Blind woman sees during near-death experience

Supernormal sensory awareness is consistently described in near-death experiences. This is further evidence that consciousness in NDEs occurs separately from the physical brain, as would be expected if consciousness survives bodily death.

An excellent example of supernormal sensory awareness in near-death experiences is visual NDEs in the blind. Blind NDErs have reported normal and even supernormal vision. In 1998 Kenneth Ring, PhD, and Sharon Cooper, MA, published an important article in the Journal of Near-Death Studies. Their investigation found that visually impaired or blind people often described normal or supernormal vision during their NDEs. Several especially significant case reports described individuals born completely blind who had typical NDEs that included detailed vision.

The best documented case of a near-death experience in a person born totally blind was the account of Vicki. To Vicki, vision was unknown and unknowable. Vicki had two NDEs. Her first NDE was at age 12 due to appendicitis. Her second and more detailed NDE was at age 22 due to a car accident with head injuries so severe that she was still recovering a year later. In Vicki’s own words, she describes vision during her NDE:

I knew it was me... I was pretty thin then. I was quite tall and thin at that point. And I recognized at first that it was a body, but I didn’t even know that it was mine initially. Then I perceived that I was up on the ceiling, and I thought, “Well, that’s kind of weird. What am I doing up here?” I thought, “Well, this must be me. Am I dead?”...I just briefly saw this body, and ...I knew that it was mine because I wasn’t in mine.

Here is a sample of her detailed visual observations that occurred throughout her near-death experience:

I think I was wearing the plain gold band on my right ring finger and my father’s wedding ring next to it. But my wedding ring I definitely saw.... That was the one I noticed the most because it’s unusual. It has orange blossoms on the corners of it.

Vicki emphasizes the uniqueness of the vision she had during her near-death experiences, noting:

This was, she said, the only time I could ever relate to seeing and to what light was, because I experienced it.

I personally interviewed Vicki. There is no possible medical explanation for someone born totally blind to have a near-death experience with such vivid and detailed vision. 

Jeffrey Long, Evidence for Survival of Consciousness in Near-Death Experiences: Decades of Science and New Insights, https://www.nderf.org/.