Maybe she is seeing them.

Without commenting on the validity of what she's experiencing, what I would recommend is learning to just observe her experience as it is, without judgments or speculation. Experience is basically the intersection of 6 things: the 5 senses of smell, and our thoughts. All these things merge together in moment-to-moment consciousness, providing the totality of our immediate experience. What happens when someone "freaks out" is that they get caught up in some powerful thoughts, and lose touch with this moment-to-moment experience: the fear and anxiety take over the mind and start to run the show. But it doesn't have to be that way -- it is possible to be the "dispassionate observer" of your own experience, simply noting everything that is going on, like a scientist watching an experiment unfold in the test tube. Someone who is observing like that might sound like this, if you put their mind on speakerphone: "Having a warm surge of energy in my stomach area" "Having a thought 'Oh no, I'm going to die'" "Having tight muscles in my stomach" "Remembering a time when I was almost hit by a train" All the thoughts and sensations just arise, stay for a while, and leave. In fact, that's ALL that ever happens in life, until we die. The rest of it is a bunch of narrative story that comes from the way we interpret our experience. So, being able to get back to just the raw data of experience allows a person to "ride through" incredibly difficult or painful experiences without being carried away by fear or other debilitating thoughts.