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

[starandrea.livejournal.com]

::blinks:: Oh, I didn't know you meant something that was actually there! Huh. Here is my immediate reaction: yes. I almost always see a gate ::shrugs:: When I close my eyes, I perceive a gate in front of my vision. There's space on both sides of it, the near and the far sides. Usually I can't make it open.

When I read the cut part of your post, I was like, "Oh! You mean the place where I am?" No, I don't visualize anything that's physically around me. When I try to imagine what's around me, say for the purposes of navigating in the dark, I perceive them as spaces. Objects, I mean, I "see" in my mind as spaces of different... I don't know, temperature or attractiveness or something.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

gate: huh! Neat. When you can open it, what's on the other side?

visualizing as objects/spaces: huh. Not quite sure I follow, but neat. :)