Ординатура / Офтальмология / Английские материалы / Relearning To See_Quackenbush_2000

place that had lots of pebbles, I noticed I could centralize on a pebble about ten feet away, and the pebble touching it was less clear!

T H E COLOR CENTRALIZING GAME

An excellent form of centralization is picking out any color you like, e.g., green, and then finding that particular color throughout your environment and painting it with your nosepaintbrush. After painting the first color, select a second color, e.g., blue, and then find and paint that color everywhere you find it. Then paint a third color, and so on. Have a "visual feast." Vision loves variety, but, of course, one at a time.

In the bottom rectangle, centralize on a small group of dots approximately the size of the circle shown in the bottom left corner.

(Those with farsightedness and astigmatism may need to use corrective lenses to see this round area.)You may be able to see a small round area of sharp dots, while all of the peripheral dots are less clear.

Some students notice that the small round area of sharp dots appears to be three-dimen- sional, like a small mound. When you see this small round area of sharp dots you are experiencing the area of the fovea centralis and the macula lutea on your retina!

See Plate 9: Centralization vs. Diffusion.

Another simple centralization game is to count similar objects. For example, you can count the number of light posts along a street, the number of windows of a house or building, the number of trees in a field, and so on. This is excellent centralizing practice.

The idea is to form the habit of shifting from one point to another throughout the day. Never stare or diffuse. Centralize within a smaller area each day.

Have laser beam vision. Illuminate each place you are centralizing on with your noselaser beam! Always have a head movement. Even a small movement is correct, as long as the neck is released and mobile.

CENTRALIZATION PATTERNS

In Figure 10-5: Centralization Patterns, prac- tice centralizing with the objects in the top rectangles. Then centralize on the smaller objects in the middle rectangles.

But that is why (most likely) you are reading this book!

Most likely, while improving your vision, the point of centralization will not be clear at all distances. For nearsights the distance is not clear; for farsights the near is not clear. It is the concept of centralization that is important at this time.

When centralizing at a point that is not clear, think to yourself, "I see most clearly and colorfully where I am centralizing. All peripheral objects are less clear and colorful." And,"If my vision were normal right now, where I am centralizing I would see perfectly clear only at this point. My peripheral vision would be 20/400, at best, if I had clear vision right now"

This attitude is essential for improving eyesight. Ultimately, it becomes true when the student has normal sight again. You are retraining your mind to centralize. It is the only way to return to clear sight: and it is exactly what you used to do when you used

to have clear sight. Centralizing is clarity. Dif­ fusion is blur. "Refuse to diffuse." Centralize more perfectly each day.

The practice of centralization relaxes the mind and body. This mental relaxation, along with the relaxation provided by relearning movement, allows the extrinsic eve muscles to release their chronic tension.

When the eyeball is squeezed out of shape, peripheral light rays fall into the fovea cen­ tralis Peripheral light ra\s are not supposed to fall into the fovea centralis, and doing so creates blurred sight in the center ot your visual field. As the eye muscles release their tension, all light rays are focused correctly again onto the retina. Peripheral light rays no longer fall incorrectly into the fovea; they land outside of the fovea. In normal vision, only light rays from the object you are centraliz­ ing on fall into the fovea. The central vision is then clear.

The mental process of relearning to cen­ tralize and its effect on the eye muscles is one of the most remarkable consequences of

Bates' thirty-five years of research on natural vision. Bates created a holistic model of vision which says: if we have a stressful, mentally diffused lifestyle, our vision will be diffused and blurry. If we have a relaxed, centered lifestyle, our vision is centered and clear. The design of the retina, with its central cones and peripheral rods, teaches us how to live in cooperation with principles of nature. The benefits to the student are immeasurable.

Our vision is, in many ways, a barometer of the way we live.

ier. When vision is perfectly clear, it isobvi. ous that only the center is clear, and the >tu dent wants her visual attention to be at the point of best sight. Then, even the though of diffusion becomes abhorrent.

See Plate ю: Cosmosis for more central­ ization practice with unique, natural art stones

LIMITS TO VISION?

As students begin to understand that their best vision is in the center of the visual field, some ask, "Exactly how small is the area of cen­ tralization?" I do not believe anyone know the answer to that question. Theoretical cal­ culations of the limit of sight have been made based on the area of the cones in the fovea, but this does not take into consideration any other mental and physical aspects of sight

Earlier we learned that 20/20 sight is vision which sees Vs" letters twenty feet away.Much better vision than 20/20 is possible

Quoting again from Perfect Sight Without Glasses:

IT IS EASIER WITH PRACTICE

As vision improves, the experience of better clarity in the center makes centralizing eas­

,.. Complete reversals, which mean the attainment, not of what is ordinarily called normal sight, but of a measure of telescopic and microscopic vision, are very rare. Even 1

in these cases, too, the practice can be con­ tinued with benefit; for it is impossible to place limits to the visual powers of man, and no matter how good the sight, it is always possible to improve it.

"... There is now living in New York

State," [Oliver Wendell Holmes] says, "an old gentleman who, perceiving his sight to fail, immediately took to exercising it on the finest print, and in this way fairly bul­ lied Nature out of her foolish habit of tak­ ing liberties at five-and-forty, or thereabout. And now this old gentleman performs the most extraordinary feats with his pen, showing that his eyes must be a pair of microscopes. I should be afraid to say how much he writes in the compass of a half- dime—whether the Psalms or the Gospels, or the Psalms and the Gospels, I won't be positive"3

... The primitive memory as well as prim­ itive keenness of vision has been found among civilized people; and if the neces­ sary tests had been made it would doubt­ less have been found that they always occur together, as they did in a case which recently came under my observation. The subject was a child of ten with such mar­ velous eyesight that she could see the moons of Jupiter with the naked eye, a fact which was demonstrated by her drawing a diagram of these satellites which exactly conesponded to the diagrams made by per­ sons who had used a telescope. Her mem­ ory was equally remarkable.

a Everyman's Library, 1908, pp. 166-167.

Steve Richards writes:

"Keenness of sight has achieved instances transcending belief in the highest degree," wrote Pliny. "Cicero records that a parch­

Chapter Ten: The Second Principle—Centralization

ment copy of Homer's Iliad was enclosed in a nutshell. He also records the case of a man who could see 123 miles Marcus Varro also gives this man's name, which was

Strabo, and states that in the Punic Wars he was in the habit of telling from the promon­ tory of Lilybaeum in Sicily the actual num­ ber of ships in a fleet that was passing out from the harbour at Carthage."3'7

Several people have told me they can read the copyright on the eye chart twenty feet away.

As mentioned earlier, the husband of one of my students has 20/5 vision. This is four times better than 20/20 sight.

Better than 20/20 vision is possible by refin­ ing the principles and habits of natural see­ ing—smaller centralizing, more subtle movements and oppositional movements, a more relaxed, receptive attitude of seeing, better abdominal breathing, and softer (and frequent) blinking.

TRUSTING PERIPHERAL VISION WHILE CENTRALIZING

Ф 1 . D E M O N S T R A T E :

Hold this book in your hands and, while sketching the middle of Figure 10-6: Con­ centric Circles (next page), shake and tilt this page in a circular motion. Notice if Concen­ tric Circles seems to spin!

Now, while sketching the word "TRUST," continue to move this book in a tilting and circular motion. Since the rods pick up move­ ment better than the cones, you may notice much more spinning within the circles while they are in the peripheral vision.

Pliny, Natural History. London: The Loeb Classical Library, 1958-1963, Book 7, Chapter 21.

P A R T T H R E E T H E T H R E E P R I N C I P L E S

TRUST

Figure 10-6: Concentric Circles.

Trust your peripheral vision! The more you centralize and move, the better the rods pick up peripheral movements. Staring and straining to see lower the ability of the rods to pick up peripheral movements

*&2A. G E T T I N G T H E C E N T R A L I Z I N G

W I N D O W ( O R G A T E )

Notice a far object, Object F, straight out in front of you at least ten feet away. Hold a pencil in front of you vertically; the eraser should be at the top. Hold the bottom of the pencil near your mouth; the top of the pencil should be near the forehead. Move the pencil out about six inches from your head. For this activity do not bring your attention to the pencil!

Ideally, you should notice two partially transparent pencils, not one! One of the pencils is to the right of Object F; it is seen by the left eye. The other pencil is to the left of Object F; it is seen by the right eye.

O F N A T U R A L V I S I O N

Note: If you do not see two near pendls, you are either not doing this activity correctly, or the brain is switching off one of the pencils. For the former, ask a Natural Vision teacher to show you how to do this activity correctly. For the latter, see Chapter 18, "Stereoscopic Vision."

If the pencil is aligned exactly in front of your nose, Object F will be exactly in the middle of the two pencils. The two pencils form a "window" or "gate."

Move the pencil a little closer to your head, and then a little farther out. Notice that the closer the pencil, the wider the window; the farther the pencil, the narrower the window. Return the pencil to the original six inches distance from the nose.

» 2 B . T H E W I N D O W ( O R GATE) S W I N G F O R C E N T R A L I Z I N G

Now, as if your pencil and hand were attached to your head, move the pencil, hand, arm, and head together slowly to the left, all in unison. Do not tilt the pencil or head—just turn them all together. As you move, keep your attention on the objects in the distance which are within the window. This may take some practice.

Notice that the objects in the center of the window are more clear than the objects outside of the window. The window reminds us to notice one point best at a time, and therefore is an excellent centralizing game. People who have blur try, mostly subconsriously. to see the objects outside of the window as clearly or equally as the objects that are in the center of the window. This strains vision.

To make a Vision Halo (a centralization halo) that moves a vertical bar automatically with your head, refer to Chapter 18,"Stereoscopic Vision."

THE C E N T E R C O R R E C T L Y "

D I S A P P £ A R S ( ! ) I N T R U E

N I G H T T I M E V I S I O N

In extremely low levels of light the cones do not register light. Only the rods function. Since there are no rods in the center of the fovea, there is no sight available exactly in the center of the visual field in "true nighttime" vision. This special situation is covered more in Chapter 17, "The Retina."

FINAL N O T E S O N C E N T R A L I Z A T I O N

In this chapter, you have proven that it is impossible to see clearly without centralization. A person who wants to see clearly needs to relearn to have his visual attention where clarity is—in the center—all day long.

If you reflect on the ideas in this chapter for a few days, and if you do not have natural, clear vision, you will most likely discover that you diffuse your vision frequently and for long periods of time. You can now begin to change this strained, diffused way of seeing back to centralization. Remember, "Think small!"

Ultimately, only movement and centralization are relaxing; rigidity and diffusion are a strain. In the next chapter we study the most important principle of all—relaxation.

NOTES

1Bates used the phrase "central fixation" in many of his writings. This phrase has been changed to "centralization" or "centralizing" by many Natural Vision teachers, including myself, because the word "fixation" could be misunderstood by students to mean "staring" or "locking." "Centralizing" better describes the mental process of seeing one point at a time clearly and best. All references to "central fixation" have been

Figure 10-7: Get the 'Point" of Centralizing?

changed accordingly in this book. The publisher of Bates' 1920 book Perfect Sight Without Glasses was Central Fixation Publishing Co.

Mary Dudderidge,"New Light Upon Our Eyes: An Investigation Which May Result in Normal Vision for All, Without Glasses," in Scientific

American. (January 12,1918), p. 61.

W. H. Bates, "The Reversal of Errors of Refraction by Education Without Glasses" in the New

York Medical Journal, May 8,1915.

Mary Dudderidge, "New Light Upon Our Eyes," p. 61.

Fritz Kahn, "The Eye," Man in Structure and Function (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943), p. 665.

Margaret D. Corbett, Help Yourself to Better

Sight (North Hollywood, CA: Wilshire Book

Co., 1949), p. 203.

Steve Richards, "How to Extend Your Sight," Invisibility (Wellingborough, Normamptonshire, England: The Aquarian Press, 1982), p. 52.

Vision can be improved by natural methods. Tension causes eye strain. Relaxation relieves this tension. Normal eyes are always relaxed. Vision should come to the eye effortlessly as scent to the nostrils, music to the ears, touch of velvet to the finger tips.1

—Margaret Y. Ferguson, D.C., 1945

The reflection of the moon in the lake is clear only when the water is calm.

—Chinese proverb

R E L A X A T I O N

Relaxation is the third, and most important, principle of natural vision. The two principles discussed in the two previous chapters— movement and centralization—and the three habits of natural seeing are based on relaxation, especially of the mind.

The initial tendency is for many natural vision students to strain to see better. Bates stated that most vision problems are due to strain. Poor vision habits create excessive strain, and lower sight.

Everything Bates discovered and taught regarding natural vision is based on relax-

ation. Children and animals never strain to see. Natural, clear vision occurs automatically and subconsciously.

always the same, namely relaxation. By constant repetition and frequent demonstration and by all means possible, the fact must be impressed upon the stu-

B A T E S O N R E L A X A T I O N

In the beginning of Perfect Sight Without

Glasses, Bates emphasizes the importance of the principle of relaxation to normal vision.

THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE

... Do you observe also that the harder you try to see the worse you see? Now close your eyes and rest them ... If you have been able to relax ... you will have ...

improved or clear vision...

Bates not only taught relaxation as the key to natural, clear vision, he discovered that many situations people avoid—because of popular misconceptions about what is harmful or beneficial to sight—are, in fact, opportunities to master greater levels of relaxation. Examples include reading fine print, reading in dim light, and reading while commuting. How these situations, commonly thought to be a strain to sight, can be used to improve sight, is discussed in Chapter 22, "Reading— For All Ages."

From Perfect Sight Without Glasses:

Fortunately, all persons are able to relax under certain conditions at will. In all uncomplicated errors of refraction the strain to see can be relieved, temporarily, by having the student look at a blank wall without trying to see. To secure permanent relaxation sometimes requires considerable time .. .The ways in which people strain to see are infinite, and the methods used to relieve the strain must be almost equally varied. Whatever the method that brings most relief, however, the end is

dent that perfect sight can be obtained only by relaxation. Nothing else matters. [TQ emphasis.]

Most people, when told that rest, or relaxation, will reverse their eye troubles, ask why sleep does not do so. The answer to this question was given in Chapter VII

[of Perfect Sight Without Glasses].Tbt eyes are rarely, if ever, completely relaxed in sleep, and if they are under a strain when the subject is awake, that strain will certainly be continued during sleep, to a greater or less degree, just as a strain of other parts of the body is continued.

The idea that it rests the eyes not to use them is also erroneous. The eyes were made to see with, and if when they are open they do not see, it is because they are under such a strain and have such a great error of refraction that they cannot see. Near vision, although accomplished by a muscular act, is no more a strain on them than is distant vision, although accomplished without the intervention of the muscles The use of the muscles does not necessarily produce fatigue. [The eye muscles are much more powerful than they need to be to perform their normal functions.] Some men can run for hours without becoming tired. Many birds support themselves upon one foot during sleep, the toes tightly clasping the swaying bough and the muscles remaining unfatigued by the apparent strain. Fabre tells of an insect which hung back downward for ten months from the roof of its wire cage, and in that position performed all the functions of life, even to mating and laying its eggs. Those who fear the effect of civilization, with its numerous demands for near vision, upon the eye may take courage

from the example of this marvelous little animal which, in a state of nature, hangs by its feet only at intervals, but in captivity can do it for ten months on end, the whole of its life's span, apparently without inconve­ nience or fatigue."

The fact is that when the mind is at rest nothing can tire the eyes, and when the mind is under a strain nothing can rest them. Any­ thing that rests the mind will benefit the eyes. Almost everyone has observed that the eyes tire less quickly when reading an interesting book than when perusing some­ thing tiresome or difficult to comprehend. A schoolboy can sit up all night reading a novel without even thinking of his eyes, but if he tried to sit up all night studying his lessons he would soon find his eyes getting very tired. A child whose vision was ordi­ narily so acute that she could see the moons of Jupiter with the naked eye became myopic when asked to do a sum in mental arithmetic, mathematics being a subject which was extremely distasteful to her—

a The Wonders of Instinct, English translation by de Mattos and Miall, 1918, pp. 36-38.

Better Eyesight magazine, June 1923:

When a person has normal sight the eye is at rest, and when the eye is at rest, strange to say, it is always moving to avoid the stare.

Better Eyesight magazine, October 1923 (some of this material is repeated from the previous chapter):

Most people with imperfect sight when they look at the Snellen Card at twenty feet believe that they see imperfectly without any effort or staring. Some people feel that to have perfect sight requires something of

Chapter Eleven: The Third Principle—Relaxation

an effort. It is interesting to demonstrate that these two beliefs are very far from the truth. As a matter of fact it requires an effort to fail to see and it requires no effort to have normal sight.

In every case of imperfect sight whether due to nearsightedness or to any injury it can always be demonstrated that the nerves of the whole body are under a strain and in every case of perfect vision it can be demonstrated that no effort whatever is made ... When you have imperfect sight and look at the first letter of a line of let­ ters on the Snellen Card which you cannot read you can always note that you do not see the first letter or any other letter bet­ ter than the rest. Usually the whole line looks pretty much the same shade of gray. Why is it? Because you are trying to see the whole line at once ... if you try to do the impossible, try to see the whole line of letters at once [clearly] you will always fail, because you will have to make an effort. It is not an easy thing at all to fail, it is diffi­ cult, you have to try, or you make an effort to do the impossible in order to fail. To prove that imperfect sight is more difficult and requires hard work, a great deal of trouble, and much effort, is a great benefit.

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

Better Eyesight magazine, March 1924:

1.Imperfect sight is the result of hard work; effort produces strain; perfect sight is attained with ease; lack of effort produces relaxation.

2.Tension indicates imperfect relaxation; stare, effort, trying to see—these interfere with perfect vision.

3.Under strain one cannot imagine, re­ member, nor see perfectly.

Better Eyesight magazine, December 1925 (notice how Bates combines the three principles of normal vision—movement, centralization, and relaxation):

SHIFTING

... 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.. .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... 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 by the student until thoroughly convinced that rest of the eyes, mind or body can only be obtained by shifting easily, continuously, and without effort.

Better Eyesight magazine, January 1926 (repeated from the Movement chapter): "SWINGING.... make no effort to imagine stationary objects to be moving."

Better Eyesight magazine, October 1927: "... relaxation is always a benefit, not only to the eyes, but to all the nerves of the body."

Better Eyesight magazine, December 1927:

Question: Trying to make things move gives me a headache... Why?

Answer: Making an effort to do a thing will not help you. When you are walking along the street, the street should appear to go in the opposite direction without effort on your part...

Question: Why do "movies" hurt my eyes when they should benefit them? Answer: Unconscious strain. Do not stare at the pictures, but allow the eyes [and head} to roam over the whole picture, seeing one part best. Also keep things swinging.

Better Eyesight magazine, March 1928:

When the period [or any other small object of interest] has a slow, short, easy swing, the eye is at rest and when it is at rest it is always moving to prevent concentration, trying to see and other efforts to improve the vision.

It has been demonstrated that when the vision is good, any effort, no matter ho«" |