[Note: I would
like to acknowledge the efforts of Maneckji F. Apoo; Clinical Psychologist, for
providing me with the necessary material. Aliya, Safirah and Adeel; with whom I
met in July 2010, for the first time while working as a volunteer at Ida Rieu
School and College for Blind and Deaf, for agreeing to an interview, without
which, this piece would not have been possible.]
How can a blind person dream? This is often asked by sighted people
who for the first time, come into contact with a visually impaired person. The first thing,
however, that usually comes to mind with respect to dream is the story of
Joseph, according to the ‘Book of Genesis’ as per the Judaic tradition, or
Hazrat Yousuf, name used by Muslims, who was sold into slavery by his jealous
brothers, but rose to become the second most powerful man in Egypt next to
Pharaoh because he possessed the gift of dream interpretation. Interestingly,
another historical figure known for dream interpretation was a prophet in Greek
mythologies, but was visually impaired, Tiresias.
The
present piece attempts to explore the dreams of a visually impaired person and
addresses the issues with respect to the attitude of the society towards the
visual impairment. The first step, however, is to understand the experiences of
‘sleep’ and ‘dreaming’ before moving onto this particular subject.
Understanding the Phenomena
Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary puts Sleep in the
category of Verb and defines it as ‘to
rest with your eyes closed and your mind and body not active.’ It, however,
puts Dream in the category of Noun and defines it as ‘a series of images, events and feelings that happen to your mind while
you are asleep.’
It is discussed in the Introduction
to Psychology (1983) by Rital L.
Atkinson, Richard C. Atkinson and Ernest R. Hilgard, that through
electroencephalogram (EEG) electrical activity of the brain can be monitored throughout
the night as a person first passes through the four NREM stages of sleep before
REM sleep is attained. Rapid Eye Movement (REM) is the sleep stage,
characterised by increased heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate;
erections; and the experience of dreaming.
Dreaming, however, should not be confused with ‘daydreaming’
which is a shift in attention to the fantasies instead of focusing on the task
at hands while being awake.
In the Introduction to
Psychology: Gateways to Mind and Behavior (2001) by Dennis Coon and John
Mitterer, theories on the topic of dreams have been discussed, starting from
Freud’s Unconscious wish-fulfillment
theory which proposes that dream represent unconscious wishes that a
dreamer wants to fulfill by manifesting latent content (disguised meanings of
dreams, hidden by more obvious subjects) and patent contents (the overt storyline of dreams) while asleep.
Alternative to Freud’s theory is Reverse-learning theory which suggests that dreams have no meaning
in themselves, but instead functions to rid an individual of unnecessary
information which is gathered during the day. Hobson’s Activation-synthesis theory tells that dreams are a result of
random electrical energy in which stimulating memories lodged in various
positions of the brain is weaved into a logical storyline.
Dreams-for-survival theory
suggests that dreams permits the reconsideration and reprocessing of the information
which is critical for an individual’s daily survival, during the sleep. Individual’s
survival can also closely relate to the understanding of the nightmares.
Nightmares, according to the
threat simulation theory, deals with evolution, proposing dreams as
an ancient biological defence mechanism, because the threat simulation during
dreaming rehearses the cognitive mechanisms required for efficient threat
perception and threat avoidance, thus, enabling a human mind to adapt to the threats
of life.
The answer, therefore, is in affirmative regarding a visually impaired persons being able to dream since dreaming is a normal state
of human conscience. However, true efforts can be made in the right direction
by understanding the process of dreaming by a visually impaired person.
Dreams of a Visually Impaired person
According to an article in
Sleepmedicine, researchers, in an observational study, divided the
participants into congenitally blind (CB), late blind (LB), and age-and
sex-matched sighted control (SC) who were asked to report sensory, emotional and thematic content of
their dreams, as well as a possible occurrence of nightmares, by answering a
questionnaire.
According to the results, blindness considerably alters the
sensory composition of dreams as CB participants reported more auditory,
tactile, gustatory, and olfactory dream components when compared to SC participants,
while LB participants, in contrast, only reported more tactile dream
impressions. Although visually impaired and SC participants did not differ with
respect to emotional and thematic dream content, CB participants reported more
aggressive interactions and more nightmares compared to the other two groups.
The nature of dreams highly depends upon the fact that
whether a person is, first, completely or partially visually impaired, and
second, whether visually impairment is since birth or occurred later in life.
Also, the age during which the process of losing the sight started and the experiences
of the waking life also aids in understanding the nature of the dreams. The same
conclusion was reached by Hurovitz, C., Dunn, S., Domhoff, G. W., & Fiss,
H. in their paper,
the dreams of blindmen and women: A replication and extension of previous findings, that those
who were visually impaired by birth or very early childhood, firstly, had no
visual images in their dreams, and secondly, gustatory, olfactory and tactual
sensory are extravagantly referenced.
The paper also quoted empirical realisations from the Psychology of Blindness by Kirtley,
Donald D. stating that those who become sightless between age five and seven
may or may not retain visual images in their dreams, but those who lose sight
before the age of five seldom experience visual images in their dreams. It
further stated that those who lost their vision after age seven continue to
experience at least some visual images but there are none in the dreams of
those born without any ability to experience visual images in waking life.
The discussion in Richard Catlett Wilkerson’s paper,
Dream of the Blind discusses Joseph
Jastrow’s work,
the dreams of the blind and
In Fact and Fable in Psychology, confirms
that those who go blind before the age of five to seven will not have visual
dreams. The discussion further analysed a letter by Helen Keller stating that
her haunting dreams ceases as she learned more about the objects around her,
that is, after her teacher came into her life.
The paper further discusses that the elaborative narration of
a visually impaired and sighted might remain constant, and that the
congenitally blind without a history of ‘form vision’ were able to represent
spatial relationships in dream experience without the visual imagery, while the
congenitally blind with minimal form vision saw in their dreams only to the
extent that they had been able to see in walking life.
The following visually impaired persons were asked to share the change,
if any, in the nature of their dreams, as experienced by Helen Keller
Aliya Fatima, a 20 year old female who is visually impaired since
birth and has light perception and colour awareness, discusses her nightmares
that she is running from something, for instance in a jungle with wild
animals, or saving herself from the kidnappers. She said that the nature of
her dreams changed when she became friends with a person of same age at her
educational institute. She also shared that she tries to control while
dreaming by trying to use more vision.
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Adeel Raja is a 24 years old male who is visually impaired
since birth with only light perception and a very less colour awareness. He
would usually be studying Arabic in his dreams which might be the result of
him studying Islamic Shariah (in his opinion) or is having a discussion on
Skype. He explained that his dreams have recently become like this as he has
experienced a great deal of change in his personality and goals, especially by
being able to discover what he is going to do in his future. According to
him, his dreams changed simply by changing his educational institution as he
is presently enrolled at Minhaj International University Karachi. His eyesight
was much better before the age of 18 and would see the interviewer in his
dreams with long hair which he had when they first met in 2010, since the eye
sight was much better than it is now in 2014. However, Adeel would recognise
the interviewer in his dreams through his voice.
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Safirah Bibi is an 18 years old female who is visually impaired
since birth with light perception and colour awareness but occasionally gets
confused with similar colours like blue and purple. When asked about her
dreams, she described that mostly she would experience that she is passing
through difficult paths like mountains, forests, water, snake pits etc. In
2012, she got the chance to visit USA via Youth Exchange Study Programme at
Kentucky where her goals, dreams and personality changed and she is now more
confident, socialises with people, and participate in different community
service related activities. She thinks that her present dreams in which she
sees herself struggling through difficult paths is the result of her trip to
Kentucky, USA. Previously, she used to dream about going out on a picnic with
her family.
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Adeel Raja (24 years)
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| Safirah Bibi (18 years) |
Living in the world of sighted
A world dominated by the sighted can be a cruel place for a
visually impaired person. A visual bias society would shun those who are
visually impaired, especially in a society like Pakistan, where a visually
impaired child is neither expected nor trained to perform in the outside world.
Condition is improving, but traditionally, the only task a visually impaired person
was entrusted with is to recite Quran by heart throughout his childhood and use
its verses to heal the people of the village for the rest of his/her life. As
far as educated people are concerned, the simple practice of using the term
‘visually impaired’ instead of the word ‘blind’ is neither encouraged nor taken
seriously. The former is a practical and a formal term with a much wider scope
than that of latter which is not only negative but is degrading in nature.
This attitude of visual bias further expands when it comes to
the dreams of the visually impaired person. Questions like, ‘how can a blind
dream’, or, ‘do they dream in colour or black and white’ are offensive as they
are backed by the thought that a visually impaired person is unable to perform
on a par with the sighted, which instead should have been that dreaming is a
normal activity of human brain, being part of the human conscience and has
nothing to do with being sighted or visually impaired. The proper question would only relate to the
contents of a visually impaired person’s dreams. There is also, however,
another extreme end which expects a visually impaired person to dream visual
images like a normal sighted person.
In the paper,
‘Do the Blind Literally “See” in Their Dreams? A Critique of a Recent Claim That TheyDo,’ by Nancy H. Kerr and G. William Domhoff, it has been discussed that
since visually impaired persons are capable of drawing two-dimensional figures,
sometimes even with similar depiction of depth, motion, perspective and other
characteristics to the drawings of the sighted individuals, it should not be
interpreted that a visually impaired person experiences visual images while
dreaming.
The paper further discusses that a visually impaired person sometimes
do employ visual language to describe their dreaming experiences, but if a
researcher fails to exclude metaphoric uses of visual terms, it would then most
certainly bias the results of the research. Phrases like ‘watching TV’ or
‘keeping an eye on things’ are an example of such a usage of visual language,
used to describe the waking experiences but do not imply a visual content.
Consequently, if a congenitally blind who could not perceive
light, cannot experience visual images while dreaming and, therefore, an
elaborative narration with the usage of visual language by such a person about
his dream should not be interpreted literally.
Thus, dreaming is a phenomenon which is experienced by
everyone and the human conscience is still being explored, but understanding the dreams of a
visually impaired person can assist their parents, teachers and mentors in
understanding their fears, learning experiences and goals, which is only possible through communication.
