On Current TV | October 22, 2006 | Comment on this video (25)

Seeing With Sound

dgahr
Blind teen Ben Underwood "sees" the world around him by using echolocation, the same method that dolphins use to navigate their world.
  1. groups:
    On Current TV,   Intro,   Outro,   Current Courage,   1 more
  2. tags:
    Current TV,  On Current TV,  Intro,  Outro,  13 more
  3. credits:
    dgahr Editor, Ben Swire Editor, Donnie Eichar Producer
  4.     
    |
    Embed video:
    |

25 comments // Seeing With Sound // Video

  • rberghaus
    • 0
      rberghaus  

    • Before watching this, I did not know that humans were capable of echolocation. It is truly an incredible skill. Thanks for sharing this story.

    • 3 years ago
  • BFAM_RVS
    • 0
      BFAM_RVS  

    • This is such an amazing story....inspiring on a whole other level......this is why I really enjoy current TV and current.com.....such a wonderful learning experience....

    • 3 years ago
  • levenj
    • 0
      levenj  

    • this is really unbelievable...I don't want to sound selfish...but the pic of the first guy at two makes me think of my son...and the third guy looks like me...the whole presentation brings on such EMPATHY...it is SO well produced....

    • 3 years ago
  • allisor
    • 0
      allisor  

    • I just saw this for the first time today... amazing. And I was so sad when the end of the pod announced that Ben had passed away in January of 09. My thoughts go out to his family, especially his wonderful mom.

    • 3 years ago
  • Smulkin
  • SelmaA
  • karney
  • minxthesinger
    • 0
      minxthesinger  

    • This is Amazing. I am a music major going into music therapy. Now I know they are not singing to see but they are using sound. That is close enough for me. This just proves that people can not rely on just one sence. I am really just amazed!

    • 4 years ago
  • regina
    • 0
      regina  
    • Image

    • interesting tidbit from the wikipedia entry:

      "Some blind people have described the phenomenon not as a learned method of navigation, but as an inherent and intuitive extra sense. For example, a blind person could walk past a line of trees and feel a "pressure" at their side as they passed each tree. The cause of this would be the echo of the sound of their footsteps; however, they may not be consciously aware of this mechanism, only that the phenomenon exists and can often be relied upon to detect obstacles."

      the classic reaction to stories like this is remembering how little of our brains most humans use. nwillens points out that: "their heightened senses give them an advantage," which i love remembering (confirms my belief that nothing is 100% bad or good, but that there can be benefits in even the worst seeming things), but i also think its inspiring to remember that fully abled people can learn from the sensory hacks of disabled people that we have just as much opportunity to broaden our sensory perception, with just more work training our mind to stop defaulting to our most dominant sense.

    • 4 years ago
  • nwillens
    • 0
      nwillens  

    • In conventional society, blind people are considered handicapped. But in fact, their heightened senses give them an advantage which allows them to perform beautifully in environments (like a pitch black room) where us "normal" people would be completely lost!

    • 4 years ago
  • CFriedman
    • 0
      CFriedman  

    • I saw Ben on Oprah as well as in this pod... I learned about blindness and echolocation in a Communication Sciences and Disorders class, and it really is a phenomenal adaptation.

      It is wonderful to see people deal with trauma in their lives to the point where they won't let themselves be considered anything but normal. It is truly inspirational to see people like Ben standing up and refusing to have a disability. His life aspirations have a ripple effect and I know they will have an incredible impact on the viewers of this pod. What a great pod!

    • 4 years ago
  • longhornlover
    • 0
      longhornlover  

    • Wonderful story, we don't hear enough stories about the ability of humans to persevere and adapt to conditions beyond our control.

      You don't think about how much you depend on your sight to live every day, and the fact that this young man got past it, is absolutely incredible!

      Wonderful pod!

    • 4 years ago
  • kunnikr
    • 0
      kunnikr  

    • What an amazing story! Truly inspirational! I had no idea that humans could echolocate. You have found great characters. It is great to meet the mom as well because you see where Ben gets his inner spirit. The story is well told. You have nicely setup the characters. I love the final shot. It was setup beautifully. You kept showing him play basketball throughout the pod and when he gets it from across the court, it is so satisfying. What amazing individuals!

    • 4 years ago
  • vavavicky
    • 0
      vavavicky  

    • i still find myself telling people about this pod when I try to describe current.
      such an empowering story! we really are unaware of how far our abilities can be stretched...
      an amazing young man, and an amazing channel that brought his story to my living room.

    • 4 years ago
  • vobbie
  • bigmanxlhr
    • 0
      bigmanxlhr  

    • i heard about this when i was growing up but it is nice to know some did a small documentry on this.

      i give these people huge props for being able to do this and i hope this can be brought to the open market so that this can be an alternative for blind to live a normal life.

      they need classes like that for blind people in the bay area.

    • 5 years ago
  • Hoffi
  • baltimorejp
    • 0
      baltimorejp  

    • Ok , I am now trying to share my experience of this story with someone on line. Why not have this up loaded so that we can see it on our computers.

      I love the idea of this website.

      Please change it so that we can see on line what is viewed on TV.

      My comment about the story is as follows:

      My 12 year old son stopped in his tracks to view this story.

      He actually tried to echo locate by making clicking sounds.

      Parental translation. This story touched me but reached him. He is hooked on the format . I think this story is great because it allows us to see people for who they are... "people" Not put labels on them like black , blind, handy cappped or young.

      People are people. We are all humans and this story binds us.

      Thank you for the story, it is great!

    • 5 years ago
  • sabkl
    • 0
      sabkl  

    • This is truly an inspiring story. It's also a great lesson in not allowing obstacles to stop you from achieving things you want to do or being who you want to be.

    • 4 years ago
  • Uckfay
  • Nolan0535
  • mommieD
    • 0
      mommieD  

    • This is the most amazing thing I have ever seen!! It just reminds us of the capacity of the human mind to overcome whatever "disabilities" we are faced with.

    • 4 years ago
  • J_Jammer
  • jwood
    • 0
      jwood  
    • Image

    • ... if you and a friend have some excess time, cardboard, string, and a soda straw- test your own powers of echolocation.

    • 4 years ago
  • dcarney
more from On Current TV:
from the community

top videos