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FREAKS
:
Eyeless Sight |
Date
Added
OCT 2003 |
The miraculous freak phenomenon of
eyeless sight - despite the incredible levels of awareness to which
Helen Keller took it - is, in fact centuries old. British
scientist Robert Boyle reported the case of a 17th Century man, John
Vermaasen, who was totally blind in both eyes but could, nevertheless
distinguish colours. Using ribbons placed between his fingers,
Vermaasen accurately identified every colour, explaining that black
had the same feel as very coarse sand or the points of needles,
whereas red felt as smooth as silk. Strangely, this freak sense
was particularly acute in Vermaasen's thumbs and seemed to be
heightened when he had been fasting.
Kuda Bux was a quiet, unassuming Kashmiri man who, although not blind,
supplied powerful persuasion to the medical world that eyeless sight -
or extra-retinal vision as it has since become know - is a freak sense
possessed by certain people.
Skilled in the art of Yoga after years of intense study of the mental
powers required to use it, Bux gave stage performances of eyeless
sight all over the world during the 1930's. He vowed that his
ability to distinguish colour and perform skilled feats while totally
blindfolded was genuine, and in 1934 his claims were put to the test
by a panel of experts and scientists. They blindfolded him by
putting lumps of dough on his eyes and then wrapping them in metal
foil and several layers of gauze and woollen bandage. When they
were finally satisfied that there was no possible way that he could
use his eyesight, they placed books in front of him, from which they
asked him to read. Bux then astounded the panel by giving a
faultless performance.
A similar investigation into his powers was carried out in Montreal,
Canada, in 1938. The result the same - flawless. Further
proof of his ability to use extra-retinal vision came in September
1937 in Liverpool when, balanced on a narrow ledge, blindfolded as
before and 200 feet above the ground, he walked the entire length of
the roof on his precarious perch with ease. Touring in America
in 1945, he astonished onlookers by again demonstrating his powers by
riding a bicycle blindfolded through the busy traffic of New York's
Time Square.
Another remarkable eyeless sight case is that of Laura Dewey Bridgman,
born on 21st December 1829, who was left deaf and totally blind in her
right eye, with only very slight vision in her left, at the age of 2
after contracting scarlet fever. Like Helen Keller, Laura was
exceptionally bright and quickly surpassed all her classmates at the
Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind.
Her finely developed sense of touch included a peculiar sensitivity to
vibration - and she could even 'hear' music with her fingertips.
Her musical digits enabled her to tell the difference between a full
and a half note, a feat which many people who can hear are incapable
of doing. She even developed her sense of touch through her
feet. She was able to detect the comings and goings of people by
picking up vibrations in the ground.
The astonishing case of totally blind Brooklyn woman, Mollie Fancher,
who claimed to have eyeless sight sense in the top of her head, was
reported in 1893. Doctors were completely baffled by the way she
could read an ordinary book - in light or darkness - simply by running
her fingertips across the printed page. |
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