The Ability of Seeing with the Hands

It is a common fact that for human being's the hands serve the function of a complex tool, that is, hands complete many tasks and serve many functions. However, it is not common knowledge that hands can also have other functions, such as reading Chinese characters that are hidden from the reader’s eyes.

What should we call this ability to read with the hands? Those who are familiar with exceptional abilities call it a supernormal ability. In countries such as China, research has been performed to verify the existence of supernormal abilities. Reading with the hands is believed to be one such ability. Professor Sicen Li of Taiwan University has been active in researching this ability since 1993. His friend brought an 11-year-old girl named Qiaowu Gao to him as a subject.

Most astonishingly, this girl had been able to understand some animal languages as a very young child. Professor Li took her as one of his study subjects. For the experiment of reading with the hands in the lab, Professor Li covered written characters with black cloth and asked the girl to touch it with her fingers. To his surprise, she not only “saw” the characters, but also knew the colour of the characters. It appeared that she really could see them. Professor Li needed to find more real life examples to carry on his study. Therefore, four years ago he started holding a training class for reading characters with one’s hands. Up to now, 69 children between the ages of seven and 14 have received this training. The training lasted four days. After receiving the training, 11 children could read characters with their hands. Even after the researchers wrote characters on a piece of paper, covered up the paper with aluminum foil, and then placed it into a box that is intended to hold film negatives, the children could still read the writing after holding the bottom of the box in their hands. It proved that the children did not have to touch the characters directly in order to read them with their hands.

Professor Li is convinced that the existence of this ability indicates that the brain directly interacts with outside matter. It does not rely on the optic and touch nerves. Professor Jiande Chen, the physical scientist who collaborated with Professor Li during his research on supernormal abilities, said that the Buddha School talks about the opening of the third eye. The third eye, which in modern science is called the pineal gland, is located in the geometric center of the cranium. Professor Chen feels that reading with hands is most likely a function of the third eye.