What does a blind person "see?"

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: AdamSnow
I have always been interested in this as well...

I always assumed that it was just like closing your eyes in a very dark room... just black...

 

[Baked]

It depends on the cause of their blindness.

 

[Patt]

There differing levels of blindness. My mother will eventually be totally functionally blind, but able to sense light. A childhood friend saw nothing but blackness.

 

[amcdonald]

Go watch the episode of quantum leap where Sam leaps into a blind dude.
TV is incapable of deceit.

 

[Zysoclaplem]

I have always been interested in finding out what someone who is totally blind dreams of. Imagined images? Sounds? Feel?

 

[slackerinabox]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
Has there ever been a scientific study to see if their brain's visual area ever gets stimulated? Maybe their other senses start to take over that part so they can "visualize" their surroundings.

Found this:

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg18524841.700

Great read - thanks!

 

[SilentZero]

Black

 

[JDrake]

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212
I was wondering this. Would it be what seeing people consider a bright white? Would it be total darkness? Perhaps just an extreme blur? I know that there are different kinds of blindness but wonder what your average blind person experiences. Anyone on ATOT know any blind people who previously had sight and could describe what they "see?"

Are blind people not people??

 

[Nohr]

My wife's totally blind, had her eyeballs removed due to cancer not long after birth. I assume she 'sees' complete darkness but there's no way of telling. How do you describe things such as color and darkness to someone who has no understanding of such things? They're meaningless to her.

 

[Goosemaster]

think of it like being in a sterile room where it smells like nothing. Somewhere where you can't even smell dampness or staleness in the air. Somewhere where the temperature is so mild that you cn't really gauge it. this all after you have vigorously cleaned yourself so you can't even beathe in hard and smell the inside of your own nose.

notice how your sense of smell is invalidate and rather not present?

Equate that to vision. It rather hard to explain it to one who has not experienced it so, assumign that their eyes are completely useless, they simply don't acknowledge the ability to detect such faints amounts of energy that we call light....

now heat, such as from lampps....


bah..I'm rambling again:|

 

[jfall]

I doubt it's total darkness.. if it was, what is the point of blind people wearing sun glasses?

 

[slackerinabox]

Originally posted by: joedrake

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212
I was wondering this. Would it be what seeing people consider a bright white? Would it be total darkness? Perhaps just an extreme blur? I know that there are different kinds of blindness but wonder what your average blind person experiences. Anyone on ATOT know any blind people who previously had sight and could describe what they "see?"

Are blind people not people??

seeing being an adjective, people being the noun... Seeing people, blind people.. p.c. is so last decade..

 

[Shlong]

Close your eyes, and what do you see? I guess blind people see what you see when you close your eyes.

 

[JDrake]

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212

Originally posted by: joedrake

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212
I was wondering this. Would it be what seeing people consider a bright white? Would it be total darkness? Perhaps just an extreme blur? I know that there are different kinds of blindness but wonder what your average blind person experiences. Anyone on ATOT know any blind people who previously had sight and could describe what they "see?"

Are blind people not people??

seeing being an adjective, people being the noun... Seeing people, blind people.. p.c. is so last decade..

wtf i must be going blind i thought that said something else

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: jfall
I doubt it's total darkness.. if it was, what is the point of blind people wearing sun glasses?

To look cool of course.

I'm guessing people who are blind from birth don't really "see" at all...they completely ignore whatever signals the visual cortex is trying to process. We seeing people can approximate that as "seeing black", but it's not quite the same.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212
I was wondering this. Would it be what seeing people consider a bright white? Would it be total darkness? Perhaps just an extreme blur? I know that there are different kinds of blindness but wonder what your average blind person experiences. Anyone on ATOT know any blind people who previously had sight and could describe what they "see?"

I remember watching Oprah when she had this little kid, 8 or 9, who lost his sight due to an accident i think. And she asked him what he dreamt of at night, if he dreamt at all. And he dreamt he could still see. Oprah pretty much lost it there and started crying.

 

[JDrake]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: jfall
I doubt it's total darkness.. if it was, what is the point of blind people wearing sun glasses?

To look cool of course.

I'm guessing people who are blind from birth don't really "see" at all...they completely ignore whatever signals the visual cortex is trying to process. We seeing people can approximate that as "seeing black", but it's not quite the same.

Its like how a dead man can't feeeel anything? ,...hmmm

 

[imported_LoKe]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: jfall
I doubt it's total darkness.. if it was, what is the point of blind people wearing sun glasses?

To look cool of course.

So people don't see their eyes and get freaked out. Seriously.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: jfall
I doubt it's total darkness.. if it was, what is the point of blind people wearing sun glasses?

Looks are something that many people might think blind people don't care about. If anythign, it is a derivative of the nievity that lookers have passed on to the blind....

blind people can get embarrased you know...

 

[kogase]

Originally posted by: C6FT7
They see better than you think. They use their ears.

Blind people have some of the best hearing around; it's just natural to rely on another sense when one is not responding or missing altogether.

You seem very obsessed with hearing. Was that a gradual thing or did you grow up dreaming of being a... hearing... obsessor...?

 

[Nohr]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: jfall
I doubt it's total darkness.. if it was, what is the point of blind people wearing sun glasses?

To look cool of course.

Mostly so you can't see their pupils wandering while you're talking to them.

 

[JDrake]

I remember watching Oprah when she had this little kid, 8 or 9, who lost his sight due to an accident i think. And she asked him what he dreamt of at night, if he dreamt at all. And he dreamt he could still see. Oprah pretty much lost it there and started crying.

That would suck so bad losing your sight after you've had it for a long time (8 or 9 is bad but imagine if you were like 25-40 prime time in your life sorta.. after experiencing vision...

 

[ShadowBlade]

i suppose it depends on what kind of blindness it is
if its the kind where youre born without the optical? nerve connected, then probably total darkness

 

[jfall]

Originally posted by: Nohr

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: jfall
I doubt it's total darkness.. if it was, what is the point of blind people wearing sun glasses?

To look cool of course.

Mostly so you can't see their pupils wandering while you're talking to them.

Really? I always thought it was because it was too bright without them

 

[Nohr]

Originally posted by: jfall

Originally posted by: Nohr

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: jfall
I doubt it's total darkness.. if it was, what is the point of blind people wearing sun glasses?

To look cool of course.

Mostly so you can't see their pupils wandering while you're talking to them.

Really? I always thought it was because it was too bright without them

lol, I'm not sure you fully grasp the concept of blindness.