Improving Eyesight Eyesight, but not enough to read dirty whiteboard clearly.

[Luis210]

I've been following the method since my case of myopia begun almost 4 years ago. My eyesight on some days, I wouldn't want to describe it as clear, but rather "not blurry." It is usually good enough to watch TV, and read news headers, but the moment I go back to school my eyes are re-strained by having to read the messy whiteboard somehow, in this situation it's either strain my eyes, and read the board while I copy things down, or fail the class. I'm asking how I can cope with this, and keep practicing the method without sacrificing my education. I do not wear glasses at all, but I struggle to see things clearly, and often have to get closer to objects, and I struggle to read the signs on the freeway at night. Recently, I've been noticing that photos, and videos look much clearer than my vision itself, and I know that it's not a good sign because the normal acuity of 20/20 is much clearer than a camera's 20/40 acuity. (The camera can pick up what the whiteboard says, and I can't, and freeway signs look much sharper, even at night on camera) What can I do to make things better for myself without having to put on the glasses that will make things worse. I am really hoping that I don't have to wear them any time soon.

[Luis210]

How long does it take to get a reply on threads?

[Aethersky]

if you are having alot of difficulty seeing in class, i would suggest you get a weak minus -0.25D, -0.5D and use it only for the blackboard. But never use the minus for close work.

you want to take break, look at the distance often.

Well this is a bates method forum, so not the place for plus lenses. I'm college student and i just wear a +2.0D for all my close work. There is no stress on my eyes and i keep the work at the edge of blur.

[arocarty]

Well this is a bates method forum, so not the place for plus lenses. I'm college student and i just wear a +2.0D for all my close work. There is no stress on my eyes and i keep the work at the edge of blur.

Agreed that it's not the place for plus lenses promotion. So isn't it a little contradictory to then go ahead and make a plug for plus lenses and 'edge of blur'? Those theories are not supported or promoted here, yet people continue to disrespect what this site is about. There are sites out there that fully support and promote those theories, so people are quite free to go to those places, if they are not happy with what this site promotes, or doesn't promote.

Luis - I apologize you had to hear this - there are those who are intent on imposing (for some time now) their own views on this forum that are contradictory to what this site was is about.

Your question was how to cope with boards in class - as you have indicated this is just one of the places where you experience a lessening of vision. You don't want boards to become a total pessimism for you, as that can only exacerbate your strain, and anxiety about it all. You can keep practicing the method no matter what (even those who have to wear lenses can still practice something diligently every day), and you should have a regular routine that you can go to, for relief and relaxation. It's more about what you do outside the classroom than what's going on inside - as you're just carrying a lot of that with you into the room. I work in a university, and have set up some rooms with smartboards and other projectors. The resolution isn't always the greatest, nor is the contrast, or brightness. I've noticed even people with normal sight struggle with some setups. Do you sit as close as possible? Anxiety breeds tension, tension breeds rigidity of eye movement, staring. If you are going to get better at seeing in these less favorable conditions, you have to find ways to minimize tension and anxiety and staring in these situations, and have techniques that aim at doing just that. What do you regularly do that helps to that end? What have you found that brings you relief, what do you find as optimisms? Do you work on memory and imagination? Never sit still for any length of time, especially in classrooms. A still body can quickly become a tense body. A tense body can quickly translate to rigid eye movement. Look around the room frequently, changing focus distances, close, near, middle. Find something in the room that can be a go-to, something that seems easier to see. Shift and fixate on edges of things, blank or uniform areas don't do anything to stimulate visual centers and trigger better focus. Practice a subtle sway whenever sitting, or standing in place. I do it all the time, nobody notices. Even if they did, I don't care. Be aware of your breathing - practice a lot of deep breathing in class, nobody will notice, and your eyes will thank you. Same goes for blinking, you can practice that all the while in class. Soft and relaxed blinks. Be aware of tense facial muscles, tense legs and hands. The better you get at this self awareness in and out of the classroom, the more relaxed will be your mind and the better you will perceive and perform in all respects.

Regards,
Andrew

[clarknight]

Luis210;

That blur, strain in school trying to hurry and see the board is common. Almost like a eye test at doctors; under pressure to hurry, worrying about copying all the information down before the teacher erases it. Thinking about the vision; will it last while I rush through this.

If the teachers still write on a board, each teacher's handwriting is different; that's a unfamiliar object; can cause effort to see it=more strain, blur. Sitting closer is a good option.

Can you photograph the board with a camera? Then put into your computer later, take a snapshot of it and print it. Use zoom on the camera if your sitting far away. A guy a know in xxxxx college video tapes his classes with a spy camera. Went from 20/70 to not needing glasses.

Don't mean to sound like a groupie, but;
Been using the Bates Method for years, often think I know pretty much all of it. Every time I read a Arocarty post I learn more! Read one yesterday about relaxation. This type of member, along with many others on here that will tell you the true method of Dr. Bates is the reason I come back to read and post. Its evident they have read and probably re-read, totally understand Dr. Bates work, his book and magazines.

They have many years of posts on iblindness. Check them out!

Avoid those plus lens guys. It causes presbyopia, myopia and leads to cataract, other problems.
Dr. Bates emphasized to avoid all eyeglasses.

[Aethersky]

having to record the lecture and suffer poor grades from not seeing well is not a good option. using a -0.5D or -0.25D is fine. you can get it for like $10 on zenni optical.

You should use the WEAK minus ONLY when absolutely necessary. you should never use the minus to look at times up close.

[Luis210]

Well this is a bates method forum, so not the place for plus lenses. I'm college student and i just wear a +2.0D for all my close work. There is no stress on my eyes and i keep the work at the edge of blur.

Agreed that it's not the place for plus lenses promotion. So isn't it a little contradictory to then go ahead and make a plug for plus lenses and 'edge of blur'? Those theories are not supported or promoted here, yet people continue to disrespect what this site is about. There are sites out there that fully support and promote those theories, so people are quite free to go to those places, if they are not happy with what this site promotes, or doesn't promote.

Luis - I apologize you had to hear this - there are those who are intent on imposing (for some time now) their own views on this forum that are contradictory to what this site was is about.

Your question was how to cope with boards in class - as you have indicated this is just one of the places where you experience a lessening of vision. You don't want boards to become a total pessimism for you, as that can only exacerbate your strain, and anxiety about it all. You can keep practicing the method no matter what (even those who have to wear lenses can still practice something diligently every day), and you should have a regular routine that you can go to, for relief and relaxation. It's more about what you do outside the classroom than what's going on inside - as you're just carrying a lot of that with you into the room. I work in a university, and have set up some rooms with smartboards and other projectors. The resolution isn't always the greatest, nor is the contrast, or brightness. I've noticed even people with normal sight struggle with some setups. Do you sit as close as possible? Anxiety breeds tension, tension breeds rigidity of eye movement, staring. If you are going to get better at seeing in these less favorable conditions, you have to find ways to minimize tension and anxiety and staring in these situations, and have techniques that aim at doing just that. What do you regularly do that helps to that end? What have you found that brings you relief, what do you find as optimisms? Do you work on memory and imagination? Never sit still for any length of time, especially in classrooms. A still body can quickly become a tense body. A tense body can quickly translate to rigid eye movement. Look around the room frequently, changing focus distances, close, near, middle. Find something in the room that can be a go-to, something that seems easier to see. Shift and fixate on edges of things, blank or uniform areas don't do anything to stimulate visual centers and trigger better focus. Practice a subtle sway whenever sitting, or standing in place. I do it all the time, nobody notices. Even if they did, I don't care. Be aware of your breathing - practice a lot of deep breathing in class, nobody will notice, and your eyes will thank you. Same goes for blinking, you can practice that all the while in class. Soft and relaxed blinks. Be aware of tense facial muscles, tense legs and hands. The better you get at this self awareness in and out of the classroom, the more relaxed will be your mind and the better you will perceive and perform in all respects.

Regards,
Andrew

I struggle mostly with semi-smart boards, or whatever they are called, I do not know the name, but it is a regular whiteboard that can be used as both a white board and a smartboard with a projector it is usually bad markers, small writting, or a bad projector, but I don't struggle as much with the newer smartboards. Thank you for trying to help, today I tried the "effortless" way of seeing, and it has really helped defeat the whiteboard, but I still struggle to read it at times. I cannot control where I am sitting in the room because most seats are assigned by the teacher, I am a high school student. I've noticed myself straining mostly while sitting on away from the board on the sides/corners of the room. I don't notice as much strain sitting in the back but facing directly at the board. I struggle the most when writing things down, because looking down at the paper causes the board to look blurry when I look back at it. It's not just whiteboards, freeway signs can sometimes really become a struggle as well, especially at night, and some traffic signs, and small street posts. As I said before, I really want to avoid using glasses. I don't use them at all.

clarknight is right, I often feel eye strain caused by the hurry of trying to see the board and learn. Sometimes it lasts while I get things done, but sometimes it has caused me to FAIL quizzes, and I normally don't pass timed quizzes that are projected on the board. Some strain returns when asked to read something on the board as well, or when my grades are threatened by the teacher to "pay attention" to the lesson. I'm often asked to look at the board to even get today's date by other students as well, and I'm always urged by teachers and other students to get my eyes checked out for glasses, one time I was even threatened to be sent to the nurse for a vision screening.

[arocarty]

Your question was how to cope with boards in class - as you have indicated this is just one of the places where you experience a lessening of vision. You don't want boards to become a total pessimism for you, as that can only exacerbate your strain, and anxiety about it all. You can keep practicing the method no matter what (even those who have to wear lenses can still practice something diligently every day), and you should have a regular routine that you can go to, for relief and relaxation. It's more about what you do outside the classroom than what's going on inside - as you're just carrying a lot of that with you into the room. I work in a university, and have set up some rooms with smartboards and other projectors. The resolution isn't always the greatest, nor is the contrast, or brightness. I've noticed even people with normal sight struggle with some setups. Do you sit as close as possible? Anxiety breeds tension, tension breeds rigidity of eye movement, staring. If you are going to get better at seeing in these less favorable conditions, you have to find ways to minimize tension and anxiety and staring in these situations, and have techniques that aim at doing just that. What do you regularly do that helps to that end? What have you found that brings you relief, what do you find as optimisms? Do you work on memory and imagination? Never sit still for any length of time, especially in classrooms. A still body can quickly become a tense body. A tense body can quickly translate to rigid eye movement. Look around the room frequently, changing focus distances, close, near, middle. Find something in the room that can be a go-to, something that seems easier to see. Shift and fixate on edges of things, blank or uniform areas don't do anything to stimulate visual centers and trigger better focus. Practice a subtle sway whenever sitting, or standing in place. I do it all the time, nobody notices. Even if they did, I don't care. Be aware of your breathing - practice a lot of deep breathing in class, nobody will notice, and your eyes will thank you. Same goes for blinking, you can practice that all the while in class. Soft and relaxed blinks. Be aware of tense facial muscles, tense legs and hands. The better you get at this self awareness in and out of the classroom, the more relaxed will be your mind and the better you will perceive and perform in all respects.

Regards,
Andrew

I struggle mostly with semi-smart boards, or whatever they are called, I do not know the name, but it is a regular whiteboard that can be used as both a white board and a smartboard with a projector it is usually bad markers, small writting, or a bad projector, but I don't struggle as much with the newer smartboards. Thank you for trying to help, today I tried the "effortless" way of seeing, and it has really helped defeat the whiteboard, but I still struggle to read it at times. I cannot control where I am sitting in the room because most seats are assigned by the teacher, I am a high school student. I've noticed myself straining mostly while sitting on away from the board on the sides/corners of the room. I don't notice as much strain sitting in the back but facing directly at the board. I struggle the most when writing things down, because looking down at the paper causes the board to look blurry when I look back at it. It's not just whiteboards, freeway signs can sometimes really become a struggle as well, especially at night, and some traffic signs, and small street posts. As I said before, I really want to avoid using glasses. I don't use them at all.

clarknight is right, I often feel eye strain caused by the hurry of trying to see the board and learn. Sometimes it lasts while I get things done, but sometimes it has caused me to FAIL quizzes, and I normally don't pass timed quizzes that are projected on the board. Some strain returns when asked to read something on the board as well, or when my grades are threatened by the teacher to "pay attention" to the lesson. I'm often asked to look at the board to even get today's date by other students as well, and I'm always urged by teachers and other students to get my eyes checked out for glasses, one time I was even threatened to be sent to the nurse for a vision screening.

Hi Luis,

while I applaud your defiance, the stress, strain, and anxiety you are putting yourself through can be counterproductive to vision improvement. Vision improvement isn't about undermining your education, your career, or life. How happy would you be if you restored perfect vision but lost all that? Sometimes you have to make compromises, and be patient, and make a long term strategy. In the short term you have to stop the bleeding. This has festered for 4+ years, you have some deeper ingrained bad habits and strain that is going to take time to learn how to eliminate. It's obviously not all going to go away instantly. I tend to agree with others that you should go get your vision checked, and get a written prescription from the eye examiner. Also tell them that you want a prescription for computer use - which should be reduced. I would suggest using in the least capacity possible, only to peek at the boards for a few seconds, or what it takes to get the info., then remove, look over them, whatever. If you are in this for the long haul, and not for just a quick fix, you can incorporate good habits and techniques the rest of the time, chiseling away at strain and building greater awareness of what triggers your anxiety and tension. You are young, and you have the rest of your life to right this. The little that you have to peek through them isn't going to be so bad for you, as long as the rest of the time you are practicing good habits and learning to rest you mind and eyes. I wore corrective lenses for 25+ years, and wish I had known what you already know when I was your age. You are lucky that the information is easily accessible now, and are are many now practicing these techniques and who can support your endeavor. If anyone asks you, can you just tell them that natural vision improvement is a hobby of yours, like homeopathic medicine in other areas, and you are concerned about your vision getting worse. As long as people (especially teachers) know that you are being responsible, have had your eyes checked by a professional, and you are earnestly doing something about it, they will probably not bother you so much about it. In fact, you may find those who are curious asking YOU for advice.

Best,
Andrew

[Aureus]

Luis,

I think you've been given excellent advices by arocarty. I also think you shouldn't walk all the time over the thorns while on the path of vision improvement. Use the glasses (undercorrected preferably) here and there for a short period when you need them most, and practice good visual habits the rest of the time. At this moment you're too engaged with your vision and you might put too much stress on yourself simply by wishing to restore your normal vision too quickly. Make it a long-term hobby as arocarty said and try not to worry about the blur now.

Also don't forget to breath and blink. When we don't see something well we tend to stop our breathing and freeze our look . That's exactly what we shouldn't do. Breathing mustn't be stopped, and the look shouldn't be frozen. Also probably you've heard that blinking is very important. I feel that it's not underlined enough what kind of blinking. Namely, hard and rigid blinking no matter how frequent isn't very helpfull as it brings some extra tension to our eyes without producing tears and rest to them as normal blinking is supposed to do. Hence rigid blinking doesn't differ much from squinting. Blinking should be light and gentle, almost unnoticable. From time to time, ask yourself "Am I blinking softly or not"? If you find yourself in that moment blinking in a rigid way then it's time to break your routine and try to relax (palming, body relaxation etc). There are even some exercises for correct blinking and I can write about them if necessary.

[Luis210]

Luis,

I think you've been given excellent advices by arocarty. I also think you shouldn't walk all the time over the thorns while on the path of vision improvement. Use the glasses (undercorrected preferably) here and there for a short period when you need them most, and practice good visual habits the rest of the time. At this moment you're too engaged with your vision and you might put too much stress on yourself simply by wishing to restore your normal vision too quickly. Make it a long-term hobby as arocarty said and try not to worry about the blur now.

Also don't forget to breath and blink. When we don't see something well we tend to stop our breathing and freeze our look . That's exactly what we shouldn't do. Breathing mustn't be stopped, and the look shouldn't be frozen. Also probably you've heard that blinking is very important. I feel that it's not underlined enough what kind of blinking. Namely, hard and rigid blinking no matter how frequent isn't very helpfull as it brings some extra tension to our eyes without producing tears and rest to them as normal blinking is supposed to do. Hence rigid blinking doesn't differ much from squinting. Blinking should be light and gentle, almost unnoticable. From time to time, ask yourself "Am I blinking softly or not"? If you find yourself in that moment blinking in a rigid way then it's time to break your routine and try to relax (palming, body relaxation etc). There are even some exercises for correct blinking and I can write about them if necessary.

This is another thing I forgot to add, I try to blink normally, and I blink normally sometimes, but at times I find it really hard to blink normally because the blinking hard is just hardwired into me, and I can't override it.

[Nancy]

Luis,

I think you've been given excellent advices by arocarty. I also think you shouldn't walk all the time over the thorns while on the path of vision improvement. Use the glasses (undercorrected preferably) here and there for a short period when you need them most, and practice good visual habits the rest of the time. At this moment you're too engaged with your vision and you might put too much stress on yourself simply by wishing to restore your normal vision too quickly. Make it a long-term hobby as arocarty said and try not to worry about the blur now.

Also don't forget to breath and blink. When we don't see something well we tend to stop our breathing and freeze our look . That's exactly what we shouldn't do. Breathing mustn't be stopped, and the look shouldn't be frozen. Also probably you've heard that blinking is very important. I feel that it's not underlined enough what kind of blinking. Namely, hard and rigid blinking no matter how frequent isn't very helpfull as it brings some extra tension to our eyes without producing tears and rest to them as normal blinking is supposed to do. Hence rigid blinking doesn't differ much from squinting. Blinking should be light and gentle, almost unnoticable. From time to time, ask yourself "Am I blinking softly or not"? If you find yourself in that moment blinking in a rigid way then it's time to break your routine and try to relax (palming, body relaxation etc). There are even some exercises for correct blinking and I can write about them if necessary.

This is another thing I forgot to add, I try to blink normally, and I blink normally sometimes, but at times I find it really hard to blink normally because the blinking hard is just hardwired into me, and I can't override it.

Luis, you don't change a pattern by saying "I can't change it" and continuing to do the same thing. You start doing it differently. You notice when you keep doing it differently, praising yourself. You notice when you fall back to the old way, stop, and start doing the new pattern. Over and over again. You are building new neural pathways, letting that old superhighway fall into disuse and grow over with weeds, while you keep walking on the new dirt path making it wider and smoother. This goes for any habit, not just blinking, and not just for vision. You can do this.

[clarknight]

Hi Luis,

Have you read Dr. Bates Magazines? There are many ways to improve the vision listed in these monthly issues. They are free online. Click through my signature. Also on Google; https://books.google.com/books?id=zm5uBg...&q&f=false

Click the box on top ^ right > on Google and it downloads free inPDF.

Here's a interesting article on imagining black, which can bring clear eyesight;

NEW EYES FOR OLD

By GRACE ELLERY CHANNING

EDITOR'S NOTE.—We are constantly hearing of patients who have been able to improve their sight by the aid of information contained in this magazine, or in other publications on the same subject, without personal assistance. The following is a very remarkable example of these cases, as the improvement was made while the patient was handicapped by having to wear her glasses a great part of the time.

There was once a gentleman who attempted to sell new lamps for old ones. And another who tried to exchange, on Waterloo Bridge, perfectly good new shillings for sixpence. In both cases the wares were as advertised, but both fell under suspicion.
It is perhaps, then, not to be wondered at that an offer of new eyes for old should meet with a similar fate at the hands of a public early trained to suspect the worst—in a world where few things are as represented and nothing is to be had for nothing.
In no other way, at least, can I account for the fact that so much of the world is still in glasses, after a brief experience of my own. This is the story:
Something over a year ago, in one of those periodic fits of dejection common to those who abuse their eyes and then wonder at their failure. I chanced to take up a copy of the New York Tribune, open exactly at an article on Eyes, in the column devoted to scientifico-medical truth.
I may as well confess at once that I read this column chiefly to scoff: it is a privilege reserved to those born in doctor's families. Moreover the condition of my own eyes at the moment, after years of oculists and opticians, was one to make me particularly from Missouri in my mental attitude towards anything calling itself a new "cure." Still—I ran through the article.
It was brief, a mere review of another which had appeared in the Scientific American, and I grasped but a fragment of the principle—that defects of vision were not necessarily integral, but might result from defectively controlled muscles distorting the eyeball-pulling it out of shape. Hence nearsight, farsight, astigmatism, etc., might be curable through muscle-control. The treatment consisted in relaxation and re-education, intelligently applied.
As I grasped it, not being hampered by scientific pre-possesions, the thing appeared so simple that I exclaimed to myself: "How sensible!”—hastily qualifying it with, "How much too good to be true!" For here was something rational—something you could do for yourself without either being cut up or poisoned. The article mentioned that patients went home and taught their families—it was so simple. There was nothing to prevent one's at least trying it on oneself.
The only detail of treatment set forth—or which I grasped—was that the eyes could be relaxed most conveniently by looking at black, and that by covering the eyes with the palms of the hands ("palming") black could be retained as a mental vision, or memory, during which the eye was at rest. By practice, one could learn to "remember black" with the eyes opened, at will, and when it was not there. Thus muscular control could be re-established.
It was at least worth trying, and I tried. (Here it is interesting to remark that the moment you look at a black thing, you realize it isn't. A really black object is hard to find, but not necessary to success; the approximate will serve. Later I discovered that a black period—of printer's ink—was sufficient, but I am giving by preference the tale of my first blundering efforts.)
My first discovery was one which anyone may make for himself; it contains the crux of the whole. This is, that after looking at black, "palming," and seeing black with the eyes shut (at first one may see grey or red), and then opening the eyes, there is an appreciable instant of clear vision, in which letters or images previously blurred and hazy come out sharp and definite. For that brief instant I could read clearly; then immediately the old habit of muscular strain set in again and vision lapsed. But that instant was enough. For, if for any fraction of time at all vision could be reconquered, clearly the organ of vision was intact; the trouble was extraneous, functional, might be removable. All that was needed was to make that instant permanent, and that, evidently, was a mere matter of reeducating the exterior muscles of the eye and fixing a habit.
So far as I was concerned that first experiment was final. I was as convinced then as I am convinced now that I, or anyone else in my case, can recover vision virtually whole, with time, patience and training. The demonstration was, for me, complete. Nobody had proved it to me, I had, proved it to myself. Relaxed, eyes could return to the normal and see without glasses.
How to take advantage of my discovery was another matter. My days are largely spent in typing; my nights (too largely) in reading, both in glasses, which of course are framed to perpetuate the errors they confirm, so that every pair of glasses has to be farther from the normal than the one before. With a war on, I could neither stop working nor reading newspapers. Yet the first requisite for the new cure I assumed to be the abandonment of the glasses. (I have since heard of cases cured even while in glasses.)
I postponed, then, all hope of my own cure to some date "after Peace." But I was too interested and fascinated to quite let the matter drop. Accordingly I began to play with the small fragment of theory I had assimilated (very inaccurately, I now realize), in the scant leisure of my daily outings. I practiced "seeing black" on the coat-backs of pedestrians, and "central fixation" (which means seeing what you look at where you look at it, and not its edges instead,) on the street signs and advertising bill-boards. My companions began to recognize my "seeing black" expression. As a skeptic, I am something of a trial to them and they enjoyed, perhaps, seeing the biter bit. But I was getting results-undoubing the long-doubled stars, making one moon grow where the proverbial two had grown before. Blurred letters of fantastic height I was reducing to neat, clear rows, half as high; I who had not read a headline, with just eyes, for years, was reading them all. Thence I passed to the higher literature; probably nobody has ever been so stirred by the genius of Mr. Shonts as I, when first I could untangle his lines. Next came the gems of verse in street-car advertisements. Now I read them all alike, indifferently, negligently, as being no great thing, down to the quite fine ones, if the vehicle is moderately light.
The first really startling intimation of gain, however, came to me one hurried morning when, taking my mail from the box, I read my letters one after another, on the way to the bus, and only realized later, as I was rolling downtown, that I had read them all without glasses—and without noticing it. It was fully ten years since I had been able to read a line of a letter without glasses, frequently to my extreme inconvenience.
This is as far as I have gone—except that I am still going. Month by month, I recover a little and a little more of my ability to see normally, and meanwhile, as a most important by-product of the gain, I lose the old fatigue and ache which, with its accompanying depression, made my hours without glasses periods of strain. Here I should explain that my eyes are always under a twofold strain—for I listen with them. Only the partly deaf will fully understand this, but it makes the importance of this new treatment, for them, incalculable. And the deaf are as the sands of the sea.
Now, if gains so real and so appreciable can be made in quarter-hour and casual applications of a partially-grasped theory, and while with both hands one is engaged in undoing for the remainder of the hours what one has done in the quarters, is it not fair to believe that a proper, steadfast, continuous application of the theory would work miracles for those multitudes of mankind who suffer every form of disability and handicap now covered by the term "eyestrain"? We are told that pretty much everything from flat feet to baldness can proceed from eyestrain, and for my part I believe it; I know what earstrain can do. We are also assured that children in our schools suffer, by tens of thousands, from defective vision, and are turned into truants, invalids and criminals. Almost the largest percentage of physical disqualifications in our Army were optical-and that under an incredibly low standard. Eyes, then, are not an academic but a vital issue. How is it possible that we fail to investigate to the last point any and every possible means of relief from an evil well-nigh universal?
This is the question I have naturally been asking, north, south, east and west, for a year past. It seems time now to ask it out loud—in print. Of course I have found excellent people to tell me that my discovery "isn't so," and other excellent people to tell me that "everybody has always known it" anyway, which does not explain to me why "everybody" is still wearing glasses. I was sufficiently interested myself to go and talk with a few of the cured enthusiasts; their attitude is about what mine would be in their case—that of those who were present at the Pool Bethesda and saw the miracle effected. I also had the curiosity to go and talk with the author of the revolutionary theory that eyes can be cured without glasses, himself—Dr. Wm. H. Bates.
I went to Dr. Bates through streets filled with people wearing glasses, and punctuated at intervals by the signs of oculists, opticians, and makers of optical devices for the near-blind. My own oculist's and optician's offices are usually thronged with a waiting list; it occurred to me that I might find cordons of troops keeping order about Dr. Bates'. I found neither the cordon nor the crowds. Why?
Here is a man who is either an absolute benefactor of humanity, or who makes an unfounded claim. He should be given, not for his own sake but for ours, the widest opportunity and the heartiest encouragement to prove or disprove his theory, past all possibility of question. It is indeed so extraordinary that he has not been forcibly summoned to do this before now, by an impatient public, that it can only be accounted for by that ancient disability of the human mind to accept new things if strange—new lamps for old, real shillings sold for sixpence, or truth that is as simple as a lie. Yet, actually, of course, truth is always simple-the only simple thing there is.
New eyes for old, ladies and gentlemen! Who wants them?


If you don't like imagining black; try shifting on a small black imaginary period. That is also described in the magazines.

You can also palm and remember, imagine happy things.

A couple ladies I trained tried pinhole glasses (which I am against) and it resulted in headaches, eye pain.

They tried Janet Goodrich's idea of making their own pinholes with only one pinhole per eye in a long piece of paper. Or use eyeglasses with the lenses popped put. Jut the frames and put the paper put in. This it is better than developing addiction to glasses. (rip the ends off the paper to avoid paper cuts on the eyes, face.)

The head must move with the eyes to prevent the paper covering the pupils. Also they need to be made adjustable because the eyes diverge when looking far and converge when looking close, thus changing the alignment of the holes. One lady made a few a pairs. The other made a slider in the center of her frames. Cannot be used for driving.

Regular pinhole glasses with the many pinholes cause the solid areas to constantly flicker over the eyes, on and off coving the eyes central field, center of the pupil. This is very unhealthy for the eyes and vision.

The one pinhole idea is better because it prevents this. I heard back from one lady; she kept her computer job and is now free of glasses. And she no longer needs the pinhole glasses.
The other is out of glasses, but still improving. When she has to see the board in collage or computer she uses the homemade one hole per eye pinholes. She's down to using them only a few times per month.

Using this tool is still not completely true vision and it will block full natural eyesight. So use sparingly.

Looking at many new modern flat screens, tv... is causing many people vision problems. The public has been complaining that they have to sit right in front of these new screens to see the tv, projector images... clear, not distorted.
Some manufacturers are trying to invent new screens that can be viewed from many angles without losing clarity. So it not totally your vision, its your environment.

Hang in there!

[Aureus]

Luis,

One more thing: pay attention to your posture. People whose vision is lower than normal tend to slouch forward in order to see things better (schoolboard or whatever). With time that tendency shapes their posture. It's not only the matter of aesthetics, the things go deeper than that: in adult age (and sometimes even during teenage period) they have back problems and stiff neck. Stiff neck among other things means more pressure to blood vessels and that further means less blood flow in your head. No enough blood flow in the head means - a plenty of problems for all the things in your head, including eyes.

Without enough blood flow in the head, every vision recovery is a long and hard adventure.

On the other hand, tissues and nerves are pretty connected in our body hence tension in one part tends to travel to other parts.
You understand well - tension in the body doesn't help our eyes really. So...

So to conclude - one has to pay attention to whole body and its well-being when trying to fix their vision. I know it's easier to say that than to do but it's the truth.
Hardly there's a shortcut here.

[Luis210]

Thank you guys all for the advice, sorry I couldn't reply sooner. I do recall memories from back in 2010 being able to feel my body, and paying attention to it. I also recall during my childhood picturing stuff a lot more, and paying attention to colors a lot more than sharpness. It was only during recent years as newer TVs and better video graphic technology came out when I started paying so much attention to clarity, and sharpness. Also, my problems were first diagnosed during a physical exam using a snellen chart, it was a big surprise that I was at 20/60 acuity on my left eye, and 20/20 on my right eye (I refused to go to the optometrist, but I went eventually, and was prescribed strong glasses that made me see clearer, but make me feel sick, and see objects much thinner, so I refuse to wear them, I never went to the optometrist again after this, and my parents are against behavioral optometrists and blame genetics), but in more recent physical exams I'm at 20/30 in my right eye, and 20/25 in my left eye. Last year I passed the eye exam at my physical exam, and I wasn't questioned or anything.

I'll write a timeline.
2011: Right Eye: 20/20 Left Eye: 20/60
2012: Prescribed Strong Minus Glasses, Never wore them.
2013: Right Eye 20/30 Left Eye: 20/25
2014: Passed, both Eyes.
2015: The world seems much brighter and sharper on TV, and on Camera, and it is much more difficult to read stuff than it was in previous years, it was like if the method was ineffective, and things got worse anyways. Someone that sits next to me in a classroom was taking pictures of the whiteboard, and i was surprised at how sharp everything looked on his iPhone camera. I used to be able to peek at other people's papers next to me, but now I can't read what they say. I'm yet to go to my physical exam this year, and I'm due for an appointment to the optometrist after 3 years of not going.

I trust the tests though, and even when people question me, I tell them things like "everybody's different", or "I'm here to learn, I'm not here to test how good my eyes are." I usually assume my vision is normal, and when I can't read something, I usually get closer, or ask somebody next to me what it says.

I will stay active on this community, and share my success stories as time passes. Also, I would like to share that nobody knows that I practice this method, if anyone was to find out, I would be ridiculed. I like to see vision improvement as something that just happens. It's sad to see that one of my friends who has been very stressed out lately has been informed that he needs, and has been prescribed glasses. Poor guy, he was already stressed, and was already straining enough. The only reason I'm so against glasses is the way they make me feel sick, and the way they flatten my depth perception hurts, also they make the world unnecessarily "clear" and "shiny", and I just can't take the glare they cause, it's like being in a video game with a lot of unnecessary graphical effects. It does not look like "normal" vision at all. Seeing everything equally clear at once hurts, wearing the glasses is enough to cause more strain than actually getting closer to the board, or letting my eyes go through the accommodation process (No, I'm not staring, I just take a break from looking at the board, and take a look at different objects around the board, and perceive the colors, and picture things in my head) which takes a few minutes, but goes away when looking down at my paper, or my desk.



I had normal vision for my whole childhood, and about 1 year in my teen years, and it doesn't look or feel anything like that, I honestly don't know how patients believe that what they see in the glasses is what every other person sees. Every single object, and every single detail in the world is not all supposed to be equally clear. Some things will be clearer than others, and I remember that, nothing was ever "clear" to me, it was all just a bunch of colors, shapes, lines, light, and darkness, I would love for it all to be just like that again, I want to be able to read everything, see everything, and perceive everything without a worry about my vision, and without feeling anything in my eyes.


The reason I believe that I strain my eyes so bad in both Math, and Chemistry, is because the whiteboard is very messy in both classes, and in my math class the lighting is very low, and it is difficult to picture math terms, chemistry terms, letters, dots, lines, and numbers in my head without straining the eyes, and sometimes they are written very small to the point where full 20/20 acuity is needed to read it, and not even someone with 20/25 visual acuity can pick it up.

[Aureus]

Luis,

As you nicely noticed once - rigid blinking is embedded in you. And of course, if you break that embeddiment you're on the way to solve the problem with blinking.

But I think it's not the only thing that is imbedded in you. Probably all these situations that used to be hard to you from time to time eventually took a toll - now they are always hard to you. Simply, once you find yourself in the math class some kind of memory starts to work: "Here we are again, this is going to be hard." That initiates a lot of things in you both physically and mentally. You tense your body, you tense your face, you lower your breathing, you decrease your blinking because - all you want is to survive somehow that damned class.

This is typical for us - poor human beings. Situations that were stressful to us certain number of times continue to be stressful later even when there's no much to be stressful in them. So many times that board was messy that even in the day when it's not that messy - to you it would appear rather messy. That kind of mechanism kills any progress in visual improvement and keeps you stuck at where you are.

Very often we folks here write too much about our vision in a very specific way and that is - we write about a bunch of exercises that should be regularly practiced. And those exercises are mainly physical ones. You do this, you do that: you do swinging, palming, swaying, sunning... No doubt they are good and necessary. But the most important visual organ is the brain. The brain is responsible for the greatest part for our vision. You see a bit poorly because you think of yourself as of a person with nearsightedness, a person who doesn't see well. That's the concept your mind already has and that affects your vision.

If you only found a way to function differently with your mind you would be able to see better. And you would look easily and naturally. Now your mind assumes that seeing takes an effort, especially in certain situations. You need to change that concept and to eliminate negative memories about your vision.