Back in 1991, there was an article in THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE concerning a group of more than 100 women who reside in Long Beach, California. These women, Cambodian refugees who witnessed the horror of the Pol Pot Regime, are certifiably blind even though doctors say their eyes function perfectly well. These sightless women suffer from psychosomatic or hysterical blindness. They are really blind, but their blindness stems from their minds.

Psychosomatic disorders are nothing new. We know that the state of our mind can affect our speech, our hearing and our memory as well as our sight. Scientists really do not understand this phenomenon, only that it shows the power of the mind over the body. One researcher attempted to explain the refugees' disorder as follows: "Losing eyesight makes …