Blind people see during NDEs

Story Here

During clinical death 80% of the blind report being able to see. That is correct; your eyes are not deceiving you. This holds true even for people who are born blind and have never experienced vision. This is the stunning finding of research done by Dr. Kenneth Ring, Professor of Psychology at the University of Connecticut and his co-researcher Sharon Cooper. Dr. Ring co-founder of the International Association for Near Death Studies has been researching near death experiences (NDE) for over 20 years and is a well-known author in the field. ...

Interestingly, when the blind have NDE’s they report exactly the same phenomena. They see both this world and the next. When people who are born blind recover their sight through a natural process, such as a medical procedure, they report an initial period of disorientation because it takes their minds sometime to learn how to interpret the new visual input. This is exactly what the blind report during an NDE. Those who were blind from birth report having difficulty relating to what they are seeing, whereas those who lost sight later in life immediately recognize the return of vision.

This research is reported among other sources in the Summer 1997 issue of “The Anomalist”. Given the rather amazing result the authors try to come up with a naturalistic explanation for this phenomenon. They are able to eliminate certain explanations such as fantasy by independently verifying details through corroborating evidence. For example those who died in surgery were asked to describe the surgery room, the hospital and other environmental factors, which a blind person could not know, were there. This sometimes included such observations as relatives in the waiting room that they had no way of knowing were there at the time. Dr. Ring and his co-researcher Sharon Cooper were also able to eliminate a host of other natural explanations for why the blind can see at death, such as dream based explanations, sensory-cueing, skin based sight and a host of others.

Interesting. I've never given thought to researching into NDEs of blind people. Looks like they gain their sight and are able to describe things as a sighted person would see them. But of course ... during the NDE .... they ARE sighted. IMHO this lends verification to the fact that NDEs can be real and that the soul moves on after it's done with this body.

I've read elsewhere that during NDEs people see ALL AROUND and not just in front of them like we do with just two eyes. It's like we will be aware and seeing everything in all directions. A total different awareness.

Anyways, i thought you all would find this interesting.
It certainly gives us more to think about in the NDE area.

I have thought about this recently.

I believe the second body has it's own type of vision, which is enhanced, or simply just different to what our physical eyes can perceive.

When I had a spiritual experience a few months ago, I believe I was seeing the event through my second body's eyes, because my head and vision was obscured by the sheets on the bed. I also noticed that my bedroom was lighter, as if I could see in the dark quite well. It's usually pitch black at the time of night. I also saw a spiritual being, which aren't normally visible to the human eye.

Great thread though, I really hope people that are unfortunately blind get the chance to see again

They might have to be dead to experience it though!

[edit on 20/7/09 by dmorgan]

Originally posted by dmorgan
I have thought about this recently.

I believe the second body has it's own type of vision, which is enhanced, or simply just different to what our physical eyes can perceive.

When I had a spiritual experience a few months ago, I believe I was seeing the event through my second body's eyes, because my head and vision was obscured by the sheets on the bed. I also noticed that my bedroom was lighter, as if I could see in the dark quite well. It's usually pitch black at the time of night. I also saw a spiritual being, which aren't normally visible to the human eye.

[edit on 20/7/09 by dmorgan]

With little spiritual/meditation practice, these kind of experience become almost common. The true eyes see things like in pure light, as if matter was delivered of all sorts of shadowness.

Our bodies are chrysalids. We are the dragonflies. As souls.

I had been wondering about this for some time but for some reason it eluded some Google searching (lazy?). If it's legit it's very highly suggestive in a concrete and testable way that consciouness transcends the material.

Thank you for bringing it to light.

So, I suppose those deaf, anosmic, etc. from birth would have an analagous experience?

More Dr. Kenneth Ring Info

This is an intriguing article.

The conclusion is worth citing:

Ring and Cooper searched thoroughly for a naturalistic explanation for their findings. This is not surprising because they are scientists and scientists in most cases argue that the proper focus of science is the realm of the natural. Many and possibly most scientists would argue further that there is no supernatural realm. However, it is not clear what the conclusion of Ring and Cooper is in this case. Their determination as to what is the cause of sight in the blind near death seems to be somewhat muddled. This is not surprising because of the clearly supernatural implications of this research.

How can the blind possibly see at death? They were blind before and they are blind after the NDE, yet during the death period some can describe what only a sighted person can perceive. They cannot see these things with their eyes, so how do the blind transcend their blindness near death?

The answer is obvious but hard to swallow for many. This is clear evidence for the existence of a transcendental part of the human being. It points to the existence of a Soul or Spirit. Vision can be impaired in the physical body with blindness resulting, but when the Soul is separated from the body this impediment is removed because the Soul does not depend on the physical body for vision. Therefore during death sight is possible but leaves again upon resuscitation.

This topic formed one aspect of a previous thread (-it was even mentioned in the OP):

Near-death experiences are real and we have the proof, say scientists

I can't remember off-hand, but it was either the above thread or this one:

Ponderings / questions about life after death

that also contained a fair amount of evidence from posters with a medical background.

I believe a lot of folks are in for a very big surprise when their time comes.

At the same time I also believe the idea that a human being is purely material is increasingly seen as very one-dimensional, which is allowing many people to examine this whole topic with an increasingly open mind.

There was a point when it was widely assumed science had consigned spirituality to the past. Now we've come full circle: empirical data is forcing many scientists to open their mind to the possibility their assumption the material world is all there is is nothing but a philosophical a priori position. I.e. prejudice.

Funny thing is the masses were less inclined to jump to such a conclusion. Most people have retained a sense of the spiritual, the eternal, the sublime no matter how hard some have tried to extinguish it.

Thank goodness for the arts. They take us way beyond the tangible into the realm of insight.

Thank goodness for moral and ethical awareness. They make us human.

Thank goodness for the human soul.

Eternity beckons.

Very interesting thread! A star and flag for you.

I'm gonna suggest that you read this guys blog. He researches the paranormal field, and writes blogs on his findings. I've learned more from this guy, than any other paranormal researcher I've come across.

metgat.gaia.com...

Hello OP. Great post! I do have a few things to point out regarding this phenomena.

This actually happens to living blind people. There are MANY documented cases of blind people having hallucinations of sight. Even people blind from birth having hallucinations.

I did some research on the story you posted. It is from a website called "The Anomalist". Here is a link to their website

www.anomalist.com...

Unfortunately the story is from 1997 and I think I have to pay to read it.

BUT I did track down the author of the book that the story is based on a Dr. Kenneth Ring. He has a VERY interesting page on a website detailing NDE's. He authored a book called "Mindsight" dealing with blind NDE's.

Check out this link regarding one story dealing with a Blind Woman's NDE and what she saw. Pretty far out stuff!

www.near-death.com...

She claims to have gone to the afterlife and everyone was made of "Love Light" and she met Jesus and friends from when she was young in school who were mentally disabled but were fine in her afterlife. She saw everything that happened in her life with a play by play commentary from the Man Jesus himself! Sounds pretty good if you ask me.

One thing that I think is VERY important to note is that she indeed did not see ANY color on her particular NDE and yet other blind NDE do indeed experience color.

The same thing happens with Blind Hallucinations. Some are in bright vibrant colors and others are black and white.

Originally posted by TurkeyBurgers
She claims to have gone to the afterlife and everyone was made of "Love Light"...

Is there a hint in there that her blindness allowed her to see a unity upon return that most miss due to their sightedness? Most people as I read their descriptions talk of light and love, a loving light or other duality but not as a unified entity.

I am not positive what it means or if I am just making a distinction without a difference.

Edit: Upon actually reading at the link I see the phraseology is yours. Maybe it's still a valid question somehow. Maybe I'm reaching too much.

...and she met Jesus and friends from when she was young in school who were mentally disabled but were fine in her afterlife. She saw everything that happened in her life with a play by play commentary from the Man Jesus himself! Sounds pretty good if you ask me.

I'm sure mine would look like a Three Stooges movie, especially all the toe stubbing.


[edit on 7/21/2009 by EnlightenUp]

Wow. Crikey, every now and again a post like yours comes up and makes me truly think about NDE'S all over again as I'm rather skeptical of them but stories like these make me truly rethink.

Thankyou for sharing !

reply to post by FlyersFan

Thank you for posting this. It is old, but I have never seen it before.

This finding is very good support for the idea that the essential human abilities are part of a non-physical "beingness." This ultimately leads to the question: why would such beings bother with using a body? Well, science is a long way from taking up that and many other related matters. It seems to be petrified by the whole subject. But of course that hasn't prevented other people down through the ages from pondering and investigating these questions.

In this regard, it is the Scientology materials that I am most familiar with. "Exteriorization" was an early goal of Scientologists (it no longer has the importance it did in the 1950's) and is recognized as a common occurrence. Most other spiritual teachings likewise practice some form of exterior perception.

A blind person loses his blindness when he goes exterior in an NDE for about the same reason that he is able to return after death in a body with good sight. The ability to see, feel - all the perceptions - is inherent in the being. The body is only a via for this ability - a kind of crutch the being feels it has to rely on because it thinks it can no longer stand on its own "two feet." Most of the various spiritual practices seek to train the being to rely less heavily on its body. Most people find this liberating, if they can learn to do it.

I hope your interest in NDEs and exteriorization continues. Though there are many people who never doubted the spiritual nature of life, many more have been persuaded to disbelieve it, and this acts as a powerful "mental straight-jacket."

Originally posted by l_e_cox
This finding is very good support for the idea that the essential human abilities are part of a non-physical "beingness." This ultimately leads to the question: why would such beings bother with using a body? Well, science is a long way from taking up that and many other related matters. It seems to be petrified by the whole subject. But of course that hasn't prevented other people down through the ages from pondering and investigating these questions.

The question goes a bit farther than that. While using a body may seem a sensible way to be involved in the material, why is such massively complicated hardware required if senses and other faculties exist independently of it? Why must much of the functionality be duplicated through neural nets but at a grosser level as a replacement?

Clearly it's more involved than an analogy of our spiritual selves watching images on a screen created by our brains. The hardware is essential for pattern recognition and other tasks and malfunctions in it leave gaps that it conspires conveniently to conceal.

I suppose I'm generally more interested in the "why" and less the "how".

Kind of a dual unrelated topic here, perhaps.. but it might fit. mods be gentle please


My wife is an NDE'r. She experienced hers when she was 4 years old, and is one of those types of people who remembers nearly every detail of their childhood (even down to laying in her crib with a dirty diaper and wanting her mom to come change her (Even remembers her thoughts being perfectly formed and confused about only being able to get gibberish to come out of her throat)).

She was born with NASTY heart conditions (holes in her heart and tricuspid atresia (missing valve)), and had to have 4 open hearts by the time she was 5.

On her 3rd, she died during the operation. She remembers everything about her NDE quite clearly.


As for me... I am legally blind. I cannot see much more than a foot in front of my face, and only by straining can i really do that.

HOWEVER... IF i concentrate very hard, with my eyes closed and my intention to do so in place, I can visualize perfectly my surroundings, and can read, tell details of objects, etc, even in places I have never been to, and could not see clearly otherwise.

It takes effort to do so and draining indeed, but... I think it relates to this topic overall as yet more "proof" or firewood to the claims that are in the OP's articles.

There's just something going on that's beyond our normal senses, and that includes after we pass away.


I guess you can combine both my wife and I's stories together into the topic and get a good result haha

Anyhow.. thanks for the thread, this is something that my darlin will be so interested in hearing, and i'm excited to tell her about it!

And I would be excited to hear her account of the NDE!

You should post it here, if she isn't bothered

I have seen/read many good NDE's, thanks Flyersfan!
star and flagg!
Hope to see this published somewhere in a scientific journal (one can hope)

Hello All

May be somebody can shed some light and please let me know if I need to post it elsewhere( I am new to this forum)

I heard there is a secret research going on where they were able to make the blind see. They did this with latest technology and the born blind person can see the nearly a meter. I heard this first hand from a doctor who participated in this, he accidentally spilled it out . No matter how much I try I am unable to get in touch with him.

I have a nephew who is legally blind and is losing his sight(he is just 20 yrs). He will be blind completely and its only a matter of time. Does anybody has any info about such an organization or persons who treated the blind?

Many thanks in advance.