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

[kemsit.livejournal.com]

I see different things when I close my eyes. Tonight, it was mostly just dark, with highlights of orange - a lot like my tortoiseshell cat, actually, who is mostly black with subtle streaks of orange.

But other times I have seen shapes, and sometimes there have been moving small bits, which my eyes can follow as they move away in one direction. The dark colors were the background, and the items in yellows or oranges.

And I, too, used to like to see the insides of my lids as they were red in the sun, usually while lying in an open field on top of a discarded mattress, feeling the gentle breeze.