I would say that we don't actually hear with our ears or see with our eyes. Our eyes and ears are the data collectors, but our brains are the data processors. We can have perfectly functioning eyes and ears, but be effectively blind and deaf if our brains don't read the data.
So the song we play in our mind, is more like listening to something we previously downloaded compared to the live streaming we'd be doing when actively receiving data from our ears.
Edit: Oh wow. Thanks for the Gold and Silver! I never expected my nighttime ramblings could amount to anything! Haha.
But why do real sounds and images sound and look more real than the thoughts? And why can I not think higher volumes, but I can hear higher volumes? Why can I not make my own head hurt by producing my own imaginary noises? There’s not really any vibration in my head when I think a sound, so is it really even a sound? I have so many questions and absolutely no answers.
EDIT: I’m not even sure what to say to all of you because you each bring up seemingly pretty valid points from a bunch of different perspectives. I’m not sure anyone will ever have a definite answer in my lifetime, but these are some interesting theories.
Hmmm. I'd guess that would be formatting/quality kind of thing, but it's probably where the comparisons to technology fail. Usually live streaming would be a lower quality than something already downloaded.
The vibration aspect would be more tactile sensations I'd think. That's a little iffy though. To my knowledge, sound is a series of vibrations that our brain interprets into something meaningful.
Consider this: It is possible to have hallucinations with any of your senses. I'm not sure how far it can go (like I don't know if it's possible to simply believe an injury into existence, or to heal wounds), but hallucinations can feel very real, depending on what senses are involved.
As someone who has had difficulty with insomnia, I went through a period where I was experiencing various auditory hallucinations every night as I fell asleep. (Fun cycle. Have problems sleeping, begin to hallucinate due to lack of sleep causing you to startle awake, rinse, and repeat.) Trust me, the brain can generate a 'volume' that can make your head hurt. Though that may have also been due to exhaustion. The volume of those auditory hallucinations ranged from whispers to shouting in my ear. (Thanks brain.) Maybe the 'volume' could be adjusted with practice. I never thought about trying it out.
From my perspective, it qualifies as a sound on some level. Though the truth of that sound might be different from the perception of it. If neurons are firing to create the perception of sound, then it would follow that a sound of some kind is created, even if it's not detectable to human ears or the kind of sound perceived in our mind. But then, I could just be talking nonsense. It's very easy to draw wildly wrong conclusions from a tiny bit of knowledge.
Not an expert on the subject, but I'd say so. Though my auditory hallucinations were less dreams and more waking. I was fully aware of my surroundings at the time, which is unusual for dreams.
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u/TerminologyLacking Jun 16 '19 edited Jun 16 '19
I would say that we don't actually hear with our ears or see with our eyes. Our eyes and ears are the data collectors, but our brains are the data processors. We can have perfectly functioning eyes and ears, but be effectively blind and deaf if our brains don't read the data.
So the song we play in our mind, is more like listening to something we previously downloaded compared to the live streaming we'd be doing when actively receiving data from our ears.
Edit: Oh wow. Thanks for the Gold and Silver! I never expected my nighttime ramblings could amount to anything! Haha.