What Do Blind People Actually See?

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Imagine you wake up in the morning and head straight to search for your phone, but today you can't see anything. You try to rub your eyes, but still can't see. You panic and scream, "Mom!"

[00:00:13]Oh, this was my worst fear growing up.

[00:00:16]What if I went blind? How would I do my small daily tasks? How would I watch movies? How would I travel? My whole life would be over. But this is the reality for millions of people. You know, humans are like curious monkeys.

[00:00:33]You know, some people look wise, but mainly we have this habit of searching for things for no reason. So, we all have that late night thought. What do blind people actually see? How do they even imagine things if they've never seen anything? Are their thoughts black and white because they've never seen color? Like seriously, if you keep asking these questions, some of you are definitely going to hell. So there is a misconception or basic logic that blind people see exactly what we see when we close our eyes. But that's not exactly true. There are hundreds of ways you could go blind, and each one is worse than the other.

[00:01:14]We mostly think of people who lost their vision later in life, maybe in an accident, from a disease, or from watching too much screen time, according to my mom. They lose their vision in different situations. So, what each person experiences is also very different. Think about it this way. You just lost your vision. When you open your eyes, you see a blurry world with lights, but can't make out anything clearly. You can't tell if it's Batman or some guy robbing you with a mask on.

[00:01:42]Or some may see a dark blurry spot right in the middle of whatever they're looking at. So, your crush doesn't actually have a big hole in her face.

[00:01:50]But sorry, you just went blind. These are the most common types of blindness depending on the condition. But you're not here for that. You are here for the elbow thing. You've heard this a lot on the internet. Try looking through your elbow or the back of your head. And whatever you see is what blind people see. And many of you get confused about how dumb that sounds. But imagine if you were blind from birth and no one told you it wasn't normal. Because people who are blind from birth don't experience darkness. They experience something way weirder than that. Here's the thing.

[00:02:27]Words like see, look, watch, those don't exist at all for them. Not until society shows up and says, "Hey, you're missing something." It's like if everyone on Earth was born without eyes, nobody would think anything was wrong. No one would be considered disabled. The world would just be built differently. And then imagine an alien who can see through walls with his third eye, but we can't. Thinking, "Damn, these guys can't even see who's drinking in the next room." Pity. That's exactly what's happening. The person born blind isn't experiencing darkness. They're just experiencing they're normal. When we close our eyes, we see darkness because we already have the concept of light and the absence of light. But people who are blind from birth don't know about the presence or absence of light. They just feel things through other senses, touch, taste, hearing, smell. So when they're in front of something, their mind directly asks their ears or nose, "What's that?" Their version of visuals is not in pictures but in other senses.

[00:03:33]And that's the exact power of Daredevil.

[00:03:35]Seeing through other senses. But we still haven't answered the elbow thing, have we? So seeing doesn't exist for them. There is no concept of seeing through your elbow because that sense simply doesn't exist for us. Try this.

[00:03:50]Close your eyes. Point your elbow to the left and try to see what's there through your elbow. You feel nothing. No lights, no colors, just a non-existent feeling.

[00:04:02]For another example, try to smell something through your fingers. What did you smell? Nothing. Because that sense doesn't exist. This sounds obvious, but blind people can't see. No kidding, Sherlock. But literally seeing darkness is also seeing something. So the conclusion is people born blind don't know what seeing means or what it's like. Their whole attention lives in other senses. Now finally to clear up another common question. What do they dream about? I'll keep it short like my last relationship. People who lost their vision later in life dream just like us.

[00:04:44]Pictures, colors, everything. It's like they're using old footage. They can also imagine and think in pictures because they already have the concept of sight.

[00:04:54]But people who were born blind literally dream with smells, touch, and sounds.

[00:05:00]Exactly what they experience during the day. That's how they dream, too. So, next time someone asks what blind people see, you'll say they don't see. And next time you close your eyes and see darkness, just remember that darkness, that's actually a privilege. Like the video if your elbow still can't see anything.