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> silence isn't silent

Blindness isn’t “no sight” or pitch black, there’s visual snow.

If you pay attention, you can always feel your muscles/joints. Sometimes I smell burnt popcorn, but not usually, but maybe that’s because smell is always present. Similarly always taste saliva.

Also see sensory deprivation experiments. We don’t seem able to experience “absence of sensation”.

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As I fall asleep the blackness of what I see suddenly disappears. I would describe it exactly as the absence of sensation.

Unfortunately my mild tinnitus doesn't stop at the same time.

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This is not analogous to tinnitus. I remember before and after tinnitus, and it’s as different from visual snow as real snow is from an ice pick in your ear.
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