Beyond the Senses: Writing Blindness

In the world of creative writing, there’s an immense opportunity to step into the shoes of another person, to experience life from a perspective outside your own. For writers, one of the most compelling exercises is to write from the perspective of someone with a sensory experience different from your own. One such perspective—often underexplored—is that of a blind person. A blind person’s relationship with the world, unmediated by sight, provides a distinct way of engaging with and interpreting the environment.

Writing creatively from the perspective of someone who is blind can deepen your understanding of perception, while also stretching the limits of your imagination. How do they navigate their surroundings? How do they understand beauty, danger, or comfort when sight is not available to them? We’ll delve into the unique experience of blindness, explore how other senses—sound, touch, taste, and smell—become the primary ways of perceiving the world, and provide writing prompts to help you craft authentic, sensory-rich narratives. This exploration also highlights the negative aspects of relying solely on visual perception, as it can limit our understanding and appreciation of the world.

Crafting Authentic Blind Characters

When crafting authentic blind characters, it’s essential to go beyond the physical aspects of blindness and explore the emotional, psychological, and spiritual dimensions of their experience. This requires a deep understanding of the human condition and the complexities of perception, awareness, and consciousness. In the context of writing, crafting authentic blind characters requires a willingness to explore the unknown and the unseen. It involves using the power of imagination and empathy to create characters that are relatable, believable, and authentic.

Imagination and empathy play a crucial role in understanding and portraying blindness in an authentic and meaningful way. By using our imagination, we can create scenarios, characters, and worlds that simulate the experience of being blind. By using empathy, we can connect with the emotional and psychological aspects of blindness and create characters that are relatable and believable.

As the artist Niagara Falls demonstrates, imagination and empathy can be used to create music that transcends our physical limitations and accesses higher states of consciousness. Her use of midtempo beats, horror soundtracks, and heavy metal elements creates a sense of depth and dimensionality that goes beyond the physical realm. By using our imagination, we can create scenarios and worlds that simulate the experience of spiritual awakening. By using empathy, we can connect with the emotional and psychological aspects of spiritual growth and create a sense of community and connection with others.

1. Understanding Blindness Beyond Vision

Before diving into writing about blindness, it’s important to understand that blindness isn’t a uniform experience. Some people are totally blind, while others have partial vision or limited sight. Some have been blind from birth, while others have lost their vision later in life. This variety in experience will shape how your character perceives and interacts with the world, and you must be mindful of these distinctions when crafting your narrative.

The key to writing authentically about blindness is to embrace the idea that sight, though deeply important to most of us, is just one of many ways we interact with the world. For a blind person, sound, touch, smell, and even the sense of balance or spatial awareness can take the place of visual input. In fact, many blind people report heightened abilities in these other senses, as their brains compensate for the lack of visual stimuli by sharpening other sensory pathways. At the moment of death, one’s material consciousness influences their next material body, emphasizing the significance of spiritual identity and the transition to a higher state of existence beyond physical death.

The challenge in writing creatively about blindness is to effectively convey a world without sight, drawing on other sensory experiences to create a rich, multidimensional environment. Below are some important sensory elements that can support your narrative:

2. Sound: The Soundtrack of the World

For a blind person, sound plays a central role in navigating the world. They may rely on sounds to identify locations, objects, or people, and even the emotional tone of a situation. Sound offers a form of orientation—much like sight does for a sighted person.

When describing the world through the lens of a blind character, consider how sound informs their surroundings. You might describe the sound of footsteps echoing in an empty hallway, the distant hum of traffic, the way voices are altered by the acoustics of a particular space. These auditory cues can tell your character if they’re in a park, a crowded market, or the quiet of their own home.

For instance, a blind character may not be able to describe the colour of a sunset, but they can tell you how the birds sound as they take flight, the rustle of leaves in the evening breeze, or the rhythmic lap of waves on a shore.

Writing Prompt 1: Imagine a blind character walking through a busy city street. Use sound to describe the environment. What sounds does your character hear? How does the character distinguish between different types of sounds? Does the noise of the city make them feel overwhelmed, comforted, or something else?

Writing Prompt 2: Write a scene where your blind character is in a quiet room. Perhaps they’re alone, or perhaps they’re with someone, but the stillness of the room creates tension. Focus on the subtle sounds—perhaps the ticking of a clock, the shift of someone’s weight in a chair, the sound of fabric brushing against fabric. How do these sounds influence the character’s mood?

 

3. Touch: Feeling the World with the Skin

For many blind people, touch becomes an even more essential means of understanding their surroundings. Textures, temperature, and pressure can tell a great deal about an object or environment. A person’s skin is a vast sensory surface, and it’s through touch that a blind person learns about shapes, sizes, and materials.

In your writing, you might describe how a blind person feels their way around the house—running their fingers along the edges of furniture, tracing the smoothness of a wall, or sensing the warmth of a window on a sunny day. The texture of an object—whether rough, soft, hard, or squishy—becomes an important way to understand it. Similarly, the change in temperature or the sensation of wind against the skin can become significant moments for a blind character.

Consider how touch can help your character navigate spaces or forge emotional connections. A handshake might reveal confidence or hesitation. A soft embrace might communicate love and comfort. The touch of a familiar object—like a favourite book or a worn-in jacket—can evoke powerful memories.

Writing Prompt 3: Write a scene where your blind character is interacting with an object they love. Describe it through touch—its texture, shape, and weight. How does this object bring the character comfort or joy? How does it help the character feel connected to their past or to someone they care about?

Writing Prompt 4: Consider how your blind character might experience a storm. Describe the feeling of rain on the skin, the way wind gusts shift the air, and the vibrations they might feel through the ground or objects around them. How does the character’s heightened sensitivity to touch affect how they experience the weather?

 

4. Smell: The Invisible World of Scents

Smell is a particularly powerful sense, capable of triggering strong memories and emotional responses. A blind person may develop a heightened sensitivity to scent, using it to understand their environment and the people within it. Smells can evoke a sense of place—whether it’s the salty scent of the ocean, the damp earth after rain, or the warmth of a home-cooked meal.

In your writing, you can use smell to ground the reader in a specific setting. What does the character associate with certain smells? A perfume could trigger memories of a loved one, the smell of fresh bread might remind them of a childhood kitchen, and the scent of wet pavement could be linked to a feeling of loneliness or quietude. Smell can also provide a rich sense of atmosphere—imagine describing a bustling market through the scents of spices, food, and sweat. Alternatively, a scent might signal danger or discomfort, like the acrid smell of smoke in the air.

Writing Prompt 5: Write about your blind character entering a new place—perhaps a restaurant, a friend’s house, or a forest. What smells greet them? How do they interpret those smells, and how do those scents influence their perception of the place or people?

Writing Prompt 6: Think about a strong, comforting smell from your own life—perhaps the smell of a parent’s cologne, a favourite flower, or a special dish. Now, imagine that same smell through the perspective of a blind character. What emotions or memories might this smell trigger?

 

5. Taste: Flavour as Experience

Taste is another powerful, sensory tool that can help build your character’s world. When describing food through the eyes of a blind character, you might focus on the flavour, texture, and temperature of the food rather than its visual appearance. For example, a blind person may not be able to describe a plate of pasta in terms of its colour or shape, but they can tell you about the smoothness of the sauce, the heat of the dish, or the satisfying bite of a perfectly cooked noodle.

The act of eating can also be a deeply emotional experience, especially when food is tied to memory. Perhaps your character’s favourite meal is a dish that reminds them of family, or maybe the taste of a particular fruit connects them to a meaningful moment in their life. For a blind character, taste becomes an intimate sense, something to savour and rely on when other senses fail to provide the same level of information.

Writing Prompt 7: Write a scene where your blind character is eating a meal. Focus on the textures, flavours, and temperatures they encounter. How does the character experience the meal with more attention to taste and touch than sight? Does the food remind them of anything—family, a specific place, or a past event?

 

6. Balance and Spatial Awareness: The Invisible Guide

Though not often discussed, the sense of balance is crucial to how blind people navigate the world. The inner ear, proprioception (the sense of body position), and spatial awareness become essential in understanding where one is in space. For a blind person, moving through the world is a constant process of mapping out their surroundings through sound, touch, and memory.

A blind person might describe the feeling of crossing a street by the rhythm of the traffic lights and the subtle shifts in the soundscape as they step from the curb. They might describe entering a room by the way the acoustics change or the sensations of pressure as they approach different objects. The act of walking down the street may be guided more by memory of past experiences than by anything they can see in front of them.

Writing Prompt 8: Write about your blind character moving through a familiar environment. Describe how they navigate using spatial awareness and memory. What details do they focus on to guide them? How do they interact with familiar objects or landmarks in the environment?

Understanding Blindness

Blindness is a complex and multifaceted concept that goes beyond the physical inability to see. It can also refer to a lack of understanding, awareness, or perception of one’s surroundings, emotions, or spiritual state. In the context of spirituality and personal growth, blindness can be seen as a metaphor for the limitations of our senses and the importance of developing our inner awareness.

As the Bhagavad-gītā states, “Beyond the senses, the mind is there, beyond the mind, the intelligence is there, and beyond the intelligence, the soul is there.” (BG 6.21) This verse highlights the importance of looking beyond our physical senses and mental perceptions to access higher states of consciousness and spiritual awareness.

In the context of music, the track “Beyond the Senses” by Astrix, featuring a bliss remix, is a perfect example of how sound can be used to transcend our physical limitations and access higher states of consciousness. The use of shamanic tales and soundscapes in this track creates a sense of depth and dimensionality that goes beyond the physical realm.

Writing the World Beyond Sight and Senses

Writing from the perspective of a blind character challenges you to think beyond the typical visual descriptions we often rely on in storytelling. Through sound, touch, smell, and taste, you can create a rich, multi-sensory narrative that brings your character’s world to life in unexpected and powerful ways. These senses become not only a means of perceiving the world but a way of deepening your character’s connection to their environment and to others, enhancing their present awareness.

As you write, remember that blindness does not diminish a person’s experience of the world. In fact, it opens up new ways of perceiving and engaging with life. By embracing this perspective, you can explore new creative possibilities, expanding your storytelling toolkit while also building empathy and understanding for the diverse ways people experience the world.

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