The Blind Can See During an NDE

How can the blind see during an NDE?

I mention in my latest book talk, the case of a man who was on the operating table and had an NDE. "Floated around the room" and was privy to conversations that he shouldn't have been able to access. 

When he came back to consciousness, he teased the doctor about the color of his tennis shoes.  That really shocked the doctor, because his patient had been blind from birth.

Cue the organ music.

How is this possible?

Well, first let's examine consciousness. 

Shall we?

Jammin Shamin commented on the MartiniProds youtube page: "Great talk but I wonder how this NDEr blind from birth would know what color orange was... how does he know names of colors he's never seen before? lol"

My reply:

"First we need to define "before."  Then we need to define "color."  

What most people don't realize is that the eye itself does not see color. Just like the ear does not "hear" sound.  It receives a wave - of energy - and then the brain "translates" that wave into sound or into picture.  

No eye. No ear. So think on that for a second. Bees can see ultra violet light. Why is that? Because their teeny tiny little brains are translating those vibrational wavelengths into information. (If you want to see some great science on this topic, research "blind people seeing with their tongue" as it's a new technique, where people "see" with vibrations on their tongue attached to a camera.)

Now, let's go a step further.  

This isn't the first time you've been on the planet.  It isn't the first time most of us have been here.  You've seen the color orange before. And you've seen, tasted, experienced a myriad of energies while you're here.  We can't "remember" or seem to access those memories unless we our "outside of consciousness" (which is silly really - we are never "unconscious" it's just the parts of our brain that allow us to communicate are not functioning properly.)  

So think about this the next time you hear about someone in a coma.  Their brain is not working. Does that mean they can't "see" "hear" or anything else? I met a woman from Australia on a flight - her brother had been in a coma for years. Considered "brain dead."  Then one day she asked a friend who is a masseuse to go in and give him a massage. During the massage the friend said "I didn't tell you this before, but sometime when doing my work I can sense or "hear" something about the client. In this case, your brother seemed to be asking for "yellow goggles."  

The shocked sister realized her brother was requesting his sunglasses - the kind he used to wear while working out.  So she got his "yellow goggle sunglasses" and put them on him - because the light from the window was blasting into his room.  

Problem solved. Yet, another problem encountered. If he's aware of what's going on and communicate while his body cannot - what does that say about consciousness? Here are some more insights into NDEs from a Salon article by Neuroscientist (interviewed in "Its a Wonderful Afterlife") Mario Beauregard: http://www.salon.com/2012/04/21/near_death_explained/

I must add - not all blind can see during an NDE - some can, but that appears to depend upon the person experiencing the NDE.

From Richard Davidson's work at U of Wisconsin re: meditation

Here's a more indepth article on non-sighted people having sight:

In Near-Death Experiences, Blind People See for First Time By Tara MacIsaac, Epoch Times

"People who were blind from birth have had brushes with death in which they felt themselves leave their bodies and experience vision for the first time. For some, it seemed natural; for others, it was a confusing and shocking experience.

Many people experience this sensation of leaving the body during a near-death experience (NDE). A 1982 Gallup poll found that 15 percent of all Americans who had almost died (under widely varying circumstances) reported NDEs. About 9 percent reported the “classic out-of-body experience,” 11 percent said they entered another realm, and 8 percent said they encountered spiritual beings.
(Actually, the results are higher, if you ask Bruce Greyson's research at UVA - where he's done detailed research in the topic and created the chart that allows other scientists to measure results of NDEs.)

For blind NDEers, the visual perceptions add another level of mystery. Some people say NDEs are hallucinations, though many who study NDEs refute this explanation. Hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation, is one often-cited cause. Another is rapid eye movement (REM) intrusion—when the REM associated with dreaming during sleep happens while one is awake.

One of the researchers who disagrees with these explanations is Robert Mays, who has studied NDEs for about 30 years. He explained during a talk at the 2014 International Association for Near-Death Studies conference that NDEs are very different from the experiences usually reported under the conditions of hypoxia and REM intrusion.  

Mays said: “NDEers almost always report that they have had a hyper-real experience that far outshines our ordinary, conscious experience—that they felt the NDE realm was their true home, permeated by unconditional love, and that they are no longer afraid to die.”

“These characteristic aspects are simply not present with hypoxia, REM intrusion, and so on,” Mays said.

Studies have shown that when blind people dream, they don’t see. Yet in NDEs, studies suggest blind people often see....

A study of blind NDEers led by Kenneth Ring at the University of Connecticut in the 1990s found that 15 out of 21 blind participants reported some kind of sight, three were not sure if they had visual perception, and the remaining three did not see anything. Half of those who were blind from birth said they saw something...

One man, blind from birth, told Ring that he found himself in a library with “thousands and millions and billions of books, as far as you could see.” Asked if he saw them visually he said, “Oh, yes!” Did he see them clearly? “No problem.” Was he surprised at being able to see thus? “Not in the least. I said, ‘Hey, you can’t see,’ and [then] I said, ‘Well, of course I can see. Look at those books. That’s ample proof that I can see.'”

(For Flipside fans - does a "library in the afterlife" sound familiar? I talk about these libraries - no two descriptions are the same - in most of my books.  The question to ask someone who is "seeing a library" is "pick up a book and tell me what's in it.")

Vicki Umipeg, whom Ring interviewed and who has also spoken of her experience in various media interviews, had an overall pleasant NDE, but did describe being suddenly able to see as “frightening.”
(During her NDE) She felt that she had left her body and floated up toward the ceiling in Harborview Hospital. She heard a doctor talking about the possibility that damage to her eardrum could make her deaf as well. She could see a doctor leaning over what she realized must be her body below. She had never seen her own body.

Pulled through a tunnel, she emerged in a place with grass and people of light, she said. In an interview for the BBC Documentary “The Day I Died,” Umipeg said, “I felt overwhelmed by that experience, because I couldn’t really imagine what light was like.”

Umipeg was born prematurely and became blind as a result of too much oxygen in the incubator. She said that, during her NDE, “It was wonderful to be out there and be free, to not worry about bumping into anything.” If she wanted to know something, the knowledge would come to her. When she returned to her body, she said, “It was excruciatingly painful and very heavy.”... (from this article)


So. there you have it.  Some people, while having an NDE, who are "blind from birth" can see.

The point is - what were they prior to birth?  Able to see? Or what are they during the NDE? Sighted? 

If you examine what consciousness is - which appears to be more of a function than an object - i.e., if we think of "back home" as the ocean, and while we're alive, "an experience in a vessel of some sort" - then it makes sense that once we "evaporate" and "go home" we return to that ocean. And while we're in that ocean we've got all kinds of information at our disposal - or fingertips if you will, to mix another metaphor.  So think of water as the medium - as consciousness is the medium.

And while we're little droplets of water in our bodies - we still have access to the big old ocean "back home" - we may not be able to access it completely, but some of us do, either during an NDE, a coma, or perhaps while in a deep meditation, or while under deep hypnosis.  It's as if the blinders are taken off and we can "see again!"

You see?

If you don't, here's some links to my research, where I argue these points and cite the various people who've repeated these observations over and over and over again.