The very interesting 1924 book Eyeless Sight by Jules Romains (which can be read here) is a book that begins with a very serious error. The topic of the book is extra-sensory perception, not the type of ESP that involves thoughts traveling mysteriously between minds, but clairvoyant perception about the nature and color of external objects without the use of touch, hearing, smell or sight with the eyes. Romains begins his book most erroneously by stating this:
"No bibliography will be found in the pages which follow. The principal question with which I am dealing is new. I cannot consider as real sources the few brief passages in earlier works where a presentiment of the phenomena we are going to study appears, nor as a tradition of scientific research a few observations collected in chance circum- stances, noted without criticism and bearing witness at most to a superficial and easily satisfied curiosity."
This passage shows a dismal lack of scholarship on the topic that the book discusses. Before Romains book there was a hundred years of very voluminous published evidence for ESP and clairvoyance, much of it written by very distinguished and accomplished writers. This literature included:
- the long 1831 report of the French Royal Academy of Medicine in favor of clairvoyance (based on a long investigation between 1825 and 1831);
- the long work Letters to a Candid Inquirer, on Animal Magnetism, a book by William Gregory MD (a chemistry professor at the University of Edinburgh established in 1562);
- A lengthy book by the extremely successful clairvoyant Adolphe Didier, discussed here;
- many articles in the journal The Zoist,
- many articles in the journals and proceedings of the British Society for Psychical Research,
- a work on clairvoyance by the very successful surgeon James Esdaile.
- Eugene Osty's 1923 book Supernormal Faculties in Man (discussed here).
- A book on the case of the blind or nearly blind clairvoyant Mollie Fancher, discussed here.
Altogether we have here thousands of pages, which is not at all a "few brief passages." But luckily Romains' competence as an experimenter is an entirely different matter from his incompetence as a scholar of the topic he was researching. Romains fails to prove himself as a best-practices experimenter, because he too often speaks vaguely about his experiments, failing to tell us how many subjects he tested to reach his conclusions. But at various places in his books he drops some very fascinating observational tidbits worthy of further followup.
In the first 40 pages of the book (which I suggest any reader skip), Romains starts talking about human skin, trying to suggest it may have undreamed of powers. Later, after reporting successful experiments regarding ESP, he advances the theory that skin has special powers allowing sight to occur even when eyelids are closed and eyes are blindfolded. This is not a very plausible theory, and in the century since no discoveries about the skin have substantiated it. But the important thing about the book are its reported observations, not its theoretical speculations to explain such observations.
By page 46 Romains finally gets around to report some interesting observations. He reports picking a random patient and testing him for sightless vision, assuring him that he will succeed:
"I bandaged his eyes, and warned him that he would be using a faculty which he possessed beyond doubt, although he has never had occasion to discover it. I explained to him briefly that I was going to place a newspaper in his hands and that he should try to 'see' and 'read' some, at least, of the largest letters. I made it very clear that he was not to rely upon sensations of touch ; that he was to 'see,' in the strict sense of the word, and furthermore that I was persuaded that he could do it....The subject...finally began to enunciate in jerks, but correctly, the title of the newspaper, printed in letters 30 mm. in height, the lines of which were 5 mm. in thickness. Having congratulated him, I told him to decipher the title of an article printed in letters 5 mm. high with 1 mm. lines. He increased his efforts and after a few moments, pronounced, not the exact words themselves of the title, but a very close equivalent. There was reading apparently, as in the first case, but for some unknown reason, a work of interpretation added to it. He finally pronounced the words themselves."
The reported result (sightless vision) is astonishing, but maybe not so astonishing when we consider that it is perhaps no more remarkable than the very well-documented placebo effect, under which remarkable medical improvements can be produced by doctors in white coats telling patients that a pill they are being given will "work like magic" to help their medical problem, with the pill being only a sugar pill.
On page 51 Romains uses the term "paraoptic perception" for sightless vision or ESP. After noting that he documented such an effect in many subjects, who had no idea what kind of test would be done ("they knew nothing of what I was expecting from them"), and no chance to prepare any trickery, he states the following:
"Paroptic perception is a phenomenon sui generis, whose experimental existence is beyond all question. Its reality is of the same order of certainty as that of the respiratory phenomenon or of the phenomenon of fecundation in biology. This phenomenon is of a certain generality. It is even likely that every individual is capable of exhibiting it in certain conditions. I need not say that I have taken, in the course of these hundreds of experiments, all imaginable precautions to eliminate the smallest chance of illusion or trickery."
The attempts of skeptics to explain away observations such as these are very lame. They say things like "the blindfolds were not tight enough, and people were able to peek through little cracks at the bottom." Anyone who has studied demonstrations of clairvoyance in the nineteenth century knows that it was extremely common to use the most thorough double measures to make sure there was no chance of seeing while blindfolded. It was, in fact, extremely common for subjects being tested to have their closed eyes thoroughly covered with sticky plaster or tape, and for double blindfolds to then be tied on over such a plaster or tape. After the clairvoyance was demonstrated, the blindfolds would be removed, and the unbroken plaster or unbroken tape covering the closed eyes would be shown. But much simpler measures can be used by any competent investigator to rule out some possibility of reading through the bottom gap of a blindfold. One such simple measure is simply to ask someone to read or describe something a meter away from him, at eye level (while being careful to discard any results in which the subject tilted back his head). No one with an untilted head can use his eyes to see through a decent blindfold to see something a meter away at eye level.
Romains describes methods he used to rule out fraud, such as using the device below, with two handles held by the subject. The item to be read (or have its colors described) was placed on the subject's knees, where there was no possibility of the object being seen with the eyes.
"In particular I arranged the Bouclier in the position indicated in the sketch, the object to be seen being placed on the knees of the subject and the hands of the subject holding the interior grips. The phenomenon did not cease."
It is clear from the visual and statement above that Romains was getting something much more than "touch reading" in which a blindfolded person might be able to read something he is touching with his hands.
Using the term extra-retinal vision for the ESP he is investigating, on page 79 Romains makes the interesting conclusion that such vision is 360 degree "full circle" vision instead of the cone-like vision that occurs with eyes:
"The retinal field is roughly cone-shaped, and gives, in horizontal section, a sector whose angle varies slightly according to the individual, without ever exceeding a maximum value which remains below 180°. Now this horizontal section of the field in the case of extra-retinal vision reaches 360°. That is to say, the field is circular or even spherical. If I am in the centre of a room, and if I wish to see, with my eyes, all that surrounds me I must move about, or at least my head must pivot on my neck. To obtain the same result the subject who sees paroptically can remain motionless."
Very interestingly, the same thing is often reported by those who have near-death experiences: the ability to see in a 360 degree full-circle manner.
Romains uses the term "time of elaboration" for the length of time a subject needs to describe such object seen with "eyeless vision" ESP. He gives us this tidbit of possible use to future investigators:
"I note finally that the time of elaboration is shortened and vision facilitated, if, instead of keeping the object motionless, it is slowly moved and turned round without being shifted away from or towards the body."
About page 141 Romains discusses his own attempt to cultivate eyeless vision or ESP. He says, "A dozen sittings, spread over about a month, none of which lasted an hour, passed without the faintest sign of vision appearing." Then he seemed to get a little progress, but things moved slowly:
"Nine sittings did no more than confirm the results of those which had preceded. I tested myself in other places and on other objects ; but the function seemed to develop only imperceptibly. A tenth sitting showed a sudden progress (and this from the beginning of the sitting), (1) I had the impression of a more intense general brightness. (2) I succeeded in discerning more numerous and more various objects, with a better defined shape and colour."
He summarizes his self-experiments as follows:
"A preparatory period of ten sittings, without apparent result.
A period of ten sittings, when the function appeared in a still rudimentary way.
A period of three sittings, when a somewhat more perfected function appeared.
A period of eight sittings, characterised by a remarkable extension of the function."
On page 163 he lists colors that can be seen with sightless vision: "White, bluish-white, brick-red, gold, reddish-yellow, brown, azure blue, black." Later he seems to suggest testing in natural light rather than artificial light.
Considering possible explanations for the phenomenon, Romains hastily rules out the possibility that ESP is produced by some faculty of the soul, by a non-organic "immediate perception." The only evidence he gives for ruling out such a claim is this: "But if I dress my subject in a thick cloth, from head to foot, he sees nothing." But we have no details of any observations backing up such a claim. How many subjects were such a test done on: only one, or many? How much time was this subject given to produce a result before reaching the conclusion that complete skin covering prevents ESP? How many trials were done? We are not given any details other than the bare statement that "if I dress my subject in a thick cloth, from head to foot, he sees nothing." So we don't know that it was a reliable result.
On page 114 Romains suggests a theory that ESP is caused by special features of the skin:
"We are, then, inevitably led to this conclusion : extra-retinal vision is brought about by an apparatus or microscopic organs of the magnitude of histological elements. These organs are so distributed that a limited region of the periphery— a few square centimetres of surface — contains at least one and probably several of them."
Later, using the term "the paraoptic sense" for ESP, and using the term "epidermis" to refer to skin, Romains states these improbable conjectures:
"The paroptic sense has as organs the ocelli, microscopic organs situated in the epidermis. The ocellus is a nidimentary but complete visual organ. It possesses a refracting body, an ocellary retina, and an optic fibre."
This was not a good guess, and nothing that we have learned about the skin in the past century has supported such an idea. We have nothing in the skin that would allow people to see without eyes through use of their skin. Some animals such as jellyfish and insects have multiple ocelli (primitive light-sensing organs), but humans do not have ocelli in their skin. Romains seems to have come up with this idea partially because he failed to study previous evidence for clairvoyance and ESP. If he had made a thorough study of such topics, he would have found countless accounts from reputable sources of clairvoyance of distant places. In such accounts people seem to see with "eyeless vision" things in other rooms, other buildings and distant locations. Any explanation for ESP must be able to explain not just a blindfolded person seeing something a meter from him, but also the many cases in which people can seem to see well places that they could never see if the skin somehow had a power of sight.
Later in the book Romains describes working with a blind patient:
"On the 20th of September, Baudoin, a Colonial Adjutant, who had been blinded, recognised, in the same conditions, the digit 7 ; a few minutes later the digit 8 ; a few minutes later the digit 2. On the 2ist of September, Baudoin again made several correct readings of numbers and recognised colours and objects. On the 28th of September, after a week of interruption, the causes of which still remain obscure, Michel succeeded once more in reading several figures and capital letters, and described, in an incomplete but striking manner, an unusual object which was shown him at a distance."
Sadly, Romains seems to have been prevented from doing further work with the patient. The book ends with a long appendix describing Romains doing experiments involving dramatic ESP successes performed by a well-blindfolded subject, who had both adhesive tape over her eyes, and a blindfold over her eyes. Numerous named witnesses sign off on the reported results. The successes include identifying a ladies black shoe with a buckle (placed 50 centimeters away) as being a ladies black shoe with a buckle. We read below a successful test done with the object to be read being at eye-level (allowing no chance of reading through a bottom crack in a blindfold).
"Dr. Cantonnet presents to the subject who was standing up, one of his blue pamphlets, at the level of her eyes and holding it himself. The subject brings her fingers near the title and reads correctly, scanning her words : 'Papillary stagnation.' "
Another success was reading the words "Sur les traces de Pausanias." We read that after such a reading, "When the bandage was withdrawn, the adhesive tape was still adhering to the eyes." The names of eight witnesses are given that signed off on the accuracy of the account.
The current edition of the EdgeScience magazine (#47) published by the Society for Scientific Exploration has an article "Seeing Without Eyes" (page 9) which discusses evidence for clairvoyance like that gathered by Romains. It mentions work by Carol Ann Liaros in the 1970's, saying, "Liaros discovered that blind people could see the images on black-and-white photos (and could see the photos when they were turned over, face-down, and even their reallife colors)." We read about many other examples of ESP and clairvoyance similar to that reported by Romains, most occurring in recent decades.
A long article in the June 12, 1964 Life magazine was entitled "Seeing Color With the Fingers." It reported a great number of observations very similar to those reported by Romains. You can read the article here, by scrolling down to page 102. Any objective reader of the article will be likely to conclude that Romains was not faking his observations. In 1964 Life magazine was as mainstream and respectable as the New York Times, and had been a trusted mainstream source for decades. Just as there is now a gigantic New York Times building in New York City, an equally sized skyscraper was once called the Time-Life building. In the article a scientist enthuses about how great it will be when news of the research spreads around, because it might offer the blind a path to see.
Why was so promising a possibility not massively pursued? Maybe because in the academia world, sticking to the prevailing taboos and belief systems is more important than the health and happiness of humans. The professors shut things down, and made the study of ESP a taboo that few professors dared defy.
It was the same kind of tragedy that occurred in regard to hypnotism. In India around 1850 the surgeon James Esdaile had performed countless painless operations removing big tumors in people who were awake during surgery, but hypnotized to feel no pain. At about the same time, chemical anesthesia was being developed. But for many years using chemical anesthesia was like playing Russian roulette, because the technique was very hazardous before it was perfected. Referring to chloroform (later found to be carcinogenic), a source tells us, "Skill and care were required to differentiate between an effective dose (enough to make patient insensible during surgery) and one that paralyzed the lungs, causing death."
The other early chemical anesthetic was ether, which could cause explosive fires if not used right, fires that might kill or hideously disfigure surgical patients. Surgeons flocked to use chemical anesthesia that killed very many, rather than taking up Esdaile's safe technique for painless surgery through hypnosis. It was largely so that doctors could cling to materialist and mechanistic ideas about the body that were contradicted by painless surgery involving a mind-only technique. Similarly, during the opioid epidemic, something like 500,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses, most of which could have been avoided if doctors had cultivated non-chemical methods of pain relief during the previous decades.
Now we have a culture in academia in which professors are afraid to discuss research such as that of Romains. The professors are scared to death that some angry Twitter mob might cause them trouble by denouncing them as heretics who fail to speak the way science professors are expected to speak. The culture of academia becomes ever more heresy-intolerant, now doing things such as threatening those who do not adopt eccentric pronoun usage that refers to students without saying "his" or "her."
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