Do blind people have dreams?

1. 0

   tHErEDpILLposted 14 years ago

   Do blind people have dreams?
   
   I am speaking of people who were blind since birth and have never laid eyes on anything, ever!  If they have never seen anything how can they dream, dreams always contain visualization?  If they do dream is it only auditory or is the brain wired with pre-installed pictures like a brand new computer?

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2. 0

   vinsanityposted 14 years ago

   Only if you're talking about 100% blind people would you not see anything. They would dream of sounds and the things that there mind has made up, whether they be blotches of light and color or if it is there own imagination.

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3. 0

   tHErEDpILLposted 14 years ago

   If this answer is correct, do there other senses become enhanced during a dream?  Ex. touch, smell, hearing, taste.  Their dreams could end up being far more real than any of ours, with the exclusion of visuals.

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4. 61

   Special Kayposted 14 years ago

   How do u dream of sounds. How are you shown what a sound is? That's just merely hearing. Like when you are being nurtured through life, you are taught a series of things. Stage 1, this is an apple. And you learn what an apple it. Stage 2, an apple is round. And you learn round is a distinct shape different from a triangle. Stage 3, an apple is round and smooth. And you learn that not only is this apple a distinct shape, but you also learn texture. If your blind for 100% of your life, how can you learn these concepts????

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   Daffy Duckposted 14 years ago

   Just because they can't see with their eyes doesn't mean that they can't see with their mind.

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   JGoulposted 14 years ago

   I'm sure they dream.  Blindness isn't caused (at least not usually?) by a defect in your brain, it's caused by problems in your eyes.  Since you don't dream with your eyes, I don't see why blindness would affect WHETHER you dream.  Now I imagine they would dream differently...  Don't blind people imagine how the world would look if they could see?  In that case, I'd guess they'd dream about the world as they imagine it.

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   fettyposted 14 years ago

   Not being blind myself,  I have been told that some blind people even dream in color! They have imaginations and their other senses work overtime, remember.

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8. 61

   curiousxposted 14 years ago

   Good question - They sure do have dreams. However, there will be no pre-installed pictures like in a brand new computer. Let me try to explain why and how.
   
   If a blind since birth person claims to have seen something in his dream(say, a car), it's his own imagination of a car from what he has heard about cars till that moment. I think that they can visualize anything if they have touched it and felt it.
   
   There are blind artists who can draw faces just feeling by touch, the shape of the face. And there are artists who were born blind and became famous by their drawings. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_artists

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9. 78

   Man from Modestoposted 13 years ago

   Because the blind use their hands, ears, and smell to interface with the world, I expect that they would interact in a dream in much the same way.
   
   Also remember that most legally blind people are not 100% devoid of sight. So, I expect that whatever is perceived in shadow during the day might also become similarly represented in a dream.
   
   However, as a regular dreamer, I have dreamed in black & white, color, stick figures, cartoons, and also without any visual at all... just words from a dark screen.
   
   So, I imagine that a person's dreams are not limited to their own personal visual experience.
   
   ***
   
   Also, if one understands that dreams are not merely a creation of the mind... and that they can (& do) come from the spirit as well as from mind, then it is easy to understand that a person who is blind in the body remains capable of seeing in the spirit.

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