A3. The senses are what makes a person blind or not, deaf or not, etc.  The mind makes the difference between a person in deep, darkened sleep or a coma, and a dead person, as well as thinks and participates in the 5 other sense processes.  They all carry all our accumulations throughout our infinite lifetimes, as well as the present one, into all future births immediately one lifetime is over and the other begins.

For further reading see "The 2nd Yamakavagga Pathamasamphodhasutta" Samyuttanikaya, Salayatanavagga.