Ординатура / Офтальмология / Английские материалы / Relearning To See_Quackenbush_2000

otherwise normal. They have been attributed to disturbances of the circulation, the digestion and the kidneys ...

A clergyman who was much annoyed by the continual appearance of floating specks before his eyes was told by his eye specialist that they were a symptom of kidney disease, and that in many cases of kidney trouble disease of the retina might be an early symptom. [Chinese healing philosophies connect the liver and kidneys to sight.] So at regular intervals he went to the specialist to have his eyes examined, and when at length the latter died, he looked around immediately for some one else to make the periodical examination. His family physician directed him to me the clergyman particularly wanted some one capable of making a thorough examination of the interior of his eyes and detecting at once any signs of kidney disease that might make their appearance. So he came to me, and at least four times a year for ten years he continued to come.

Each time I made a very careful examination of his eyes, taking as much time over it as possible, so that he would believe that it was careful; and each time he went away happy because I could find nothing wrong—

The specks are associated to a considerable extent with markedly imperfect eyesight, because persons whose eyesight is imperfect always strain to see; but persons whose eyesight is ordinarily normal may see them at times, because no eye has normal sight all the time. Most people can see muscae volitantes when they look at... any uniformly bright surface

Bates showed that when mental strain is present, these particles are seen more readily. Bates concluded, erroneously, that the floating specks are solely mental, and not physical.

Ophthalmologist Charles May writes in his book Diseases of the Eye:

Muscae Volitantes is a term employed for the appearance of spots (motes) before the eyes, without appreciable structural change in the vitreous or other media. They are caused by the shadows cast upon the retina by the cells normally found in the vitreous, and are present in all eyes under certain circumstances, such as exposure to a uniform bright surface, or in looking through

a microscope. They are found more frequently in errors of refraction (especially myopia), and the symptom maybe aggravated temporarily during digestive derangements. They are annoying and sometimes alarm the person, but are of no importance, and do not affect the acuteness of vision. The [solution] consists in correcting errors of refraction, or in reheving the disturbance of digestion. They often persist until the person ceases to look for them and thus forgets their existence.1

Today, typical floating specks are considered to be remnants of the blood vessels which course the interior of the eye as the fetus develops.

Important: Some floating particles can be caused by blows to the head or eye diseases. Anyone with this concern should consult immediately with an ophthalmologist.

I S T H E B A T E S M E T H O D A F O R M O F M I N D C O N T R O L O R H Y P N O S I S ?

No. The Bates method is an educational process of relearning the same natural, correct vision habits you had when you used to see clearly. Students are elirninating the strain they put on the visual system when they acquired blurred vision.There is no mind control or hypnosis involved in this educational program.

CLASSES?

sight impr°vernent *snot dependent upon ^Trstanding spiritual/metaphysical con- UI1 ts. Also, some students in my group are 2 interested in my perceptions of spiritu­ alty and metaphysics. If a student is inter­ ested in such concepts, he may seek a teacher in that field.

One excellent New York Bates teacher offered her private students a very short optional metaphysical teaching at the end of each lesson during palming. (Natural vision students often palm for a few minutes at the end of each class.) Interestingly, more than 90% of her students elected to receive this optional teaching.

NOTES

1Charles H. May, Diseases of the Eye (Baltimore, Maryland: William Wood and Company, 1943), pp. 264-65.

An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Ш becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out and that the flowing generation is familiarized with the 'ieafrom the beginning.

—Max Planck, The Philosophy

of Physics, 1936

Because natural vision education is relatively unknown, I have attempted in this book to present and explain the work of Dr. William H. Bates as thoroughly, logically, and con­ vincingly as I am able. I have presented both rational and empirical scientific facts to sup­ port Bates' discoveries about natural vision. To summarize the key points of this book: It is clear that compensating lenses are, at best, a crutch. At worst, they create more vision problems.

Bates' research proved that errors of refraction are functional problems—specifi­ cally, the extrinsic muscles contract chroni­ cally fight and change the shape of the eyeball to be long, short, or oval, creating nearsight­ edness, farsightedness, and astigmatism, respectively. Bates also showed that strabis­

mus is caused by one or more recti muscles becoming chronically tight. Since Bates proved natural vision improvement is pos­ sible, regardless of age or parentage, the mechanism of how vision improves is only of academic interest.

Bates proved the two oblique muscles can accommodate the eye to see clearly up close. When these two muscles release their con­ tractions, the eye sees clearly in the distance again.

Bates went further in his research to prove that functional vision problems are caused by mental strain. The entire basis of Bates' work on natural vision improvement is relax­ ation. The principles of movement and cen­ tralization are essential in order to achieve relaxation. The three principles of natural vision are not confined to the Bates method, but are universal in scope.

The specific habits of normal sight Bates described are the same habits (virtually) all people learn automatically and subcon­ sciously in the first few years of life. Natural vision students are literally and simply relearning to see.

The sketching (or shifting) habit is simply

P A R T S E V E N : R E A D I N G , C H I L D R E N , S C H O O L S , A N D M O R E

Born

Relaxation

Movement Not Exercises

Centralization

Л

^Natural, Relaxed, Correct Vision Habits = Clarity"

Stress

Incorrect, Strained Vision Habits = Blur

V

Glasses, Contacts, Drugs, Surgeries, etc.

( Bates Method of Natural Eyesight Reeducation

Relearning

to

See

the combination of the principles of move­ ment and centralization. Breathing correctly is, of course, natural and essential for normal health. The breathing habit is especially con­ nected to the relaxation principle of natural vision. Blinking frequently is clearly an essen­ tial, normal vision habit.

Mary Dudderidge sums up her article on the Bates method in Scientific American:

By means of this simple system of eye education Dr. Bates maintains that the organs of vision can be kept always in a normal condition. The savage presumably got this education from his daily life. He was obliged, as a condition of continued existence, to focus his eyes for accurate vision at all distances. If he didn't he was

eliminated. We who are protected from all the dangers from which our savage fore­ bears could protect themselves only by their good eyesight, and whose eyes are limited for a great part of the time to a nar­ row range of vision, quite [commonly] lose this power. Under similar conditions wild animals lose it also, becoming myopic in captivity, although they neither read nor write nor sew nor set type. The [solution] is not to close our schools and stop our printing presses and return to a primitive condition in which there was no astigma­ tism or short sight, but to practice the art of seeing perfectly....1

Modern right brain/left brain concepts pro­ vide a particularly valuable perspective on Bates' discoveries. We live in an extremely

left-brain oriented, industrialized, literate society. Essentially, Bates discovered that normal vision is primarily a right-brain function. If the visual system is used in primarily a left-brain, strained manner, sight cannot be normal.

The personality of the individual appears to dictate what type of blurred vision a person will acquire if he forms strained vision habits. The re-integration of correct vision habits into the relatively "flat," left-brain activities of reading, computer work, and watching TV is especially important.

The overall health of an individual can have a large impact on the student's ability to relearn natural vision habits and principles. The epidemic of blurred vision in this society can be viewed as a subset of the many increasingly serious health problems. These problems appear to stem largely from our left-brain, rational approach to living, inappropriately applied to right-brain, empirical aspects of life. Massive, indiscriminate use of drugs and surgeries is one glaring example, and this has been particularly destructive. The quality of American life has lowered significantly in the last several decades. Improving vision naturally is one way of improving the quality of one's life.

ONE FINAL " N A T U R A L " V I S I O N

IMPROVEMENT S T O R Y

After the first Introductory Lecture I gave in San Francisco in 1983, I met a woman who was cooking in the yoga school's kitchen. She told me she used to wear glasses. During the stressful 1960s she left the US for Peru, where she lived with the natives in a peaceful, rural village. She woke up with the sunrise, planted, harvested, and ate natural food, drank crys- tal-clear, fresh mountain water, relaxed and

Chapter Thirty-One: Summary

enjoyed nature, and went to sleep at sunset. Noticing the natives did not use glasses, she began using her glasses less and less. She began seeing more and more natu- rally—automatically and subconsciously.

At the end of her two-year visit, her vision had become clear. During her stay in Peru, she knew nothing about the Bates method or vision improvement concepts.

A person's vision is determined by that person's relationship with nature—regard- less of any type of knowledge held by the person. Just as a person can "fall" out of proper vision habits without knowing consciously what she is doing, she can also "fall" back into the proper vision habits without conscious knowledge. This is what happened to this woman, and to several other people I have talked with. In each case, excessive stress was removed from their lives.

It was Bates' recognition of similar socalled "spontaneous remissions" of blurred sight which prompted him to discard orthodox "impossible to improve" theories of blurred vision, and allowed him to discover the truth of errors of refraction. Bates proved that natural vision principles and habits determine how well a person sees.

See Plate 60: The Land of Sketch, Breathe,

and Blink.

One final reminder:

Sketch, Breathe, and Blink!

NOTES

1Mary 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.

Banker, Deborah E. Self-Help Vision Care.

Malibu, California: World Care, 1994. A holistic approach to improving vision naturally.

Bates, William H. Perfect Sight Without Glasses.

New York: Central Fixation Publishing Co., 1920. Ophthalmologist who created an educational program for improving eyesight naturally. Difficult to find. (See following.)

The Bates Method for Better Eyesight

Without Glasses. New York: Henry Holt &

. How to Improve Your Eyes. Los Angeles: Willing Publishing Company, 1938.

. How to Improve Your Sight. New York:

Bonanza Books, 1953.

R E L E A R N I N G T O S E E

DeVorss & Co., 1951. This chiropractor studied with Bates in 1925, and then added vision improvement education to his chiropractic work. The booklet is brief, and is very difficult to find.

Downer, John. Supersense: Perception in the

Animal World. New York: Henry Holt and

Company, 1988.

Dudderidge, Mary. "New Light Upon Our Eyes: An Investigation Which May Result in Normal Vision for All, Without Glasses," in Scientific American, January 12,1918.

Forrest, Elliot B. Stress and Vision. Santa Ana,

California: Optometric Extension Program

Foundation, 1988.

Frisby, John P. Seeing: Illusion, Brain and

Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press,

1979.

Gesell, Arnold, Francis L. Ilg, and Glenna E.

Bullis. Vision: Its Development in Infant and

Child. New York: Paul B. Hoeber, Inc., 1949. A classic.

Goodrich, Janet. Natural Vision Improvement.

Berkeley, California: Celestial Arts, 1985. Book contains proof of natural vision improvement, verified by an optometrist, an ophthalmologist and a researcher. A modem Bates book with lots of good information.

Gottlieb, Raymond L. "Neuropsychology of

Myopia," in Journal of Optometric Vision

Development, Vol. 13, No. 1, March 1982, pp. 3-27. An optometrist who teaches natural vision improvement.

Gregg, James R., and Gordon G. Heath. The Eye and Sight. Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1964.

Gregory, R. L. Eye and Brain: The Psychol- ogy of Seeing. New York: McGraw-Hill Co.,

1966.

. The Intelligent Eye. New York:

McGraw-Hill Co., 1970.

Grossinger, Richard. "Bates Method" in

Planet Medicine: Modalities. Berkeley, Cal- ifornia: North Atlantic Books, 1995. Natural vision student and publisher of North Atlantic Books.

Grow, Gerald. "Improving Eyesight: The Bates Method," in The Holistic Health Handbook. Edward Bauman, Armand Brint, Lorin Piper, and Pamela Amelia Wright, eds. Berkeley, California: And/Or Press, 1978.

Gruman, Harris. New Ways to Better Sight.

New York: Hermitage House, 1950.

Hackett, Clara A., and Lawrence Galton. Relax and See. London: Faber and Faber, Limited, 1957. Difficult to find.

Hahn, Joan Elma. Eyes and Seeing. New

York: Atheneum, 1981.

Hughes, Barbara. Twelve Weeks To Better

Vision. New York: Pinnacle Books, Inc.,

1981.

Huxley, Aldous. The Art of Seeing. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1942; republished by Berkeley, California: Creative Arts Book Co, 1982. Widely available and highly recommended. Huxley, author of Brave New World, published this book after taking lessons from Margaret Corbett and improving his vision. Huxley attempts to "correlate the methods of visual education with the findings of modern psychology and critical philosophy."

Kahn, Fritz. "The Eye," in Man in Structure and Function, Vol. II. New York: Alfred A. Knopt 1943. Exceptional description of the eye and vision for the lay person.

Kavner, Richard S. Your Child's Vision: A Par-

Will Improve Your Eyesight. Brookline,

Massachusetts: EastWest/Natural Health

Books, 1992.

Liberman, Jacob. Take Off Your Glasses and

See New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1995. An optometrist who improved his eyesight naturally and eliminated his need for compensating lenses.

Life, The Editors of, and text by Richard Carington. The Mammals. New York: Time Incorporated, 1963.

MacCracken, W. B. Normal Sight Without

Glasses. Berkeley, California: Published by the author, 1945. Difficult to find.

—. Use Your Own Eyes. Berkeley, California: Published by the author, 1937. A medical doctor who trained with Bates, and taught natural vision improvement in Berkeley. Excellent, but difficult to find.

MacFadyen, Ralph J. See Without Glasses: The

Books, 1940.

Peterson, Roger Tory, and the Editors of Life. The Birds. New York: Tune, Inc., 1963.

Price, C. S. The Improvement of Sight by Nat- ural Methods. London: Chapman & Hall Limited, 1934.

Rahn, Joan E. Eyes and Seeing. New York: R. R. Donnelley & Sons, Inc., 1981.

Raskin, Edith L. Watchers, Pursuers and Mas- queraders: Animals and Their Vision. New

York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964.

Raskin, Ellen. Nothing Ever Happens on My

Block. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1966. For children.

Rodale, J. I. The Natural Way to Better Eye- sight. New York: Pyramid Books, 1968.

Rosanes-Berrett, Marilyn B. Do You Really Need Glasses? Barry town, New York: Pulse/Station Hill Press, 1990.

R E L E A R N I N G T O S E E

Rotte, Joanna, and Koji Yamamoto. A Holis- tic Guide to Healing the Eyesight. Japan

Publications, 1986.

Samuels, Mike, and Samuels, Nancy. Seeing With the Mind's Eye. New York: Random House, 1975.

Schlossberg, Leon, and George D. Zuidema.

The Johns Hopkins Atlas of Human Func- tional Anatomy. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972.

Scholl, Lisette. Visionetics: The Holistic Way to Better Eyesight. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1978.

Seiderman, Arthur S., and Steven E. Marcus.

20/20 Is Not Enough. New York: Alfred A.

Knopf, 1989.

Sinclair, Sandra. How Animals See. New York: Facts on File Publications, 1985. Filled with extraordinary color pictures and excellent descriptions of many different types of eyes. Difficult to find. Currently out of print.

Sutton-Vane, S. The Story of the Eyes. New

York: The Viking Press, Inc., 1958. Difficult to find.

Tobe, John H. Cataract, Glaucoma and Other

Eye Disorders. St Catharines, Ontario: published by the author(?), 1973.

Wertenbaker, Lael, and the Editors of U.S. News Books. The Eye: Window to the World. Washington, D. C: U.S. News Books, 1981. Excellent.

Windolph, Michael. Do You Really Need Eye- glasses? New York: Cornerstone Library, 1976. Difficult to find.

Yarbus, Alfred L. Eye Movements and Vision.

New York: Plenum Press, 1967.

O T H E R R E C O M M E N D E D R E A D I N G

Bauman, Edward, Armand Brint, Lorin Piper, and Pamela Amelia Wright, eds. The Holistic Health Handbook. Berkeley, California: And/Or Press, 1978.

. The Holistic Lifebook Handbook.

Berkeley, California: And/Or Press, 1981.

Becker, Robert O. Cross Currents: The Perils of Electromagnetic Pollution, The Promise of Electromedicine. Los Angeles:

Jeremy P.Tarcher, Inc., 1990.

Bertherat,Therese, and Carol Bernstein. The

Body Has Its Reasons: Self-Awareness

Through Conscious Movement. Rochester,

Vermont: Healing Arts Press, 1989.

Biermann, June, and Barbara Toohey. The

Woman's Holistic Headache Relief Book.

Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher, Inc., 1979.

Brecher, Edward M., and Editors of Con- sumer Reports. Licit and Illicit Drugs.

Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1972.

Bricklin, Mark. The Practical Encyclopedia of Natural Healing. Emmaus, Pennsylvania: Rodale Press, 1976.

Carter-Scott, Cherie. Negaholics: How to

Overcome Negativity and Turn Your Life

Around. New York: Ballantine Books, 1989. Excellent.

. The New Species. New York: Coleman

Graphics, Inc., 1980.

Chopra, Deepak. Quantum Healing. New

York: Bantam, 1989.

Coulter, Harris L. Divided Legacy, A History of the Schism in Medical Thought, Vol. I: The Patterns Emerge: Hippocrates to

Paracelsus. Washington, DC: Weehawken Book Company, 1975-