Do Blind People Dream?

Jason English
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I've previously mentioned our semi-thriving Facebook Group. On the group's Wall, a reader named Blake wrote this question:

"Hey all you knowledge junkies, I just had a question that I thought might receive some informed answers here. Do congenitally blind persons dream? And if so, what do those dreams consist of? I know the easiest means to find out would be to ask a blind person, but my lack of blind acquaintances inhibits that solution. THANKS."

I found a 1999 study titled "The Dreams of Blind Men and Women: A Replication and Extension of Previous Findings," attributed to Craig Hurovitz, Sarah Dunn, G. William Domhoff and Harry Fiss. Here's an excerpt from the abstract:

"Drawing on a sample of 372 dreams from 15 blind adults, this paper...revealed that those blind since birth or very early childhood had (1) no visual imagery and (2) a very high percentage of gustatory, olfactory, and tactual sensory references."

There are probably other studies with differing abstracts. So let's open this up to the blind community. If we have any blind folks in the audience, or if you have a blind person in your house, let us know whether these findings ring true. We'll also accept insight from the simply smart and sighted community.

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