Mindsight: Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind

I am a scientist who has specialized and studied consciousness for 30+ years. The old materialistic view of consciousness is ready to be burried in my opinion.The research by some of our greatest scientists such as Dr. Penrose, Fenwick, Alexander, Neal, Goff, Kastrup, Parna, Pim Van Lommel and so many others points to nonlocality, meaning conscioousness is both local and non local to the brain. The veridical NDE's experienced by millions of people, their continuity regardless of culture, the richness of their experiences when the brain/brainstem and heart are declared dead with zero electrical activity, is virtually irrefuable.At a time when their should be no conscious experience at all, people having NDE's are having what they call "more real than living" experiences. Many have been verified by doctors and scientists who have no material explanation based on current science.For further evicence, I wondered if people born blind from birth can see / have vision during their NDE's. That would be the icing on the cake for me.This book looks at all aspects, and answered all my skeptical questions. It provides the indisputable evidence for continuation of our consciousness after clinical death of the body in my opinion.It is well researched. I highly recommend it for people interested in the topic.Occam's razor also applies broadly.

I used some of the research found in “Mindsight” for my book “Conversations about Heaven.” The research contained in this book, if true, is very compelling and could serve as a slam dunk to prove the validity of NDEs.

Dr. Kenneth Ring is one of the original founders of IANDS, the International Association of Near Death Studies. Currently a non-profit organization headquartered in Connecticut. He has written two classics in the field:  Life at Death  & Lessons from the Light: What We Can Learn from the Near-death Experience . You could call him someone who is quite familiar with the subject matter.Anyone conducting research on anything has to contend with the possibility of errors, and the outright falsification by those giving any kind of testimony, even given in a court of law! That does not mean that an entire field of research, such as Near-Death studies, can be simply be dismissed just because of some potential inaccuracies, anymore than the legal system would grind to a halt because some folks lie under oath!Mindsight is a fascinating, and one-of-a-kind book. A must have for the serious student of Near-Death Studies! A book written with heart! It's not a book for someone without an open mind, or who is a determined materialist. Nor is the book providing conclusive evidence like one would find in a mathematics or physics book. And, it's rather obvious that no level of proof would be satisfactory for those who have a chip on their shoulder!When studying Near-Death phenomenon. I like to think in terms of the legal system and instead of using the famous, "beyond a reasonable doubt" how about a "preponderance of evidence", as the standard of proof? Along with one's own experience(s)and/or the first-hand testimony of others. For one thing is certain: Everyone is not a liar, or delusional, or looking for attention when reporting this magnificent experience of mind-boggling love and light!See: Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences

The book is an important contribution to the subject for a number of reasons, one of which is that some of the so-called skeptics have dismissed NDEs as evidence in favour of the survival hypothesis on the grounds that the NDEs of the blind differ from those of the sighted. This book firmly puts that myth to rest.The book consists mostly of reviews of various cases of OBEs and NDEs in the blind, and one of the strongest concerns a woman blinded during surgery who apparently left her body while she was dying on a gurney with a breathing apparatus over her face. She seems to have seen her boyfriend and former husband standing speachless some distance away down the hallway. Seperate interviews with the two me support her story.I predict more cases like this being made public in this decade. We could use a book on the cases of NDEs occuring during times when the patient's EEG recording was flat.

This is a fascinating study of blind people who describe being able to suddenly see quite clearly during a Near Death Experience (NDE). It is all the more interesting because congenitally blind people who have their sight restored do not see well -- it is a confusing blur of color and shapes, and they sometimes want the "gift of sight" taken back. The individual accounts are very interesting and the researchers were very careful about looking at a number of possible explanations. This is not a "hokey" book. It may give us a glimpse of what awaits us as we cross over from life to death.

Wonderful book about visual experiences of the blind during near death experiences. This includes near death experiences of people who have been blind all their lives. Of course there's always room for doubt since even people who have been blind all their lives probably use their occipital visual centers to store tactile and auditory memory maps of their experiences and it may be these memories that they misinterpret for real visual experiences during their NDE's. it's impossible to rule this out, but their descriptions are very believable, and they include aspects that would be difficult to interpret in any way other than through the prism of real visualization.

I believe this is the only book about Near Death Experience as described by people who are blind. Fascinating accounts of what they went through, how they "saw" things--for some it was the very first experience of sight, as they were blind from birth.Kenneth Ring and Sharon Cooper provide a totally different perspective on the NDE subject with this very worth-reading book. Another keeper for my library of "woo-woo" books.

If you do not accept NDEs then this book is not for you, but for those who take a different view then working with visually impaired people who have had an NDE seems like the basis for an interesting study. However, as I read the book I concluded that such a study needed to go somewhat further: ideally you would work with people who have been blind since birth, have experienced an NDE and can offer an accurate description of something they could never have seen in "real" life. This would offer something rather thought provoking albeit not absolute proof of an NDE as a "real" event. Indeed, one of the "experts" quoted in the latter stages of the book does make a similar observation. As it is, it would seem that such source material (i.e. people who fit this category) is scarce - of itself this is not the authors' fault but it felt to me that they had decided to write the book and wrote it anyway notwithstanding the lack of such convincing situations. It resulted in a book that really offered very little more than the many others available on the subject of NDEs and I found it rather disappointing. A final thought, this review is not in any way meant to be a glib comment on blindness - people who cope without sight have my deepest respect.

Kenneth Ring is rightly the man that holds the mantle of all the best Near Death Experience writers, its quite astonishing When you realize that people who where born blind can see. But you know the great poet Whitman in his Leaves of Grass said and I Quote My eyesight had another eyesight and my hearing has another hearing. unquote. so I imagine that he had already experienced this in his Cosmic Consciousness state. Buy this book its brilliant.

Groundbreaking and an earthquake for scientific materialism

well documented and argued position

Prof. Ring gibt hier Einblick auf ein sehr interessantes Detailphänomen der NTE. Die visuelle Wahrnehmungsfähigkeit von Blinden während Ihrer Erfahrungen. Diese darf man sich nicht wie ein normales Sehen vorstellen, dennoch ein starkes Indiz dafür, dass eine Nahtoderfahrung keine Halluzination ist.