What would be more beautiful without sight?

I imagine scent would become more beautiful.

I remember sleeping while my father was driving through the mountains of Colorado. I awoke when we stopped and opened the door to be pleasantly assaulted by the heavy scent of pine. It was penetrating.

I imagine the fragrance of warm skin would radiate all kinds of information.

Rain, such a complex array of sounds & a wonderful texture.
I was going to say Lionel Richie, but still.

I can’t imagine some music being any more beautiful than it already is, but maybe it might be without sight, the music might be so pure, beyond its normal purity… just because the music simply is… without anything else detracting from it.

I just don’t know. There are so many things in life that you simply cannot know or understand or know what it is like to experience it unless you have actually experienced it.

I am too biased with the world of sight to fully comprehend any beauty without it. However, there are certain songs where I like to go into a dark room, close my eyes, and just listen. In this way the songs have so much more power. I can’t fully explain it, but it’s like being in a dream. Although, even then my mind creates its own imagery for the songs, soooo I suppose that kinda defeats the point.

Bolywood movies?

That movie is At First Sight with Val Kilmer by the way. The part with the coke can is amazing. He was so used to not seeing that his brain had a hard time connecting the feel of the can with the sight of it. It overwhelmed him. Fascinating.

I think that the world can be a very ugly place. I don’t have any specific examples, but I’ll also say that people generally don’t like change. Imagine what a huge adjustment it would be to see for the first time in your entire life – how difficult it would be to wrap your mind around the idea that the world you’ve always lived in is totally different than you imagined it to be.

I once read a story about a man who served 25 years in prison and, after he was released, he wanted nothing more than to return back to prison, his cell, because he didn’t know how to live on the outside anymore. This is pretty common and I think it’s along the same lines as the blind thing. You’re comfortable with what you know.

Plus, something some people don’t think about with surgeries like that is that if the person has never been able to see, but now can, they also have to learn the alphabet, how to read and write, what colors are, etc. Imagine how frustrating and difficult that would be.

Now that I think of it, I do have an example – sex would probably be more beautiful when blind. When you lose one sense, the others intensify. A blind person is hyper aware of every caress, the smell of his or her lover, the sounds they’re making, etc. A lot of us close our eyes during intimate situations and “lose ourselves” in the feeling of being with our partner. I’m sure many blind people would love to look into the eyes of the person they’re with, but sex certainly wouldn’t be the same if they could.

I think that the world and life are beautiful with sight—more beautiful than they would be without it.

We had a former Jelly who was always touting the abilities and perceptions of his blind girlfriend. It opened my eyes – as it were – to the idea that blindness was a difference, but not necessarily a lessening, of experience. I would imagine that tactile events, such as making love, might be heightened by the loss of sight and certainly that auditory events could be enhanced. He used to say that she could tell from the sound which coin he dropped in the dark.

More beautiful? Less beautiful? Can beauty be quantified?

I think we appreciate things differently with different senses, and if we couldn’t see, the rest of our senses would be heightened in our brain’s attempt to comprehend the world. I could wax poetic about how that might occur, but I will leave that to others. Suffice to say that a heightened awareness of senses we are not used to using as primary information gatherers will be a much more intense experience than we might imagine.

@Hawaii_Jake I love those things with sight, maybe they would be heightened without it though.
@ucme Rain is marvelous. There are so many different types. And you can say Lionel Richie too I just might not agree.
@lillycoyote I love immersing myself in the complexities of music. It can be transcendent.
@McCool Yeah I am trying to think about things with sight. But what would I come into contact with and understand without sight. I think the world be more limited like fog and rainbows there is no way to describe them to the blind.
@fremen_warrior Lol
@livelaughlove21 And Val Kilmer used to my favorite actor, once upon a day. Thanks for the reminder. I have to agree and enjoy your perspective on the matter. People are odd creatures.
@marinelife I agree but then I don’t I mean you miss the colors of fall and apparel and the fog and the rainbows but you also miss the images that are shoved on us. The veneered and enamaled surfaces and people squeezed into imitations of supposed sexiness. I can see where that can be too loud and disconcerting. Where a worn chair that may be a little shabby maybe the nap is worn in the most used spots the cushions slightly dented are perfect without being reupholestered/recovered or replaced. Where a favorite garment is identified by a distinctive hole in the sleeve or a certain texture, not how good you think it makes you look. And all the city lights dancing screaming for attention are drowned by the dark and instead you feel a cool a breeze and hear the crickets and maybe a car passing by or two, an animal scurrying back and forth.
@janbb Isn’t it amazing what human’s can do? And yes sex seems the most concrete thing that we can say could be better.
@burntbonez Yes these terms are subjective and no doubt better descriptor’s could be used. All of which on some level would be subjective. And of course you are indeed very logical and correct in your statement. However, I was just trying to imagine and of course I fell short. Why because I like seeing different perspectives. Because I want to know and because maybe thinking about it brings new appreciation to the things that cannot be enjoyed by removing a sensory data collector.

One’s perspective would be more beautiful. One would be free of or have less prejudgements or biases that sighted people acquire related to what things/people are supposed to look like or appear.

@SABOTEUR your take is simple and all encompassing.
Maybe we can enlist the blind to help us see as we help them see..

You’re kind @rosehips, but it’s not my take. This is a principle that runs throughout teachings in zen and spirituality. It explains how man names things, superimposes a value to those things, then relates to the thing by the value he assigns to it instead of as it is.

I believe it’s Conversations With God that explains how words are the “least reliable form of communication” as words are” twice removed from reality”.

What Is. (reality)
My perception of what Is. (illusion)
My interpretation of my perception of what Is. (confusion)