Maia,
What is your conception of a triangle, having never seen one?
I have very good spacial awareness and can imagine its shape very easily.
Can you describe that imagining (besides a mere repeat of the definition)?
If you say something with a shape, such as a triangle, it immediately pops into my head. More generally, I’m very aware of spacial geography, and have a very good memory of the layout of places I know. Here, at home, I know exactly where everything is.
In another thread, someone had mentioned that one can only imagine a triangle due to seeing one. To a sighted person, visual and spacial are nearly identical with the exception of color and brightness (which I suspect would be analogous to tone and loudness to the blind).
Whoever said that was very much mistaken. Spacial awarness is crucial to how I navigate my way around the world.
I would think so, but was curious if you had some other kind of experience relating to geometric shapes. I couldn’t figure what it would be, so I thought I would simply ask. Thanks.
At school (I went to a residential school for the blind) we had all sorts of models of shapes and things, including geometric ones.
Maia
I cannot understand that at all lol, i had thought that quite a lot of what we see is produced after the brain has calibrated visual info. That is how visual illusions work, the brain composes the images we see?
I see emptiness as different to visual seeing, if all light is cut out [in say a blacked-out dark room] i am left only with emptiness ~ which i had previously not considered to be seeing as such.
Do you not see all the senses as aspects of the one sense? scientists can allow people to see [a bit] using their ears or even tongue, this also affirms that vision is at some level internal.
I don’t even know how you can know what colour and brightness is?
This is all very important to science and philosophy imho. …and you hold the key a bit, so any descriptions you can give is very helpful if thats ok. 
_
Vision is processed in the brain by the visual cortex, but my visual cortex is completely inactive, since it has never received any input. I’ve had cat scans than confirm this.
So basically I don’t see anything at all, not even darkness or emptiness.
All my existing senses do function as one, in a way, as they are all co-ordinated by my brain. I’m sure that’s the case with everyone. I haven’t heard of being able to see with ears or tongue, perhaps such experiments were conducted on people with a functioning visual cortex.
I don’t know what colour or brightness is. I know the physics behind them, obviously. I can’t imagine them, though.
I’m happy to try and describe my experiences as much as I can, but ultimately, I’m not sure it’s possible.
Maia
Very interesting.
Nope i cant understand that at all. 
When i use meditation [and dark rooms] to cut out visual input, i am left with the perception of emptiness. It has no discernible depth but it is there, or ‘something is there’, and i equate it also with the infinite ~ or at least as near as ones mind can get. i know that sleep and coma states can be without worldly perception, so i can only assume your lack of working visual cortex is blocking you from perceiving emptiness. Its just unexpected to be conscious and at the same time be in a subconscious state in some way as you are.
So when you visualise a shape it is not in a three-dimensional space? Or can you describe your perception of an object?
I can perceive an empty space and emptiness very easily, but I can’t see it, which is what you asked. I perceive it other ways, echolocation for example. You seemed to think that because I can’t see, I must therefore see blackness or emptiness or something, which isn’t the case.
I don’t visualise shapes, but I do imagine them, and they are always in three-dimensional space. I have very good spacial awareness. When I think of an object I have a mental 3d model of it in my mind.
I didn’t read the whole thread, but many people don’t need to close their eyes to sleep… in fact they can even go into REM and dream with their eyes wide open.
I do not think that you would be able to find even a single such person, not to say about many. That would be no less than discovery to find such a person, who would be able to sleep with open eyes.
I think that should read the whole thread.
with love,
sanjay
I have seen people sleep with their eyes open before.
Sleep-walkers for sure. But I actually knew a guy named Ethan that didn’t even close his eyes to try to go to sleep, and he was just fall asleep with his eyes open. I stayed the night at his place many times and saw it in person.
Maia
Ok thanks. As i had considered it so that everyone could see emptiness, it was difficult for me to comprehend emptiness as not being there for you. i kinda thought one required spatial awareness in order to perceive depth and dimensionality generally.
Wow, nirvana sounds really shit now. 
I have very good spatial awareness, and can tell the size of a room I’m in, for example, by echoes.
It is hard for me to conceive of a space without it being a visual concept, even though I can understand that vision is not really necessary. Space = the picture of space … 
Probably just as hard as it is for me to imagine what vision is like, though not through want of trying.