Between 1947 and 1952, 50,00 babies were blinded by excess oxygen, given to them in the newly developed air lock incubator. One of the clues to this tragedy was the discovery of the loss of peripheral vision among pilots breathing oxygen through air masks. I had been in the womb 22 weeks by December of 1950, when I was born at St. Luke Hospital in Pasadena, California. Weighing 3 pounds at birth, it was logical that I would be placed in one of the new incubators. Since then, for 43 years, I have seen no light, no shadows, nothing, the optic nerves to my eyes having been destroyed. When I dream, I dream with the same sensations I experience when I’m awake. There is no visual data, just other sensations such as touch and sound. But I have seen as you see. Twice I nearly died, and on those occasions, for the first time in my life, I saw. I left my body and saw. This is an account of my second near death experience.

On February 2, 1973 I was working as a singer and pianist at a restaurant in Seattle, Washington. It was 2 am. The owner, afraid of offending a drunk couple that had offered me a ride home, overruled my objections, and insisted that I accept their offer. He refused to open up his office so I could get change for the pay phone to call a cab. He left, and no one else was going my way. I reluctantly accepted the ride. As we drove along, the driver mentioned he was seeing double. The VW bus weaved through the streets. Near the base of Queen Anne hill there was a squealing of tires, and we spun out of control. The driver’s wife yelled “Oh my God, we’re crashing!” Everything became very slow. I screamed. That was my last conscious in-the-body awareness.

Dazed and disoriented I felt myself leave my body through my mouth. Time still seemed stretched and elongated. I was rising into the air, above the street, confused. I saw my body briefly. There was an uncertain moment when part of me wanted to go back into it, but another part of me felt so neat being out! Then I returned. It was like returning to your house when you forget something. I don’t remember the trip to Harbor View Hospital.

My first awareness in the emergency room was of being up near the ceiling. I could see again! Throughout this near death experience I was in a state of stunned awe from seeing. In fact, it was so foreign to me that it was a continuous complication in my efforts to cope. But it was also like a foreign language that you don’t understand, but that you ache to hear more of. Below me was a body on a cart I wasn’t sure was me. I was shocked and aghast. The hair length was mine, and a lot of it had been shaved off! This may not make sense, but it took me so long to grow, and I loved my hair!. It was like losing an important part of me. Blood caked the skull. Nearby I clearly saw a female member of the medical team. I felt drawn to her, and I can’t explain why. But I had a great need to get her to understand me. Then I heard a male voice say that there was blood on my left ear drum, and that I might be deaf. “I’m not deaf! I’m not deaf!” I was screaming at him. Maybe she could tell him. “Don’t you hear me? I’m right over here!” At this point while the visual impressions floored me, they were secondary to my desire to communicate verbally, because that’s the main way I’ve navigated through life. Then the female said, “We don’t know how much brain damage there is…and if she might be in a vegetative state.” I yelled at her, “I’m not in a vegetative state!” I was so frustrated and angry because I was yelling with every ounce of strength I had, and it was like I didn’t exist! I just wanted to get out of there. Almost immediately, as if in response to my thought, I was drawn up, sort of “Vooom!” right through the ceiling and then the hospital, rising through space.

I saw lights. I don’t know what they were from. But I didn’t care, because I felt so free! I was giddy with the ease of movement I felt as I rose. I felt like screaming and shouting with intoxication. This might sound crazy, but it reminds me of the feeling a puppy might have when it rolls all over the grass, and doesn’t even care where it’s rolling. In the distance I heard the most beautiful sound, like wind chimes. It contained every single note you could imagine, from the lowest to the highest, all blended together. As a musician I was intrigued. There were so many different tones that I didn’t know were possible! I was awed.

Sucked head first into a dark tunnel, I was drawn by the wind toward a distant light that grew. There was a whooshing airy feeling, as though great, big monstrous fans were drawing me. The tube was comfortably wide. Occasionally I passed what looked like vents or windows in the sides of the tube. Through these I could see other beings both ahead of me and behind me in parallel tubes. They seemed to be expressing the same amazement I was experiencing. Inside I felt warmth throughout my being.

As I neared the end of the tunnel, the light became brilliant. Just before I reached the end I could hear people singing. It was like all the hymns you’ve ever heard sung at once, and blending together harmoniously! I noticed there were no hymns about Jesus dying, or the sad songs of blood and pain. These were songs of praise and jubilation. As I listened I could pick out an individual piece. Somehow their combined singing was beautiful, not horrible! It was like what could be made in order there could not be made in order here. The jubilation filled me.

My exit from the tube can best be described as rolling out onto grass in a balmy, bright summerland scene of trees, where there were thousands of people singing, laughing and talking. Some played what sounded like string instruments. Flowers were everywhere in different varieties, and I still recall a near jasmine scent. Both the flowers, and the birds I observed in the trees seemed to have light around them. I also noticed that even among flowers and birds of the same kind, some had more light than others. At intervals ornate pillars supported what looked like roofs, creating park shelters. In the distance a huge gate glowed, the brightest object in my field of vision.

Then I saw Debby and Diane coming toward me from the right, and Mr. and Mrs. Zilk approaching from the left. I had been very close to Debby and Diane at the Oregon State School for the Blind. Debby had died from a hydrocephalic condition when I was 10. Diane had drowned in the bathtub next to my room from a muscle spasm four years earlier. Even blind kids can be cruel, and because Debby was quite overweight, moved ponderously and didn’t talk very well, and because Diane would curse frequently at people, they were both shunned and made fun of by the other kids. I felt sorry for both of them and reached out to them because of that. Mrs. Zilk had been an elderly next door neighbor who babysat me when my Grandmother had to work. She had been a real sweet woman who went along with a lot of my imaginative playtime stuff. Debby and Diane moved towards me gracefully. Both of them seemed to be healed inside, or somehow made better. I could feel them reaching out to me with love, Diane seeming to have an almost desperate desire to say something.

In a place where time may have no meaning, there was then an instant when I knew everything, when everything made sense. It was like this place was where I could find the answers to all the questions about life, about the planets, about God, about everything. Suddenly I intuitively understood math and science, and I don’t know beans about math and science. I hadn’t asked about calculus. Now I understood it. Languages became unimportant. I knew them. Even without asking questions, answers were imparted about things I’d always wondered about. I had always been troubled about the Trinity. Now I was aware that the Father was what you might call the Being/Source aspect of God, that the Son was the Doing aspect, and that the Holy Spirit was the Imparter, the Bringer of Knowledge. I was aware that these three aspects of God, while separate were also one, in the same way that a husband and wife are separate, yet one.

As Debby and Diane were approaching, now almost close enough to touch, I sensed a boundary across which I could not to go. Then Christ appeared. His light filled my vision. Holding out a raised right hand towards me, he said very definitely, “No!”, blocking me and them from coming closer to each other. It would be like someone preventing you from going over a cliff, or passing a certain point, beyond which you wouldn’t be able to return.

His face was strong and kind. He wore a beard and His hair was long. His gown, open at the chest, had a sash around the waist. I’m describing a form, but the incredible light He gave off outweighed it. Part of me could hardly stand to be around it, but yet I could stand it. It was like the light came out of His body directly, and He was made out of it. I was too, but my light was not nearly as intense as His. Debby and Diane also gave off light, but with Christ it was all around Him, especially around His head where the light was circular, and where He had arms or spokes of light extending, like those you might see from a star. Around the rest of His body the light was more uniform. His eyes were piercing, yet tender. You almost wanted to look away from them, but you couldn’t. He could see everything about me, clear beyond everything, even more than I could see or know. It was kind of scary to be so totally known, exposed, and yet accepted and loved. Yet I wanted nothing more than to be part of it. It’s kind of like songs about people being in love, where part of them wants to run away, and part of them doesn’t.

“Well, hello,” He said and embraced me. I didn’t ever want to be away from Him, ever, ever. I just wanted Him to envelope me somehow, and not to be separated from Him. I was so excited about the knowledge I’d just found, that I felt like I was burbling and tripping over myself trying to communicate it to Him with a kind of thought transference. And he said, “Isn’t it wonderful? Everything is beautiful here, and it fits together. And you’ll find that. But you can’t stay here now. It’s not your time yet. You have to go back.” Then He said, “Watch this.” And then I saw my whole life, from my birth to the current moment. I knew He was with me, but my awareness of everything else around me disappeared. In this process I actually observed myself, as well as being aware of the thoughts and feelings of myself and all others involved in every incident in my life. Christ left it to me to assess things, to arrive at conclusions myself. I became aware that I was being harder on myself than He was.

In one incident, when I was nine or ten, Sharon, my roommate at the school for the blind, showed me a new dress her mother had just made for her. When she left the room, I ripped all the buttons and the lace off. I was angry because I wanted to be cared about the way her mother cared about her. Now when we observed myself doing this in the life review, Christ said to me, “Yeh, that wasn’t too cool. But you made it right though.” And Christ laughed as we now observed myself apologizing to and hugging Sharon later. During this entire encounter with Christ I believe he employed my vernacular as a way of relating to me. His laughter was hearty and supportive. Thinking about His reaction to that incident has helped me be less somber and uptight about things my children have done wrong. Then He asked me, “What have you learned from your life?” I answered that I thought it was important to be honest.

Then Christ said to me, “You have to learn and teach more about loving and forgiving. Whether people deserve it or not is not the point. You shouldn’t try to select those who you think should be forgiven, and those who shouldn’t.” He was referring to a tendency in my past to forgive only those who had apologized to me. He also told me before I left that it was going to be hard, but to remember what I’d learned. Then there was absolutely nothing, for how long I have not idea. All of a sudden I felt heavy, and full of pain. I eventually awoke in the hospital to find that I had a skull fracture, a concussion, a neck injury, a back injury, and a leg injury.

The things I’ve been through since my second near death experience have been unbelievably hard. But I’ve learned a lot from them. I’m learning about separating the sin from the sinner. I’m learning about judging less and letting go of some of my past sense of smugness and superiority. Finally, I’m learning to care for myself enough that I no longer allow the negative thoughts of others to drag me down. As Christ said, the path has been hard, but in walking it I feel I’ve grown.

Voici un extrait de son témoignage. On pourra noter les très nombreuses références à la notion de "vue": couleurs, formes, lumières,... Son témoignage complet est décrit dans Mindsight (référencé plus haut) qui encore une fois décrit une trentaine de témoignages.

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.

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 most unusual. It has orange blossoms on the corners of it.

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

À propos de la phase transcendantale:

Everybody there was made of light. And I was made of light. What the light conveyed was love. There was love everywhere. It was like love came from the grass, love came from the birds, love came from the trees.

Vicky Nuratuk semble réagir de la même façon que certains aveugles qui ont pu recouvrer la vue ne comprenant rien au début aux informations "visuelles" qui lui parviennent (par quel canal ?)...

I had a hard time relating to it (i.e., seeing). I had a real difficult time relating to it because I've never experienced it. And it was something very foreign to me ... Let's see, how can I put it into words?  It was like hearing words and not being able to understand them, but knowing that they were words. And before you'd never heard anything. But it was something new, something you'd not been able to previously attach any meaning to

Source: http://near-death.com/experiences/evidence03.html

Le fait que les aveugles de naissance rapportent les mêmes expériences que les autres constitue définitivement l'une des clefs pour comprendre pourquoi de grands scientifiques comme Henry Stapp ou Roger Penrose ont eux compris le besoin d'un nouveau paradigme pour la conscience...

Pour continuer à développer sur la "vision" des aveugles congénitaux lors des NDE, un témoignage vidéo, sachant que les travaux de K.Ring concernent une trentaine de cas.

Le cas de Bradley Burroughs:

Vicki Umipeg, a forty-five year old blind woman, wasjust one of the more than thirty persons that Dr.Ken Ring  and Sharon Cooper interviewed at length during a two-year study just completed concerning near-death experiences of the blind. The results of their study appear in their newest book Mindsight.

Vicki was born blind, her optic nerve having been completely destroyed at birth because of an excess of oxygen she received in the incubator. Yet, she appears to have been able to see during her NDE. Her story is a particularly clear instance of how NDEs of the congenitally blind can unfold in precisely the same way as do those of sighted persons. As you will see, apart from the fact that Vicki was not able to discern color during her experience, the account of her NDE is absolutely  indistinguishable from those with intact visual systems. The following is an excerpt from Dr. Ring's latest book reprinted by permission.

Vicki told Dr. Ring she found herself floating above her body in the emergency room of a hospital following an automobile accident. She was aware of being up near the ceiling watching a male doctor and a female nurse working on her body, which she viewed from her elevated position. Vicki has a clear recollection of how she came to the realization that this was her own body below her. The following is her experience.

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.

In addition, she was able to note certain further identifying features indicating that the body she was observing was certainly her own.

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 most unusual. It has orange blossoms on the corners of it.

There is something extremely remarkable and provocative about Vicki's recollection of these visual impressions, as a subsequent comment of hers implied.

"This was," she said, "the only time I could ever

relate to seeing and to what light was, because I experienced it."

She then told them that following her out-of-body episode, which was very fast and fleeting, she found herself going up through the ceilings of the hospital until she was above the roof of the building itself, during which time she had a brief panoramic view of her surroundings. She felt very exhilarated during this ascension and enjoyed tremendously the freedom of movement she was experiencing. She also began to hear sublimely beautiful and exquisitely harmonious music akin to the sound of wind chimes.

With scarcely a noticeable transition, she then discovered she had been sucked head first into a tube and felt that she was being pulled up into it. The enclosure itself was dark, Vicki said, yet she was aware that she was moving toward light. As she reached the opening of the tube, the music that she had heard earlier seemed to be transformed into hymns and she then "rolled out" to find herself lying on grass.

She was surrounded by trees and flowers and a vast number of people. She was in a place of tremendous light, and the light, Vicki said, was something you could feel as well as see. Even the people she saw were bright.

Everybody there was made of light. And I was made of light. What the light conveyed was love. There was love everywhere. It was like love came from the grass, love came from the birds, love came from the trees.

Vicki then becomes aware of specific persons she knew in life who are welcoming her to this place. There are five of them. Debby and Diane were Vicki's blind schoolmates, who had died years before, at ages 11 and 6, respectively.

In life, they had both been profoundly retarded as well as blind, but here they appeared bright and beautiful, healthy and vitally alive.

And no longer children, but, as Vicki phrased it, "in their prime."

In addition, Vicki reports seeing two of her childhood caretakers, a couple named Mr. and Mrs. Zilk, both of whom had also previously died. Finally, there was Vicki's grandmother - who had essentially raised Vicki and who had died just two years before this incident. In these encounters, no actual words were exchanged, Vicki says, but only feelings - feelings of love and welcome.

In the midst of this rapture, Vicki is suddenly overcome with a sense of total knowledge.

I had a feeling like I knew everything ... and like everything made sense. I just knew that this was where ... this place was where I would find the answers to all the questions about life, and about the planets, and about God, and about everything ... It's like the place was the knowing.

As these revelations are unfolding, Vicki  notices that now next to her is a figure whose radiance is far greater than the illumination of any of the persons she has so far encountered. Immediately, she recognizes this being to be Jesus. He greets her tenderly, while she conveys her excitement to him about her newfound omniscience and her joy at being there with him.

Telepathically, he communicates to her.

"Isn't it wonderful? Everything is beautiful here, and it fits together. And you'll

find that. But you can't stay here now. It's not your time to be here yet and you have to

go back."

Vicki reacts, understandably enough, with extreme disappointment and protests vehemently.

"No, I want to stay with you."

But the being reassures her that she will come back, but for now, she "has to go back and learn and teach more about loving and forgiving."

Still resistant, however, Vicki then learns that she also needs to go back to have her children. With that, Vicki, who was then childless but who "desperately wanted" to have children (and who has since given birth to three) becomes almost eager to return and finally consents.

However, before Vicki can leave, the  being says to her, in these exact words, "But first, watch this."

And what Vicki then sees is "everything from my birth" in a complete panoramic review of her life, and as she watches, the being gently comments to help her understand the significance of her actions and their repercussions.

The last thing Vicki remembers, once the life review has been completed, are the words, "You have to leave now."

Then she experiences "a sickening thud" like a roller-coaster going backwards, and finds herself back in her body.

Such reports, replete with visual imagery, were the rule, not the exception, among Ring and Cooper's blind respondents. Altogether, 80% of their entire sample claimed some visual perception during their near-death or out-of-body encounters. Although Vicki's was unusual with respect to the degree of detail, it was hardly unique in their sample.

Sometimes the initial onset of visual perception of the physical world is disorienting and even disturbing to the blind. This was true for Vicki, for example, who said:

I had a hard time relating to it

(i.e., seeing). I had a real difficult time relating to it because I've never experienced it. And

it was something very foreign to me ... Let's see, how can I put it into words? It

was like hearing words and not being able to understand them, but knowing that they were

words. And before you'd never heard anything. But it was something new, something

you'd not been able to previously attach any meaning to

"Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see."

Je connais beaucoup d'aveugle de naissances, quand ils veulent m'expliquer un truc ils me dises souvent, "je vois" comment faire, "fait voir" ceci, "j'ai vu" cela.

Sémantiquement, voir pour les aveugles (même de naissances) est employé couramment, pour exprimer la façon dont ils conçoivent ce qu'ils ont perçus par d'autres sens que la vision. Voir c'est d'abord se former une image mentale de la réalité, un model imaginaire qui permet de littéralement "visualiser" un objet, même les yeux fermé.

Effectivement, les aveugles (ainsi que les malentendants) sont capables de se construire un environnement à partir des autres sens disponibles, environnement dans lequel ils sont capables de se mouvoir (Certes de façon limitée) comme s'ils avaient le sens de la vue. Dans "Deadline", (à partir de la page 312) , Jean-Pierre Jourdan qui a travaillé vingt ans sur les NDE aborde la vision des aveugles sous l'angle des "qualia" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia . Dans la vie de tous les jours, nos sens font parvenir les différents stimuli au cerveau. Puis une reconstruction est faite à partir de ces informations, informations que la consience interprète.

Ce que je veut dire, c'est que cet argument, pour les NDE, de la même "vision" chez les voyants que chez les aveugles de naissances n'est pas forcément très pertinent:

Dans "Mindsight", K.Ring rapporte qu'il n'y a aucune imagerie visuelle dans les rêves des aveugles congénitaux et que les NDE pour ces derniers différaient radicalement en raison justement de la présence d'une imagerie visuelle lors des deux phases d'une NDE (cité aussi pages 315-316, dans "Deadline"). Les aveugles de naissance qui disent avoir "vu" affirment clairement que ce "sens" n'a absolument rien à voir avec la reconstruction mentale qu'ils font habituellement à partir des autres sens.

Dans la première phase d'une NDE, nous avons l'OBE (l'expérience hors du corps): Voici ce que disent par exemple Vicki Umipeg et Brad Barroes (des aveugles congénitaux) dans "Mindsight" : Les deux ont rapporté avoir "vu" les environs de l'hôpital: Brad Barroes rapporte avoir "vu" les rues enneigées ainsi que les bancs de neige. Brad Barroes affirme aussi avoir pu voir une voiture passer dans la rue. Il a même pu décrire un terrain de jeu pas loin… Idem pour Vicki Umipeg…

Dans la phase transcendentale, c'est la même chose. Les aveugles de naissance décrivent des panoramas comme s'ils avaient le sens de la vue. Il parlent de couleurs, de lumières, des entités supposées avoir été rencontrées de la même façon et comme s'ils connaissaient ces concepts de couleurs, de formes,... Vicki Umipeg a décrit dans le détail la phase qu'on appelle revue de vie. Elle a pu décrire de façon "visuelle" les scènes et les personnes qu'elle n'a jamais été en mesure de voir…Et encore une fois ce qui est le plus frappant est que cette expérience est exactement la même pour tout le monde qui vit une telle expérience (y compris le sens de l'humour!!! attribué à l'entité qui assiste à la revue de vie…).

Tout simplement fascinant!

Donc et enfin JEAN revient aux NDEs ;o) proprement dites, si même les aveugles de naissances voient des choses dans leurs expériences, c'est peut être parce qu'ils ont aussi un cerveau construit avec des cartes cognitives, par exemple, et que donc l'argument du fait que même eux perçoivent les mêmes choses malgré l' handicap visuelle n'est pas une démonstration d'une conscience externalisée...

Les NDE ont tendance à laisser penser que la reconstruction et l'interprétation des qualia peuvent se faire alors que le cerveau est "shut-down". Le fait qu'une OBE soit la première phase d'une NDE renforce l'hypothèse que ces traitements (reconstruction + interprétation) pourraient se faire de façon désincarnée... Il s'agirait donc d'un autre type de "vision"...

Le cerveau n'a pas besoin des yeux pour "voir"...

...même les yeux fermé le cerveau "voit".

C'est définitivement ce que laissent penser les témoignages des aveugles congénitaux ainsi que les constats des NDE et des OBE.

Effectivement, on n'est définitivement pas sûr que ça soit le cerveau qui voit...