Thanks a lot, Korpo, for your good advice and assessments (and encouragement)! Food for thought for me that helps a lot.

About the 'visionless sensing' (be it either accidental or, as you say, also suppressed by the helper as a means of giving another lesson (yes, that also makes sense to me - possibly she did that!)), I feel reminded of the Near Death Experiences of the blind.

Maybe it's is the same sense they use when they are "out" then? I read this book a while ago and it really seems to fit the experience:

http://www.amazon.com/Mindsight-Near-De ... 623&sr=8-7

quote from Amazon description:
"There is compelling evidence that the blind do "see" in those moments, but it is not sight as we think of it. Ring and Cooper uncover a kind of "transcendental awareness" they refer to as mindsight. It involves the strange experience of being able to perceive from all angles at once, from every focal depth at once, and a sense of "knowing" the subject, not just visually, but with a deep and inexplicable knowledge."

So probably we used (or were taught to use) "mindsight" sense.