I'm not Sean, but I will interject that those experiences you described are what I have come across myself since I started in August of last year. My prescription is the same for the first time like ever (think stabilized), I get a ton of clear flashes, and I believe that eventually if I put more time per day into it, my prescription will decrease. I've already seen temporary decreases, but now for permenant decreases! I have seen enough evidence to stick with it at least for another 5 years for testing purposes. But we will definitely see what happens in due time! In fact, considering the enthusiasm you currently have, I wouldn't be surprised if you beat me to having a decreased actual prescription!

_________________
FIAT LUX! Translation = "Let there be light!"

Hi Fiat,

I don't mind you interjecting at all. I'm interested in hearing the experiences of anyone who'd like to reply. Congrats to you on getting your vision to stabilize !

What Rx in diopters are you starting from? Pardon me for having to ask the question in terms of diopters, it's easier for me to relate to that measurement since I know the diopter Rx in my own glasses. Saying 20/200, 20/400, etc doesn't give me a mental image to compare myself to.

My excitement is likely due to a couple of factors: First, I make my living as a photographer, not only would I like to be able to preserve and/or increase my visual acuity but, I also don't want to end up in coke-bottle lenses. Second, I have a problem with "authority".... *snicker* when someone tells me I can't do something (in this case, its my eye doc poo-poo'ing natural vision improvement), I tend to give it my best effort in an attempt to prove the person wrong. Guess that makes me a "problem child" from most peoples' perspectives. lol

I was so busy at work today that I didn't get even one chance to take a few moments to palm my eyes. I think what I'll do tonight is see what's on tv and palm my eyes during the commercials. I have also done (and will do) shifting exercises between things like: my index finger about six inches in front of my nose and a picture on the wall (even though it's blurry). As someone mentioned in another thread, I do 20 - 30 switches with both eyes, then again with one eye covered, then with the other eye covered, and finish with another 20 - 30 switches with both eyes. Then palm again for several minutes.

If I had the patience, I'd palm for 20 hours this weekend and see if I could call myself one of Bates' "miracle success stories".

I'm starting at -4 to -4.25 in my right eye, and -4.25 to -4.50 in my left eye.

I've been doing when I can an hour and a half of palming each night in bed and it has really helped when I can do that, and then a little palming here and there throughout the next day.

One area of improvement that is definite is how far away I can see my clock at night. My clock is roughly two feet above my head at night. Before I started I was actually sorta scared to notice that I had to lift my head up, not just to get in the line of sight, but to actually read the clock! It was probably only about a foot away from my face. Kinda scared me… I then started the vision improvement and now can read it (mind you not clearly at all) at a little over two feet before palming, and probably 3 or four after the palming sessions.

_________________
FIAT LUX! Translation = "Let there be light!"

Fiat, great! Any measurable improvement like this is proof your vision is improving, more meaningful to many skeptics than the fuzzy "my eyes feel more relaxed". Nice going!

_________________
Nancy
2012: 20/45 on average, no glasses except for night driving
2001: 2/200, -10 hard contacts with -1.75 cylinder
Vision & dreams blog: http://dreamersight.wordpress.com/
Vision & dreams website: http://dreamersight.com/

Holy crap....! An hour and a half of palming....?!? And I thought I was doing well to get in 3 - 4 x 15 minute sessions. Here's a question: how do you keep your hands from going numb for that length of time??? After 15 minutes of palming while laying on the couch or in bed, my hands start to get numb.

Just got a call from the eye doc office that my glasses are in. I'll be picking them up after work tonight. And I have one more question for you folks....

The new glasses don't have a prism in the left lens. My eye turn has decreased from what it was several years ago but, I did notice when I tried to wear contact lenses a couple times that the eye turn did make the ground appear as though it was falling away slightly on the left side of my vision. What's odd is, I don't notice the same sensation when I'd go without the contacts and just accepted the blur.

It's as though the slight eye turn is brought on by the tension produced from having the refraction corrected. Is there any truth to that? I'm guessing I'll notice the same thing when I put on the new glasses that don't have the prism. I'm hoping that my continued efforts at palming and shifting will continue to decrease the eye turn. Am I correct in my logic? If not, please let me know.

Susan, I'm not an eye doctor, but your logic makes sense to me. Relaxation improves any eye pathology, strain worsens it. I've never had an eye turn problem myself, although my peripheral vision has opened up enormously since I started the Bates Method and especially since I stopped wearing glasses at all. Let us know what happens.

_________________
Nancy
2012: 20/45 on average, no glasses except for night driving
2001: 2/200, -10 hard contacts with -1.75 cylinder
Vision & dreams blog: http://dreamersight.wordpress.com/
Vision & dreams website: http://dreamersight.com/

Thanks Nancy. Keep your fingers crossed. I'm a little nervous about how the "no prism glasses" will work out.

Fear of not being able to see well enough without glasses, when you've been dependent on them for a long time, is a great EFT target -- I still need to tap on this sometimes. Glasses can become like a child's security blanket, believe me. I'm ready to grow up now! (tap, tap, tap)

_________________
Nancy
2012: 20/45 on average, no glasses except for night driving
2001: 2/200, -10 hard contacts with -1.75 cylinder
Vision & dreams blog: http://dreamersight.wordpress.com/
Vision & dreams website: http://dreamersight.com/

Well, an hour and a half is my goal. I've only done it once, and that was two days ago. It's usually been about 45 minutes each night instead. The reasoning being that I am usually too tired to go any longer. I'd gladly go 3 hours if I can stay up properly, but that hasn't happened.

To answer your question on how I can keep palming that long, I'll start by telling you that when I started, I couldn't hold my arms up more than five minutes before they felt like I had just lifted a bit of weights. I've found that I can palm until my fingers start going numb (anywhere from 15-30 minutes), then I just rest my eyes sans hands (the hands are lying by my side) for the next 30 seconds before palming again for as long as I can and repeating the cycle, with each cycle varying in the amount of time I can hold them on my eyes.

Notice that I take them off just as the fingers START going numb. I once slept in an odd way and woke up in the middle of the night to a foot that couldn't feel anything and felt like a weight at the end of my leg with no nerve sensory feedback, although I could wiggle my toes. I got up, walked around until the blood was flowing properly again so that I could feel my foot, and have remembered that incident since. I don't want that happening again, so I take the start of numbness a bit seriously.

3-4 15 minutes sessions are what I would prefer to do on top of this, but because of my current schedule, that is impractical, hence the relatively long palming sessions in bed at night.

And as an FYI, even without prisms, and I think no astigmatism correction, occasionally when I put on my glasses, the field of view is sorta warped for the first few minutes. Unless my eye is turning unbeknownst to me, or I have astigmatism somewhere that is showing itself, that is just a semi-normal part of glasses when not used to wearing them (and may or may not be related to learning how to see without glasses).

_________________
FIAT LUX! Translation = "Let there be light!"

Thanks for your response Fiat. Maybe I misunderstood your post where you wrote about palming for an hour and a half. I didn't realize that was a "goal", as opposed to what you were currently doing. My mistake. Your explanation clarified it for me. And you gave me some good ideas to try for myself... like keeping the eyes closed but putting the hands down by my side when I begin to feel numbness. I'll try that tonight and it will likely enable me to do a longer session.... so long as I don't fall asleep. That's another issue I've noticed... occasionally, I get so relaxed while palming that I start to nod off. I guess that could be both good and bad.

It also nice to know that you notice some warp in your lenses even without a prism or astigmatism corrections.

Thanks for your input.

Nancy, if I lived closer to you, I'd give you a hug...! Tapping on the statement, "...I'm ready to grow up now..." or some other positive variation is a great idea. Any other suggestions for tapping statements?

I just got home with the new glasses (without the prism). They're a little funky feeling but, I think I'll adjust to the "lack of a prism" much more quickly than I adjusted to the "addition of a prism" several years ago.

Not to mention, my previous broken framed glasses that had the prism have been sitting a bit crooked on my face for the past five weeks. I'm certain that fact hasn't helped any.

When I turn my head quickly, I feel a bit woozy. However, as I sit here looking at my computer monitor, I do NOT see a trapezoid where a rectangle should be. So, minus the prism isn't contributing to any weird shape shifting ! Yay !!!! That has to be due to the palming.

The lower Rx "mid-distance vision" glasses will arrive in about 10 days. I asked the optician how much the eye doc decided to knock off in diopters. She said the eye doc only reduced them by a half diopter in each lens. Okay, so it's not the 2 diopters I was hoping for. But, considering that the eye doc doesn't believe in Bates' and that she was willing to give me a reduced Rx at all... I view that as success.

Now I just have to go about improving my vision to the point where my computer glasses become my driving glasses.

Susan, I'll take that electronic hug! You may want to check out Carol Look's "Improve Your Eyesight With EFT" book (which I think she has on mp3 now too), tapping on "all this anger stored in my eyesight" or sadness, or fear, etc. For many years they only tapped on the negative feelings, to clear them, then the positive flowed in naturally. If you tap on positive statements prematurely, your body won't believe them and will resist, like doing an affirmation of "I have a million dollars in my bank account" when you are flat broke. Now they say do the negative first, stating the truth of what you feel, then move to the positive statements only when you start feeling lighter.

It sounds like you're doing fine without the prism in your glasses, which is great. Remember your ultimate goal is to see clearly without glasses, so don't get too wedded to any prescription or frame. The glasses 1/2 diopter weaker might be too strong by the time they arrive! Keep up the good work, and I love your enthusiasm. You probably know Ralph Waldo Emerson said nothing great was ever achieved without it.

_________________
Nancy
2012: 20/45 on average, no glasses except for night driving
2001: 2/200, -10 hard contacts with -1.75 cylinder
Vision & dreams blog: http://dreamersight.wordpress.com/
Vision & dreams website: http://dreamersight.com/

Nancy, I agree with you about tapping out the negative. I think some of my previous tapping statements have pertained to that... "....I release and let go of the fear of being seen..." This is one that I came up with from reading David's posts. And I certainly do have a "fear of being seen". I saw on your blog where you spoke of being introverted.... ME TOO. I think that's why that particular tapping statement produces so many yawns for me... it's a major issue.

I'm doing so well without the prism that tonight I began to wonder if they actually took it out... or did they leave it in and just not tell me....? Did I mention I have "trust" issues, as well??? lol Either way, I told myself that I just need to have a little faith that learning how to relax my eye muscles is what has had such a positive effect on the eye turn.... and trust that the eye doc really did remove the prism.

Agreed also that yes, my ultimate goal is to see without glasses. And agree that I won't get mentally/emotionally attached to the Rx or the frame. I must tell you Nancy, that your story of going from -10 to -5 is very inspiring ! Wouldn't it be funny if the weaker lenses were too strong by the time they arrived....? Boy, that would through my eye doc for a loop !

I think my enthusiasm stems from the fact that I've had several health issues over the last couple of years (which are finally beginning to be resolved). Finding something that I can "control", or at least "influence", is exciting.... especially when I've spent so much time feeling "out of control" with the health issues. Studying Bates' literature, reading David's blog (as well as other vision blogs), doing a lot of online research and reading the success stories of others.... has been a real blessing in my life.

Hi Susan,

I'm jumping in on this thread after a long hiatus from my online presence! Sorry if there are things in my reply that other people have covered, it's a very long and interesting thread!

My experience with Zenni is that the glasses are ok, but I've always gotten a better quality glass from the opticians. My compromise is to use the cheap frames from Zenni and get new lenses from the opticians. If you do order cheap glasses, get the pupillary distance (PD) from your optician, they have definitely made that measurement and will provide it if you ask. In my case it was different than what I measured at home, so I'm guessing they are more accurate.

One thing to beware with reduced prescription glasses, is that you have to keep forking out the money to reduce the prescription (sounds obvious). The danger of getting used to them and thinking, "oh, it's not worth the money to lower the prescription by 0.25 or 0.5, I'll wait till my eyes are better", is quite high. I think that is one possible reason Dr. Bates did not recommend this approach. I wear reduced prescription glasses myself, mainly for work. But I do often reflect on the obvious fact that despite his abilitiy to prescribe reduced prescription glasses, Dr. Bates never recommended this approach. The reason I mention this is because in your case in particular, it seems wearing glasses worsens your eye turning in. Just so you are aware, that condition used to be called Squint, and Dr. Bates wrote about it quite a lot in his 'Better Eyesight Magazines'. His articles are well worth reading. All the Bates method techniques will help to improve this condition, so as far as I can tell, the practice that you're doing now can possibly be of great benefit to you!

You asked a question about palming for long periods of time: "how do you keep your hands from going numb for that length of time?" I have gotten great benefit from palming for 1-3 hours. (I only palm for more than an hour at a time when I'm ill! Otherwise it's anywhere from 15 min to 1 hr. Keep in mind for yourself, different palming times are better for different people. If you get benefit from 15 minutes palming, don't feel like you're doing something wrong by not palming longer) The first thing you have to do is have a comfortable support for whatever posture you choose. The second thing is that, while you are palming, make very small micromovements with your arms, wrists, and fingers. For example, I often rotate my forarms just enough to flex the wrist joint a little back and forth. My eyes are still covered, but that little bit of movement does two things: it improves the circulation to keep my fingers and hands from falling asleep and aching, it also relaxes the muscles in my arms and shoulders because the micromovement draws my attention to my chronically tight shoulder and neck region. I find that this type of palming is beneficial for my eyes as well as my neck/shoulders.

I wish you all the best!
Sorrisi

_________________
see my vision diary blog: http://sorrisi.wordpress.com

Start: 5/200
After 8 months: 20/50
now, 5/10, 10/20, still improving and loving it