Lord's clear flash (or minute) prompts me to start a new thread about it.
When you have a clear flash, whether it lasts seconds or minutes, immediately take note of everything that may be a little different, particularly in terms of the thoughts you were having, your state of mind, or anything to do with what your attention was directed towards, including how you were thinking about what you were mentally focusing on. Being "relaxed" is a good observation, but it's pretty vague, so that part also should be more specific as far as how or why you think were relaxed. Until someone nails down this process better than I and others have, there is a certain amout of self-observation that you may have to be responsible for in order to see what's going on. It's okay to be confused, as long as you identify where you're confused. Glossing over your confusion and not giving it the attention it deserves in order to clarify things is what people with blurry vision do. If you aren't going to pick something that's right, then pick something that's wrong. But pick out something.
If you think you've noticed something, try to repeat it. If you don't get clear vision by repeating it, then it was just a coincidence, or not the whole story, or you aren't seeing it quite right. If you're pretty clear on the right idea, it will work with some consistency. If you have it exactly right, it will work every time.
Dave
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
I'm glad to see this post as this is what I have been trying to do myself over the last while. It was always going to come down to this.
It's like learning dance steps and the teacher tells you just to listen to the music - true in its way, but not a big help. (In the end I worked them out at home by myself on the kitchen floor, by trial and error.) I suppose it's not a surprise as even asking some people for simple directions can cause obvious discomfort.
I am making progress but I'm still at the stage of narrowing down the variables, although it's definitely along the lines you give here. I re-read the long searching for details thread again and it has certainly helped clarify in a big way what I am supposed to be doing and I am fairly happy with the way things are going. Whenever I remind myself to just search for detail in what I am looking at my eyes tingle. I don't want to give any more specific feedback at this stage as I wouldn't want to lead others astray and waste their time.
I think further precision can be brought to bear on this and the right words found to describe it. Feedback would be a big help, once people are pretty sure that what they are doing is working and repeatable at will. I like your own phrase about the mistake of trying to pack down procedures in earth, when the thing has got to be simple, rock-solid and repeatable.
You are looking for feedback here, or did I take this up wrong?
In a way, there are exceptions to everything being repeatable, because certain sensations or thoughts or anything like that may need to be released, and if successful only once, but you should get some kind of results virtually every time anyway.
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
Ok , I will give some feedback despite that I have not really these clear flashes under control yet.
But, if you give some feedback we might get this right together after all so we can learn how to see clearer.
What I have done is that I have looked at some pictures of people with really good vision, for instance some fighter pilots, and some native americans, well I noticed the safe calm look they had, as if their eyes were only being and not actually driving anything, just waiting for the mind to command them, thus totally relaxed, also their eyelids were kind of lowered and so their blinking probably is very relaxed.
Now, then I imagined that what was driving their eyes was the attention pattern (thus searching for details).
So what I do is that I have to do some relaxation first, palming or it can also work with the chines massage in between the eyes on the nose you know. When I relax I close the eyes and do this relaxation until I FEEL that the tension has gone away from the eyes, it is kind of a melting feeling. Then I open the eyes and almost everytime there is a clear flash.
I say to my self "never stop pay attention to the details". I know the clear flash will disappear, but I prolong it by trying to blink as relaxed as I can with some lowered eyelids. I also think to myself, "just let those eyes be, don't strain anything, just let the attention pattern on details drive". It is like the mind is the master and the eyes is the slaves that have realized that the best way the eyes can perform is just to float with the stream. Or you know when you cannot affect your situation it is better to float with the event stream without really having to care, that is what I meant to avoid stress, that is the same with the eyes. The mind on the other hand is master, that commands the attention pattern of the totally relaxed eyes.
I hope I managed to describe something. The problem with this is that it doesn't work very well when you actually have to take in a lot of information, like messed power point slides or reading a lot of text as fast as possible. I clearly see why these eyes is a bad design in our information technology society. These eyes are totally lacking energy to deal with these overstraining that is forced upon us. My main challange is to handle this.
I agree with hammer's last point there. The most difficult situation in which to relax in is of the variety in which we have to interpret some sort of information. I know it's straining to "try" and read the words, but for me, it's almost impossible to read without putting this strain on my own eyes and it bothers me. I think that the key to dealing with this problem is to change the state of mind, which is incredibly difficult, but possibly necessary. The concept is simple: don't try to read the words. Yet, it is not easy to resist the temptation to do so, especially when one is under the pressure of some sort of deadline. In a sense, it's a vicious cycle that only ends when one decides to sacrifice something to break the cycle. I suspect that this is where my greatest obstacle lies - I just can't part ways with anything, and so, no pain, no gain. :/
What you experience seems to be very close to what I do too.
Usually it takes some minutes for appreciable clearing but today when I looked at the chart it cleared practically immediately, and then blurred again for the rest of the session, although as always there was continual improved vision and relaxation. It seems that today just the intention of looking for detail, or even just of seeing per se, was enough.
Another success, I could not believe it! I could not believe it!.
I would like to share another moment of clear vision, I do not want to exaggerate, but, this clear flash was better even than normal vision:
It happened just 1 hour ago, I was walking some streets near my house and then happened the MOST unbelievable moment in this journey to cure my nearsightedness, Im writing this message and I can't believe it yet, I could read every little sign, every face, etc, etc. Everything was there as it should be, my attention was floating around scanning the scene, shifting very soft, I blinked, again, again, maybe 5 times then it goes away. I thought I was cured, I felt very dissapointed when this goes away but at the same time it was very encouraging.
I was walking with my mom quietly, I can remember before the clear flash that I was shifting consciously without expecting anything in return, and then this happened, when suddenly I looked back, during the clear flash I said aloud," mom, I can not believe I'm seeing it all perfectly clear, look, I can blink and I can still see perfect", of course until it goes away after some seconds or maybe 5 blinks.
I have been sick these days and I haven't practiced with the chart, but I've practiced with the objects around me spending a couple of minutes every day, and it seems to be working anyway!
Finally, I want to add a note with something interesting i've noticed in this clear flash of maybe 20/15 eyesight: The flash started with slight double images, but after I shifted my attention toward the horizon and then some faces(I don't remember exactly), the double images dissapeared and I saw extreme clarity, it was so clear that i could no believe I could blink (soft) and the flash could be there!
I noticed also a fear of being cure in that moment or to see clearly, simply I could not accept at that time to be cured, in that very moment my approach to the life was different, I can't express such strange thing. I dont want to tell you my current visual acuity, all I can say that it have improved a lot!.By the way, the day is cloudy.
Lord,
Congratulations! You are on your way to being "formerly nearsighted". I'm noticing more details myself lately, but the flashes aren't lasting more than a second. I haven't contributed to this topic yet because I have nothing I can put my finger on which contributes to a flash for me. Interesting that your doubt seems to have chased it away. Keep up the good work.
Nancy
Well, if you doubt about what the quality of the clear flash is, then I have some trick that maybe could be of use.
I got the idea from the night sky, people have always looked at the stars , especially before they fall asleep maybe.
Nowadays people almost never look at the stars, as they are indoors, TV, computers and so on ...
I think it could be of interest to repeat a clear flash in the dark (in other words put the clear flashes really under test in the worst conditions) and look at a some soft light (lamp),
because it reveals the actual quality of the clear flash,
as it becomes evident to what extent there are double images in the light from the lamp included in the clear flash,
in a 20/20 clear flash there should be no double images of course in the clear flash,
the double images you could say thus makes the clear flash somewhat dubious, and you need to insure that you do the clear flash in the right way.
If you can get a 20/20 clear flash then you have proved that the puzzle contains all the parts of the puzzle, and thus you know that you can put together the puzzle completely once again,
because no parts are missing, that is a drive force.
What I have done the last days is to apply the "looking at details" on the red/green LEDs (Light Emitting Diods) of my DVD recorder and TV in the evening when everything is quite dark.
I noticed that if I shift around near beside the LED (very short shifts) and not look directly at the LED, then I get some more lasting clearer vision.
Also the black darkness around the LED is really relaxing (because the blackness is just emty), the DVD recorder and TV is black also so that is good.
I think Dave described something similar about a painting and how you might see clearer by avoiding directly looking at a detail in the painting and instead look slightly beside of the detail and imagine it.
In this way I tried to prove that I could invoke a 20/20 clear flash.
I have not managed to prove that I can by will invoke a 20/20 clear flash, but I am quite sure that I almost succeeded to do it, I will continue to practice this for a while as I think it is quite fun also.
@Lord:
Congratulations!! Keep it up! Your flashes are very inspiring to read about!
@Nancy:
Nancy, one thing that is helping me these days is to cover my 'better' eye for a few seconds while I search for distant details with my 'worse' eye. When I can at least imagine a tiny detail with only my worse eye open then I uncover my better eye and this consistently results in a renewed clear flash. If it doesn't, then I cover my worse eye, search for details with my better eye and then look again with both together. This way I'm able to stretch out and continue a clear flash that disappears after only a second. Maybe it will work for you too?
When you have really relaxed eyes you can actually identify what actually causes your eyes tension.
The only thing you then need to do is to be aware of how your eyes feel and then it is just a matter of noticing what/when/how tension manifests in your eyes. I hope you got that.
So for me, I instead notice when tension occurs in my eyes and I try to identify why I got that tension.
I also notice that the more relaxed my eyes are the more easy it is for the mind to control the eyes consciously.
In fact I dare to say that I have no problem to move the eyes consciously in a relaxed way.
I think at least I need to dig deeper into relaxation of the eyes, and that will clear things up, the clear flashes becomes clear moments instead.
As Lord says, it is probably very important for the mind to treat the eyes softly and gently, feel the warmth from the eyes that relaxes. It is also quite evident that all kinds of nearsightedness mental factors (like fear, anxiety etc. that is caused by something in the external world) actually makes the mind to overreact (counteract) internally in the body (mind), such that it will be very difficult for a myopic mind to avoid tension, and thus the eyes didn't get the softness and gentleness they needed in order to function properly. This all is/was a mechanism to make weakness in nature to fail for good, such that the strong genes prevail, but myopia is not genetic, instead myopia (vision) acts as a bottleneck through which all else kinds of body/mental weakness will manifest, and the Bates method is a way to just tap this bottleneck through relaxation, so you in a very easy way just bypass the whole complex survival system of the human race, ??? he he. Yes,you easier smile in a relaxed way also !
seetheleaves Wrote:[O]ne thing that is helping me these days is to cover my 'better' eye for a few seconds while I search for distant details with my 'worse' eye. When I can at least imagine a tiny detail with only my worse eye open then I uncover my better eye and this consistently results in a renewed clear flash. If it doesn't, then I cover my worse eye, search for details with my better eye and then look again with both together. This way I'm able to stretch out and continue a clear flash that disappears after only a second. Maybe it will work for you too?
Yes! A version of this is also working well for me. My approach requires some face/head/body shifting and eye orbit stretching in order to relax and find the optimal line of sight, reorienting myself within the surrounding light source(s). Then I hold that position and try to find and unify my mind with the clear(er) foveal inputs (which often are coming from a slightly askew line relative to that line of sight), rejecting the unclear pseudofoveal inputs. Thanks, STL!
Lord and others,
I actually today tried to do exactly the same as Lord described, and I got so happy because I also managed to get a very clear flash that was lasting maybe around two minutes, actually I was lost in time due to this clear flash so I didn't really know how long it lasted, but a few minutes I think. I think I did almost exactly the same as Lord described it. The new thing to me that I tried was to scan the scene with long swings, and earlier I haven't got any results out of the long swing, but today thus something changed when I tried Lords tips and I got this clear flash out of these long swings. I think what actually has changed is that I do not suffer that much from my amblyopia, because I have entered a very relaxed state in my eyes where the mind is the conscious commander, and this enables me to gain better eyesight out of the long swing too.
I think now that the long swing actually can be a helpful important exercise as a complement in order to learn to read in a relaxed way, after having considered what Pikatchu said also about how to read (because you train the eyes not to lock). The long swing also prevents staring in sleep, so I actually shall start to exercise the long swing much more now. I think it can help, and also Ares exercises swing and palming, so I cannot be that far from heading in the right way. What is important is that you very much relax the eyes BEFORE any eye exercise !
He he,
Passionate work makes perfect result someone said, and yes that is true.
I will get 20/20 vision, that is true !. I say to myself as an affirmation.
When I get a clear flash I say to myself.
That is THE hallelulja moment, that is true !
I think what Lord mentioned about the sudden sense of fear as the momentary clear vision occurs is significant. I remember having that too sometimes early on. People can say that it makes no sense that blurry vision has anything to do with fear because they wear glasses, implying that if they feared it, they wouldn't be wearing glasses. But what's going on here is something about the process of seeing clearly in the correct way activates the point of fear. The "pure Bates" way is to simply relax and let it pass. But that just kinds of avoids the issue and doesn't actually address what is clearly a significant thing that is causing quite a problem. People have come up with various ways of dealing with subconscious points of fear, and some psychological methods, such as hypnosis, seem to reprogram the mind, and that can sometimes work to an extent, but even then you're just programmed in a different way instead of being put in control of yourself, and at worst you've made yourself even more screwed up than before with additional programming. So the way to address it is by removing the programming. One procedure people have come up with in dealing with points of fear (and all this stuff seems to always come down to fear), whether it's related to vision or emotions or anything else that involves you subjugating yourself to subconscious programming, has to do with practicing awareness of your thoughts and applying self-forgiveness in a way that seems to target and destroy the points of fear. I've tried it a short time, and I find that it's strikingly effective, and the more I do it, the more I find. It's scary how completely we have programmed ourselves in thousands of specific ways by fear.
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
@David, yes occasionally I am surprised by fear at even the thought of very clear vision. This doesn't always happen (or I would have made no progress at all!). One thing I've played with is to see the sudden sensation of adrenaline surging as excitement, not fear. I don't want to eliminate my fear in all cases, like if I'm really in danger, but I think in many cases my body meter indicating I'm not safe is too sensitive, responding to situations which actually might benefit me if I can have the courage to face them. Clear vision, still a new and rare thing for me, is one of those.
@seetheleaves, I never responded to your helpful suggestion about separate eye work, so thanks. So far this hasn't given me any additional length in my flashes, I think because they're usually so brief I am stunned when they show up, and they're gone before I can do anything. I'll keep at it.
Yes,you easier smile in a relaxed way also !
