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People Who Could See And Then Went Blind Reveal What It's Like

Once I was blind.... and NOW I see....

Seeing is a gift. Most of us feel that the sense of sight is a given. But so many people lose the ability to see, which is tragic. Being able to see then suddenly not is a hell unto itself, whether permanent or temporary. IaF you're reading this.... BE GRATEFUL!!

Redditor u/HiddenLayer5 wanted to hear from those who have lost their gift of sight by asking... People who could see but went blind, what's it like? Is it like being in perpetual darkness or something else?


Just One...

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I lost an eye as a child. It is not darkness, it is nothing. What do you see with your elbow? That's what I see with my prosthetic eye. Noctudeit

The Darkness...

Oh, I can answer this. I had some neurological issues when I was younger. Once or twice this resulted in a brief but total loss of vision because my brain stopped processing the input from my eyes or something along those lines.

It's nothing. You don't see darkness. It's just nothing. Best way to describe it would be like you're trying to see out of your kneecap. There's nothing to see because your kneecap isn't sending information about sight to your brain. Or it's like asking you to tell me how I look in the infrared spectrum right now. There's no real words to describe the sensation of lacking a sensation, because it's an oxymoron.

Keep in mind too that there's different kind of blindness. What I described is probably similar to the experiences of people who were born blind because of issues with their nervous system. Other people can go blind due to degeneration of the mechanics of the eye itself, which I'd bet is much different. American_Phi

I'm Going Blind! 

Someone legally blind, not going blind ...

I have several friends who are going blind, and they seem to fall in to two camps.

  1. Their brain tries to fill in the blanks in their blind spots, and it's just a lightly blurred section that they know not to trust.
  2. It's just blank, as if nothing is there, light or dark. They can't perceive anything particular there, as it's beyond their ability to see anything there. BARDLover

The 20/60 Issue....

I am legally blind in my left eye. It is a problem with how my eyes lined up as a kid, and my brain decided to ignore my left eye. I wore a patch off and on as a kid and had vision as good as 20/60 before it progressively got worse. I honestly hardly notice it. I had a pretty distinguished career in the military despite it, including shooting top gun often. I always felt bad because I could never do drills some people could, such as shooting with non-dominant hand, at least without some awkward head lean, I suppose.

Given that it is one eye, I just experience the world crystal clear with my right eye. When I got metal in that eye, I drove to the hospital, and it was incredibly brutal. I could see the red of a light, but couldn't really gauge distance. Dhoy1

Look Forward.....

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Stare at a wall. Now try to look out of the back of your head without moving an inch. All that nothing behind the headband of your vision is what they see. Nothing. polyjeans

The Kink....

I've always suffered from severe short sight. Then when I was pregnant with my youngest child I was diagnosed with wet macular degeneration. It manifested as a "kink" in my vision. So (in the one eye I can sort of see out of, the other is redundant due to an extremely severe astigmatism) there's this kink in the world now. The world I see anyway.

I've also been diagnosed with cataracts which means my sight is now like looking through a fog. It can be hugely frustrating. I can't read to my children anymore and that breaks my heart. I'll be having surgery to remove the cataracts in the next couple of months.

I've just been registered as disabled due to my sight loss. This hit me hard. Really hard. I've always been independent and having to ask my 4 year old which bus is coming (amongst other things) is a bitter pill to swallow. So, I see a kind of kinky fog right now. I don't know what will happen when I lose my sight entirely. I do know that the thought of it is utterly terrifying. Lilasskicker123

Migraines....

I'm seeing a lot of total blindness answers, so I'll provide my experience....

I experience ocular migraines related to inflammation surrounding one of my ocular nerves. When I get the migraines, I lose all peripheral vision in one eye and can only see pinpoint in that eye for about 20 minutes and then I'm sick in bed for at least a day. What I do see aside from the pinpoint, is this lightening-strike zig zag that slowly moves across my field of vision, and blurred colors in the peripheral field. My brain doesn't want to really process what colors I see, though.... its weird. scoobledooble314159

The Flicker....

Ok, so my eyes are screwed up in a weird way.. I can't see thing that flicker fast, like under florescent lights. this means I'm effectively blind in most grocery stores. for .me, it's weird as hell I either see blinding white that's so bright I HAVE to close my eyes to dim it, or it's as dark as if the lights were off (Walmarts are 'fun' because there's little to no other light sources) so for me, it's a near daily experience going from sighted to non-sighted and all the fun that ensues with that. gartral

Looking for Anything....

Sort of transient blindness I guess that some might find interesting. I get severe migraines with an atypical visual disturbance (aura). Instead of squiggly lines and such, I lose parts of, or all of my vision. Things like tunnel vision or missing spots of my vision are most interesting to describe.

With those, I don't see blackness around a point like looking out a tunnel, or black spots in my vision. Instead, it's like there is no data there. I actually struggle to identify where my blind spots exactly are in my field of view, until I specifically notice it blocking something I'm trying to look at (difficult if it's not in the exact centre). With the tunnel vision, even then it's hard to tell when it's happening. Whenever I suspect it might be happening, I have to hold a finger up with my arm outstretched, looking forward. Then, continuing looking forward, I'll move it out of my line of sight and work out when I can't see it anymore.

Maybe the best comparison (though still not ideal) I could make for people who haven't experienced anything like it is to consider the blind spot that your nose blocks. Our brain filters out the nose, but we don't see a great big black spot, there's just no information there. LindLin

Trauma...

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I suffered from a brief bout of blindness after head trauma.

I could sort of see, but it was more like looking through a kaleidoscope. Everything was a blurry blob of color without a defined start or end--everything just blended together. Like, if you unfocus your eyes and cross them, that's a very rough idea of what I was seeing (or, not seeing).

I don't remember what the exact term is for this specific type of vision loss (it was 7 years ago and I was rather concussed), but, if permanent, it is indeed classed as blindness. murrimabutterfl

Rise Up. 

I'm not entirely blind, but I'm blind in my right as a result of cancer.

There are days it becomes my biggest weakness. I can drive fine, hold down a job fine. But some days I walk in to table corners, bang my elbow on stuff etc, Or hell my fiancé pointed out the sodas I was looking for at Walmart the other day after I had walked past them 3 times, because they were on my right side.

I privately admit defeat a lot because of it, unfortunately. mattymattrick

Passport please. 

I don't know about blindness, but eye migraines are a trip. Like really, it makes everything look like Im on acid. And I get blind spots in my vision. It's not painful at all, just really weird. The first time it happened I legit thought I was losing my vision. -ThunderGunExpress

Dark in the Dark. 

I lost my site when I was 13. Yeah I guess it's just like being in the dark all the time… Although it's been so long I don't quite remember anymore how being in the dark when you could still see is like. browneye54

Close your eyes....

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It's hard to comprehend but in most cases you just see nothing. Close your eyes and try to see out of the back of your head. You can't. DickManning

Fade in and Out....

When I was younger and the weather was hot I would lose my vision for about 15 seconds every time I stood up quickly. I was so used to it that I would stand up at the end of class spot my path and start walking, my vision would tunnel out quickly to complete blindness (I perceived this for some reason as grey but could see nothing) my vision would fade in from a sort of static after about 5-10 seconds. I just used sound and touch to navigate. pounded_rivet

A kick! 

I'm vision impaired from Uveitis that kicked in when I was 26.

My eyesight is like looking through a fly screen, black dots and floaters everywhere.

Also, due to how often people say "BUT YOU CAN'T BE BLIND IF YOU'RE USING REDDIT" whenever I post about eyesight: https://old.reddit.com/r/Blind/comments/55wzgp/how_do_blind_people_use_reddit/SunnyLego

Sharp Objects....

Pretty sharp vision but an issue with my spinal fluid pressure causes stress on my retinal nerve, leading to an enlarged blind spot. Most people don't notice theirs, but it's like a tiny black hole in my vision, even to the point it's edges distort things like one ( AKA if I'm in a car looking at the street lines and the line goes through my blind spot, it looks like the line curves around the edge.) you don't see black which is why you don't notice it unless you focus on it. It's a really interesting sensation once you learn how to find yours, and you watch objects disappear moving into it. Crezelle

All I See....

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I think it's different for each individual.

For me, I just see a mix of black, brown, gray, white and more rarely but sometimes everything from red to yellow. RealNicklasMCHD

Premature....

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I was born with 6 months instead of 9.

In the 90's in some small city in Brazil we didn't have laser surgery so i did my eye surgery with criogeny, my retina detached and my left eye is blind

Its basically like there is nothing because your eye is shut off from your brain. Anni01

Okay-ish...

Oh, I can answer this one. I was normal, and then legally blind, and now I'm ok-ish. I was diabetic (a whole other story) and got diabetic retinopathy. My one eye which was worse was like trying to look through a running lava lamp. Just whirls and spots of color and black. Un_creative_name

REDDT

Who else wants to see again?

The Silliest Statements People Have Ever Heard Anyone Utter

Reddit user Automatic_Hedgehog71 asked: 'What is the silliest statement you have ever heard someone make?'

Woman with face to palm
Jussara Paulo/Unsplash

Kids say the cutest things, don't they?

Their unfiltered observations about life's many mysteries can be downright hilarious and serve as reminders of their pure innocence.

But it's less forgivable when adults make naive comments because, well, shouldn't they know better?

That's not always the case, however.

Curious to hear ridiculous examples of the things grown people say, Redditor Automatic_Hedgehog71 asked:

"What is the silliest statement you have ever heard someone make?"

Some people should really think twice before opening their mouth.

Work Of Art

"'How did they get the paint all the way up the sides?' -Middle-aged woman touring the Meteor Crater in AZ."

“'That’s not paint, those are the actual colors of the rock' -Her husband, giving her a long stare and walking away."

– ghostbungalow

For Trial And Error

"I had a boss say 'oh you don’t want kids, you should just have one to try it out.'"

"Really, and what happens if I find out that I truly don’t want kids? Can we just put it back where it came from?"

– tyintegra

Confused Soldier

"I worked at a place that gave a military discount."

"Family (mom, dad, adult son, adult daughter) walked in. Dad was reading the prices and pointed out to the son that he could get a discount!"

"This kid takes the sign, reads it, and says, as God is my witness:"

"I'm not in the military. I'm in the Army."

– JustMeerkats

To Live Or Let Die

"Someone once told me that paramedics/nurses/doctors are not allowed to do CPR on someone they know because it’s 'a conflict of interest.'”

– corviknight2259

It's a wonder how some people manage to live in the real world.

Know Your Audience When Using Big Words

"Sat down to eat with a friend. I said 'I'm famished' she looked at me, laughed and LOUDLY she said to me 'I swear you make up words sometimes.'"

– NotBadSinger514

"Oh man people say this to me all the time! Why did I read books and learn so many words, when no one understands them, and I really didn't think they were so pretentious, words like Famished."

– Person_Letter_629

Not Icarus

"A friend of mine said she got more tanned when riding her bike than she did when walking because on her bike, she was 'closer to the sun.'"

– Five_Star_Amenities

"This just reminded me of a time I was out on a boat with a big group of people and one of them said 'I’m so glad it’s windy, I won’t get sunburned' they thought the wind would push the light away from their skin. I was the only one to say it definitely doesn’t work like that and I could tell they thought I was wrong."

– Thbbbt_Thbbbt

The Symptoms Indicate Otherwise

"Earlier today I offered a cough drop upon my flight’s landing to the lady wet coughing right behind me the whole flight."

'Oh, no thanks, I’m not sick. I just went to Oregon and have felt awful the whole time since.'

"Okay…so…sick"

– ACaparzo

Completely Lost

"A friend once said she couldn't take Southwest Airlines because she was flying east to Florida."

– ProudCatLadyxo

"How do they get the planes back? Do they repaint them as Northeast? Or do they just push them?"

– ch4m3le0n

"They just keep flying south until they come back around."

– frymeyourpoop

A Silly Sports Spectator Said

"I was at a baseball game in Cincinnati and the teenage girl behind turned to her friend and said 'this is so cool, it's almost like we're watching it live.' I think about that a lot."

"EDIT: based on the look of the girls and their other conversations this was no joke, there was no laughing either. Don't remember the exact year but flip phones were the most common cell phone and we had seats in the outfield so she didn't appear to be watching the game thru her phone. This also wasn't the first time that day where I heard them say something and I stopped what I was doing and stared straight into space, just the most memorable. They seemed like nice enough girls, no malicious or rude conversations, it just appeared like they lacked some basic intelligence for some relatively simple concepts."

– Michael_With_An_M

You can't be difficult and clueless at the same time, can you?

Observe exhibits A, B, & C.

Unpalatable Texture

"A woman tried to send back a dish. She didn’t understand the components of it and tried to tell me that she couldn’t eat it because she was allergic to crunchy. Like yeah the texture. Not the ingredient that we had made crunchy."

– BuckleupBirds

"LMAO. Makes me feel better about the guy who asked a friend (server) for ‘Mushroom risotto, but without the rice’."

– Mavises

I'll Have The Pie And Ice Cream With A Side Of Ice Cream

"Had an older family member that back in the day went to a diner and ordered the 'pie a la mode' from the menu. He then proceeded to ask the waitress if they could put a little ice cream on top of that. : )"

– Fluffing_Satan

My husband and I were walking around a gift shop in Solvang, CA, and marveling at some of the various tchotchkes.

One of them was a MOVA globe.

MOVA globes are usually about the size of a softball held up by three small supports, and they rotate without the use of electrical wires or batteries.

Instead, they're powered by the combination of solar cells and torque from the earth's magnetic field. We didn't know this at the time, however.

When a worker nearby saw us being mesmerized by the shelf of spinning globes, he commented, "Cool, right?"

And I replied, "Yeah, how does it work?"

The dude gave a sly smile and said:

"It's an optical delusion."

Or illusion...

View of two high rise buildings.
Photo by Robert Stump on Unsplash

We all have various brands and businesses we tend to prefer over others.

Sometimes, we might not patronize these businesses because they have a superior product, but because they might seem more trustworthy than their competitors.

Indeed, some people have had such terrible experiences with companies, even some esteemed corporations, that they went running from them straight into the arms of one of their rivals.

Vowing that they would never, ever spend money on this company ever again.

Redditor SignificantClick8284 was eager to hear which companies people have zero trust in, leading them to ask:

"What company will you never trust again?"

Their Poor Communication Is Kind Of Ironic...

"Comcast."

"Their agents will lie to your face and act like you're in the wrong when called out."- bigdammit

customer service call center GIFGiphy

Not A Place To Spend Or Save Your Money...

"Ashley Furniture."

"Joke of a company."

"Bank of America - also scum."- KrankOverman

Better Question, What Question Will You EVER Trust Again...

"Unfurls paper scroll that stretches to the floor and rolls out the door."

"Ahem."- djb2589

"I see no reason to trust any company."- lycos94

When The Conformation Email Is Moot...

"Booking.com."

"I 'booked' through them just to find out that the hotel had no record of my reservation."

"Then I spent an hour in the lobby trying to get them on the phone, just to find out the price wouldn’t be honored and have them try to sell me another nearby hotel room."

"Nightmare."- DuncanAerilious

"Oh, oh The Well's Fargo Wagon Is A Comin'..."

"Wells Fargo."- clubberlang2005

"Yup."

"I was one of the WF customers who suddenly had 3 mystery WF accounts under my name."

"This was prior to the court case so I went in to my branch to ask WTF."

"The manager said the guy who set up those accounts was the same guy that setup my original 2 accounts - a checking and savings account."

"That a-hole tried to make it sound like he was doing me a favor by setting up all these accounts."

"Making it worse he says I need to login to my account in order for him to remove the other 3 accounts."

"He hands me that password box, I enter my password and he says 'that's an easy one to remember'."

"Is that your favorite band?'"

"After he said that I asked for the branch manager and told him what just happened and that I was closing all of my accounts'."- thescreamingstone

kate mckinnon snl GIF by Saturday Night LiveGiphy

"That's All Folks!"

"ACME."

"Every f8cking thing."

"From anvils to bat suits to zoot suits always FAIL."- alien_survivor

Not Equipped For The Digital Age

"HP."

"Thier printers (large and small format) are all complete trash that require constant upkeep."- Bluegrass_Barbarian

Pictures And Fine Print Can Be Misleading...

"Airbnb."- pkovach64

"My wife and I were drinking and got pretty drunk at an Airbnb and without letting us know the hosts sent a bunch of people to the property to refill the propane and other stuff."

"They came into the house while we were drunk and half-naked and were catcalling my wife in front of me."

"This was a pretty big and well-known group operating in Tennesee."

"From what we found out this is extremely common."- Huge-Plantain-8418

Giveaway GIF by AppSumoGiphy

Analog Has Its Benefits...

"EA."- bullet312

"I lost all my sims sh*t because I hadn't logged in for more than 6 months."

"EA told me to reset my password so that they could restore my account."

"They kept saying the link was in my email, but it never came."

"Kept calling to try to get the issue fixed over a few weeks, then I realized they were just d*cking me around."

"F*ck EA."- MotherOfDogs1872

And To Think They're Supposed To Help You...

"Any insurance company."

"Especially health and homeowners."- carolizzy81

FalsE Advertising

"Nabisco."

"They took double stuffed Oreos, reduced the amount of cream to the same as the regular Oreos, and are still selling them as double stuffed, and are charging double stuffed prices!"

"The betrayal is unforgivable."- It_Wasnt_Me79

oreo GIFGiphy

As If Taxes Aren't Annoying Enough...

"Jackson Hewitt!"

"Had our taxes done a while back, and the tax preparer asked if we wanted the $200 cash advance."

"We did not."

"She then proceeded to change our information and use hers to get the temporary card with the advance."

'She then used an ATM to withdraw cash."

"She was arrested, but getting a refund was like pulling teeth from a hen."

'They didn't believe that it happened even though we had the paperwork with the tax preparer's information on it."

"It was a frigging nightmare!"

"Oh, I almost forgot she added me to the return and said I was the sister instead of the mom, so we ended up owing $1500 on top of the bullsh*t from the tax preparer."

"I do our taxes now."- RoguePhoenix259

People like to know when they're spending money that it's going somewhere they can trust.

Especially if their money is going somewhere that is supposed to keep their money safe, to begin with...



A group of people running through the trees in the desert
Photo by Jed Villejo

Humans seem to get swept up in group mentality and ignorance far too often.

Just because 10 of your neighbors jump off of a bridge, should you?

Celebrity fads, diet fads, Black Friday sales...

The masses love to blindly join in on the crazy.

Or the fun. it's a coin toss.

Redditor AdmirableFlow wanted to hear about group mentality that wasn't too bright, so they asked:

"What's the most severe case of mass stupidity you've ever witnessed?"

There is no greater group of followers than people who run every time Apple puts out a new product.

Same phone, just a thousand dollars more.

The Dodge

happy tom cruise GIF by South Park Giphy

"Scientology."

Supersaiajinblue

"The rich ones at the top are just in for the tax dodge. A lot of the ones below them are in it thinking they can shmooze with the rich ones at the top and become one of them some days. So yeah dumb but with a layer of greed involved."

Doright36

Bad Socials

"Before social media, I just assumed people were mostly educated. Boy was I f**king wrong."

"Not only was I wrong, but now I myself feel stupid for believing that for so long."

Vitzdam-

"Up until my early 20s I felt like I was smarter than 90% of the people around me, being generous. It seemed like so many people were just complete morons, and I had this massive smug sense of superiority feeling that I was just more intelligent (and thus better) than most people."

"As I aged, I began to realize how far I'd shoved my head up my own a** and I understood that while I might have been naturally gifted in some ways, there were others in which I was the 'idiot' and other people were capable and intelligent. I felt like a real a** for feeling so much better than others, and I felt humbled."

"And then everything since about mid-2015 happened and I've really started to wonder if maybe I was just right for the wrong reasons before..."

TypicalAd4988

Without Fail

"Maybe not the most severe, but one that everyone here has personally seen at least once in their lives. When at an airport and the gate agent says 'We're about to commence boarding. Please remain in your seats until your group has been called.' And then half the people were waiting standing up and crowding the gate in a scene of utter chaos. Every time, without fail."

-Dixieflatline

Rushed

"The great toilet paper rush at the start of COVID. There was nothing about COVID that threatened the global toilet paper supply, and yet people just started panic-buying it and artificially creating a huge shortage."

"(We would eventually realize that there was a small uptick in toilet paper sold for private use, as many people were going to the bathroom at home more than at work, but no one realized that at the time and it had nothing to do with the panic - people just started buying more because people were buying more)."

Notmiefault

Seriously?!

Skin Care Girl GIF by Lillee JeanGiphy

"Thousands of people during the pandemic thinking the vaccination made their skin magnetic. What in the actual hell."

MonParapluie

Everybody thought they were about to become a member of the X-Men with the Covid vaccines.

Still waiting on that proof.

Celebrity

"People waiting in Dealey Plaza for JFK Jr. to show up."

ggrandmaleo

"That's the first thing that popped into my mind. and they stayed there for days, didn't they? someone was interviewing people in the crowd and lots of people seemed to think other celebrities were also coming back/out of hiding. Someone was looking forward to seeing Robin Williams."

chrisgee

"You could simply declare the entire MAGA and QAnon movements to be mass stupidity and you'd not be wrong. Propaganda is a helluva drug and under-education is real. Fear and prejudice go hand-in-hand with under-education."

NbleSavage

Schemes

"Anyone who keeps getting involved in Ponzi or MLM schemes."

"For decades the public has been warned on what to watch out for to avoid these schemes, you would assume that the vast majority of people would have learned by now that these schemes are fraudulent and just can't work out. Yet somehow here we are with thousands of these companies still up and running and thriving and even more people being taken advantage of by them."

TheSameButBetter

Open Up

"My local park's playground has a push gate."

"Every time I watch grown adults stare at it for like 20 seconds then go 'I think it's locked is there another one?'"

"To which I walk up and... Push the gate open."

"What annoys me about this is they want to catch an attitude like I'm an a-hole for it."

3ao7ssv8

Challenges

ice bucket challenge news GIFGiphy

"Those public challenges that CLEARLY risk health, i.e., 'the tide pod challenge.' Next time, just let things sort themselves out on their own. We can use fewer idiots in the world."

"The ice bucket challenge was at least kind of cute and DID give ALS a lot of media attention/awareness and raised a lot of money."

LadyVaresa

I liked doing my ice bucket challenge.

Do you have anything to add? Let us know in the comment below.

movie set
Chris Murray on Unsplash

Easter eggs, bloopers, trivia, behind the scenes anecdotes... cinephiles live collecting them and sharing their knowledge with others.

Some trivia is well known—like Eric Stoltz was replaced by Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future. Other tidbits are more obscure, like Arnold Schwarzenegger was first considered for the Michael Biehn role of Kyle Reese in The Terminator.

Some stories are conspiracy theories or urban legends—like the body in the forest on The Wizard of Oz set.

But what about just film facts? The obscure ones?

Keep reading...Show less