Ординатура / Офтальмология / Английские материалы / Relearning To See_Quackenbush_2000

slight, always impairs or lowers it. When this truth is demonstrated, it follows that normal vision cannot be obtained when an effort is employed.

... With perfect sight, no blur is seen, and the eyes are at rest.

MORE ON RELAXATION

Ophthalmologist R. S. Agarwal writes:

Preservation of good eyesight is almost impossible without proper eye education and mental relaxation. The quieter the mind, the better is the eyesight pre­ served2 I found this view card of Taj Mahal more charming and beautiful, very relaxing to the mind. Anything which relaxes the mind is a benefit to the eye­ sight3

Jacob Liberman, Ph.D., O.D., writes in

Light: Medicine of the Future, "... our eyes are meant to see for us, if we let them. In other words, vision is meant to be effortless."4

Aldous Huxley writes, "Learn to combine relaxation with activity; learn to do what you have to do without strain; work hard, but never under tension."5

A mother rocks her baby to sleep. Move­ ment is relaxing.

Vision is primarily a receptive activity.

THE PROBLEM IS ABNORMAL STRAIN

From Chapter X, "Strain," in Perfect Sight

Without Glasses:

Temporary conditions may contribute to the strain to see which results in the pro­ duction of errors of refraction; but its foun­ dation lies in wrong habits of thought. In attempting to relieve it the physician has continually to struggle against the idea that

Chapter Lleven: The Third Principle—Relaxation

ю do anything well requires effort.This idea is drilled into us from our cradles.The whole educational system is based upon it; and in spite of the wonderful results attained by Montessori through the total elimination of every species of compulsion in the educational process, educators who call themselves modern still cling to the club, under various disguises, as a neces­ sary auxiliary to the process of imparting knowledge.

It is as natural for the eye to see as it is for the mind to acquire knowledge, and any effort in either case is not only useless, but defeats the end in view. You may force a few facts into a child's mind by various kinds of compulsion, but you cannot make it learn anything. The facts remain, if they remain at all, as dead lumber in the brain. They contribute nothing to the vital processes of thought; and because they were not acquired naturally and not assim­ ilated, they destroy the natural impulse of the mind toward the acquisition of knowl­ edge, and by the time the child leaves school or college, as the case may be, it not only knows nothing but is, in the majority of cases, no longer capable of learning.

In the same way you may temporarily improve the sight by effort, but you cannot improve it to normal, and if the effort is allowed to become continuous, the sight will steadily deteriorate and may eventu­ ally be destroyed. Very seldom is the impairment or destruction of vision due to any fault in the construction of the eye. Of two equally good pairs of eyes one will retain perfect sight to the end of life, and the other will lose it in the kindergarten, simply because one looks at things without effort and the other does not.

The eye with normal sight never tries to see. If for any reason, such as the dimness of the light, or the distance of the object, it

P A R T T H R E E : T H E T H R E E P R I N C I P

cannot see a particular point, it shifts to another. It never tries to bring out the point by staring at it, as the eye with imperfect sight is constantly doing.

Whenever the eye tries to see, it at once ceases to have normal vision. A person may look at the stars with normal vision; but if he tries to count the stars in any particular constellation, he will probably become myopic, because the attempt to do these things usually results in an effort to see. One person was able to look at the letter К on the Snellen card with normal vision, but when asked to count its twenty-seven corners he lost it completely.

It obviously requires a strain to fail to see at the distance, because the eye at rest is adjusted for distant vision. If one does anything when one wants to see at the dis­ tance, one must do the wrong thing. The shape of the eyeball cannot be altered dur­ ing distant vision without strain. It is equally a strain to fail to see at the near point, because when the muscles respond to the mind's desire they do it without strain. Only by an effort can one prevent the eye from elongating at the near point.

The eye possesses perfect vision only when it is absolutely at rest

Things are seen, just as they are felt, or heard, or tasted, without effort or volition on the part of the subject. When sight is perfect the letters on the Snellen card are waiting, perfectly black and perfectly dis­ tinct, to be recognized. They do not have to be sought; they are there. In imperfect sight they are sought and chased. The eye goes after them. An effort is made to see them.

The muscles of the body are supposed never to be at rest. The blood-vessels, with their muscular coats, are never at rest. Even in sleep thought does not cease. But the normal condition of the nerves of sense—

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

of hearing, sight, taste, smell and touch—is one of rest. They can be acted upon; they cannot act. The optic nerve, the retina and the visual centers of the brain are as pas­ sive as the finger-nail. They have nothing whatever in their structure that makes it possible for them to do anything and when they are the subject of effort from outside sources their efficiency is always impaired.

The mind is the source of all such efforts from outside sources brought to bear upon the eye. Every thought of effort in the mind, of whatever sort, transmits a motor impulse to the eye; and every such impulse causes a deviation from the normal in the shape of the eyeball and lessens the sen­ sitiveness of the center of sight. If one wants to have perfect sight, therefore, one must have no thought of effort in the mind. [TQ emphasis.] Mental strain of any kind always produces a conscious or unconscious eye­ strain and if the strain takes the form of an effort to see, an error of refraction is always

produced Unfamiliar objects produce

eyestrain and a consequent error of refrac­ tion, because they first produce mental strain. A person may have good vision when he is telling the truth; but if he states what is not true, even with no intent to deceive, or if he imagines what is not true, an error of refraction will be produced....

Mental strain may produce many dif­ ferent kinds of eyestrain. According to the statement of most authorities there is only one kind of eyestrain, an indefinite thing resulting from so-called overuse of the eyes, or an effort to overcome a wrong shape of the eyeball. It can be demonstrated, how­ ever, that there is not only a different strain for each different error of refraction, but a different strain for most abnormal condi­ tions of the eye

The health of the eye depends upon the blood, and circulation is very largely influ-

enced by thought. When thought is nor- mal—that is, not attended by any excitement or strain—the circulation in the brain is normal, the supply of blood to the optic nerve and the visual centers is normal, and the vision is perfect. When thought is abnormal the circulation is disturbed, the supply of blood to the optic nerve and visual centers is altered, and the vision lowered. We can consciously think thoughts which disturb the circulation and lower the visual power; we can also consciously think thoughts that will restore normal circulation, and thereby reverse, not only all errors of refraction, but many other abnormal conditions of the eyes. We cannot by any amount of effort make ourselves see, but by learning to control our thoughts we can accomplish that end indirectly.

You can teach people how to produce any error of refraction, how to produce a squint [strabismus], how to see two images of an object, one above another, or side by side, or at any desired angle from one another, simply by teaching them how to think in a particular way. When the disturbing thought is replaced by one that relaxes, the squint disappears, the double vision and the errors of refraction are corrected; and this is as true of abnormalities of long standing as of those produced voluntarily. No matter what their degree or their duration their reversal is accomplished just as soon as the person is able to secure mental control. The cause of any error of refraction, of a squint, or of any other functional disturbance of the eye, is simply a thought—a wrong thought—and the reversal is as quick as the thought that relaxes. In a fraction of a second the highest degrees of refractive error may be corrected, a squint may disappear, or the blindness of amblyopia may be relieved. If the relaxation is only momentary, the cor-

Chapter Eleven: The Third Principle—Relaxation

rection is momentary. When it becomes permanent, the correction is permanent.

This relaxation cannot, however, be obtained by any sort of effort. It is fundamental that students should understand this; for so long as they think, consciously or unconsciously, that relief from strain may be obtained by another strain their reversal will be delayed.

From Bates' writing above, it is clear that strain is the cause of most vision problems. The individual with blurred vision is interfering with the normal, relaxed way of using the mind and body.

Better Eyesight magazine, September 1920:

SLEEPINESS AND EYESTRAIN

... eyestrain has always been demonstrated when fatigue was present, and that fatigue has always been relieved when eyestrain was relieved. Perfect sight is perfect rest, and cannot coexist with fatigue Sleepiness is a common symptom of habitual eyestrain, and when the sight improves the need for sleep is often markedly reduced.

Figure 11-2: Stress.

Optometrist Bruce May states: "Essentially, myopia appears to be the response of the total person to some form of stress."6

An optician told one of my students, "The only time I need my bifocals is when I have a lot of stress."

RELAXATION—THE HEARING CONNECTION

See Figure g-y: The Vestibulo-Ocular Con­ nection.

Margaret Corbett writes in her book Help

Yourself to Better Sight:

All the special senses work together— seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touch­ ing. If the nerves governing one of these special senses are tense, all are tense—if relaxed, all are relaxed. We who teach eye relaxation always notice that, as we build vision, the hearing becomes more acute.7

From Better Eyesight magazine, March

1920:

Along with the improvement in her eyes has been a considerable improvement in her hearing. Noises in her ears which she describes as a "ringing and a singing" are promptly relieved by palming, and she says that the relief, which at first was only tem­

porary, is now becoming constant. She also says that she hears conversation better than she used to.

THE SOLUTION IS RELAXATION

Relaxation is the basis of natural, clear vision. Whatever a student does to secure a greater relaxation automatically supports better vision. Many students have changed their ways of living to improve their vision. Several of my students have quit stressful jobs they felt were not only interfering with relaxed vision habits, but were interfering with their overall health

and happiness.

Some students have started massage ther­ apy or other forms of natural healing to accel­ erate the release of tension created by many years of strained vision habits.

Most people would agree that stress is a major problem in our society today. Some researchers have shown that stress levels have risen exponentially in the last several decades Vision improves automatically by elimi­ nating the incorrect, strained vision habits we acquired which lowered the vision in the first

place. Clarity is automatic.

A balloon floats on the top of the water automatically. But, if enough weights are

attached to the balloon, it will sink to the bottom of the sea. Straining to push the balloon to the surface again will only fail. It will keep falling to the bottom of the sea over and over again. The solution is to simply remove the weights from the balloon. It then automatically floats to the surface again. No effort is needed.

MOVEMENT = CENTRALIZATION = RELAXATION = CLARITY

Figure 11-4: E-mc2.

Bates wrote in the May 8,1915, issue of the

New York Medical Journal:

The sole cause of all uncomplicated or functional errors of refraction is a conscious or an unconscious effort or strain to see. The only solution to this strain is relaxation. Relaxation or rest of the eyes is accomplished only by centralization.8

In the beginning, students often think that the three principles of natural vision are separate from each other. But as they re-inte- grate these three principles more each day, they realize that movement goes with centralization which goes with relaxation.

Chapter Eleven. The Third Principle—Relaxation

If the student of natural vision accepts the idea that the re-establishment of visual relaxation is the key to normal vision, the question then becomes, "What is visual relaxation?"The answer is found in the three habits of natural seeing—Sketch (Shift), Breathe, and Blink, discussed next.

NOTES

1 Margaret Y. Ferguson, "The Dr. Bates Method of Eye Training" in the Journal of the California Chiropractic Association, December 1945,

P-13-

2R. S. Agarwal, Mind and Vision (Pondicherry, India: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, 1983), p. 1.

3Ibid., p. 146.

4Jacob Liberman, Light: Medicine of the Future

(Santa Fe: Bear & Co., 1991), p. xx.

s Aldous Huxley, The Art of Seeing (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1942), p. 37.

6 Bruce May, Rx for Nearsightedness: Stress-

Relieving Lenses, Optometric Extension Program Foundation pamphlet (1981).

7 Margaret D. Corbett, Help Yourself to Better

Sight (North Hollywood, CA: Wilshire Book

Co., 1949), p. 201.

8William H. Bates, "The Reversal of Errors of Refraction by Education Without Glasses" in

the New York Medical Journal, May 8,1915.

I

Sketching, or "shifting" as Bates called it, is the first habit of natural vision. Sketching teaches the student two of the three principles of normal sight—movement and centralization. Movement and centralization were discussed extensively in previous chapters.

B A T E S O N S H I F T I N G

Better Eyesight magazine, September 1927:

Shift your glance constantly from one point to another, seeing the part regarded best and other parts not so clearly. That is, when you look at a chair, do not try to see the whole object at once; look first at the back of it, seeing that part best and other parts worse... .This is centralizing.... Your head and eyes are moving all day long.

One might think that in order to see an object clearly, one must lock the sight rigidly onto the object of interest. The opposite is

the case. Never lock your vision; sketch or shift to different objects all day long.

Better Eyesight magazine, December 1927:

The importance of practicing certain parts of the routine habits at all times, such as blinking, centralizing..., and imagining stationary objects to be moving opposite to the movement of the head and eyes, is stressed.

In the last two quotes from Bates, in using the phrases "all day long" and "at all times," it is clear that the Bates method is not about "eye exercises." Natural vision habits are the keys to normal sight. As I like to remind my students frequently, the three habits of natural vision are not necessary more than twenty-four hours per day!

From Perfect Sight Without Classes:

Shifting may be done slowly or rapidly, according to the state of the vision. At the beginning the person will be likely to strain if he shifts too rapidly; and then the point shifted from will not be seen worse, and there will be no swing. As improvement is made, the speed can be increased. It is usually impossible, however, to realize the swing if the shifting is more rapid than two or three times a second.

"To realize the swing" means to notice the illusion of oppositional movement, discussed in the Chapter 9, "The First Princi- ple—Movement," and Chapter 10, "The Second Principle—Centralization."

T H E N O S E - H E L P E R S

See Plate n: The Nose-Helpers.

Bates referred to first habit of natural vision in various ways—shifting, swinging, swaying, and dodging (the stare).

Many modern Bates teachers have utilized the idea of a nose-helper to teach shifting. The nose-helpers include the nose-pencil for "sketching" objects, the nose-feather for "brushing," the nose-paintbrush for "painting," the nose-crayon for "drawing," and/or the nose-laser beam for "beaming."

Natural vision students can use one, some, all, or none of the nose-helpers.

Sketching, shifting, swinging, swaying, dodging, brushing, painting, drawing, and beaming all refer to the same habit. These words can be used interchangeably. They all teach the student to move and centralize.

SKETCHING WITH THE NOSE-PENCIL

Sketching involves an imaginary nose-pen- cil. The student pretends the erasure end of the pencil is attached to the tip of the nose using imaginary super-glue. The student can then ^sketch" the world all day long.

Characteristics of the imaginary nosepencil are:

1.It is thin and weightless; sketching is easy and effortless;

2.It becomes longer and shorter as you sketch far objects, then midrange objects, then near objects and back again; it changes its length instantaneously and automatically; and

3.The point of the pencil touches the object you are sketching at all times. The nose-pencil is a way of visually "reconnecting" to the world. (Blurry, diffused vision is a "disconnection" from objects in the world.)

In the beginning, the simplest and easiest form of sketching is "edging" or "outlining." Simply trace the shape of a tree, house, flower, door, and so on. In art, students are taught to

first draw the outline of an object, and then to fill in the details. So it is with the sketching habit. For example, after sketching the outline of a house, sketch the windows, doors, curtains, chimney, shutters, walkway, and so on. Interest, curiosity, and discovery are key characteristics of normal sight. Similarly, after sketching the outline of a tree, sketch the branches and leaves.

VISION FUNCTIONS BY EDGES

Cover the middle vertical edge of Plate 12: The Edge with your finger, a ruler, or pencil. Does the right half now look the same as the left half?! What is happening?

Sight functions primarily by detecting edges. The Edge is composed of two identical gradients. Both gradients are lighter on the right, and gradually become darker toward the left. The edge in the middle appears where the darker edge of the right gradient meets with the lighter edge of the left gradient! However, when this edge is covered, the eyes no longer have a "clue" as to the change between the two gradients

Show this page to a friend with the middle edge covered with a ruler. Ask your friend if there is any difference between the left side of the right half and the right side of the left half.Then take away the ruler. Surprise!

MOVE THE HEAD, NOT JUST THE EYES

The nose-pencil is attached to the nose to remind us to move the head—not just the eyes. By moving the head while keeping our primary interest where the nose-pencil is touching, it is impossible to stare.

The purpose of sketching is to eliminate the habit of staring. This is of greatest impor-

tance. Bates and many other researchers have proven it is impossible to see clearly while staring. Ultimately, staring must be eliminated to have normal vision.

If it seems to the reader I am belaboring the issue of not staring—I am doing so on purpose. The staring habit is deeply ingrained in many students, and the importance of relearning natural movement and centralization cannot be overemphasized. Repetition is an important part of teaching students how to improve their sight.

THE PICTURE IS Inside, NOT OUTSIDE

The picture we see is not out in the world. Objects are out in the world, and light rays from those objects enter our eyes. Light rays land on the retina, and then, stimulated light receptors send messages along the optic nerve to the brain. The picture we see is formed in the brain.

So, in reality, we are sketching the picture created in and by the brain. You might think about sketching as if you were a one-inch-tall person sitting inside of your brain and sketching the picture formed inside your brain.

This is one reason straining to see does not make any sense. If the picture were out in the world, it might make sense to strain to see it out there. But the picture is not out there; it is in the brain. A person who is straining to see is straining to see the picture inside the brain. I call this "brain strain." This makes no sense, because there are no muscles in the brain! Perfect, normal sight requires no effort, and Bates frequently stated that any effort to see lowers vision.

The nose-pencil reconnects the student to herself inside the brain. Blur is not caused by external stimuli so much as how a person

responds internally to the external stimuli. The return to clarity is a reflection of an individual's return to a normal, healthy state of internal relaxation—a return to a balance with nature.

V A R I A T I O N S O N N O S E - P E N C I L S K E T C H I N G

Four variations on the nose-pencil are the Nose-Feather, the Nose-Paintbrush, the NoseCrayon, and the Nose-Laser Beam.

ARTIFICIAL IMPROVEMENT Is NO T

SUFFICIENT

Any form of artificial eyesight "correction" will never address the real cause of blurred vision. The original strain remains until it is released by the individual. Natural clarity and blur are in the hands of the individual—and no one else. The purpose of natural vision classes is to educate an individual how he can re-establish his own normal vision.

Some people subconsciously and "spontaneously" re-establish their own natural, clear sight. Since returning to clarity can be accom- plished without even knowing what to do, a student can return to clarity by knowing what to do.

T H E NOSE - FEATHER

The nose-feather image is especially valuable in learning the ease of natural seeing It is also helpful in improving texture awareness. The nose-feather is not wide, like a fluffy plume (sorry), because a wide feather could encourage diffusion. A thin feather reminds the student to centralize.

One elderly woman I taught kept complaining every week that she just could not "get" the nose-feather image on her nose In the last class, she said she had good news and bad news. "I finally 'got' the nose-feather— but now I can't get rid of it! It is there on my nose everywhere I go!"

Sometimes Bates' term "shifting" will feel more natural than "sketching" or "brushing." For example, if you are interested in pebbles on a beach (re: The Pebble Game), you might "shift" from one to another. But, if you are watching a bird flying over a field, following it with a smooth nose-feather motion might feel more natural. As long as the principles of movement and centralization are incorporated, and you are not straining to see, you are practicing the first habit of natural vision correctly.

Movement + Centralization = Sketching or Shifting.

The nose-paintbrush is excellent for that artist inside all of us. Aldous Huxley's natural vision improvement book is appropriately entitled The Art of Seeing. Fortunately, there is an infinite supply of imaginary paint to paint the world for your entire lifetime!