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Introduction & some questions - Printable Version
Eyesight Improvement Forum
Introduction & some questions - Printable Version

+- Eyesight Improvement Forum (https://www.iblindness.org/forum)
+-- Forum: General Discussion (https://www.iblindness.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+--- Forum: Bates Method (https://www.iblindness.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=5)
+--- Thread: Introduction & some questions (/showthread.php?tid=1314)



Introduction & some questions - Mordant - 10-17-2009

Hi all,

I've been lurking this forum for a while now, and I think I have a good enough handle on the culture to enter into the discussion without treading on any toes. I hope you will excuse the length of this post; I've been doing quite a lot of exploration and reading, and therefore have a lot of questions.

I go by Mordant most places online. My background is largely in the hard sciences and I'm a deeply skeptical person, but not a closed-minded one.

With regard to my eyesight: I have pretty severe myopia. Couldn't tell you my prescription offhand, but I have been unable to see the largest letter on the eye chart in decades. My eyes began to deteriorate when I was quite small, and by the time I was 7 or 8 they were almost as bad as they are now; however, the condition was not picked up on until I was 11. Indeed, it was vigorously asserted that there was nothing wrong with my eyes at all... despite the fact that I couldn't read the bathroom scales standing up. I just sort of assumed that everyone else could do something special and grown-up with their eyes, and I was just to stupid to work it out. (This makes rather skeptical of the idea that glasses damage sight, since I didn't get glasses, or even a diagnosis, until I'd been severely myopic for at least 4 years). And last week I took my glasses off and hope never to have to wear the dratted things again.

I'm tryng very hard to follow the instructions in Bates' material; however, some are all but impossible for me. For instance, how to use the Snellen eye-chart at the longer distances he recommends when one cannot see even the largest letter? For me, the Snellen chart is a decending pyramid of formless blobs until I'm quite close. A lot of what I've found on the web seems to be aimed at people who were a touch nearsighted but could still stand up to read the numbers on the bathroom scale.

I also struggle with the fact that my right eye is worse than my left, much worse. Without my glasses to bring it to heel, it tends to wander off and do its own thing. I tried adjusting for that by covering my stronger eye, but that just leads to pain and strain. How can I help poor old Righty keep up? One good eye is certainly better than two hopeless ones, but I'm not quite ready for the Marty Feldman look.

I have to admit that despite throwing myself into the excercises pretty wholeheartedly, I don't have what you could call a programme. You know, in the "run 5 miles every day, do 50 sit-ups & 60 squats" sense. I tried to get ahold of Huxley's "The Art of Seeing" to see what he did, but it's not easy to obtain. How much time should I spend on palming & the other excercises if I want to see results?


Re: Introduction & some questions - clarknight - 10-17-2009

I can help you with this.
<!-- e --><a href="mailto:mclearsight@aol.com">mclearsight@aol.com</a><!-- e -->
cleareyesight.info
Try switching combined with shifting, central fixation to get both eyes equal clear.
Then do Bates method as a easy habit...
Palming, sunning, long swing and other activities: do what works best for you.



Re: Introduction & some questions - JMartinC4 - 10-17-2009

We functional myopes have a learned tendency to look away - just before our vision would have cleared. Why would we learn to do that? I am in the stage of retraining myself to not look away - and the effect is remarkable. It has helped me to listen to the songs that pop into my head, such as "...Look away, look away, look away, dixieland ..." and, "Shoo fly, don't bother me..." I think it has something to do with unconscious mental linkages and processes that derive from not only my own visual and childhood development, but are hangovers from my familial, cultural, and geneological American history.
For me, Bates methods (especially palming, swinging, and shifting) have helped to unlock the mental blocks to clear vision development. But trying to relearn habits and processes that were incorrectly learned probably from the ages of 5 - 12, is awfully difficult.
clarknight Wrote:I can help you with this.
<!-- e --><a href="mailto:mclearsight@aol.com">mclearsight@aol.com</a><!-- e -->
cleareyesight.info
Try switching combined with shifting, central fixation to get both eyes equal clear.
Then do Bates method as a easy habit...
Palming, sunning, long swing and other activities: do what works best for you.



Re: Introduction & some questions - Nancy - 10-17-2009

You're not alone: I wore -10 hard contacts for decades, & now only wear glasses to drive, & then not always. Do the chart from as close as is comfortable: straining is not helping you. Notice everything you do that causes strain & see if you can release it. Have fun with it & let yourself go as slowly as feels comfortable -- this is not a race.


Re: Introduction & some questions - isee - 10-17-2009

I have the same problem as both of you. My prescrition was between -8 and -9. My eyes probably have gotten better after practicing Bates method.
I 've been practicing for about a month. Does anybody know how long it will take for eyes to improve to -1 or -2 with this method?


I have been wearing glasses for over half of me life. I'm in my mid 20s by the way. I was very excited when I heard about natural eye improvement. I read about Bates method with an open mind. I was actually more skeptical of the conventional eye doctors than of Bates method. Everything I read about Bates method seems to make more sense to me than the conventional explanations of myopia from the eye doctors. I had 5 eye doctors altogther, and they were insensitive about my condition. I would cry a lot every time I get the bad news that my eyes had gotten worse. They would either ignore me or act hostile, saying that it's "normal" for my eyes to be that way. I hated them.


Re: Introduction & some questions - sorrisiblue - 10-18-2009

Hi Mordant,

I started with -8 and can identify with the problems you are having.

Dr. Bates's later magazines found on central-fixation.com and cleareyesight.info are very helpful.

Among other things he recommends reading the chart from a distance where you can see some lines clearly. If this is 3 feet that's OK! He recommends practicing central fixation at the point where you can see best first (which is probably about 7 inches for you) and then looking further away. So practice where you can see best, then practice 1 inch further away. It seems like a small change, but by this method I have managed to go from only seeing the 200 line letter at 5 feet to now reading the whole card to the 10 line from 5 feet.

I find it helpful to practice central fixation for 30 minutes morning and night. Practice with each eye individually as well as together, this will help your right eye. Palm if at any point your eyes feel tired. During the day, use what you learned from the chart and practice on all objects that you see, all day. From his magazines you will find thousands of creative ways to vary this practice, but that is the basics. Don't get caught in the trap of a 'routine of exercizes'. It's about applying what you learn from the method to your entire day.

best of luck, I continue to write about my progress and answer questions on my blog (link below).
Sorrisi


Re: Introduction & some questions - Mordant - 10-20-2009

Nancy Wrote:Do the chart from as close as is comfortable: straining is not helping you. Notice everything you do that causes strain & see if you can release it.

Thanks, that's very helpful!


Re: Introduction & some questions - Mordant - 10-20-2009

isee Wrote:I was very excited when I heard about natural eye improvement.

So was I! Not having to deal with awkward spectacles--always getting broken, lost, grimy or scratched (to say nothing of not having to shell out £200 any time I need a new pair). Actually, the fact that the thought of fixing my sight naturally got me so amped made me MORE skeptical... nothing like wishful thinking to lead you astray.

isee Wrote:I had 5 eye doctors altogther, and they were insensitive about my condition. I would cry a lot every time I get the bad news that my eyes had gotten worse. They would either ignore me or act hostile, saying that it's "normal" for my eyes to be that way.

I'm sorry--that must have been very distressing. It's sometimes difficult for such professionals to remember that younger people don't have their knowledge and experience, and so may experience fear and distress regarding processes they have come to see as normal.

I wasn't sad or frightened when I got fitted with glasses; a bit disappointed, maybe, but mostly just relieved at finally being able to see again (and to know that I wasn't just stupid or imattentive).


Re: Introduction & some questions - Mordant - 10-20-2009

clarknight Wrote:I can help you with this.
<!-- e --><a href="mailto:mclearsight@aol.com">mclearsight@aol.com</a><!-- e -->
cleareyesight.info

Thanks for the link, I've found the site very useful.


Re: Introduction & some questions - Mordant - 11-09-2009

Still can't find a copy of my prescription, but today did a rough & ready test with a Snellen chart printed out from the computer, scaled to half size. Thus, the large 200 ft (61m) letter at the top of the page becomes a 100 ft letter. I start to be able to make this letter out at around 5 feet, equivalent, I suppose, to being able to make out a properly-sized 200 ft line at 10 feet. I then repeated the experiment with different versions of the chart, this time with just the first (200ft) line blown up to full size. The results were more or less the same: at 10 feet, the letter was fuzzily visible, but at any more than that it was a blurred shape.

Thus I must surmise that I am at roughly the 10/200 mark. Hmm. Just call me Mr. Magoo...

What a coup it would be, though, if someone like me--a long-term spectacle wearer of middle years, with only 10/200 vision--could advance using natural methods to 20/20, or even 20/40.


Re: Introduction & some questions - Nancy - 11-09-2009

This is good to know: more information is never a bad thing in my opinion. Now you have something to compare your future progress to. Sorrisi started at 3/200 & is now about 20/40 or 20/50 I think, in not much over a year, the fastest success I know of, & she's still doing the work to get to 20/20. I started at about the same place, wearing -10 lenses for decades, & am now about 20/60 or 20/70 depending on emotional state & lighting. So yes, it works, but the very best proof is to see your own progress. Keep it up -- soon you'll be an example to the Magoo-ish newbies of what's possible.