How A Lightning Strike Cured A Man Of His Blindness

The next day, Edwin Robinson went to see ophthalmologist Dr. Albert Moulton in Portland, Maine, per Weird Universe. Moulton told reporters, “There is no question but that his vision is back. He can’t move his eyes, but his central vision is back … I know some of my peers in Washington, maybe, will say it’s hysterical blindness. I can’t see it … From the physical findings originally, he was definitely blind.” Hysterical blindness, according to Psychology Today, is caused by extreme anxiety — a psychological rather than medical issue — and can triggered by a disturbing event — in this case, Robinson’s driving accident. 

Weird Universe includes a clipping from the Los Angeles Times dated July 5, 1980 that notes Robinson eventually went blind and also lost a good amount of his hearing after his accident. The article also reports that in addition to the restoration of his sight and hearing, Robinson’s hair, which had once been “thick and bushy” but had started thinning as he aged, started growing back after the lightning struck. Robinson told the Los Angeles Times he’d noticed a sensation while in New York to appear on television, noting his head “felt funny … like I had whiskers on my head.”

Dr. Moulton predicted that other doctors would treat Robinson’s situation with skepticism and he was right. The Washington Post spoke with a neuroophthalmologist from the Wilmer Eye Institute of Johns Hopkins Hospital who said, “The odds are that this is probably hysterical … and that this guy, for one reason or another, decided he wanted to see again.”

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