Ever wondered, what do a deaf persons' thoughts sound like? Or what a blind persons' dreams look like?

These are the questions my mind wanders off to when I stay up until 4am watching Smallville and spend another hour laying still as a statue trying to catch whatever z's I can before my 7:30am wakeup. Possibly inspired by the episode where Lionel Luther's "blindness" façade is seen through, I trailed off to these two questions; and they just boggle my mind with possible answers.

If a person never hears any spoken language, what do they sound like in their own head? Symbols with representative features and no sound? Or do they guess the noises that might be produced by the formation of a persons mouth? Can they still hear their own voice in their head? If so, what language is it speaking in? Possibly, they've created their own language form. Possibly, the concept of language is something in our nature, rather than something we learn from our environment while developing. All existing ones had to come from somewhere before they were set in stone by dictionaries and ruled by grammar. But then again, if you look at feral children who have no concept of language whatsoever - other than a few grunts, growls and moans they could have inherited from animals or surrounding sounds, like beatboxers do - this theory is out-ruled. They have never heard anything, they have no concept of sound, so what exactly DO their thoughts sound like to them?

The same goes for blind people. They have never seen, so what do they dream of? They've heard, felt, tasted, smelled.. maybe those things make up their visions of things unseen. We've never seen Heaven or Hell, but all of us have some idea of what it might look like. In a way, we are blind to things we imagine. But those with the ability to see, could be producing imaginations by distorting the reality they view every day. Or maybe there are cases like DareDevil, where supersonic hearing grants the gift of "sight" when noises are made. I should look up blind painters...

And then arises the question, what if you are deaf AND blind? You have nothing to go off other than touch, smell, and taste... ahhhhh, I'll leave that one to explore in another blog.

Why do we always turn to comic books and fictional film to see people with extraordinary powers, when most of our idolized "heroes" can be compared to many "normal" people in today's society?

There are people in the world that can do things outside of the norm. People that can fall under the category of "super-beings" or "subhuman" that we simply overlook and don't recognize. What makes me think about this is the show Heroes - which my boyfriend and I have been watching way too much of on Netflix recently. Some of the superpowers on the show exist in reality, yet because they aren't thrown at us on screen and told they are extraordinary and surreal, we just gaze past them and classify them as normal. (Spoiler alert if you haven't seen and want to watch Heroes)

For example, Nikki, who has the most realistic power in the show, simply suffers from MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder). After her sisters death, she forms an alter who takes on her traits - however, with an intensified idea of how to protect Nikki. Not only is MPD a very real disorder, but it is such a abnormal and unique "power".

Charlie, who Hiro falls in love with mid-season one, has the capability to absorb and retain knowledge better than anyone. Anything she reads, hears, sees, smells, touches... she remembers forever, with vivid detail. She's basically a human encyclopaedia. If you watch this video, you will discover a set of twins with a mental incapability develop a phenomenal sense of memory similar to this. Here you can read the article.

Other than Heroes, let's think about iconic, costume-wearing characters like DareDevil (my personal favourite hero). When blinded by a toxic chemical spill that splashed into his eyes, he develops a heightened sense of hearing which allows him to "regain sight" by using sounds and vibrations. Like a bat. (Why isn't he Batman, again? If anything, the mortal Bruce Wayne is more daring, and Daredevil is more batty). Many people who lose one of their five senses also gain a sixth to make up for it, or their other four kick it in to overdrive.

These are just a few examples. Countless people raise the bar of the humanly possible every day, even in small ways. In the end, magic and superbness is all around us, we just have to learn to recognize it for the truly amazing phenomenon it is.