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A person born blind smoking DMT?

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I think they would be able to describe it almost as well as we would, which is not very well at all. It is a totally alien experience to people who aren't blind as well! But for me, the DMT experience seems to take place totally in my mind's eye. It doesn't seem to be related to my physical eyes at all, but rather its more like something i'm "seeing", but with my mind.
 
Everything that you see is your minds eye. What you call reality is your brains interpretation of input from the retina. You never see the external world but only your brains interpretation of it. The room you are sitting in right now exists inside of your brain. Everything you know see, smell, taste touch, these are all created by your brain. Normally in normal mind states we assume that these interpretations correlate with some external physical world. On hallucinogens or electrical stimulation of the brain we can create new experiences that do not correlate with any information in the "external physical world." You are right that it is hard to describe the experience but never the less we can use some linguistic symbols to explain some of the experience such as squares, or colors, arebesque patterns, faces. One who is born blind has never learned to connect the linguistic symbols with the visual experiences (as they have none). Thus they would NOT be able to describe what they are seeing as they have no words to describe it. People with vision at least can attempt to explain the experience and there is no question that certain visual images represent shapoes, aliens, eleves... these visual experiences we have learned through our culture to associate with linguistic symbols. One who has never seen could not possibly all of a sudden know what an elf or an alien looks like or even a color one needs visual experience to learn these associations. Additionally the visual system requires sensory input to form and function properly. Thus it is very unlikely that an individual born blind would see the same imagery that an normal subject would. As there brain simply is not wired in this way and thus it is virtually impossible. That is not to say that they wouldn't see anything but it would certainly not be as complex as one with vision. Think about it a color is a completely subjective experience. Someone born blind takes a hallucinogen and suddenly sees a color he has no word for that experience in fact he wouldn't even be able to categorize it as even belonging to the linguistic concept called a color. It may be possible to teach him some symbols (not a color)however even this would be difficult because there is no way for us to know what he is seeing and as he would have trouble explaining it. Maybe through art although it would be quite difficult for a blind person to draw. Meaning if they drew a face we could tell them that is a face.
 
I saw a man who was born blind in middle-east. This person appeared in discovery channel, he was a very talented painter, he paints landscapes. So scientist put him into a brain scanner to see if visual areas of the brain where lighted when painting. They discovered that people who suffered blindness from birth still have visual perspective.
This is because the eyes are just as windows, the images are processed inside your brain. The fact is that you have your eyes closed when dreaming.
 
As this man has never seen a landscape how is he painting them? How does he know what a tree looks like? (maybe he is associating his somatosensory experiences with his drawings although I don't know how he would have depth perception...) How does he know which colors to use? One has to look deeper regarding things they see on TV. It seems very likely that some one taught him how to draw in which case I do believe a blind person can be taught how to draw land scapes that look incredible however that doesn't mean he truly understands and has visual experiences. The reason for the activity in the visual regions of the brain. First of all brain scans can be made to tell you whatever you are looking for. Assuming this is not the case it is well known that in blind individuals the visual regions of their CNS takes on other functions. So when this man is asked to imagine a landscape he does so in a somatosensory-auditory way (maybe based on how he would draw it) and since his visual regions are involved in this experience they light up. That does not mean that he is seeing a landscape rather that his brain is highly efficient and has utilized the visual regions for other sensory modalities to construct his world view. Some people who have been born blind (retina damage)have been made to see later in life. These individuals have to learn what they are seeing and have great difficulty initially. I understand that it is the brain which creates visual experience however in a normal subject the correct functioning of this system requires sensory input as a child to function properly. Dreams are typically altered even in individuals who become blind later in life.

You need to be skeptical of these types of HEAD LINE stories many times people do not look deeper as they want an interesting story rather than the reality of the situation. There is no way this man could have taught him self how to draw unless he was born with some vision.
 
I am not trying to come off as a dick. I just have a science background and thus have been conditioned to be very skeptical of things I hear. I never believe anything I hear until I read the report and determine if it is scientifically and logically flawless. Many times headlines on the news are exaggerations or misinterpretations of the evidence. In this case the authors did not investigate deeper probably because it makes for a fascinating story as is.
I believe that even people born blind can have some types of visual experiences however 1) they can not explain it (as they have not learned the linguistic symbols to associate there subjective experiences with) and 2) they are not as complex as ours (as complex imagery requires learning and immense rewiring of the brain from birth. and thus sensory input which they do not have) Check out this article.

The Myth of Perception;
How Your Brain Can Make You Sick

Once in a while, in the annals of medical history, a person who was nearly blind from birth has his or her sight restored by cataract or corneal surgery. In these cases, a striking inability to “see” many of the things that we see every day plagues these patients, even after their eyes are returned to normal. These people are reported to have particular difficulty seeing faces and the kind of depth that allows one to know how far away an object is.

For more:
 
bufoman said:
As this man has never seen a landscape how is he painting them? How does he know what a tree looks like? (maybe he is associating his somatosensory experiences with his drawings although I don't know how he would have depth perception...) How does he know which colors to use? One has to look deeper regarding things they see on TV. It seems very likely that some one taught him how to draw in which case I do believe a blind person can be taught how to draw land scapes that look incredible however that doesn't mean he truly understands and has visual experiences. The reason for the activity in the visual regions of the brain. First of all brain scans can be made to tell you whatever you are looking for. Assuming this is not the case it is well known that in blind individuals the visual regions of their CNS takes on other functions. So when this man is asked to imagine a landscape he does so in a somatosensory-auditory way (maybe based on how he would draw it) and since his visual regions are involved in this experience they light up. That does not mean that he is seeing a landscape rather that his brain is highly efficient and has utilized the visual regions for other sensory modalities to construct his world view. Some people who have been born blind (retina damage)have been made to see later in life. These individuals have to learn what they are seeing and have great difficulty initially. I understand that it is the brain which creates visual experience however in a normal subject the correct functioning of this system requires sensory input as a child to function properly. Dreams are typically altered even in individuals who become blind later in life.

You need to be skeptical of these types of HEAD LINE stories many times people do not look deeper as they want an interesting story rather than the reality of the situation. There is no way this man could have taught him self how to draw unless he was born with some vision.
Click to expand...

I couldn't say it better.

By the way I remember my trip with san pedro cactus (mescaline). It was on a night of fullmoon, I saw colours like red dots in plants that were just dark green, saw textures over stones and I felt them when touching them, but this textures were not there at all. Also I felt synesthesia (visit wikipedia for info).
 
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