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Shifting in a Triangle - David - 12-02-2011
Shifting in a Triangle
http//blog.iblindness.org/2011-12/shifting-triangle/
People with normal vision have moments when their vision fails. At that point if they are able to adjust how they look at things they will quickly get back on track.
People with blurry vision who pursue vision improvement often notice moments of clear vision lasting several seconds or longer, so this isn't a matter of building up your ability steadily but more so a process of becoming accustomed to looking at things in a different manner ALL THE TIME until it becomes second nature. You will not change the way you look at things all the time until you are convinced of it. So I'm working on getting things together to comprehensively and completely shred, piece by piece, every wrong idea about vision that people have, in a logical way that leaves it obvious what the only solution can be. I'm not totally clear on everything myself, but I'm working it out and have some pretty good ideas.
If you're nearsighted, look at your hand up close at a distance you can see it best, to illustrate something. Your gaze naturally moves around the details of your hand. There isn't any difference between the way you should look at something up close and far away except that in this case (if you're nearsighted) you can see your hand clearly up close and nothing clearly farther away and the blur disrupts your ability to use your vision as correctly because you do not have the assistance of clear details that are essential to the process. So in a sense it's true that if you don't wear your glasses your vision may very well get worse, and you may feel the negative effects of abusing your eyes after some time looking at blurry things. The thing that most eye doctors don't know, however, is that you have control over the situation. It is possible to address the situation by looking at blurry objects in a way that promotes clearer vision, and the clearer vision itself makes it easier to get even better vision, and you continue all the way to re-establishing perfect vision.
<h3>Some Eye Chart Work</h3>
<a href="http//blog.iblindness.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/snellen.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-243" style="margin 10px 15px; border 1px solid black;" title="snellen" src="http//blog.iblindness.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/snellen.jpg" alt="" width="239" height="500" /></a>Pick a letter on the eye chart shown here that is blurry, one that you can barely read or can't quite read. Let's say it's the P on line 4. For the moment you will be working with the P, the E next to it, and the O and C above it. Three letters.
Look at the P, then O, then E, and back to P. So you're moving around a triangle. Now only glance at each letter before moving to the next. Spend less than a second on each letter. You are capable of moving your eyes very quickly. See how quickly you can move around them, without tensing your eyes (more). There's no need to slow down your process of perception. You will be tempted to stop on each letter for longer than a second in order to try to see it better. Don't.
Now as you move between the letters, you're going to add an extra step on E. When you look at the E, pick any spot on the E, and then see if you can distinguish a second spot on it. So for example, say you pick the bottom of the letter, and then move your attention to the top of the letter. Two opposite sides of a letter work well. It's just like how you were moving your attention between the three letters, only on a smaller scale. If the E is too blurry for you, you will have trouble finding a second spot on the E because the blur will all overlap and maybe with double images and you won't be sure where you're looking. But the E also doesn't need to be clear. This is not about seeing either of the two spots on the E clearly. This is about acknowledging the movement of your attention between opposite sides of the letter. If you can merely distinguish that the E has a top and a bottom, you can move your attention between them. Don't expect the image itself to change as you do so. This is about learning to pay attention to a different point in turn despite the fact that the two points are close enough together that you can see them both at the same time.
So continue around the circle, only glancing quickly at each letter as before, and each time you reach the E, take that extra step of looking at a second spot on the E. It doesn't have to be the same spots every time. Just any spots you can acknowledge as separate from each other.
After a moment of doing this, try doing it with one of the other letters too. Unless you are able to look at a second point on the letter in less than a second, move on to the next letter. Don't struggle with finding a point. Just move on.
Remember to blink at a normal pace, every several seconds or so.
If things become clearer, don't stop. Your mind will search for a reason to take a break right at the point where a change is starting to happen. Try moving down the chart a little, shifting your attention between letters in another triangle.
If suddenly the four letters you're working with become so blurry that you have trouble even finding the E in the first step, what do you do? Apply the same principle. If you can't look at something close by, look at something farther away, like the F on line 2. Then look back toward any smudge in the area where the E should be. Then try looking at one of the four letters again, and if you can't, look back up at the F. So you always are able to revert to a backup plan of looking at something farther away.
The same if you start perceiving multiple images. Multiple images instead of fuzzy blur is a good thing. Optically I suspect there's no difference and it's about how your brain is perceiving things. So when your brain is perceiving multiple images it means it's orienting itself towards perceiving details. It's just another step, and one that you might repeat many times.
If your vision becomes darker, it may just be your pupils narrowing. I'm not sure what this means, but I tend to see it as a good sign, a change away from the wide-pupiled "fight or flight" mode.
If your eyes start stinging a little, just keep doing what you're doing and blinking at a normal pace.
So here's what you're learning. When you glance at a point and you don't see it clearly, it will be beneficial to look at another point. If you can look at another point very close by, then it will be beneficial to do so. If you are not able to distinguish a nearby point because of the confusion of it being too close to the first point, then it will be beneficial to instead look at a point farther away, and then back to the first point again. That's the gist of it. You have a solution, no matter what happens.
<h3>A Small List of Don'ts</h3>
Don't try to glide your eyes smoothly over an area. Your eyes are meant to move in quick jumps, small and large. To glide your eyes smoothly requires that you tense your eye muscles and suppress the speed of movements that is necessary for your eyes to work in harmony with your attention.
Don't try to feel each movement of your eyes, or try to count the movements, or make a sound in your mind for each movement. Seeing has to be done from a mental starting point of wanting to effortlessly see and perceive. Counting eye movements or being too slow with the movements defeats the purpose, because doing so means you are not involved in perception enough. Treat this as moving your eyes as softly as you can, without being able to feel the movements.
Don't settle into a routine of bouncing your eyes around at random spots just for the sake of moving your eyes around. This is not about moving your eyes. This is about moving your visual attention, which does require that you move your eyes, but it doesn't do any good if you don't pay attention to each spot you look at.
Don't stop on a blurry point. Move on after less than a second.
Don't lock your gaze and try to see something. Your process of seeing has to be about moving between points. If you want to see something, you have to keep looking at points as described, on and around the object.
Don't slow down. Larger movements should be less than a second. When you are able to make smaller movements, over a smaller area, the movements will be quicker.
<h3>Bates's Method</h3>
Two quotes by Bates directly back up the instructions above
"It is impossible for the eye to fix a point longer than a fraction of a second. If it tries to do so, it begins to strain and the vision is lowered. This can readily be demonstrated by trying to hold one part of a letter for an appreciable length of time. No matter how good the sight, it will begin to blur, or even disappear, very quickly, and sometimes the effort to hold it will produce pain."- Perfect Sight Without Glasses, Ch 20
"The shorter the shift the greater the benefit; but even a very long shift - as much as three feet or more - is a help to those who cannot accomplish a shorter one. When the patient is capable of a short shift, on the contrary, the long shift lowers the vision." - Perfect Sight Without Glasses, Ch 15
Dr. Bates described something along the lines of what I described here, and variations of it, but he included only two points. With two points it's too easy for you to eventually start oscillating your eyes back and forth without really paying attention to what you're looking at with each movement. With three points or more, you have to put a little more attention into it to locate each letter, and the act of moving your eyes in three different directions or more helps avoid getting stuck in a mentally vacant routine of oscillating your eyes.
Re: Shifting in a Triangle - Nancy - 12-03-2011
David, this is great. I got bogged down in the details if your description at first (trying to do it perfectly!), since right at the start you mentioned O and C above the letter which makes *4* points, not a triangle, and the C is below the letter so I went into total mind fog. Also in at least one place later you mentioned shifting among the 4 points. I'm guessing the C on the line below was an initial 4th place to shift around and you simplified it to 3 points, but in any case, I was confused about what to do at first.
That said, this is nice and simple and do-able for everyone. I like the caution not to bounce your eyes around without looking as I've done that, thinking I was avoiding staring. As I read I realized this is often what I do myself when using the eye chart, shifting around from corner to corner (I can see the contrast between the black letter and white background well here even if the letter isn't clear). One of the big things I got out of what you wrote is that when things get totally blurry, I can shift to another larger letter but I should keep up the same looking habits, not try to see the entire letter at once to restore my faith in my vision. Thanks again -- I'll be playing with this more now and will post again if I have anything else to add.
Re: Shifting in a Triangle - David - 12-03-2011
Oops, should be 3 letters, not 4. I wrote 4 at first but changed it.
Re: Shifting in a Triangle - clarknight - 12-04-2011
This is really good! Maybe make a page for only Eye charts; so people can pass their eye tests at the doctors, Driver's license!
Re: Shifting in a Triangle - David - 12-05-2011
clarknight Wrote:This is really good! Maybe make a page for only Eye charts; so people can pass their eye tests at the doctors, Driver's license!
That's a good idea for a regular page I should add to the website. All about eye charts. I'll put it on the list!
Re: Shifting in a Triangle - David - 12-05-2011
One of the goals here is to learn to always be shifting your eyes just slightly, just enough to keep them from locking the picture into place. Kind of how, for example, you're resting your hand on a table top, and to be able to feel the table you only need to move your fingertip the slightest amount. You aren't pressing on the tabletop, or tensing your finger. You're just barely touching it. Do that just to notice how you barely have to move your fingertip at all, and how small of a movement you can make to be able to feel the texture of the table, and how the rest of your hand isn't even moving. Now close your eyes and move your hand around to various objects, noticing how to fully examine anything you have to slow your hand down and soften the touch of your fingertips to really feel the shapes and textures. It's the same principle in looking at details.
But I don't know how easy it is for people with different levels of vision to be able to do this. Part of the problem is people are unwilling to try it for more than a few seconds because their vision is to blurry that they don't see an effect right away, but I don't know, maybe people need intermediate steps like described in the blog post.
Re: Shifting in a Triangle - sorrisiblue - 12-06-2011
Hi David, cool post as always. I'm just catching up. I guess you know I'm a big fan of the Snellen chart (while recognizing not everyone likes it or uses it) and was glad to see your take on it since you don't comment often on it. I'm finally getting around to publishing some articles I wrote expanding on my Snellen chart page on my blog and was really pleased to come over here and read this. This technique you write about is really original and interesting! Creative variations like this are so essential to successful Snellen chart practice, thanks for sharing it. You made a great point that the practice has got to be interesting, and not the mind numbing experience of just doing something without thinking about it. I'll definitely reference this post in my next article on more specific practices.
sorrisi
Re: Shifting in a Triangle - Nini - 12-06-2011
David Wrote:Don't try to glide your eyes smoothly over an area. Your eyes are meant to move in quick jumps, small and large. To glide your eyes smoothly requires that you tense your eye muscles and suppress the speed of movements that is necessary for your eyes to work in harmony with your attention.This was very helpful for me, thanks a lot.
It made me aware of my mistake; I tend to use my eyes like the focus of a camera, once adjusted on one spot, hold it and shift over the details in the same distance.
But our eyes - unlike a camera - have to focus each point seperately, every detail requires a new 'approach'. The more one tries to 'hold' the clear sight, the more it will vanish, because it prevents a new focus in the next point.
Re: Shifting in a Triangle - David - 12-06-2011
I should also add that my caution against gliding the eyes around smoothly and bouncing the eyes around without attention both mainly apply just for larger movements. For the smallest movements it's not an issue, because with the smallest movements you're just breaking the stare and there isn't really any difference in the way you move when it's that small.
And when you find yourself unable to find another point close by, it's okay to qickly move to a point father away even if you don't know where you're going, because it has to be done to prevent/break the stare.
Re: Shifting in a Triangle - DaniFixe - 12-06-2011
I have the habit of blink at every shift. Anyone do the same? This is be bad or good ? I didn't figured out yet if this is done by effort or not.
Re: Shifting in a Triangle - blwegrzyn - 12-06-2011
How above relates to the astigmatism?
I am noticing (my own example) that it is much harder to get rid of it compared to being nearsighted?
I feel like i am not nearsighted anymore and all is left is the astigmatism that does not want to go away.
I cannot progress at all so far.
Re: Shifting in a Triangle - Marlene - 12-07-2011
David, can you elaborate on what you wrote about seeing multiple images instead of blurry image? I'm seeing lots of multiple images instead of blur recently and I don't know if that can be considered as a sign of progress?
Re: Shifting in a Triangle - Nini - 12-07-2011
These points are concerning me too.
I'm also blinking at each shift from one letter to the other and I don't feel, that this is correct, but it is hard to supress it.
As for the multiple images, I used to see in the distanc a clear image above and a bigger, blurry one underneath.
Recently, I discovered, that this hase changed to 4 images, 1 right, 1 left, 1 above and 1 below, like the 4 corners of a rhombus - especialle when there is a good contrast, for example when I see a white car coming towards me in a far distance or the black letters on a white traffic sign.
I even managed to 'melt' all 4 cars into one by somehow following the muscle tension in my eyes, but I don't know exactly how I did this and so I can't reproduce it at will and I can't hold the tension for a long time.
Re: Shifting in a Triangle - David - 12-07-2011
Multiple images are better than just blur. Blur can sometimes be a successful job of fixing the unfocused image to make it less irritating, ie: it's a smoother, more uniform image that is easier to handle than multiple images that overlap. The success of maintaining the blur, or maintaining a single blurry image instead of multiple images, is really a suppression of symptoms and a suppression of vision itself, because you're ignoring the details that are presented to you, in your desire to try to make everything appear better before you allow yourself to really look at anything.
If you're able to count how many multiple images there are, it might be a sign that you're staring at the wide area and are more concerned with testing your vision as good or bad than looking at the details to interpret what is really there behind the mess. The problem is if you test your vision without using your vision correctly it will test as pretty bad. You have to examine what's there instead of trying to fix the multiple images by doing anything special with your eyes.
As far as blinking with every shift, consider whether you would have blinking with every shift be a part of how you would expect normal vision to be. Do people with normal vision blink with every shift? Why or why not?
Re: Shifting in a Triangle - sean - 12-07-2011
Dave, I think you just may have hit on a winning form of words here.
The (quick) movement as described, be it in triangles or squares, is what I used to do in the past (instinctively and ignoring what i understood to be Bates' injunctions) and had success with it, but without realizing why. So it was hard to reproduce it at will.
I'm going to play around with this for a day or two and report back. Just to see if it's just a flash in the pan. (And I've had a few of those.) If it doesn't repeat I've got it wrong.
I'm not certain if it's the way you have presented it or it's just me and I was ready to get the message. Most likely the former. I'll give it a day or two and see if anyone else gets the same idea from your post as I have - if I've got this right, that is, and my mind isn't playing tricks.
I got a good feeling from the post initially, but this aspect only hit me explicitly on reading it again.
For me there is one passage of five or six lines (not in itself a new concept by any means) and another idea - that's not including the simplicity of the rest of the post - ie no reason to get tangled up in imagined points, adjacent points - or blinking for that matter! These two things work together really well for me.
I interrupted chart practice this morning to find that passage.
Maybe someone else might re-read the original post and see if they see what I do?
I admit I'm pleased to see I'm first in with this. And disappointed no-one else got there first as that means I'm probably on the wrong tracl!
In which case I'll just chalk it up to experience...