Can the blind have dreams?

[tower55]

I have always wondered.......lets say a person is blind at birth, as they get older, can they dream? I would assume no pictures of things but can they dream in sound?

I can up the question even a bit more. Say a person is born without sight or hearing. Can THAT person have dreams?

Jon

[silvercamaro]

Absolutely, yes. Dreams can be formed with whatever senses are available to form perceptions, combined and magnified by imagination beyond whatever is familiar to the dreamer. That includes smell, taste, and touch, which the sightless also use to form ideas about size, weight and temperature as well as texture.

Although I am not sightless, I have had some particularly vivid dreams that featured remembered and beloved smells, the feel of unique textures on my fingertips, and music I've never heard while awake. Like nearly everybody, I presume, I frequently dream about places and living creatures that I've never seen and may not exist.

[tower55]

I am *NOT* saying you are wrong but......I find it tough to believe that a person (any person) can have smell and/or the feeling of TOUCH in dreams.

Jon

[silvercamaro]

I am *NOT* saying you are wrong but......I find it tough to believe that a person (any person) can have smell and/or the feeling of TOUCH in dreams.

Jon

I have been lucky.

[tower55]

I'll make up an example. Lets say you are dreaming that you are standing next to an apple pie, fresh out of the oven. You may REMEMBER that smell but you can not LITERALLY smell apple pie.

Jon

[Bob Juch]

I'll make up an example. Lets say you are dreaming that you are standing next to an apple pie, fresh out of the oven. You may REMEMBER that smell but you can not LITERALLY smell apple pie.

Jon

That depends on what your sleeping partner ate before going to bed.

[silvercamaro]

I'll make up an example. Lets say you are dreaming that you are standing next to an apple pie, fresh out of the oven. You may REMEMBER that smell but you can not LITERALLY smell apple pie.

Jon

If you perceive the smell of apple pie in a dream, then you have had a dream that incorporates the sense of smell, even if apple-cinnamon-sugar molecules have not entered your nasal passages.
If you dream about standing in Times Square, you may remember seeing that place or photographic images of the location, but you don't literally see Times Square. What's the difference?

[tower55]

I guess its all in the wording. Remembering a smell is far different than a person saying....."in my dream last night, I smelled fresh apple pie".

That would be wrong (IMO) to word it like that.

Right or wrong, I find it a fascinating subject.


Jon

[silvercamaro]

I guess its all in the wording. Remembering a smell is far different than a person saying....."in my dream last night, I smelled fresh apple pie".

That would be wrong (IMO) to word it like that.

Right or wrong, I find it a fascinating subject.


Jon

I can't imagine being able to pick a date decades in the past or future and instantly calculate on what day of the week it falls, but because I can't do it, I don't presume to think that nobody else can. Similarly, I think it is limiting for you to believe that because you don't include the sense of smell or touch in your dreams that noone else does. Different brains work differently.

[etaoin22]

Here is what seems to me to be a reasonable descriptive study of the dream-experience of the blind.

http://www2.ucsc.edu/dreams/Library/hurovitz_1999a.html

The experiences correspond to Silver's hypothesis.

Apart from that, olfactory experience is reported as a part of brain disease; the smell of burning rubber can be a relatively early symptom of a brain tumour. Seizures in the temporal lobe can also yield olfactory sensory experience.

My own most peculiar sensory dream experience was hearing a Beethoven piano concerto which does not exist.

[silvercamaro]

Thanks for that link, etaoin. Most interesting. While reading the discussion about the frequency of "locomotion/transportation" dreams among the blind, I found myself wondering if flying dreams (my personal favorite category) were among the possibilities for those who do not see. I don't mean traveling by airplane, which other than at take-off and landing usually has not much different sensations than a smooth ride in a closed vehicle with wheels. I mean flying by reaching out and defying gravity, surging up and swooping down, and feeling the rush of air against one's exposed skin. For me, the view of whatever's in the dreamscape below is part of the thrill, but I wonder if the sensations of flight would be equally pleasurable or become terrifying without any visual reference.

[hermillion]

I often have dreams of being underwater, and panicking because I am about to drown. Then I inhale and find that I can breathe. After that, the swooping and diving, and the feel of the water rushing past are awesome.

SC, I'll ask my piano-playing buddy about his dream experiences.

[silvercamaro]

I often have dreams of being underwater, and panicking because I am about to drown. Then I inhale and find that I can breathe. After that, the swooping and diving, and the feel of the water rushing past are awesome.

SC, I'll ask my piano-playing buddy about his dream experiences.

Thanks! I should have thought of Brian. Maybe that's because in the limited amount of time I've been around him, he has seemed so smooth at everything he does that "blind" doesn't come into my mind right away. I first would have to exhaust a long list of complimentary adjectives to describe him before I ever could remember the challenges he has faced. I wish I could listen to the sound track of his dreams!

[TheConfessor]

Can colorblind people dream in color? Can black people and white people dream in color?

I don't know about smelling in one's dreams, but the Everly Brothers could taste in their dreams:
I can make you mine, taste your lips of wine
Anytime night or day
Only trouble is, gee whiz
I’m dreamin’ my life away

[littlebeast13]

I guess its all in the wording. Remembering a smell is far different than a person saying....."in my dream last night, I smelled fresh apple pie".

That would be wrong (IMO) to word it like that.

Right or wrong, I find it a fascinating subject.


Jon

How is that any different from remembering a vision of apple pie from your dream as opposed to saying "in my dream last night I saw an apple pie"? It is no different an illusion of smelling the pie in your dream as it is seeing it in your dream....

Do you know how many times I've been awakened by sounds that did not exist in the non-dream world?

lb13

[christie1111]

Great avatar LB!

Found it!

[littlebeast13]

Great avatar LB!

Found it!

Damn! Over an hour and a half delay between the post and the avatar, and it was still found right away....

Dreams really do come true!!!!!

lb13

[No Eye Deer]

I dream about getting my eyes back...

[Blind Beast]

I dream about getting my eyes back...

You can have mine!

[littlebeast13]

That's weird! I knew Mr T was a April Fools MM, but had no eye deer that Blind Beast was as well....

That is worth a HA!

lb13

[SportsFan68]

I guess its all in the wording. Remembering a smell is far different than a person saying....."in my dream last night, I smelled fresh apple pie".

That would be wrong (IMO) to word it like that.

Right or wrong, I find it a fascinating subject.


Jon

How is that any different from remembering a vision of apple pie from your dream as opposed to saying "in my dream last night I saw an apple pie"? It is no different an illusion of smelling the pie in your dream as it is seeing it in your dream....

Do you know how many times I've been awakened by sounds that did not exist in the non-dream world?

lb13

AAAAAAAAAAAAAIIYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

IT'S A NIGHTMARE!!!!!!




IT WILL NOT WIN!! IT WILL FINISH NEXT TO LAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111

[tower55]

I often have dreams of being underwater, and panicking because I am about to drown. Then I inhale and find that I can breathe. After that, the swooping and diving, and the feel of the water rushing past are awesome.

SC, I'll ask my piano-playing buddy about his dream experiences.

Ok, being underwater. You would agree, you are NOT wet during this dream, correct? If you have a dream that you burned your finger.......you wake up, your finger is just fine.

The ACTUAL smell of fresh apple pie has not penetrated a persons nose while dreaming.

Jon

[etaoin22]

I often have dreams of being underwater, and panicking because I am about to drown. Then I inhale and find that I can breathe. After that, the swooping and diving, and the feel of the water rushing past are awesome.

SC, I'll ask my piano-playing buddy about his dream experiences.

Ok, being underwater. You would agree, you are NOT wet during this dream, correct? If you have a dream that you burned your finger.......you wake up, your finger is just fine.

The ACTUAL smell of fresh apple pie has not penetrated a persons nose while dreaming.

Jon

The actual smell of fresh apple pie is a sensory experience; the molecules of whatever stuff is released from the pie penetrate the nose (although the verb "penetrate" is a little questionable to me, suggesting volition where no volition exists). If a tree falls in the forest when no one is around, there is no sound, because sound is a sensory experience. That's my POV these days.

[MarleysGh0st]

Ok, being underwater. You would agree, you are NOT wet during this dream, correct? If you have a dream that you burned your finger.......you wake up, your finger is just fine.

The ACTUAL smell of fresh apple pie has not penetrated a persons nose while dreaming.

Jon

Do you have some difficulty with the basic concept of dreaming, Jon?

None of the things you're dreaming about are really happening; you're asleep.

I didn't think that was ever in dispute.

[tower55]

"None of the things you're dreaming about are really happening" >>>

Yes, I agree. Its the second post that got this ball rolling, not from me.

Jon