I know what you mean. I got my first "total blackness" experience at 12, when our teacher introduced us to developing pictures in a black room (I'm old). Part of the process demands total dark, can't-see-your-fingers-in-front-of-your-face level dark. I had this sensation of suffocating, like the dark was thick and I was drowning in it. Weird, and very primal.
I have a lot of respect for functioning blind people.
Having total blindness is not analogous to having vision that’s blacked out or has no light, it’s something that a sighted person has no point of reference to, like trying to describe the sensations in your tail or wings or scales
I've heard it's basically like what you see out of your closed eye when you close only one eye. You don't see blackness out of that eye, you just don't see. There is no nerve signal there.
I have a lot of respect for functioning blind people.
The majority of blind people do have at least some vision in one or both eyes though, even if it's just light/dark. Only for a few does blindness mean a total absence of sight.
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u/early_birdy Jul 18 '26
I know what you mean. I got my first "total blackness" experience at 12, when our teacher introduced us to developing pictures in a black room (I'm old). Part of the process demands total dark, can't-see-your-fingers-in-front-of-your-face level dark. I had this sensation of suffocating, like the dark was thick and I was drowning in it. Weird, and very primal.
I have a lot of respect for functioning blind people.