My vision disappeared within 30 minutes from a retinal arterial occlusion. It was just like blacking out after standing up too fast, except my vision took about a day to come back. When it did come back, it was like looking through dark, shattered glass. Huge swaths of missing vision, jagged dark shrouds angled through my visual field. It disappeared entirely a few days later as the rest of my retina died. Here is a copy paste from an older comment I made when people asked about what I can actually see now:

Visualize a rlly blurry letterboxed movie, with dark bands on the upper and lower areas, but the main overall viewing area is a dark, noisy grey. Like TV static but much less pronounced. I'll see some flickering here and there, some nerve cells will fire when I'm in dramatically different light, like going from a dark area into sunlight, but ultimately I have no functional vision whatsoever. I can see very faint movement with the lowest part of my visual field, like can see my hands moving a bit when I'm clapping, or something super high contrast like a white plate on a black table, but can see less than 1 percent of whatever is there. No shapes, no colors, extremely low to no light perception.

Close one eye and keep the other open. Fully focus on your vision only with that open eye. What information/sense are you getting from the closed eye as you continue to see the world through the remaining eye?

This has been a helpful explanation for some people, so I hope it gives you some of the feeling of "nothing" instead of "seeing black." (If not, don't worry, it's not for everyone.)

It's like trying to see with your navel, just nothing. Your mind can make images, but it's more like when you try closing your eyes and imagining where you left something, or trying to find your bearings in the woods. At least that's how it been described to me, and it makes some sense. As I've lost vision to RP, I don't see the borders, just whatever is still within my field of vision.

The best explanation I have come up with so far is that it feels as though you don't even have a visual organ.

Let me explain.

I'm currently blind on my left eye and I'm going blind on my right eye. When I close my eyes, I see darkness. And that's the point: I ***see*** darkness. My right eye, which still has a bit of remaining vision, sees darkness. The same is true when I enter a completely dark room. I can't actually see chairs or the table etc. but I can see the color black.

Now, for comparison, my left eye feels as though it wasn't even there. Of course I feel it in a purely tactile sense, I can feel how it's lying in my skull and sometimes it hurts etc. But visually, my brain is under the illusion that I'm a cyclop. Visually, it feels exactly the same as it would feel like if I had been born with only one time.

If you want to imagine what it's like to be blind, try to see with your forehead or your naval (as someone else said). Imagine that you have three arms and try to feel your third arm. There's just... nothing.

If that sounds too weird, think of extraterrestrials visiting you and telling you that they can experience the world in 5 dimensions (compared to our 4). Rationally, you might totally understand this and you can even prove mathematically that a 5th dimension exists but what does it actually FEEL like to experience 5 dimensions? It's something none of us can even grasp because we are stuck in our 4-dimensional world. This is what I imagine the world to be like for people who have never seen in their life. If you tell them the ocean is blue and pastures are green, they will understand this on a rational level but what *are* colors actually?? What does seeing actually feel like?? What does light feel like? For people who have been born blind, this is about as abstract as a 5th dimensions sounds to us humans.

I don't have any vision anymore, have not for around 10 years. However, what I “see” is not pure blackness. When I pay attention, it's like a glittery, shimmering murkiness. It's almost like if you were watching moving, lights reflecting off of dark water, or clouds. When I first lost my sight these lights were so bright they made it hard to sleep. I learned to ignore it, and i'm not even experiencing it most of the time now, unless I think about it. The lights have also mellowed out a lot, I like them now.