brains, curious, visualization

[wispfox]

When you close your eyes, do you see something?


I was asked this at Thanksgiving, after a long conversation involving face blindness, the fact that I have no visual memory and only vague glimmerings - after a _lot_ of work - of visual imagination. My initial reaction was utter and complete confusion, to the point of asking if the person only asked to get that reaction from me. It was, in fact, a serious question, although the reaction was itself appreciated.

I see nothing at all. I didn't really consider that other people might see something.

Indeed, this makes me wonder if this is why I am so sound-oriented when navigating a dark room; at least some of the other people in the room apparently visualize the room they are in when their eyes are closed. And were, indeed, perplexed when I said that I _listen_ to get around places that I cannot see, in addition to feeling my way. In fact, making noise so other people know where I am actively interferes with my ability to not run into things, because I am no longer able to _listen_. (I can hear when I am near objects because the sound quality changes, especially walls and doors and such. Less so smaller objects, since they are not at my ear height, I suspect, and are less fully encompassing and thus causing echos that I can hear)

Comments

[randysmith]

Heee. Not that I need to know why you ask, but to answer the question: Sometimes. Sometimes I see stuff with my eyes open that isn't what's in front of me. It's never particularly confusable with "real sight", but I often (usually?) think in pictures or memories. As a random example, when I'm trying to decide on what restaurant to go to, I'll usually have a little camera scooting along the various streets of the towns in question (in memory) to remind me what the options are.

[randysmith]

To be clear about my original question: I did phrase it the way I did in order to sound whacked, but it was a serious question that had to do with visual memory and your instinctive use of it. I can also see nothing with my eyes closed (or some equivalent of dajt's answer), but I often don't; if I don't have visual input, I imagine things visually. I could imagine that the way I phrased the question (and thus the way you did) might confuse people other than you.