Blindness/Deafness

[Anonymous]

I'm just wondering...

Do blind people, at some times, have 'visions' or some of the sort? Or do they somehow 'sense' a ghost? Or is there anything about a deaf person suddenly hearing something really obvious without the use of hearing aids, cochlear implant or anything?

It's because, well, I'm profundly deaf myself... and I dislike noise VERY much, and I never wear hearing aids or anything like that - I prefer vibrations (Jazz is the best...) and I can hear dogs bark or bells ring - the low frequency kind. (And I really, REALLY hate little dogs which yaps NONSTOP)

When I was 11, my mother was brushing my hair, and of all sudden, I heard a dog bark very clearly, as if it was right next to my ear. I immediately asked if my mother had heard it, but she didn't. (note - she has perfect 100% hearing and can hear me open a chip pack from the other side of the house...) More than a few times, I would suddenly hear two people, talking very loud and fast, right next to my ear. Or, perhaps, at an odd time - in a library or an art gallery, or a forest, or far out into the sea, I'll hear music, and a voice singing very smoothly, like bells. It's really turned me off from going to forests on my own and swimming out in the sea. Hmm... and another time... I must note, I've never worn hearing aids, and if I do, people's voices sound just like static - bzZzzZZZzzZZzzzzZzZzz... and the only way I communicate is by lipreading, signing or writing it down. I was watching my cousin in a magic competition, when of all sudden, a voice just bounced in my ear - "MORRIS" - and it was like an echo, because I've always though of echoes to be vibrating, sounds like bells, bouncing off the walls. My father whom was sitting next to me hadn't noticed anything, and didn't hear the name "morris" at all during my cousin's performance. hmmmmmm.....

 

[Anonymous]

Crptolizard - I would guess that you were born hearing, since you can recognise spoken speech when you hear it. If so, and you lost hearing after the age of two or three, then the anomalous sounds you hear could be originating from somewhere in your brain - a kind of infrequent 'static' produced by the odd misfiring neuron. It could be similar to the noises that are heard in hypnogogic states, when you are half-asleep. Occassionally, I am woken up by loud bangs that seem to be inside my head - I have no hearing problems btw - that could be sue to a similar cause as your noises.
As for the question of blind people dreaming - if they were born seeing, then they are likely to have visual dreams. If they were born totally blind, then they have no visual references, no idea at all of what vision is, so no visual dreams.

 

[rynner2]

There's been an interesting series on BBC TV the last few mornings about our senses. Thet finished with a look at people who have (I won't say 'suffer from', since most of them were happy to have it) Synaesthesia.

People with this get an overlapping or mixing up of the senses, so some can hear colours, others taste words or see music. Sometimes a person would get one response to a number such as 7, but a different response to the word 'seven'. Words or letters could have associated colours or shapes.

Perhaps cryptolizard is somewhat Synaesthetic. As children, such people take this for granted, and only gradually learn that for most people the senses are much more segregated.

The BBC website has this , with a further link to more details.

 

[Anonymous]

Well cryptolizard I am also profoundly deaf since age of 11 due to meinningitis or however it's spelt I am a hearing aid user all my waking hours but like you did not like the sound produced by a hearing aid but have (had) to get use to it over the years due to education, work, fatherhood etc etc. I am a pathetic lipreader so have to rely on the hearing aids sound quality or sign language or written words as well.

Anyway when I first went deaf things were not quiet at all because my head was totally filled with noises and human speech this maybe due to the illness that had deafened me and I was recovering from at the time. I believe I heard speech fairly soon after but this did not seem to be the case and my head was full of sound such as music I heard at the time, the music became distorted as the time went on and kept playing over continously, none of this was annoying as it covered the lack of sounds due to my deafness maybe it was put there as a defence mechanism for that very reason, I still have sounds always playing in the back of my head but having heard them for over ten years have gotten use to it enough and never get distracted by them.

Annasdottir sound like she is on the right track if you were born hearing but were deafened early on in your life then maybe you are hearing things you heard wheb you were young, If you were born deaf then it is a little more complicated but hearing aids will do the same thing just at a crapper level than normal hearing as you brain will remember things, it happens to me as I like listening to music and will get much liked music played back inside my head for whatever reason.

What does morris mean to you anyway is it a part of your name, or a family members? Any more info on the sounds you hear and the specific situations would be of help but I think the only way to stop the sounds would be to wear hearing aids, but you do not seem to care for them, and I don't blame you!

 

[Anonymous]

Actually, I was deaf since I was born - genetics - same goes for my younger brother, but he never has ever experienced any of these.

And for hearing aids... when I was much younger, I used to go to speech threaphy, and it was always insisted that I wear hearing aids - and NONE of the words (cat, car, dog, pat, bat, etcetra) made sense - hearing aids don't work for some who are profundly deaf. (A little girl at my school, hearing aids don't cut it for her either, but she has this neat little instrument that helps her in her speech lessons - sort of like metal discs on her wrists that is connected to a kind of a walkie talkie which the threapist speaks into, and the metal discs vibrates - now, I can easily use that.)

As for Morris... I asked my cousin just a few hours ago about that event, and he told me that his friend was performing as well that night, and his name was Morris. (he won the competition, by the way)

Hmmm... I really only hear 'music' in certain places - say, out to the sea - but these music really varies. Far out into the sea, it's eerie, and at one time when I was younger, I thought it was the mermaids or sirens. In art galleries, more than often, I'll be around a certain painting - (in one case, it was Cimbaque's Madonna) and a strange music would just start up again, lasting for no fewer than 2 minutes.

Maybe it's like Rynner says... ?

 

[Anonymous]

Rynner certainly seems to be right especially if you have been deaf all your life.

I have never heard music according to the atmosphere I have been in it has always just been the same old unwanted noise that plays on continously, as I did not wear hearing aids much when I first went deaf then the sound could not be hidden by sounds from the hearing aids, the only moment I can remember feeling a particular atmosphere was when it was very cold and I was outside for some time there seemed to be a hiss and ticking every so often like a car radiator cooling down. If you are getting sounds in quieter places then you will just have to appreciate it if the sounds are triggered by certain paintings maybe they play along the same theme as the painting at least you hear music that ends rather than loops and dinsintergrates like mine does over many years.

The best research is to ask other deaf people if they have the same situations, I am sure that other deaf people have had similar things happen.

 

[rynner2]

Find could end 350-year science dispute
By Jane Elliott
Health reporter, BBC News

Who first taught a boy born deaf to speak?

The chance discovery of an antique notebook could have solved the 350-year-old British scientific mystery.

Alexander Popham was born deaf in around 1650 but his mother, determined to communicate with her son, hired two eminent scientists, John Wallis and William Holder, to teach him to speak.

Both claimed success in what became a celebrated scientific controversy.

Exciting discovery

The story was lent additional interest because the boy was the grandson of the notorious Judge Popham, who sentenced both Mary Queen of Scots and Guy Fawkes to death.

Now a yellowing, leather-bound notebook, found in a butler's cupboard in Littlecote House, Berkshire, a former home of the Pophams, appears to some experts to indicate that the methods of Mr Wallis were the key.

He was a renowned mathematician, deciphered enemy codes for Cromwell during the English Civil War and was also an expert linguist.

Philip Beeley, researcher in the faculty of linguistics and philology at the University of Oxford, and a world expert on John Wallis, said he had been fascinated by the book, which shows how Mr Wallis taught his charge.

"William Holder claimed to have been successful, but when you go into the method that he used, it was quite outlandish.

"He investigated the structure of the ear and worked on the hypothesis that the problem was the ear drum itself that had become relaxed.

"He felt that only when it was tight could it facilitate hearing and he set about an experiment beating a loud drum.

"Holder found that when he beat a loud drum near Alexander, he could hear other sounds, including people calling his name.

"He convinced a lot of people that he was successful."

'Evidence'

When Mr Holder was called away to take up another post, Mr Wallis took over.

"We have not known an awful lot about the approach John Wallis took," said Mr Beeley.

"All we do know is that he wrote a little bit about it and later on it became the topic of a grand dispute within the Royal Society, with claim and counter-claim.

"Up until now we have not been in a position to assess the validity of either claim.

"This find is potentially able to do this for us."

Mr Wallis's approach was to start by looking at how the tongue, palate and lips looked when certain vowel sounds were made.

He drew diagrams and used them to show Alexander how to form sounds.

From there, Mr Wallis used the same method to help him form words.

Mr Beeley said: "He starts out with a modern technique showing him how to produce sounds, and then he moves on from that to basic language constructions, with nouns and conjunctions.

"Having looked at the notebook, I am fairly sure this is a book that would have been on the desk while John Wallis and Alexander Popham were sitting together.

"We have evidence from his descendants that this instruction was successful.

"It helps solve one of the grand disputes of the Royal Society, and is quite unique."

'Strong stuff'

Sentences learnt by Alexander and detailed in the notebook include "I have a knife in my hand" and "I have mony (sic) in my pocket" as well as "I have a hat, on my head" and "I have a band about my neck".

Dr Beeley said he had no doubts that the notebook was genuine.

"I have to admit that before I had the notebook in my hands I had my doubts," he said.

"There have of course been occasions when people have been deceived, but I was very happy to see the notebook.

"And now I have no doubt. I know John Wallis's hand and style and can say without any doubt that I am certain it is genuine."

Keith Moore, head of library and archives at the Royal Society, said the notebook was a fantastic find.

"It adds historical detail and any manuscript of this period is interesting," he said.

"This is dated 1662 and right at the beginning of what we would call modern science.

"The Royal Society was founded in 1660 and this is an early example of the practical applications of scientific methods."

But he said it was unlikely to settle the dispute about who taught Alexander to speak, adding that the most important detail was the science itself.

"Holden virtually accused Wallis of stealing his ideas and that smacks of plagiarism in science. It is pretty strong stuff," he said.

"It does not matter whether it solves it - the Popham case was the beginning of a more scientific approach to therapy.

"They were thinking about language and grammar, about the physiology of how people spoke and that is the important thing really.

"It is about applying scientific method and whether you think Wallis was first or Holden was first doesn't really matter."

Dr Beeley hopes that the book is stored in a library like the Bodleian, but the hotel chain, Warner, which now owns Littlecote, is deciding whether to keep it on display in the house.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7511446.stm

This discovery makes an interesting coincidence for me - in the latest whodunnit I'm reading, the victim is a deaf girl, and much of the investigation naturally concentrates on how this affected her life and death.