HOW THE BLIND DREAM.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 18, 26 February 1914, Page 5

HOW THE BLIND DREAM.

SHAPE, SOUND, BUT NO COLOUR. Arising out of Mr Baymond Blathwayt's recent enquiry in the " Daily Mail,:" "Can a blind man dream?" a most interesting interview was given in the " Pall Mall Gazette'' _ gentleman blind from birth, therefore, has no memory of things seen to, supply the images of. his fancy. , T This is Mr Bonner, who is engaged at the offices of the Dictaphone Company, in Kingsway. "The blind do dream," he said. "I have dreamed.- I have in my dreams been pursued by animals —strange animals, perhaps, animals of my pwn ; imagination:'. Of colours I have never dreamed; I *do not know what colour is unless black is a colour and white is a colour. My dream animals are just shapes and forms. Of course, we blind learn much from mpdels, and when I have learned the form of a horse I can, and do, dream of a horse, not as an animal of colour, but as a form. I have dreamed of a battle, with all the noise and flashes. You may wonder how I know what a flash is. Like other boys, I have had blows on the head, followed by showers of stars and flashes of light. A sighted person can close his eyes and see flashes in similar circumstance, and that convinces me that what a sighted person regards as a flash I can also regard as one. People can only dream of what has been stored in their memories; but, curiously perhaps, I can imagine what is meant by white. Why, I cannot say—l cannot explain." "Is fear often present?" Mr Bonner was asked. That is somewhat difficult to The blind cannot fear anything they have not seen and cannot see. I have been, in my dreams, con'scious of a fear of sounds, of obstacles, and have run away from them. Once I dreamed that I was falling down a well, but a well t® me is a hole. The blind have a fear of holes, but they never fall into them. Nobody has known of a blind man falling into a hole. It. is strange, but some instinct seems to tell them of their peril. "I have felt no fear of any particular thing, and have never seen or looked for any particular thing. Were I told that a lion stood in my path, I do not think I could fear it; but if it soared j could, and would, rush away.''