Blindsight
Blindsight, also known as Blind Sight, Blind Sense or Sightless Sight, is the ability for one whose vision is disabled (by blindness, closed eyes or darkness) to interact with one's environment as though their sight was perfectly fine, by one of numerous means. The user may be able to see the kinetic energy of motion (or the psionic outline of objects and subjects), and thus can react to it, or their eyes might serve as media for keen awareness rather than for sight. This faculty may even include the ability of the eyes to trace movement or the presence of obstacles without actually seeing them, thus feigning sight. This ability is normally accompanied by Superhuman Reflexes.
Variations
Novice: You don’t stub your toe in the dark.
This is pretty much a trained Spatial Sense, Spatial Awareness or Proximity Sense. This can be used to judge distances accurately, tell if an object can fit into a space, discern the speed, velocity and momentum of objects, sense when/where a subject teleports and sense the shape of things in one's proximity (if unable to see); they are also incapable of suffering from vertigo and/or fear of heights.
Practiced: You can pinpoint the direction from which sounds come.
This is a superhuman level of hearing. A practiced blind fighter is one that has trained to use their ears to compensate for their lack of vision, allowing him to detect sounds ordinary humans cannot and hear at much greater distances. It allows the warrior to hear all the inner workings of his opponent, their heartbeat, the movement of their bones and muscles, etc. the warrior able to accurately pick up on changes in an opponent's heart rate, allowing him to guess facial expressions and current emotional composition, despite his lack of sight. He can predict exactly where his opponents are and what they’re doing and are even able to measure the exact speeds of the opponent's attacks with his hearing. This takes a massive amount of concentration and stamina. Through long and grueling training the warrior learns to control his hearing acuity, mentally blocking out specific sounds like his own breathing and heartbeat, all ambient sounds to a normal human level of perception, or all sounds but a particular sound he was concentrating upon. The main weakness with this is that even when fully mastered if taken by surprise, the warrior could suffer more distress from a painfully loud sound than an ordinary human would. Also, beyond a certain size, crowds of people tend to create too many sensory impressions for him to sort through.
Competent: You can fight and predict your enemies’ locations at the same time.
Sixth Sense (Dairokkan), Danger Sense or Danger Sensing is a heightened state of mental awareness and enhanced perception within the mind that grants one the ability to sense when a threat is near. It alerts them to all dangers, including non-deadly, subtle, or even non-harmful threats (such as snowballs, swatting brooms, creaky or crumbly floors, etc.). At its maximum potential, it is able to achieve feats that could be considered psychic nature such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and retrocognition. Common in skilled samurai it allows one to tell when there are impending dangers near, even to the point that one with this superhuman ability can tell who is a threat and who isn’t, and most times can also guess how far the threat is away from them. One with this ability may even be able to psychically detect the mental imprint of hostile thoughts on an object, allowing one to even detect traps and the like.
In combat user can psychically detect the movements of subjects with hostile intent, sensing and reacting to any form of danger instants before it strikes. One with this ability may detect motion during the battle, as subtle discernment, or they may come ahead of time (or provoked by detection of hostile intentions), accompanied by a feeling of when the attack will come. Through training the sixth sense becomes internally linked with the user’s reflexes, kinesthesia and proprioception, enabling them to evade, dodge, and avoid almost any form of danger, no matter how fast, subtle, or sudden it may be. This ability also allows one to sense how
to use one’s environment to one’s advantage in a fight, as well as what objects, structures or subjects are present that one can use to one’s advantage. Such as the ability to judge ones position in midair, where they can grab an object to swing onto, etc. a skilled warrior’s sixth sense is always active, even when asleep or unconscious, activating their reflexes almost as immediately as it would if they were awake. Is somehow blinded the sixth sense tells the warrior how to avoid obstacles that they cannot see. When they move, the sixth sense informs them what objects are nearby, judges their position, where they can grab onto an object, and if it is a safe object.
Expert: You can almost “feel” where your opponents are.
This is a very acute ability to use ambient ki energies to sense changes in the movement of the environment around oneself. User senses the flow of ki around them through their connection to it. If the flow of ki around user changes, the flow of their own energies also changes relaying this information to the brain. Changes in the pattern of the ki warns user of approaching danger or indicates the location of objects outside their range of vision. The more powerful and/or concentrated a person’s aura is the easier it is for user to follow their movements. Particularly skilled users can focus on a specific individual and sense their location, and use the reserves of their life force to accurately determine their strength and skill level. This ability requires a massive amount of skill and training, but it can also be short-cutted. By unleashing their aura a particularly powerful individual can use it as a sort of blanket and sense all those who are within it; the stronger and closer the enemy, the more powerful the sensation. The main weakness of sensing ki is that its main advantage is sensing those that work against the flow. However if the enemy works with the flow they become invisible to user’s senses. Sort of like catching a fish with your bare hands. Expert: You can almost “feel” where your opponents are.
Master: You possess an almost mystical sense- Zen and the Art of Spatial Awareness.
Seventh Sense, Inner Sight is the ability to sense the underlying structure of reality (think of neo from the matrix). The material world, on all levels, is not the supreme reality. Everything resonates on the subatomic level with a unique "signature," a particular sort of vibration on a quantum level. This signature is a constant. It cannot be changed by any known process. It is the basic foundation of existence. The quantum resonance signature is sort of a blueprint, a script, of its entire universe; the movements of each and every one of its particles in every moment of its time. Fully mastering this in extremely difficult and training is usually separated into different sets. However mastering even one of these subsets is considered a great feat.
One subset termed Seismic Sense is the ability to detect vibrations in the ground to perceive objects, people, and other aspects of one’s environment. First and foremost of seismic sense's applications is the ability to perceive surroundings. By sensing vibrations in the ground, user can perceive their surroundings as precisely as normal sight. Practitioners can use the sense to detect things out of their line of sight, even right behind them. Obstacles that would normally obstruct regular vision, such as walls and thick dust clouds, are ineffective against seismic sense, and caverns and other cavities deep underground can also be detected by an acute seismic sense. Even earth that is not on the ground can be detected. Seismic sense is not without its limitations. Seismic sense only detects things in contact with the ground; objects floating in water or thrown in the air are undetectable. The practitioner must also be in contact with solid ground to use the sense at all; again, if the user is in the air or water, or even standing on a non-earth solid such as ice, they will be unable to sense anything. Sand, although an earth-based substance, is not firm like normal earth, and renders seismic sense "fuzzy" and very imprecise, unless the individual is extremely skilled. Uninterrupted contact with the ground is preferred for the user- an object such as a shoe sole interferes with the sense. The sense also has considerably less range than uninterrupted sight, and it does not allow for perception of facial features or written characters.
At advanced stages skilled individuals are able to use their entire dermis as a sensor to detect minute vibrations traveling through disturbances of air currents surrounding them, effectively eliminating the major weaknesses of Seismic Sense.
The most well-known subset of the seventh Sense has been dubbed the Radar Sense or Human Echolocation. Vision and hearing function in almost exactly the same the way and while humans have evolved to rely more upon the light reflected from objects (sight), we are more than capable of learning to perceive the vibrations that come from or reflect off objects in much the same way. How can people learn such a skill then? Simply put, the area of the brain most concerned with sight actually has nothing to do with sight at all and, actually, it deals almost totally with spatial relations. Someone without the benefit of sight – or someone who has trained to survive without it (a martial arts master, for example) – turns this area of the brain loose on their other senses and thus derives a fairly accurate picture of their surroundings; accurate enough in fact, to provide one the ability to perceive an object and to recognize the location (where), dimension (size and the general shape), and density (how solid something is) of the world around them. Location itself is usually broken down into distance from the observer, direction (left/right, front/back and high/low) and dimension refers to height (tall or short) and breadth (wide or narrow).
Although it can replace sight, it is only similar to it in overall function. As it actually uses vibrations to perceive reality rather than reflected light from surfaces to view the world, it has certain distinct traits that can either help or hinder a user. All illusions are mostly negated as the user’s greater understanding of reality makes them ineffectual and on a similar note any technique that requires eye contact will fail on a Echoes student because they do not have eyes. Similarly, the user is not limited to the same field of vision a normal person is restricted to. Their peripheral “sight” is far superior to a normal person and it can border 180 degrees for advanced users. The users of this style tend to be much better at locating things behind them or perceiving subtle shifts in the environment and things such as mist or fog don’t hamper them at all. Overall, they lose one sight but become far more perceptive with the others. In all aspects, it truly is a phenomenal skill, but while it can replace sight for everyday life, even to the point of allowing a person to ride a bike through a busy town, it is still a poor substitute for the detail orientated sight human society is based off. It provides a sense of normality, but not a substitute.
Shingan (Minds Eye or Heart of Eyes)
A true warrior doesn't need anything of that to see, only the understanding of someone that had lost any mean of physical perception. Time does not truly exist it is a trick of the mind that adds motion and depth to what would otherwise be empty space without variation or rhythm. Matter is energy that vibrates like a bell and a rhythm of its own. When locked in the form of a stone it becomes a network of interlacing patterns. Think of a diamond that is the hardest of all substances, But within its crystal matrix lays a hidden flaw that can be found with the mind, not the eye. The eyes deceive and the words of men are lies, but the heart shall never lie, and in that truth we find the path that leads us to the point of awakening. The Shingan doesn’t use the ears, nor any other physical sense. It doesn’t need a sixth or even the seventh sense. It doesn’t see or feel the air moving in a way for it to face up enemies moves and weapons. It doesn’t need to see, or even feel it’s beyond that to a point that is unable to be understood. It feels through the heart. It is the heart that allows it to see beyond the mere limits of the physical realm. What we see with our eyes are nothing more than objects and forms, mere reflections of light that inform the brain of their existence through electrochemical interaction. In reality you are not seeing them at all, merely receiving sensory information that formed an audio-visual pattern in the mind like a reflection of the world inside of a mirror. Mere sensualism is not a proper way to describe the harmony of the world, nor could it tell one of the living essences. They are not quantifiable things, and as ineffably qualifiable as they are their value to the individual is not the same thing as their value to the Cosmos. You must look beyond the form, beyond the impression to the reality that underlay them. It was all just patterns of energy, some set into frames held in place by a careful balance of opposing forces, the yin and yang of existence. They exist independent of one’s awareness, and yet are far more than the average person perceives. True warriors must look beyond their frame, look deep into themselves and finally began to see the complex network of energy matrices and force lines that fill the air like waves of heat or magnetism.
The step to mastering shingan is becoming fully aware of one’s environment reading the flow of ki, thereby becoming not only able to commune with nature and understand their surroundings, but sense the presence and movements of the people and animals around them as well by reading the pulse of life energy within their bodies .When this is accomplished user can feel the ions of energy in the air swirling all around them, the wind in their face, the sun when it beats down on them and the rolling of the oceans, restless and eternal. The elements reach out to them, filling them with their ki. Using this user's opponent unknowingly give away their location, targets, attacks and every thought that comes to their mind to make a perfect counter attack. Through the Heart of Eyes user gains incredible clarity of perception, allowing them to track fast-moving objects with ease and even predict the subsequent movements of those objects. Adapts at this technique can track even the quickest opponents, additionally it grants the user exceptional analytical powers, allowing them to instinctively pick up on various visual clues with little difficulty.
- Akira
Akira Sixth Sense (1)
Akira Sixth Sense (2)
Akira possesses an extraordinary sensory input in regards to energy, demonstrating a highly acute level spiritual awareness. He is able to detect what he refers to as "ripples in a pond", the subtle vibrations, wavelengths, the ebb and flow of energy as it propogates through the world. Basically he can look beyond the form, and see the complex network of energy matrices and force lines that fill the air like waves of heat or magnetism. It’s like a painting. What you see are the flowers, people, ect in the painting but these are just separate colors fused together to form a unified hole. Akira is able to perceive the colors the white of the wind, the yellow of the sun light. This is why he is able to fight specters who don’t have auras because even if you don’t paint the person in the colors around them leave an outline. So his senses are so precise, that he can detect the presence of spiritual beings, the use of supernatural abilities, and even the presence of magic as it is cast within a vast area. Akira doesn’t need to see because he can feel. To compensate for his lack of sight, he uses the flow of and echo of air to interpret the situation. He describes a spiritual energy signature using a variety of senses, from its color, texture, taste, even how it appears to interact with the environment. He can discern minute details about a person or object by "reading" their presence, and accurately describe their movements from the smallest of gestures such as a raised eyebrow, to detailed accounts of an entire battle. His sheer skill in this ability leads me to believe that reading opponent’s ki was a major focus of his style even before he blinded himself.
- Yuan
Yuan Sixth Sense
Yuan Shingan
Yuan was born blind so from birth his training consisted of having his other senses make up for his lack of sight. He has developed his sixth sense to full Clairvoyance with all the abilities associated with it.
- scrying: to use objects to view distant events or persons. Though this can be blocked by a strong sealing spell.
- sight sharing: to view another user of clairvoyance sight.
- 1st person perception: to see things via another person's eyes.
- 3rd person perception: to see yourself or others from a narrator's perspective.
He can sense absolutely everything around him.
Trivia
The descriptions leading up to Shingan is from a universal blind fighing chart that Samurai deeper kyo does seem to follow at least with sensing ki and the sixth sense. It can be compared to (One Piece) Kenbunshoku Haki