I'm looking for any expert scientific opinions, personal anecdotes, relevant references, or just words of encouragement and amusement.
In December, during my R&R on deployment, I suffered a snowboarding accident and experienced a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). I never lost consciousness, but I did lose memory for roughly 4 days and have been told that I was "very out of touch with reality".
When I regained the ability to make memories(yay!), I discovered that 1) I was completely paralyzed on the entire right side of my body from the shoulder down, 2) my vision did not merge, so I was seeing double, and 3) I had lost the right side of my vision in both eyes to where I could only see about 6 degrees radius to the right of where I was looking.
Luckily, the US Military has incredible insurance and medical facilities. Before you decide that this post is too depressing to continue reading, know that I have complete control of the right side of my body at this time (yay again!).
I began to regain control of the right side of my body about 1.5-2 weeks later, and (this is important) for every muscle that I did not regain control over, I was given electro-stimulation therapy. The effect was immediate. After just one session on each muscle, I had regained nearly full control of the movement again. Physical therapy has since strengthened the muscles and response time and I'm now running like an Olympian (triple yay!)
Unfortunately, legal medicine has no way to stimulate nerves that only exist beneath the skull(dukes!), which is the only way to reach the optic nerves(double dukes!). Side note: my vision merged together properly by mid-January (yay depth perception!). Unfortunately, I lost a great excuse to wear my hospital-issued eye patch and great everyone with "Argh!" You know, like a pirate. Or a nerd (guilty).
Here's where the mystery begins! I recently received the results of an MRI that showed no permanent damage to the Optic Nerves or their connection to the brain and eye, or any of the systems involved in sight. So... the obvious question is "why can't I see?" And here's where my pseudo-science theory begins:
Fact 1: electro-stimulation re-established communication between my brain and my body
Fact 2: psychedelics wildly stimulate the visual functions of the brain(open-eyed distortions, closed-eye visuals)
My theory is probably obvious at this point, but here it is:
Psychedelics may stimulate and return the automatic/normal function of my vision system.
Your thoughts?
He led a double life. Did that make him a liar? He did not feel a liar. He was a man of two truths. - Murdoch, Dame [Jean] Iris
Kartikay is a character role that I play when I feel like escaping reality. Nothing I say under the pseudonym "Kartikay" reflects any of my actual life or personal history.