Ординатура / Офтальмология / Английские материалы / Relearning To See_Quackenbush_2000

accepted by scientific men you will have to show how or why he blundered?" This was quite a proposition, but Dr. Bates continued his experiments and for two years tried to prove that Helmholtz was right, but failed, and finally discovered how Helmholtz blundered; which Doctor Bates has illustrated in his book. As a reward for this, he was expelled from the University.

This was quite a handicap, but he obtained a small laboratory for himself and continued in his work.

[Biddle then states that Bates gave a case history.]

He then returned to his seat, but was so applauded and urged to continue that he finally stated that if anyone wished to remain and ask further questions, he would be glad to answer them.

While connected with the New York Post Graduate Medical School and Hospital, Dr. Bates improved myopia with many people in the clinic. Those who improved their sight included student doctors.

The May 1921 Journal of the Allied Medical Associations states:

These facts came to the knowledge of the head of the institution (Dr. St. John D. B. Roosa), one of the most prominent ophthalmologists of the day, and were regarded as highly discreditable, since Donders and the other masters of ophthalmology had declared that myopia was [irreversible]. Dr. Bates was accordingly expelled from the faculty, even the privilege of resignation being denied to him.2

Mary Dudderidge writes in the January 12, 1918, issue of Scientific American:

It is therefore not a little surprising to find one eye specialist who has actually been [reversing] errors of refraction with-

out glasses for 30 years, and who as the result of a remarkable series of experiments has been able to present evidence which appears to invalidate most of the theories on which the present practice of ophthalmology is based. Dr. William H. Bates of New York is already well known as the discoverer of the properties of adrenaline, an extract from the suprarenal gland of the sheep which is now used all over the world as an astringent and haemostatic; but his remarkable experiments on the eyes of animals and the startling conclusions that he has drawn from them have, as yet, attracted comparatively little attention. Reported only in a few isolated articles, they have not yet found their way into the general literature of the subject and have scarcely been heard of by the lay public. Yet they promise to revolutionize the practice of ophthalmology and are at the present moment of tremendous import to the country.3

Another reason Bates' research has been ignored and rejected is because few people have studied his work deeply enough to understand it. Some of the principles involved are very subtle, and, on first encounter, even appear incorrect.

Optometrist Harris Gruman wrote in his book New Ways to Better Sight:

Whether it was the result of such investigations that Dr. Bates hit upon his system of [improvement] or whether it was the other way around seems immaterial. In spite of his hypotheses and theories he did hit upon some worthwhile methods of aiding human sight. Time has proved their worth, and for this the world should be grateful.4

Aldous Huxley, after discussing the possible role of the external and internal muscles in accommodation, writes:

My own guess, after reading the evidence, would be that both the extrinsic muscles and the lens play their part in accommodation.

This guess may be correct; or it may be incorrect. I do not greatly care. For my concern is not with the anatomical mechanism of accommodation, but with the art of see- ing—and the art of seeing does not stand or fall with any particularly physiological hypothesis. Believing that Bates' theory of accommodation was untrue, the orthodox have concluded that his technique of visual education must be unsound. Once again this is an unwarranted conclusion, due to a failure to understand the nature of an art, or psycho-physical skill 5

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and the first and most convincing test of the system is that it works.6

A C C E P T I N G A NEW I D E A

With the limited information I had before investigating the Bates method, my vision became worse year after year. Glasses and contacts were not acceptable solutions to my vision problems. And the long-term consequences of continuing along the conventional path were grim.

When presented with a new philosophy or idea, I need to be shown how the new idea explains everything I have experienced so far, and how my previous experiences are only a limited subset of the new, more encompassing idea. I accept a new idea when these two conditions have been met.

The main ideas presented by Bates have met these two conditions, and the benefits to my vision—and health—have been immeasurable.

I am thoroughly convinced that strained external muscles squeeze the eyeball out of

shape, producing nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, and strabismus—and that these functional problems are reversible.

I am also convinced that normally functioning external muscles can produce accommodation. If the lens and ciliary muscle have any role in accommodation, and if that mechanism is interfered with, I believe normally functioning external muscles can continue to accommodate the eye.

Bates' physical research makes sense to me. It answers a "multitude of facts," that have otherwise been ignored or explained away. Still, the physical mechanisms of accommodation and errors of refraction are secondary issues. If a person does not have any pathologies or diseases of the eyes, the physical mechanisms of vision do not matter.The primary issue is how to improve sight—nat- urally.

I am open to accepting any other model of vision, as long as it explains all of the facts I currently know about vision, and more.

T H E P H Y S I C A L FOLLOWS

T H E I M A G I N A T I O N

The physical factors of accommodation and errors of refraction are only a part of the issues involved in seeing clearly and in relearning to see. Students do not need to know the physical mechanisms of eyesight to improve their vision. There are people (I have met several) who knew nothing about the Bates or any other method of natural eyesight improvement, and who returned to normal vision. In each case, these people removed the strain in their lives that created their blur.

Bates makes frequent references to strain, especially mental strain. The brilliance of Bates' work was not so much his studies with

the eyeballs and eye muscles. This research simply allowed him to advance to more important questions.

How does the visual system become strained? What causes the eye muscles to tighten around the eyeball, creating errors of refraction? Bates unraveled the puzzle of the mind-body-vision connection. He discovered that functional vision problems are caused primarily by mental strain, and that they are relieved by relaxation.

In the next part, we discuss the three prin­ ciples of natural vision discovered by Bates— Movement, Centralization, and Relaxation. In the subsequent part, we discuss the three habits of natural seeing—Sketching (Shift­ ing), Breathing, and Blinking.

N O T ES

1 E. V. Loewenstein,"Yes! You Can Have Better

No. 2 (May 1921), p. 21.

3Mary Dudderidge. "New Light Upon Our Eyes: An Investigation Which May Result in Normal Vision for All, Without Glasses," Scientific Amer­ ican (January 12,1918), p. 53.

4Harris Gruman, New Ways to Better Sight (New

York: Hermitage House, 1950), pp. 176-77.

5Aldous Huxley, The Art of Seeing (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1942), pp. 33-34.

6Ibid., p. 36.

M O V E M E N T

Movement is the first of the three principles of natural vision. All living creatures move. We have a visual system to see the world, both physically and mentally, and that process includes movement. The principle of move­ ment is one of the key concepts Bates dis­ covered about vision, and is a subset of the universal principle of continual change: "The only constant is change."

All sense perceptions are based on move­ ment. Hearing involves sound waves, which vibrate the eardrum. The semi-circular canals in the ear require head and body movement to maintain equilibrium and balance. Mole­

In using only the sense of touch, if you rest your hand on a piece of cloth or metal for a long time, it will be difficult to tell which of the two objects your hand is on—until you move either your hand or the object.

Hot and cold temperatures on the skin are perceived not by the absolute temperature, but by changes in temperature. An interest­ ing experiment is to put the right hand in a bucket of cold water, and the left in a bucket of hot water. Then put both hands in the same bucket of room-temperature water. To the right hand the water feels hot, but to the left hand the water feels cold!

We sense changes—and changes are based on movements.

Even supposed stationary objects are always changing. Researchers have found that very old windows in the churches in Europe are thicker at the bottom than at the top. This is due to gravity pulling downward, albeit very slowly, on the molecules in the glass. Technically, glass is a liquid! Glass is constantly changing its shape.

The best teachers of natural vision are children. Children move, exploring and learning

about the world with infinite interest and curiosity. We are meant to grow and learn physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually our entire lives. Movement is necessary for this natural process.

If you would like to watch what natural vision students relearn, go to a playground and watch the children. They are continually moving. Notice that no one tells the children to move. It is simply natural. You may also notice their parents sitting on the bench staring rigidly.

A mother rocks her baby to sleep. Bates said it is a mistake to dispose of cradles and rocking chairs and other meth-

ods of promoting the "swing."

Have you ever watched the continuous and even large movements of the blind musicians Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, and George Shearing? Do we think to ourselves, "It is OK for them to move because they don't know any better?" Why do they move so much,

when they cannot see with their physical eyes? The answer is: movement is natural, relaxing, and healthy.

One student, a massage therapist, told me she almost did not enroll for my course because I was always moving during the Introductory Lecture. She now moves.

People who have clear vision move. At times, this movement may be subtle and imperceptible to others, but they move much more than people who have blurred vision. To those who have blur, movement by people who have clarity is annoying and irritating, consciously and/or subconsciously.

Natural vision movement is not a hyper movement; it is a relaxed, casual movement.

An acquaintance of mine told me he was considered to be the only "hyper" member of his family. He could not "sit still, like everyone else." He is the only member of his family who has normal sight. People who have learned to not move often conclude that people who move are hyper.

Another student who has normal vision— and plans to keep it that way—said in class, "I'm squirmy."

Aldous Huxley uses the phrase "dynamic relaxation"2 to describe natural visionmovement without effort. The opposite of dynamic relaxation is "static stress." Bates discovered static stress creates blurred vision.

B A T E S O N M O V E M E N T

Quoting from Perfect Sight Without

Glasses:

It is impossible to see, remember, or imagine anything, even for as much as a second, without shifting from one part to another, or to some other object and back again: and the attempt to do so always produces strain.

...When shifting is not done unconsciously, students must be encouraged to do it consciously.

...A line of small letters on the Snellen test card may be less than a foot long by a quarter of an inch in height; and if it requires seventy shifts to a fraction of a second to see it apparently all at once, it must require many thousands to see an area of the size of the screen of a moving picture, with all its detail of people, animals, houses, or trees, while to see sixteen such areas to a second, as is done in viewing moving pictures must require a rapidity of shifting that can scarcely be realized. Yet it is admitted that the present rate of taking and projecting moving pictures is too slow. The results would be more satisfactory, authorities say, if the rate were raised to twenty, twenty-two, or twenty-four a second. The human eye and mind are not only capable of this rapidity of action, and that without effort or strain, but it is only when the eye is able to shift thus rapidly that eye and mind are at rest, and the efficiency of both at their maximum. It is true that every motion of the eye produces an error of refraction; but when the movement is short, this is very slight, and usually the shifts are so rapid that the error does not last long enough to be detected by the retinoscope, its existence being demonstrable only by reducing the rapidity of the movements to less than four or five a second. The period during which the eye is at rest is much longer than that during which an error of refraction is produced. Hence, when the eye shifts normally no error of refraction is manifest. The more rapid the unconscious shifting of the eye, the better the vision; but if one tries to be conscious of a too rapid shift, a strain will be produced.

Perfect sight is impossible without continual shifting, and such shifting is a strik-

ChapU'r NineThe first Principle— Movement

ing illustration of the {automatic] mental control necessary for normal vision. It requires perfect mental control to think of thousands of things in a fraction of a second; and each point of fixation has to be thought of separately, because it is impossible to think of two things, or of two parts of one thing, perfectly at the same time. The eye with imperfect sight tries to accomplish the impossible by looking fixedly at one point for an appreciable length of time; that is, by staring. When it looks at a strange letter and does not see it, it keeps on looking at it in an effort to see it better. Such efforts always fail, and are an important factor in the production of imperfect sight.

One of the best methods of improving the sight, therefore, is to imitate consciously the unconscious shifting of normal vision, and to realize the apparent motion produced by such shifting. Whether one has imperfect or normal sight, conscious shifting and swinging are a great help and advantage to the eye; for not only may imperfect sight be improved in this way, but normal sight may be improved also...

The last few paragraphs come close to summarizing Bates' life work on natural vision improvement. People with normal sight unconsciously "shift" constantly with movement and centralization (attention to detail). This is nature's design for the visual system. Interference with these principles lowers sight. Other than vision problems caused by diseases and accidents, Bates found that vision habits determine a person's sight.

From Better Eyesight magazine, January 1924: "The normal eye is only at rest when it is moving "

Better Eyesight magazine, February 1924:

"Question: What one method of improving sight is best? Answer: Swinging and blinking."

Swinging is the same as shifting.

Better Eyesight magazine, March 1925:

"Never look at an object for more than a few seconds at a time. Shift your gaze."

Better Eyesight magazine, June 1925:

"Question: When I look at an object and blink, it appears to jump with each blink. Would this be considered the short swing?

Answer: Yes. You unconsciously look from one side to the other of the object when blinking."

Better Eyesight magazine, November 1925:

MOVING

The world moves. Let it move. People are moving all day long. It is normal, right, proper that they should move. Just try to keep your head or one finger or one toe stationary, or keep your eyes open continuously. If you try to stare at a small letter or part of it without blinking, note what happens. Most people who have tried it discover that the mind wanders, the vision becomes less, pain and fatigue are produced.

People with blurred vision subconsciously imagine stationary objects to be stationary.

Better Eyesight magazine, December 1925:

SHIFTING

The point regarded changes rapidly and continuously.. .All persons with imperfect sight make an effort to stare with their eyes immovable. The eyes have not the ability to keep stationary. To look intently at a point continuously is impossible. The eyes will move, the eyelids will blink, and the effort [to lock on a point] is accompanied by an imperfect vision of the point regarded. In many cases the effort to concentrate on a point often causes headache, pain in the eyes, and fatigue. All persons

with normal eyes and normal sight do not concentrate or try to see by any effort. Their eyes are at rest, and when the eyes are at rest, they are constantly moving. When the eyes move, one is able to imagine stationary objects, in turn, to be moving in the direction opposite of the head and eyes. It is impossible to imagine, with equal clearness, a number of objects to be moving at the same time, and an effort to do so is a strain which impairs the vision, the memory, or the imagination. To try to do the impossible is a strain which always lowers the mental efficiency. This fact should be emphasized. Many students have difficulty in imagining stationary objects to be moving opposite to the movements of the eyes or head.. .When pain, fatigue or other symptoms are present, it always means that the individual is consciously or unconsciously trying to imagine stationary objects are not moving. The effect is a strain.. .Very few people with normal sight.. .ever notice that they are constantly shifting correctly.. .One may shift in the wrong way and fail to improve the vision. What is the right way? The right way to shift is to move the eyes [and head] from one point to another slowly, regularly, continuously, restfully or easily without effort or without trying to see. The normal eye with normal sight has the habit of always moving or shifting, usually an unconscious habit. When, by practice, the eye with imperfect sight acquires the conscious habit of shifting [again], the habit may become unconscious. When the shifting is done properly, the memory, imagination, mental efficiency and vision are improved until they become normal. It often happens that when one consciously, or intentionally [sees objects] in the wrong way, a better knowledge of the right way to shift may be obtained. When the eyes are moved to the

right, stationary objects should appear to move to the left. And when the vision is good, all objects not regarded are seen less distinctly than those regarded [centralization]. When the vision is imperfect, objects not observed may be seen better, or an effort is made to see them better than those directly observed. In fact, it is always true, that in all cases of imperfect sight, the eyes do not see best where they are looking and centralization is lost. To shift properly requires relaxation or rest. To shift improperly and lower the vision requires an effort. When one stares at a point without blinking or shifting, fatigue, distress or pain is felt. To continue to stare without shifting is hard work. To see imperfectly is difficult. . .Imperfect sight or a failure to see requires much trouble and hard work. This fact should be demonstrated repeatedly. . .until thoroughly convinced that rest of the eyes, mind or body can only be obtained by shifting easily, continuously, and without effort....

[One student did not] look at any object for more than a fraction of a second. His vision after that improved from 20/50 to 20/10. He became able to imagine the movement of objects and demonstrated that all his pain and mental depression was caused by a stare or an effort to see all things stationary.. .He was comfortable when he imagined objects moving or swinging, but very uncomfortable when he made an effort or imagined them to be stationary.

Recently, I tested the sight of a girl about 10 years old. She read the Snellen card at 10 feet with normal vision. She was asked, "Do you see any of the small letters moving from side to side?" "Yes," she answered, "they are all moving." "Now can you imagine one of the small letters is stationary?" At once she quickly looked away and frowned. "Why did you look away?" her

Chapter Nine: The F-ir.\t Principle—-\fo\ement

father asked her. She replied, "Because it gave me a pain in my eyes and the letters became blurred. Don't ask me to do it again!"

The experience of this child is the same as that of everyone young or old with perfect or imperfect sight. When the sight is normal and continuously good, to stop the swing of a letter or other object necessitates a strain, an effort which always lowers the vision and produces discomfort or pain in one or both eyes. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that a letter or other object cannot be remembered or even imagined perfectly and continuously unless one can imagine it to be moving or swinging. Not only does the sight become imperfect, but also the memory, imagination, judgment, and other mental faculties are temporarily lost

Better Eyesight magazine, September 1927:

"Your head and eyes are moving all day long."

From Better Eyesight magazine, September 1923:

BLINKING

.. .Usually unconsciously the normal eye closes and opens quite frequently and at irregular intervals and for very short spaces of time. Most people can demonstrate that when they regard a letter that they are able to see quite clearly, it is possible for them to consciously close their eyes and open them quick enough and see the letter continuously. This is called Blinking and it is only another name for dodging. Dodging what? Dodging the tendency to look steadily at things all the time. All the methods which have been recommended for the improvement of the vision,.. .[centralizing]..., swinging, blinking, can all be grouped under the one word—dodging.

While teaching students to improve their vision, Bates emphasized head movement. People who have blurred vision have a tight neck, eye muscles, head, and shoulders. These tensions are caused by rigid staring and shallow, or even stopped, breathing.

TOM'S PERSONAL LOG: During my first vision lessons, I resisted the movement concepts and habits I was being taught. I kept objecting, "If I keep moving, how am I ever going to see anything?!" I thought, like many people with blurred vision, that it was necessary to lock fixedly on an object to see it; in other words, I felt it was necessary that stationary objects must appear to be stationary to see them. I discovered this idea is not only incorrect, it lowered my vision.

T H E P R O B L E M O F R I G I D I T Y

In a left-hemisphere-oriented society, body movement is often taboo. Children are frequently told, "Sit still." Even worse—"Be still," command the adults who have mastered rigidity and blurred vision themselves. "Pay attention when I speak to you," the child is told sternly—and the child freezes. "Don't fidget!" Children chide other children,"Ants in your pants?" One of my students was told by his teacher in grade school, "Head straight. Eyes down!"

Maurice Sendak's charming children's book, Where the Wild Things Are, tells of a boy named Max taming monsters. Maurice writes,"... till Max said 'BE STILL!' and tamed them with the magic trick of staring into all their yellow eyes without blinking once and they were all frightened "3

One version of the Bible, ist Kings, Chapter 14, Verse 4, states, "But Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were set." Curiously, this sen-

tence has been changed in another version to "Now Ahijah could not see, his eyes were dimmed with age."4 It appears that the presbyopia old-age theory has found its way into scriptures.

In our society, physical movement is generally not acceptable when two people are talking—it is considered rude. Supposedly, the moving person is not interested in what is being said. Ironically, since movement and circulation are essential for normal health, two individuals may be able to communicate less well by being rigid. They can become fatigued, and even irritable, from their rigidity. Movement while conversing can lead to more interest, e.g., by noticing the kind of clothes a person is wearing.

More than a few students have told me they could never catch a baseball. This can be due to "freezing" when the ball is hit toward them. They tighten up their body and mind at the time flexibility and movement are most needed.

I have observed many students who, when sitting in class, lean forward with their arms and legs crossed. Not only are the legs crossed, they are wrapped all the way around each other very tightly.

One video that demonstrates "eye exercises" teaches the student to try to stop an object on the TV screen, which is continually moving, from moving. This video continually reminds the subject to "keep the head still" and only move the eyes. This is incorrect, unnatural, and harmful.

If you want to watch what natural vision students are unlearning, take a ride on a bigcity bus Friday at 5 P.M. and observe how rigid the passengers are.

One of my students was telling me about her travels to Nigeria. On one trip, one of the