Can Blind People Dream? (Misc.)

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread

Someone asked me this question and I flat out don't know, so I am curious. If a person is born blind, do they have dreams? If they are able to hear, are their dreams resticted to conversation, music, etc.? If a person goes blind after birth, such as Ray Charles, are their dreams restricted to the period before they went blind?

An inquiring mind...

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), October 03, 2001

Answers

I would imagine the answer is yes. I would think the real question is what the dreams consist of. Are there images to accompany the sounds that they obviously know. I wouldn't htink a lack of sight would mean lack of imagination. Everyone pictures what someone would look like when they talk to a person they don't know over the phone. My guess is that the brain would compensate for no sight an creat an image for them to 'see' while dreaming.

-- Wendy Antes (phillips-anteswe@pendleton.usmc.mil), October 03, 2001.

There has been a lot of blindness in my family - my mother, her mother, and her uncle. Because of this, we have associated with blind friends all our lives. I can tell you that they do indeed dream, but quite often their perceptions are quite different from ours.

A good example of this would be a gentleman who used to work for my mother. He was born blind, but at the age of 24 had an operation - a corneal transplant, I believe, and was able to see. His vision wasn't 20/20 by any means - he was still legally blind - but he could see! He told me that the first time he saw a broom, he could not for the life of him figure out what it was. When someone explained to him that it was a broom, he was dumbfounded. He had used a broom nearly everyday of his life, but he had pictured them completely different in his mind, and was shocked by the broom's appearance.

So yes, blind people do dream. And they do "see" things in their minds, even if they don't turn out to actually look like what they've imagined.

-- Cheryl in KS (cherylmccoy@rocketmail.com), October 03, 2001.


Yes. They may have different things they dream about though. And if a person goes blind after they are born, they would have all kinds of ways to put things together in their mind. Do you only dream of what you have seen? Do you ever dream gibberish that you do not see? Some memories are more vivid and colorful, than they actually were in person. Well, I would say they can do the same thing (not just gibberish). Just as they say babies dream in the womb, they have REM or whatever. It is part of sleeping and renewing. :o)

-- notnow (notnow05@yahoo.com), October 03, 2001.

Along this same line, I have always wondered how deaf people think. When I think, it is like talking to myself in my head so I am thinking in words. So if they do not know what words sound like, do they think in pictures or do the picture the written word in their head? I'll be curious if anyone on this forum can answer this for me.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), October 03, 2001.

Hello, again! I studied sign language interpreting, deaf education and deaf culture at OSU for two years. From what I've learned, American Sign Language (ASL) is not so much a language of words as a language of concepts. More like talking in pictures, if you will. It's an amazingly beautiful language, and the deaf culture is fascinating!

Being a hearing person myself, I can't presume to answer your question definitively. But my understanding is that it's more of a "picture" way of thinking.

-- Cheryl in KS (cherylmccoy@rocketmail.com), October 04, 2001.



Shortly after I got married my wife told me if I didn't quit starring at other pretty women I would go blind. So Ken you got me wondering about what my images would be.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), October 04, 2001.

My sister is blind from birth. She not only dreams, she dreams in Color! Figure THAT out.

-- Gayle Smith (gayleannesmith@yahoo.com), October 04, 2001.

A REAL INTERESTING QUESTION, Ken. I was a aide to a blind friend of mine in high school Government class 20 years ago, and I wish that I had asked him. I did wonder how he became so musically inclined (he sang, played organ, was pretty talented guy), and never asked him either.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), October 04, 2001.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ