By popular request, here's all I know about palming.

Get in a comfortable position. Cover your eyes softly with the palms of your hands, so that the fingers of your right hand cover the fingers of your left hand on your forehead, or vice versa. Your hands should be slightly cupped, not so much that it takes effort to hold them in a cupped position but just enough that you aren't touching your eyelids with your hands.

Most light should be excluded by doing this. If you open your covered eyes and see light coming in on the edges, it does NOT matter! It still blocks enough light to make it virtually a perfect darkness when you close your eyes, the same as if you were in a perfectly dark room.

As far as your bodily position, you might try sitting with your elbows propped on something and your back straight, or lying down on your back with your elbows in the air. It should be a restful position in any case. If sitting, don't lean your head forward so much that your hands are putting a lot of pressure on your cheekbones - this may actually be detrimental to the eyes by putting too much sustained pressure on nerves or veins, or even just by the discomfort of so much pressure against the cheekbones.

As with anything, start with a deep breath. Breathing might be deserving of its own topic, but keep breathing slowly and deeply instead of the relatively shallow breathing you might be accustomed to.

One thing that a lot of people seem to want to do is actually look at the dark field that they see with their eyes closed, like looking at the darkness on the back of their eyelids. The only reason that this field grabs your attention at all is because you apply the same unnecessary effort in seeing things with your eyes open. When you use your eyes correctly, this dark field will hardly even register with you when you close them.

So what do you pay attention to instead? See past threads on visualizing or remembering in the Bates Method section of the forum, or see the "remembering color" Method of the Week for something related. Basically when you visualize something, it isn't visualized in that black field mentioned above - it is somewhere completely different, so don't try to construct an image or draw it or anything. An image is simply recalled, not created. What I do is think of it as being at the back of my head, far away from my eyes. All of a sudden I can see things with my mind's eye that way.

Keep breathing slowly, deeply, and consistently. If you keep feeling that sudden urge to take a deep breath now and then, it's because you're suffocating yourself with shallow breathing.

Also don't think about your eyes at all. If they feel strained, forget about it. Don't try to fix it directly - it will get fixed when you relax sufficiently and finally leave your eyes alone. Over-attention to your eyes will keep the strain happening. Remember strain is a process that is continually happening, that you are continually creating from moment to moment, not a "thing" that you have to remove.

You don't necessarily have to remember images, but I find that images always eventually come up anyway. You can focus on sounds or touch any other sense memory. Don't think of abstract things such as ideas, conversations, what you're going to do tomorrow, etc. These are thoughts, and thoughts are not what will help this process. Clear memories of the senses are what is tied closely with relaxation, so when you are able to recall these things, in doing so you slip into a more relaxed state. I sometimes also just listen to what's around me.

Do it for 5 minutes several times a day, or in the morning and evening for 20-30 minutes or however long you feel is of benefit. If it takes you several minutes just to start to relax, 5 minutes at a time isn't going to cut it.

As to why palming works, there's a lot of disagreement. One aspect is leaving your eyes alone, as mentioned above. But there also seems to be something that happens as a result of being in a meditative state or when sleeping - for whatever reason, by whatever process, this is when your body is repaired, and if you're deep enough into it, the process of strain is also stopped during this time. Tight muscles loosen. Sleep isn't always of very good quality to be a very good meditation - people often keep thinking while sleeping and thereby don't leave the way open (again, by whatever mysterious process this is) for the healing process.

There's also a theory about the hands having energy, positive energy from one hand and negative from the other, resulting in a flow into one eye and out the other.

It also might be a psychological thing, the safety of the hands covering the eyes so that they are finally safe enough to relax without anyone noticing or taking advantage (whatever that may mean). This can't be accomplished by simply being in a dark room or wearing a cover over your eyes.

Another idea of mine is the fact the hands are touching the skin all *around* the eye diverts your attention away from the sensation of strain closer to the eye. When you move your attention away from something, it loses its fuel for being that, in a way.

Oh, and as a final note, palming is indeed a form of meditation, or a way of meditating. Back in Bates's day "meditation" was not a household word, but today it's almost silly to not call it "palming meditation".

Questions, comments to add?

David

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Webmaster of http://www.iblindness.org

"I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by false estimates they have made of the value of things." - Benjamin Franklin

Really concise and scholarly, and will be very very helpful for all. I also noticed that you write in a very easy to read kind of style; I just read through it so fast and easily and I could take in what you are saying without any trouble at all because of the way you wrote this post. By the way it says 'being in a dark room or a' but I think you didn't finish the sentence 

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"...As Dr. Bates advised, I always carry with me the memory of a small, round, perfectly black, inky, greasy, wet, sexy black period." - Krupnov

Thanks! I edited and finished that sentence.

David

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Webmaster of http://www.iblindness.org

"I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by false estimates they have made of the value of things." - Benjamin Franklin

So what is everyones favourite things to visualise whilst palming?
I used to try a black letter, shifting and swinging with it. But I struggled with that and felt like I was straining. Now I go through the alphabet from A to Z, visualising each letter for a moment before going on to the next (an idea mentioned in Bates book). The letters change with the ticking of the clock on my wall, going through the alphabet several times. Then I might visualise some beautiful scenery for a while and then go back to the letters again. It seems to work for me as I feel very relaxed and a fairly good black enters my visual field after not too long. Also I don't seem to get bored or agitated too much.
Does anyone listen to music whilst they palm? I sometimes do and sometimes don't, depending on how I feel. I find relaxation CD's by Deuter to be good. If you put the volume low the music is very soothing and not distracting at all. It helps keep boredom at bay too.

Jamie

I have a problem with music while palming or meditating. It's like it throws me off, particularly anything with a beat or steady rhythm or whatever. Lately I've listened to music less and less, especially in the past year or so. And just recently I heard someone say something about music that kind of confirmed that feeling kind of taken away from myself when listening to most music. It's more so with vocals, because it instigates thought, but even some instrumental music, some more than others. So if you do listen to meditation music, I think I recommend something without a beat if you like it well enough. That way at least you're free enough to slow yourself down, your brainwaves and heartbeat maybe, if need be, instead of feeling the need to keep up with the speed of the music.

I just visualize whatever happens to come up and become clear. But it's always changing during that time - it doesn't stay one unchanging thing.

David

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Webmaster of http://www.iblindness.org

"I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by false estimates they have made of the value of things." - Benjamin Franklin

I just kind of think and daydream normally; I kind of naturally visualize a lot when I think, even unimportant backgrounds. I can't concentrate about the alphabet.

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does palming help because we look at black, which has no color and does not take effort to see?

Actually yes, that's such a major point that I forgot about it. In a basic sense, the main point of palming is to exclude light, so that you have nothing to see and nothing to strain about. People who strain their eyes still have a tendency to turn their attention to the darkish field in front of their eyes as mentioned earlier with their eyes closed, because they're trying to find something to strain at. So by reflex they imagine that they see morphing blobs of color and stuff in that dark field.

David

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Webmaster of http://www.iblindness.org

"I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by false estimates they have made of the value of things." - Benjamin Franklin

That's exactly what I did during palming and probably why it didn't help me much . I have also noticed that there are always thoughts racing through my mind. I will try to learn how to meditate properly, I have also booked a Tai Chi class which will hopefully help me to learn how to relax more. Thanks, David, for the post about palming, it has clarified some things for me.

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My Vision Improvement Blog

Hi David,

Palming is mentioned a few times from Dr Bates' Stories from the Clinic'. The patients are often advised to palm six times a day, and it seem to help them a lot. This seems like a good place to kick off the practice of relaxation. Does dutifully practising palming cures the defective eyesights?

Regards,
Petal

I have the opportunity to palm for 24 hours straight every Wednesday. Is there anything that can be done to improve/optimize palming, such as what TQ says in his book, rubbing the hands an inch apart (ie not touching). Are there any sort of positions or foods, etc. that would help, or is it mainly just a mental thing? Would palming while sitting on a zafu (image here: http://www.stretchnow.com.au/products/images/zafu7.jpg) help, with a proper arm rest?

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May you be well.

Hey David

I have begun to read Bates's book and I know more about palming now. I have noticed that if my mind relaxes properly, so do the muscles in my right eye (never in my left eye though). Sometimes I see blobs of color, but they go away quickly. My problem is that I always see lots of gray dots flashing, something like the TV when you're not watching any channel. Is that also my imagination? Because I see these flashing gray dots even with my eyes opened, when I face a white wall or a completely blue sky. I would like to know if anyone has/had something similar and if there is any explanation for this. Thanks.

I've had the same exact thing that i noticed once i took my glasses off and kept them off. I see that "snow" as they call it in my visual field when I look in the sky or any dark surface. I have no idea what it is but it is constantly in my visual field. I try to convince myself that it's my imagination but so far no luck with it.

I would say, and I think others will agree with me, that "snow" is certainly not imagination as Bates describes it. You can see snow while straining, so that automatically rules it out as Bates' "imagination".

I have heard something about "floaters" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater. I certainly got some floaters (I see lingering stuff on my visual field when facing mono-chrome backgrounds) but I don't know if the flashing gray dots are considered floaters too. I also see some sort of organisms running across my visual field in a constant movement.

I got all of this a year ago when I also got conjunctivitis, but at that time I could see perfectly. I don't quite remember the flashing gray dots though, but it's possible that I also got them at that time.