r/ClosedEyeVision

Backstory: I’ve never been able to meditate as I have adhd and unfortunately most meditation exercises never got me to focus for enough time. Did a guided workshop for the first time. First few times nothing happened. My fourth time I don’t know how to explain it but it’s like YOU’RE ACTUALLY SEEING WITH YOUR EYES it lasted a few seconds at the time the sight would come and go . It was honestly insane I don’t know what to think or believe just crazy

We usually think seeing is simple: light hits your eyes, your eyes send a picture to your brain, and you consciously see what's in front of you. Because of this, when someone suffers severe damage to their primary visual cortex on both sides of their brain, they are completely blind. They live in total darkness.

Or so we thought. Neuroscientists studied a famous cortically blind patient, known as Patient TN, and ran an experiment that completely blew open how we understand vision.

They set up a long hallway cluttered with random obstacles—chairs, boxes, and trash cans. They placed TN at one end without his cane or guide dog and asked him to walk to the other end.

What happened next was incredible. TN walked down the corridor and smoothly wove around every single box, leaned away from wall projections, and squeezed past chairs without touching a single item.

When he reached the end, the researchers asked him how he did it. TN was genuinely confused by the question. He insisted he didn't see anything at all, had no idea there were obstacles, and thought he had just walked in a straight line.

This phenomenon is called Blindsight, and it happens because your eyes actually route visual information along two completely different pathways in the brain. The main "conscious" highway was destroyed in TN's brain, but an ancient, secondary "subcortical" pathway was still completely intact. This deeper system processed the spatial layout in the background and steered his body automatically, completely bypassing his conscious mind.

It turns out your brain can process the world around you and pilot your physical body without ever giving your conscious self access to the footage.

I’m wondering if these experiences would fall under this category and if i’ve finally discovered other people talking about it. I will just give one example just to not waste your time. Also, before i tell this story i did read the rule about posting about dreams, but im hoping this qualifies because the story is not about the dream or its contents.

This particular example started with me sleeping. I often have lucid dreams, can’t control them. Anyway, i realize im dreaming and become hyper aware/stuck in consciousness but cant quite fully wake up. Not sleep paralysis or scary, but simply, able to See. I am “asleep” in the room with a boyfriend, i start “yelling” for him to wake me up. I watch him, clear as day, stand up from his computer chair, pull his pants up (he had loosened the belt) walk ocer to me and stand over me for a second to make sure i was actually “sleep talking” and then woke me up.

He was freaked out by that, but i immediately asked him if my eyes were open. He said no but you were like mumbling. I told him what I just saw, all of his movements and the details and asked him if that was what happened and he said yes and we kind of freaked out for a second about how I just literally watched all of that, again, with my eyes closed. He was looking right at me, because i was sleep mumbling, he saw that my eyes were closed.

I wasn’t viewing it all from out of body, it was just simply like i was looking out of my own eyes, which is how the majority of these situations occur.

Is this the same phenomenon that you guys are talking about here? For the record, they do not always happen while sleeping, it also happens fully awake. If not, i will delete the post. Thanks.

"To win the $100,000 USD MindSwan Prize, an eligible contestant must correctly identify four consecutive 3-digit target numbers, randomly generated, during an official, supervised prize attempt.

"All four numbers must be identified within 20 minutes while the contestant wears an extended mask that blocks all light."

Eligibility requirements, testing procedures, and all other prize conditions will be provided in the Official Contest Rules published September 1, 2026, and pre-application does not guarantee eligibility or participation.