Re: Perceptual symbol systems

From: dan michaels (feedbackdroids_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 08/15/04 

Date: 15 Aug 2004 11:18:17 -0700

Wolf Kirchmeir <wwolfkir@sympatico.ca> wrote in message news:<tFtTc.38862$Mq1.2216042@news20.bellglobal.com>...

> Re: dreams of the blind:
>
> The little reading I've done on blind people's dreaming suggests that
> those who become blind late in life dream in visual images, while
> congenitally blind people don't. That is, that's what their reports
> about their dreams imply. (Also, keep in mind that blind doesn't
> necessarily mean "unable to detect light." Blindness isn't an either-or
> condition, but a continuum.)
>

This sounds reasonable. The congenitally blind never learned to see
correctly in the first place. One suspects dreaming uses many of the
same internal pathways used by normal visual processing, so if those
internal pathways weren't set up correctly in the first place, then
neither vision nor dreaming works properly. With dreams, of course,
the [mental] images have an internal rather than external origin.
===============

> NB that reports about dreams are most detailed when the subject is
> wakened during or immediately after REM sleep, and become less so later.
> Most people do not remember much about their dreams - so little in fact,
> that many people claim they don't dream all.

Yes, of course. I've read this, and also experienced it firsthand many
times. I dream very vivid dreams, but if I wake up directly from one
[which I tend to do almost every day], and don't immediately "think"
about or review the dream [usually result of drowsiness upon waking],
the content completely disappears within secondsm, and I cannot recall
anything about it a minute or two later. OTOH, if I catch it soon
enuf, I can consciously review many parts of the dream in sequence.
Another fun experience is to wake up from a dream, and then
immediately nod off again, and have the dream start back up. Another
common experience is to wake up from a dream, and then lie there in a
"semi-conscious" state, and the dream [or something similar] will
continue. Internal mental imagery is a wonderful part of human nature.

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