Ординатура / Офтальмология / Английские материалы / Relearning To See_Quackenbush_2000

When learning to play tennis, your skills improve over time. But on some days, it seems like you never played tennis at all, missing almost every shot. The same is true while learning to play a musical instrument. Yet, with continued practice, your skills improve. The key to success is to continue practicing. Do not quit because of temporary setbacks. Temporary setbacks are a natural part of any improvement process.

An important difference with the vision improvement process is that we were not born playing tennis or the piano. Virtually all of us had clear vision and proper vision habits at a very young age. In this process, we are literally relearning to see. Anyone can relearn to do something they used to do perfectly.

Another difference is that one does not play tennis or the piano all day long. Correct vision habits are meant to be used our entire lifetime.

Changes in weather and the seasons can create fluctuations in vision and affect the rate of improvement. One vision teacher noted that in winter (in New York) it took three lessons for her students to have the same benefit they received with only one les-

son in the spring or fall. High humidity and heat can also slow down vision improvement. In fact, anything that interferes with relaxed vision habits can slow progress.

HOLISTIC EDUCATION

AND PRACTITIONERS

A person who wants to improve his health through natural methods may need to read many books, attend classes, and consult with holistic practitioners before the main cause or causes of his problems can be addressed. Studying a specific holistic modality can help you choose a practitioner that approaches that modality in the way you feel is correct.

I have seen and experienced several variations of holistic practices that I do not recommend. For example, some homeopathic remedies are now being combined, or mixed In classical homeopathy, only single remedies have been "proven." I am not aware of any research in which mixtures have been proven. Homeopathic mixtures are a diffused, "shotgun" approach to homeopathy.

Maesimund Panos and Jane Heimlich write in Homeopathic Medicine at Home:

This is a controversial issue... But many of us believe that far better results are obtained in the long run by adhering strictly to fundamental laws of homeopathy, which include the single remedy.25

The classical, single-remedy approach is especially important in constitutional homeopathic healing. Using a single remedy at a time is a form of centralization.

Accessing an experienced health practitioner who understands his profession can sometimes be more important than the specific modality chosen. All forms of holistic health, when understood and applied correctly, move the individual toward a higher level of health. If possible, obtain a referral from someone you trust.

Even if the first holistic modality chosen is not the one most needed, oftentimes the benefits and awareness from that modality can lead the individual to the one most needed.

It is possible to "overdose" on holistic health. If a person engages in too many modalities at one time, the system can become confused. "Diffusion is confusion" even in holistic healing. Those individuals engaging in natural healing may choose to limit the number of modalities during a particular period of time.

CHAPTER C O M M E N T S

Many of the issues briefly touched on in this chapter are complex and serious. I realize they may be new to the reader.

I am not against Western medicine. The Western approach to accidents and injuries is often outstanding. But I am forced to agree with many of the world's leading natural health practitioners that people living in industrialized societies are—as a whole— extremely unhealthy. The Western, mechan-

ical, left-brain, "quick-fix" approach lo longterm health simply does not work. Worse, people become more ill. More and more people are realizing this fact and are seeking natural, holistic methods—methods that work. We need a balanced approach to our health.

As natural vision is a holistic process, many natural vision students have used holistic modalities to support their vision improvement process. Natural healing can require time, energy, trust, and patience. The reward is better health—especially in the long term.

Hippocrates, from Regimen in Health,

Book IX:

A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.

N O T E S

1Jerry Green is an attorney in Marin County, California, specializing in laws pertaining to holistic health and holistic practitioners, and is a natural vision improvement student. For a complimentary copy of the introduction to the consulting format "Holistic Practice Forum," send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Jerry Green, P. O. Box 5094, Mill Valley, CA 94942.

2Robert S. Mendelsohn, Confessions of a Medical Heretic (Chicago: Contemporary Books, Inc., 1979), p. xi.

3At the 1966 clinical convention, the American Medical Association House of Delegates stated "chiropractic is an unscientific cult" and "chiropractic constitutes a hazard to rational health

care " One A M A official described chiro-

practors as "rabid dogs" and "killers." This same A M A official lectured to young physicians across the country, telling them chiropractic was stealing their money. Yet, in court, the defendants told the judge that chiropractic is efficient,

effective, therapeutic, and there is even scientific evidence for some portions of chiropractic. The judge stated, "the A M A knew of scientific studies implying that chiropractic care was twice as effective as medical care in relieving many painful conditions of the neck and back as well as related musculo-skeletal problems."

In 1987, Federal District Judge Susan Getzendanner found the defendants, the American Medical Association and two other medical groups, guilty of "overtly and covertly" trying to eliminate the profession of chiropractic in the United States. Judge Getzendanner ruled, "As early as September 1963, the AMA's objective was the complete elimination of the chiropractic profession... In 1966 the A M A adopted an anti-chiropractic resolution ... In 1967, the A M A Judicial Council issued an opinion under Principle 3 specifically holding that it was unethical for a physician to associate professionally with chiropractors... Keeping chiropractors out of hospitals was one of the goals of the boycott." Judge Getzendanner also stated that the A M A conducted "systematic, long-term wrongdoing and the long-term intent to destroy a licensed profession." The A M A engaged in numerous activities to maintain a medical physician monopoly over health care in this country. Judge Getzendanner issued a permanent injunction against the AMA, and two other medical groups, ruling they had violated Sherman Antitrust laws.

Source:The Summary of Opinion and Order and Permanent Injunction in Wilk, et al., v. AMA, et al., and Complete Copy of Opinion and Order and Permanent Injunction Order in

Wilk, et al., v. AMA, et al., written by Federal District Judge Susan Getzendanner. An overview of this case can be found in "Wilk et al vs. AM A et al: DCs Win: Judge Finds A M A Guilty of Conspiracy, Issues Permanent

Injunction," in ICA International Review of Chi- ropractic (October 1987).

T h a n k s to D r . M i c h a e l D. P e d i g o , D.C., one of the plaintiffs in this case, and his staff for providing me with this information . D r . P e d i g o is

listed in the Resources/Holistic Health Appendix under San Leandro Chiropractic Center.

4Margaret D. Corbett, Eye Education by Bates Method (Los Angeles: DeVorss & Co., 1943), p. 7.

5George A. Posner, "Are Eye Glasses a Racket... ?" in SIR! (August 1943).

6Janet Goodrich, Natural Vision Improvement

(Berkeley, California: Celestial Arts, 1985), pp. 184-85.

7For example, see Bates' introduction to ophthalmologist E. F. Darling's testimonial in Chapter 29," 'This Method Has Been Proved.'"

8Margaret Y. Ferguson, "The Dr. Bates Method

of Eye Training," in Journal of the California

Chiropractic Association (December 1945), p. 13.

9See "Ophthalmologist Darling's Testimonial" in Chapter 29, "'This Method Has Been Proved,'" for one example.

10Mendelsohn, Confessions of a Medical Heretic, p. 149.

11Pelletier, Kenneth R., Holistic Medicine: From

Stress to Optimum Health (New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1979), pp. 57-58.

12Henry G. Bieler, Food is Your Best Medicine

(New York: Random House, 1965), p. xiii.

13June Biermann and Barbara Toohey, The

Woman's Holistic Headache Relief Book (Los

Angeles: J. P. Tarcher, Inc., 1979), p. 113-

14Mortimer Zuckerman, editor-in-chief, "Editorial: The Victims of TV Violence," U.S. News & World Report (August 2,1993), p. 64.

15Personal communication to the author on July 26,1996. Sho Aoyagi is planning to write a book

on the topic of self-responsibility for health and healing.

16Mendelsohn, Confessions of a Medical Heretic, p. xi.

17M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled (New

York: Simon and Schuster, 1978), p. 227.

18J. Robert Oppenheimer, Science and the Common Understanding (New York: Simon and

Schuster, 1953), p. 40.

19G. Kent Smith, Homeopathy: Medicine for Today's Living (Glendale, California: private printing, 1978), pp. 5-7.

flow before palming by "rubbing your hands an inch apart"; in other words, without actu­ ally touching your hands together. While doing this, some students feel a tingling on their hands, or a warming of the hands. When the hands are moved slowly away from and toward each other, some students feel a mag­ net effect. Not all students feel these effects in the beginning.

Do not touch your eyes.

Continue to centralize while palming; do not diffuse.

Figure 21-1 also shows the incorrect way of palming. The palms are not over the eyes, and they do not cross over the forehead. Also, the chin is jutting forward, with the top of the head pulled back too far. The fingers and hands should not be parallel to each other, i.e., they should not be vertical.

Also, do not place the heel of the hand too high.

"Cup" your hands slightly. The fingers are relaxed, not stiff. The left hand is placed first, with the center of the "cupped" palm over the left eye. The base of the hand rests softly on the cheek, without putting pressure on the nose. The hand is angled slightly, so that the fingers extend toward the center of the fore­ head. Next, the right hand is placed with the fingers extending over the fingers of the left hand.

Breathe abdominally. It is important that the neck is loose. The neck has a small move­ ment during palming. The eyelids are closed during palming.

From Better Eyesight magazine, April 1928:

Question: Is it all right to palm while lying down? Is it better to sit or stand while doing so? If the arms get tired is it all right to rest the elbows on a desk or something like that while palming? Or is it best to hold the elbows up free from all support?

Answer: It is all right to palm while lying down. Palming should not be done while one is standing. The elbows should rest on a desk or table or on a cushion placed in the lap. One should be in as comfortable a position as possible while palming, in order to obtain the most benefit—

WHAT TO DO WHILE PALMING

While palming, pretend you are sketching any object that is relaxing to you. Do not "space out" or stare while palming. Nose-pencil or

-feather objects that are interesting, colorful, and textured. Add details and movement. Have fun being creative!

Palming is an excellent time for nearsights to pretend they are sketching clear objects in the distance. Farsights can sketch clear objects up close. People with astigmatism can sketch dear objects both near and far.

When one Bates teacher told a student to think of something relaxing while palming, the student said, "Nothing is relaxing for me!" The teacher asked,"Nothing?"Then the stu­ dent replied, "Well, there is this butter-dish my grandfather gave to me, and I like it. So,

I will think about my butter-dish." Think of pleasant things while palming—otherwise it is of little value.

POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS

Palming provides an excellent opportunity to practice positive vision affirmations. One of the most important parts of natural vision improvement is to begin thinking like a per­ son who has clear vision. Vision is primarily mental. Affirmations are usually more pow­ erful when spoken out loud.

Here are some sample positive affirma­ tions:

• I have the potential to see clearly with my own eyes.

*I can see the feathers of an eagle on a hilltop.

*I can read Shakespeare written on a sunflower seed.

•lean watch a beautiful horse trotting

along a forest path.

*I can see a mosquito floating on a pond.

*I can watch ducks migrating to the south.

*I can read the small print in a phone book.

*I can read the words on the school blackboard easily and clearly.

*I can read microprint ten inches away,

оI can see anything clearly in the

distance.

* I can see anything clearly up close. 154 And everything in-between is a piece

of cake.

® All without glasses, drugs, or surgery.

*I want to see clearly with my own eyes.

*I used to.

*I can relearn to do something I used to do perfectly—called sketching, breath­ ing, and bhnking.

*My vision is improving more each day.

Create your own positive affirmations, too!

They will be the best ones!

* A P A L M I N G S T O R Y

Pretend you are sitting in a beautiful, sunny meadow in a comfortable chair. You can hear the rustling of the leaves of the tall cottonwood trees at the edge of the meadow. You can also hear the bluejays singing and wood­ peckers tapping on trees.

In your hand you hold a large, yellow lemon, with lots of little dimples sparkling in the sunshine. While feeling the lemon with your fingers, brush the smooth skin of the lemon with your nose-feather. Smell the lemon. Taste the lemon!

Now, in slow motion, toss the lemon out in front of you into the air. Continue to brush the lemon with your nose-feather as it floats

out—five feet, ten feet, fifteen feet. At about twenty feet, the lemon lands softly on top of a tall, white, picket fence.

Continuing to brush the lemon with your nose-feather, you now notice it has fluorescent purple letters on it, which say "Grown Organically." Brush the shapes of the letters on the lemon.

Now, sweep your nose-feather along the picket fence. Sweep casually to the left, then back to the middle, and then to the right, back to the middle, over to the left again, and so on. Tap all of the pickets with your nosefeather as you sweep left and right.

Now, take a deep breath in. While exhaling, remove your hands from your head and open your eyelids. With frequent, soft butterfly blinks, brush the objects in your room or environment in a very relaxed, casual manner. Yawn.

With any palming story, you can add the sense perceptions of smell, taste, hearing, and touch. Add a variety of details and colors; near, middle, and far objects; objects high and low, left and right; textures, dimension, and motion. Natural vision thrives on interest, curiosity, and variety.

It is best to keep the palming stories simple in the beginning. You can add variations to the same palming story each time you palm, or you can create new stories.

BATES ON PALMING

From Chapter XII of Perfect Sight Without

Glasses:

All the methods used ... are simply different ways of obtaining relaxation, and most students, though by no means all, find it eas-

iest to relax with their eyes shut. This usually lessens the strain to see, and in such cases is followed by a temporary or more lasting improvement in vision.

Most students are benefited merely by closing the eyes; and by alternately resting them for a few minutes or longer in this way and then opening them ... But since some light comes through the closed eyelids, a still greater degree of relaxation can be obtained, in all but a few exceptional cases, by excluding it. This is done by covering the closed eyes with the palms of the hands (the fingers being crossed upon the forehead) in such a way as to avoid pressure on the eyeballs. So efficacious is this practice, which I have called "palming," as a means of relieving strain, that we all instinctively resort to it at times, and from it most students are able to get a considerable degree of relaxation...

Palming is one of the most effective methods of obtaining relaxation of all the sensory nerves.

D o N O T TRY T O SEE B L A C K

This section is added to help clarify the confusion regarding seeing "black" while palming. I add this information primarily for the sake of completeness, as many students have asked me about Bates' references to seeing black.

In Perfect Sight Without Glasses, Bates dis- cussed the advantages of remembering pure black during palming. Later, in his Better Eyesight magazines, he basically told his students not to try to remember or see black.

Better Eyesight magazine, July 1923:

Question: I still cannot visualize "black"— what else can I use as a substitute?

Answer: ... If it is an effort to visualize

black, think of something that is pleasant, for instance, a field of daisies, a sun-set, etc. The result will be just as beneficial.

Better Eyesight magazine, February 1924:

Question: To palm successfully is it necessary to remember black or try to see blade?

Answer: No. When one palms successfully the eyes and mind are relaxed and black is usually seen, but any effort to see black is a strain which will always fail.

Better Eyesight magazine, December 1927:

R E ST

The student is then directed to either close his eyes or palm for half an hour, whichever is more comfortable for him. In palniing, the student closes both eyes and covers them with the palms of both hands, in such a way as to exclude all light. To palm successfully, he should make no effort to remember, imagine or see black. If black cannot be seen perfectly, the student is told to let the mind drift from one pleasant thought to another.

A "half an hour" is not essential. Generally the more time given to palming, the more benefit is received.

Do not be concerned if some light enters through your hands.

It is clear that remembering black is not essential for improving sight. Most students will do better by ignoring the entire issue of seeing black, white, or any other color. The principles of movement, centralization, and relaxation, and the habits of natural seeing are far more important than any issue of blackness.

MOR E ON PALMING BY BATES

From Perfect Sight Without Glasses:

When palming is successful it is one of the best methods I know of for securing relaxation of all the sensory nerves, including those of sight... the greater the degree of the relaxation produced by palming, the more of it is retained when the eyes are opened and the longer it lasts. If you palm perfectly, you retain, when you open your eyes, all of the relaxation that you gain, and you do not lose it again. If you palm imperfectly, you retain only part of what you gain and retain it only temporarily—it may be only for a few moments. Even the smallest degree of relaxation is useful, however, for by means of it a still greater degree may be obtained...

A very remarkable case... was that of a man nearly seventy years of age with compound hypermetropic astigmatism and presbyopia, complicated by incipient cataract. For more than forty years he had worn glasses to improve his distant vision, and for twenty years he had worn them for reading and desk work. Because of the cloudiness of the lens, he had now become unable to see well enough to do his work, even with glasses; and the other physicians whom he had consulted had given him no hope of relief except by operation when the cataract was ripe. When he found palming helped him, he asked:

"Can I do that too much?"

"No," he was told. "Palming is simply a means of resting your eyes, and you cannot rest them too much."

A few days later he returned and said: "Doctor, it was tedious, very tedious; but

I did it."

"What was tedious?" I asked. "Palming," he replied. "I did it continu-

ously for twenty hours."

"But you couldn't have kept it up for twenty hours continuously," I said incredulously. "You must have stopped to eat."

And then he related that from four o'clock in the morning until twelve at night he had eaten nothing, only drinking large quantities of water, and had devoted practically all of the time to palming. It must have been tedious, as he said, but it was also worthwhile. When he looked at the reading card, without glasses, he read the bottom line at twenty feet. He also read fine print at six inches and at twenty. The cloudiness of the lens had become much less, and in the center had entirely disappeared. Two years later there had been no relapse ...

After resting the eyes by closing [the eyelids] or palming, shifting and swinging are often more successful.

Note: Some students will find frequent, short periods of palming to be more beneficial than one long period.

Better Eyesight magazine, November 1921:

It is a good thing to go to sleep swinging or palming

Question: How long should one palm at a time... ?

Answer: The length of time you should palm depends entirely on the results you obtain from the practice. Some students can palm for hours with benefit; others cannot keep it up for more than a few minutes.

Better Eyesight magazine, November 1923:

The student is directed to rest his eyes and to forget them as much as possible by thinking of other things ... The length of time necessary to palm to obtain maximum results varies with individuals. Most persons can obtain improvement in fifteen minutes while others require a longer time,

a half hour ... With improvement of the vision it usually follows that a shorter period of palming may obtain maximum results.

Better Eyesight magazine, January 1925:

Question: While palming is it necessary to close the eyes?

Answer: Yes.

Although it is possible, of course, to palm with the eyelids opened and blinking, this is not as beneficial as closed-eyelids palming. Open-eyelid palming is not recommended.

Optometrist Harris Gruman wrote in his book New Ways to Better Sight:"... palming. Dr. Bates was the first to suggest it, and for this he deserves the fullest credit."1

T H E PALMING/SUNNING SANDWICH

Alternating palming with sunning is very relaxing and beneficial to the visual system and aids in the student's ability to adjust from bright to dark, and dark to bright Ught situations. The student can sun for two minutes, palm for two minutes, sun for two minutes, and so forth. Of course, the eyelids are always closed during sunning.

You can also alternate palming and sunning with the acupressure points described below. These are three excellent optional activities for removing strain from the visual system.

VARIATIONS ON PALMING

You can palm the back of your neck. In fact, palming can be used with any part of the body.