, you can't smell the color blue, you can't hear the color blue, and you can't taste the color blue... color is a sight only thing.... no matter what... the only way you'll ever be able to 'detect' color is sight...

you're thinking about the color blue on the outside.
the way the color blue is even recognized by a person is because of its
wavelength and frequency. Every color has either a shorter or longer wavelength than blue and is in a similar frequency. Therefore, it is entirely conceivable to be able to visual a spectrum of "colors" if described by these characteristics.

And so, hopefully i have shown what i meant when i said, "the ability to SEE actually hurts us in many ways because it is like a gatekeeper into what the mind thinks is capable and what is not capable"

EDIT: i read your post again, and realized you said blind ppl wouldn't be able to detect or understand color ("from the fartherst"). Just to let you know, i had no intention to prove that blind ppl can detect colors better than ppl with sight (that would be ridiculous), but i am saying that they can UNDERSTAND colors, and may even be able to visualize them better than us b/c they know about their properties and have never seen the color itself to distort their perception.

[krazy chino]

what if someone is born deaf can they hear in their dreams even if they never heard

[Hardcore Newbie]

Just as an aside because this conversation is fun...

I've heard about musicians who aren't skilled in the ways of engineering sound, refer to the audible spectrum of sound (20 Hz - 20 kHz) as a rainbow, with red being the bass, violet being very high pitched stuff. I believe it was a member of the beatles (don't ask which member, I don't remember that much of the story) who asked a sound engineer back in the day to put more orange in the song.

[GHoSToKeR]

I dunno, usually my dreams are almost completely visual, or I never remember my dreams involving other senses.. I'd love to have a way to see how other people dream, it would be so cool

[Turtlepik]

blind people dream. Its a think most living organisms do. Dogs dream, cats ect ect.
Do your plants dream of burning in a pit(BOWL) of a firey hell?
Blind people dream of colors, they just dont know what colors they are.
They are no differant then you or me, but they cant see.

That's pretty much what I was going to say. Dreams are just random firing of synapses and shit, so if a blind person still has the same parts of the brain (which I'm sure they do), then they'll be able to dream in colour. They just wouldn't be able to interpret it, and it'd probably just be weird random crap. Btw, dogs dreaming are funny as fuck. Mine dream all the time, and they make the funniest noises...