Haben Blinde Menschen Optics?

Seeing is an integral part of perception for most people, but by far not the only meaning available to man. Hallucinogens usually act on the whole perception, thinking and feeling.

Whether or not blind people have visual pseudo-hallucinations under the influence of such substances seems to depend on why they are blind. There are various causes for and also expressions of blindness. Whether the eyes are affected or directly the visual cortex and whether they are from birth to blind or only blinded during life.

The man, who is referred to as “Mr. Blue Pentagon” after his favorite kind of LSD, gave researchers a detailed account of what he experienced when taking the drug during his music career in the 1970s. Mr. Pentagon was born blind. He did not perceive vision, with or without LSD. Instead, under the influence of psychedelics, he had strong auditory and tactile hallucinations, including an overlap of the two in a form of synesthesia, according to the report.

“I never had any visual images come to me. I can’t see or imagine what light or dark might look like,” Mr. Blue Pentagon told the researchers. […]

The visual cortex develops into a fully functioning system during early life in response to sensory information from the eyes. But in the absence of early visual experience, which is the case for people born blind, the visual cortex doesn’t develop normally. Instead, it rewires to process sound and touch.

→ https://www.livescience.com/62343-psychedelics-lsd-effects-blind-people.html

14/20 non-congenitally blind (lost after sight) birth experienced visual hallucinations. 7/14 hallucinated in color, 7/14 in black and white. 0/4 congenitally blind (blind since birth) experienced visual hallucinations. There was thus a higher incidence of auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory hallucinations in both the non-congenital and congenital groups compared to sighted people.

→ https://www.erowid.org/references/refs_view.php?ID=2205

Further:

• https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinn_(Concept)
• https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/LSD#Subjective_effects
• https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindheit