if someone is blind from birth how can they imagine something when all they know is darkness. how do you?

Question

describe a clour eg green or what a tree or a bird looks like

Answer 1

I have often wondered this. I came to the conclusion that they form a different kind of visual picture, made up of touch, smell, texture.....it is not how we see, but it is how a blind person senses or feels a thing.
When you see a blind person feel over a person's face, they must form some kind of "picture" which is not actually a picture but a "sense-picture" of how that person looks. Maybe they even have a sixth sense which intuits what kind of person it is, based on the timbre of the voice, the touch of their hand, etc. A fascinating but very sad concept.
On the other hand, I know that blind people appreciate music so much more than sighted people do, and also tastes and touch and textures.

Answer 2

Even for sighted people, a child is able to distinguish the colors because he was instructed to. How can he describe all the colors? What is his concept of the color green for example? Yet he could be taught and the imagery of green made possible. A blind person doesn't perceive only darkness. There are some dark colors, or shadows, muddy gray and the white light of course. So the blind person could be taught to imagine a tree or bird. All these instructions and assimilation of facts would be dependent entirely on his rich imagination and past experiences, as taught by his instructors. Take Andrea Bocelli, the Italian great opera singer. He has been born blind and yet he can read notes.

There are many blind poetry describing beautiful; sunsets better than sighted people.
Dipping their hands in warm water might indicate the word Red. Even with the stove burning. Cold water would be color blue.


I saw an interesting article written by a blind engineering student that might give you a partial answer to that, and I have included his article in the web site listed below.

Remember Helen Keller who couldn't see or hear, and she wrote books, and could learn just about anything and went to college while her assistant signed into her hands and she read it. She had a great imagination too, but below is the article that I wanted to bring to your attention.

Source(s):

http://www.applesforhealth.com/healthyfe

A blind person does have the other four senses for gathering information. They don't have a sixth sense. Their other perceptions are not sharpen to make up for their lack of sensory perception. Rather than, a blind person is more observant, pays more attention to details that we as sighted people take for granted.

Answer 3

their other senses are heightened, ie smell, touch etc.
but as for the descibing things it all takes time. for instance to describe a cloud you could put a ball of cotton wool in thier hand and tell them thats what a cloud looks like as they will feel thats its fluffy and light and then using your hands say 'its in the sky above you' and wave thier arms over their head. you can buy fluffy teddies and also farm yard animals to describe animals and and birds etc and after letting them feel a teddy 'bird' you could let them feel a feather and tell them thats what a birds skin feels like this is skin and use their own hand to touch thier own arm.
colours are slightly harder but not impossible, especially if the person can see say primary colours then you could say well pink is like a very light red.
blind people are not restricted in doing anything that sighted people can do other than driving.
they can even draw and paint for instance using wax crayon on paper they can feel where they have already drawn and within time they will be able to work out where a nose and mouth etc should go on the paper by feeling thier own face and their families.

My daughter is 6 months old and has bilateral optic nerve hypoplasia which means her optic nerves didnt develop in early stages of pregnancy, making her blind, which is how i know this.

Answer 4

Oh! sight has nothing to due with the persons imagination, you still dream, feel,love and see yourself as you want to be seen sight is only one sense this person is so much more than just sight not seen, the heart sees and gives you the most beautiful pictures and images.

Answer 5

Easy, a colour can be described, red can be a hot colour, blue cool, green fresh and white pure etc.

Answer 6

I don't think blind people do see darkness, one blind person once described it to me as trying to see out of the back of your head....they see nothing.

Answer 7

Ive often asked myself this question. they must have no concept of what colours look like or what anything is. They must be able to use their imagination i suppose to make things look the way they want it too or the way they feel it.

Answer 8

I think they imagine things through our voices. I think if you describe things to them very detailed they can imagine what it looks like. Maybe their imagination is diffrent from what those who have seen .

Answer 9

Dude I asked this in my philosophy class once and everyone laughed at me. It just shows that you're thinking outside of the box.
I think its all sensory perceptions

Answer 10

have you tried asking a BFB (blind from birth) person this question. Try www. whatthef**kisit.com (without the**) this should help