In Lessons from the Light by Kenneth Ring and Evelyn Elsaesser Valarino, Ring writes about his research into near-death experiences with blind people. Skeptics sometimes say that the NDE is created by conditioned images, or even that people must have seen the same movie about near-death experiences. It was this argument that Kenneth Ring wanted to investigate when he started to look for near-death experiences among blind people.
Interestingly, not only did he find that people who had poor eyesight could see clearly during the near-death experience, but he also found that some blind people were able to see for the very first time. In his study Ring found that 80 percent out of thirty-one blind people who had a near-death experience were able to see during their experience.
Vicky, one person who had been completely blind from birth and survived two near-death experiences, explained, "Those two experiences were the only time I could ever relate to seeing, and to what light was, because I experienced it. I was able to see." Another person, Brad, who had also been blind from birth said, "I know I could see and I was supposed to be blind...It was very clear when I was out. I could see details and everything."
This gets even more interesting when Ring then wanted to compare their eyeless seeing with their dreams. When asked to compare their near-death experiences to their dreams, both Vicky and Brad answered that there were no similarity at all. The big difference is that blind people do not see things in their dreams like sighted people do.
Vicky tells us that, "I have dreams in which I touch things...I taste things, touch things, hear things and smell things-that's it." And when asked whether she was able to see anything at all during her dreams she answers, "Nothing. No color, no sight of any sort, no shadows, no light, no nothing."
Brad explained the same, "I've had the very same consciousness level in my dreams as I've had in my waking hours. And that would be that all my senses function...except vision. In my dreams, I have no visual perceptions at all."
Here are examples of two people who have never been able to see, but in their near-death experience are able to see for the first time. How is it possible for these blind people to transcend the sensory restrictions?
Personally, I have no doubt that life continues after death and that consciousness can exist without the body. I think that the reason we cannot get any solid 'proof' is that we do not perceive all of reality. From my experience I am convinced that there is much, much more to reality than what meets the eye. Just as the universe continues beyond what we know, I am also convinced that life does.
