Observations placeholder

Jules Romains – Eyeless sight

The fact that paroptic space possesses its essential properties at the first attempt does not prevent their exploration from being fumbling or the recognition of special objects from being successive.
It may seem hardly reconcilable logically that the subject should have, from the beginning, an intuition as a whole of a three dimensional space, and of the general disposition of objects in that space; and that he should then be seen proceeding in a investigation full of fumbling and even of error..........

Certain not very thick objects, especially sheets of paper and cardboard, lose all consistency for extra retinal vision; they vanish and do not in the least hide any solid object behind them.  …More solid bodies, placed beyond the sheet of paper, are not hidden by this sheet..............

The perception of colours appears as normal.. but it is lacking in clarity, because of the weakness of the light perceived.  We might compare them with colours seen by twilight.  Here are the shades recognised with certainty:

• White    Bluish white
• Brick red           Gold
• Reddish yellow  Brown
• Azure blue        Black

This list, in spite of the gaps it shows, is sufficient to make it clear that paroptic vision of colours takes place throughout the whole range of the spectrum
I would add that sternal vision of colour [as he goes more out of body] seems much clearer than homocentric vision..............

Experiment reveals a surprising peculiarity, in a room at night where there is only a faint light… the brightness perceived is scarcely less than in full daylight.