• Question: if a blind person has never seen anything before how do they think and dream or see images in there head. also do they just see black even if they have always been blind and don't know what black looks like?

    Asked by to Aimee, Chris, Dave, Greig, Laurence on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Aimee Hopper

      Aimee Hopper answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Tommy Edison is a man who has been blind from birth, and answers the first part of this question very nicely.
      He says he doesn’t “see” in his dreams, he can only use the senses he has, so touch, smell, taste and sound. To him, cricket isn’t watching someone on the TV, it’s HEARING someone on the TV.

      Also, black is just the absence of colour. In this case, the absence of light. If they’ve never seen light, then they would still “see” nothing, the same as us when we shut our eyes.

    • Photo: Laurence Perreault Levasseur

      Laurence Perreault Levasseur answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      I don’t really know, but it’s a very interesting question.
      For the first part of your question, I think that if they have never seen anything before, they would dream about experiences like the ones they have when they are awake (just like us actually), but for them that would mean hearing, touching, feeling, smelling, experiencing emotions, etc… (that’s my guess)

      As for the colour they see, well, I think it depends on how blind the person is. Being completely blind is extremely rare. Most blind people still get some visual input and will at least be able to perceive very bright lights.

      Most people who have absolutely no light perception are that way because the connection between their eyes and their brain is completely cut off. These people will not see black. Seeing is what your brain does with signals that your eyes send to the brain. If there is no signal, nothing is seen. To try to understand what this means, you can ask yourself the question, “What can I see with my elbow?” You don’t see black with your elbow. You don’t see with it at all.

      There are some exceptions to this. Sometimes people who are totally blind will sometimes “see” flashes of light or colour that aren’t there. It’s just a biological glitch, kind of like the flashes or sparkles people with normal vision see temporarily if they get hit on the head.

    • Photo: Dave Jones

      Dave Jones answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Aimee’s answer is great! Just like when you dream, you dream with all of your senses not just vision, so a blind person’s dreams are just the same but without the images!

      The idea of colour is really interesting. Some people are colour blind and can’t distinguish between green and red, for example. But, there is no way to know that the way I see red is the same way you see red. We both know that red is different to blue, for example, and can distinguish them and call them by the same name, but how do we know that what you see is exactly the same as what I see? We can’t!

Comments

  • Photo: Laurence

    Laurence commented on :

    More fun stuff about colours: magenta isn’t a colour, in the sense that it’s not a particular wavelength of light, it’s a mix of wavelengths. So magenta and things like pink are really really just illusions in our brain!!
    Dave it’s very interesting you mention my red not being the same as your red, there’s more about it here (and other interesting but unrelated things):

    (I’d be just be careful about what he said about the theory of mind. Birds have been known to decieve other birds by pretending to hide food somewhere, then hiding it somewhere else. This only makes sense if they have a theory of mind. Capuchan monkeys will only steal food when the person who bought it isn’t looking. These behaviours woukd not really make any sense without animals having a theory of mind. But I guess it’s still debated.)