Doctors slam institutes offering courses on blindfold reading

MANGALURU: The Karnataka Ophthalmic Society (KOS), the official body that represents all qualified ophthalmologists of the state, is all set to approach the Karnataka Medical Council against practitioners endorsing the claims of institutes that offer courses on blindfold reading and cheating parents.

Sai Giridhar Kamath

, president, KOS, told reporters on Wednesday that the body will support the fight against institutes that cheat parents through courses on blindfold reading and midbrain activation of children.

“We have noted with deep concern claims of some commercial undertakings that they have developed techniques to make children see without light falling on the retina and are enticing parents into enrolling their children to such courses called by fancy names like midbrain activation, whole brain development, brain balancing, third

eye activation

, etc. They have also conducted demonstrations with children performing many feats with shoddily designed, poorly executed measures taken to prevent light from falling on the retina using various types of blindfolds, barriers, etc. It’s clear that these are not at all foolproof and are just magic tricks used by many to entertain people,” Dr Kamath said.

He said till date, no method has been devised to make the human being – adult or child — visualize anything without light from that object falling on the retina by some means or the other. “All claims to the contrary are fraudulent and must be viewed with caution. We’d also like to caution the public about subjecting their children to such processes which have not been put to proper tests,” he added.

Senior ophthalmologist Dr

C R Kamath

, former president of KOS, psychiatrist P V Bhandary and magician Junior Shankar (Thejasvi) also said claims of institutes offering blindfold reading and midbrain activation are false.

Dr C R Kamath said, “It’s not possible for one to see or read without lighting falling on the retina. Such claims by institutes should be brought to the notice of the authorities.”

Junior Shankar demonstrated how institutes cheat children and parents through magic tricks.

More than 120 institutes in state

Federation of Indian Rationalist Association president

Narendra Nayak

said there are more than 120 institutes across the state that cheat public by offering courses on blindfold reading and midbrain activation.

“It’s strange that the

Dakshina Kannada

district administration has not taken any action on our complaint of September 2 about a commercial undertaking cheating the public at Puttur. A team constituted by the deputy director of public instructions has submitted a report stating there is no truth in the claims of the institute. We’ll continue our fight till all such institutes are closed down,” he added.