The uncanny ability of blind people to "sense" unseen objects has been demonstrated for the first time in sighted volunteers whose vision was blanked out by scientists. The findings suggest "blindsight", which has been observed in blind people whose eyes function normally but who have suffered damage to the brain's visual centre, is a real and not imagined phenomenon.In tests, the blind have been able to distinguish basic shapes of objects they cannot see, as well as their orientation and direction of motion. On other occasions a blind person has reported experiencing a "feeling" that an object is present, while not being able to see it. A number of theories have been proposed to explain "blindsight". Generally, it is suggested that other parts of the brain besides the primary visual cortex respond to nerve messages from the eyes at an unconscious level. Scientists from the University of Houston in Texas, temporarily blinded a group of 12 volunteers by using an electromagnetic field to shut down the primary visual cortex.

Images were then flashed in front of them on a screen. In one experiment, volunteers were shown either a horizontal or vertical bar. In another, a red or green dot appeared. Most of the time, the volunteers were unaware of the images with which they were presented. But they guessed either the orientation of the bar or the colour of the dot correctly more often than would have been expected by the law of averages.

View: Full Article | Source: Scotsman

its true...blind person have this uncanny sense(sixth) and more sensitive to surrounding.

I think the article had it correctly when it sats the word "guessed". Instead of rendering people blind, so that they are test subjects, would it not make more sens to use someone who is blind... to do this sort of test....

its like plugging someones ears and performing a test on them about sound, it will never be authentic.

While I agree that blind people are more sensitive to their surroundings then sighted people (hearing/scent enhanced), I tend to question the accuracy of this test since it was done on people who are sighted to start with.

I work with people who are blind. One of them was born sighted but lost his sight because of an accident when he was quite young. While he remembers some colours, trust me, if we were to move furniture around in his office, he would bump into everything and has actually hurt himself quite badly a few times when he ran into office dividers ; we've even had to make sure to walk around a few times with him when we had the whole office redone, and that goes for 100% of the blind people who work in my office.

I agree with you Subtemperate, not the perfect control group to use in this type of study. You've got to use subjects who are blind in order to give it credibility.

I was interested in the method more than the results. They say they used electromagnetism to temporarily stop the nerves controlling sight? We the public have been told for years that magnetism dose not effect the body. Now this. I would like to know the power and frequency of the wave or pulse.

Subtemperate, using people who were born blind would make this test invalid. They would never know exactly the colour of red or green, and they would have to come up with new tests for people who were born blind.

That's what gets me. I have never heard of an electromagnetic technique to "blind" the person apart from say, a high-intensity light pulse.

i dunno how to explain for myself, since i am not blind, but when i close my eyelids i can sometimes see my surroundings...along with out-of-body experiences...sometimes i see pinpricks like stars when i close my eyes...sometimes i can still see light when i turn out all the lights...i dunno how to explain it...i don't know if i am hallucinating or what, BUT it always seems to be accurate visions..

psychic powers are mainly developed from the peneal gland being more receptive to responses from the brain..when your peneal gland is enlarged, a lot of psychic activity can occur...in blind people, they have nothing to stmulate their eyesight, but their peneal gland (also called the 3rd eye) is being soaked in fluids and being moved around...i tink its because light that reflects into the eye also somewhat disengages the peneal gland, but if you focus on it with your eyes closed you see this light develop....

thats why the peneal gland is also refered to as the innner light..

I DUNNO WHAT ELSE TO SAY EXCEPT FOR I TOLD YA SO, scientist would discover it sooner or later

My question is if people who are blind from birth have dreams?

This has been dealt with in another thread

here... Linky

Ooops . . . . I've been away. Sorry.

Well I read in New Scientist that electromagetic fields can sort of cancel out energy or decrease bloodflow in the brain. I can't remember it exactly but it was used to alter peoples states of consciousness so they can act like autistic savants, I think.

Personally, I think the title is misleading. Especially when it says that other parts of the brain may be responsible for visual prcoessing.

sorry this isn't proof

blind people don't see, because they don't KNOW the color so how would they say (a Red dot!) so making someone who can see then making them blind after, is wrong

That depends when they became blind. If they became blind later in life, they would know color.