Near Death Experience with the Blind

Vicki Umipeg was prematurely born at 22 weeks, weighing 3 pounds. Her optic nerve was damaged due to high oxygen in the incubator, resulting in complete blindness. She had no visual experiences, no awareness of light whatsoever. 

At the age of 22, she was thrown out of a car in Seattle, resulting in severe injuries—skull fractures, concussion, and injuries to her neck, back, and leg.  

While being rescued in the hospital, she found herself leaving her body and floating to the ceiling. Below she saw a male doctor and a woman working on her body. She could overhear their conversation which had to do with their fear of possible damage to Vicki's eardrum and that she could become deaf as well as blind. Vicki tried desperately to communicate to them that she was fine, but drew no response. She was also aware of seeing a body below which she recognized as her own by certain identifying features such as a distinctive wedding ring she was wearing. 

And then she was flooded with information of a spiritual nature as well as scientific and mathematical knowledge. She came to understand languages she didn't know. All this overwhelmed and astonished her.

Vicki had a complete panoramic review of her life, and as she watched a being of light gently commented to help her understand the significance of her actions and their repercussions. The last thing Vicki remembered once the life review had been completed are the words, "You have to leave now." She then experienced "a sickening thud" like a roller-coaster going backwards and found herself back in her body,feeling heavy and full of pain.¹

Vicki was the research subject of Dr. Jeffrey Long, a practicing radiation oncologist in Kentucky. Long has dedicated more than 25 years to studying near-death experiences. Another of his cases was Brad Barrow.

Brad was a 33-year-old man living in Connecticut who had a near-death experience when he was only 8 years old. At the time he was a student at the Boston Centre for Blind Children and had contracted a severe case of pneumonia and eventually had severe breathing difficulties. Afterward, he was told by nurses that his heart had stopped, apparently for at least four minutes, and that cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) had been necessary to save his life.

Brad remembered that when he couldn't breathe and he felt himself lifting up from the bed and floated through the room toward the ceiling and was able to see his lifeless body below on the bed. He also saw his blind roommate get up from his bed and leave the room to get help. This was later confirmed by his roommate.

Brad then found himself rapidly going upward through the ceilings of the building until

he was above the roof. He noticed that the sky was cloudy and dark. There had been a snowstorm the day before, and Brad could see snow everywhere except for the streets, which were still slushy. Finally, he recognized a playground used by the children of his school and a particular hill he used to climb nearby.

He said " I could suddenly notice them and see them. .. . I remember . . . being able to see quite clearly." 

Brad encountered what appeared to be a man who he didn't recognize but emanated an overwhelming love. The man without a word gently nudged Brad backward, initiating a reversal of his experience and ending with his finding himself in bed, gasping for air attended by two nurses. Brad, like Vicki, has been blind from birth.

While millions of people have had near death experiences those who have been blind represent competing evidence that consciousness can exists outside the brain at least for the duration of the experience and is not located in the brain. Perhaps the brain is more like a TV that converts a program all around us like consciousness into a picture to be viewed.

Other information about consciousness being outside the body and the significance of this is in our new book Between Lives and other articles on the blog page https://www.pioneeringnewconsciousness.com/blog

Love Andy and Reena 

References

1 Ring, K., Cooper, S., Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind: A Study of Apparent Eyeless Vision, Journal of Near Death Studies v16 no 2