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+--- Thread: Need help getting started (/showthread.php?tid=2819)
Need help getting started - johnmadden - 08-10-2014
Hi, i've decided I want to stop wearing glasses/contacts for good. I found this website about 2 months ago and went on to do the Bates method and wearing glasses only when I needed them (driving), but after about a week I casually started wearing them again. I'm -2 in both eyes and dont want my eyes to get any worse as they have been doing each year. This time I am determined to stick with it though, because I believe it can improve naturally without resorting to surgery or using glasses.
So, what I do throughout the day is relax my eyes at all times. When I look around at objects I look at them in detail and try to notice its texture. I use central fixation and directly look at things. I try to look at things in the distance without squinting. However, I feel as if Im not doing enough and wasting my time looking at everything blurry when I could just take the easy way out (and worse) wearing glasses/contacts.
Is there other things I should be doing and should I get an eye chart? Also how long do you think it would take to get my vision back to normal. Thanks.
RE: Need help getting started - David - 08-11-2014
I'm glad to hear you have stuck with it so far.
If you feel like what you're doing isn't helpful, you're probably right. There are some subtleties to experiment with, because it's hard to describe the difference between straining your eyes and using them normally, when from the beginning everything you do may feel uncomfortable.
Keep your eyes relaxed by blinking often, remembering to breathe, relax your shoulders, and keep the intention to keep your eyes as comfortable and loose as possible, even if you aren't sure how.
For a long time I have thought that Bates's brief recount of his own experience discovering something that worked for him in reversing presbyopia (inability to focus near) is one of the most valuable things anywhere that I have read.
Quote:Thus thrown upon my own resources, I was fortunate enough to find a non-medical gentleman who was willing to do what he could to assist me, the Rev. R. B. B. Foote, of Brooklyn. He kindly used the retinoscope through many long and tedious hours while I studied my own case, and tried to find some way of accommodating when I wanted to read, instead of when I wanted to see something at the distance. One day, while looking at a picture of the Rock of Gibraltar which hung on the wall, I noted some black spots on its face. I imagined that these spots were the openings of caves, and that there were people in these caves moving about. When I did this my eyes were focussed for the reading distance. Then I looked at the same picture at the reading distance, still imagining that the spots were caves with people in them. The retinoscope showed that I had accommodated, and I was able to read the lettering beside the picture. I had, in fact, been temporarily cured by the use of my imagination. Later I found that when I imagined the letters black I was able to see them black, and when I saw them black I was able to distinguish their form. - See more at: http://www.iblindness.org/ebooks/perfect-sight-without-glasses/ch20-presbyopia-cause-cure/
From this Bates came up with the idea of visualizing a black dot, or anything else that you can remember vividly enough. Practicing visualization will improve your vision somewhat if you are at all successful at visualizing, but at some point you have to apply the concept to what you're actually looking at. For example, if you can visualize blueberries pretty good, that will help, and you should have some flashes of clearer vision if you can do so with your eyes open, but it's distracting to have to think of blueberries all the time.
So it's best to keep your mental attention towards what you're looking at. But you might also find that you strain your eyes when looking for the smallest details, because in looking for them you're also trying to force them into being, and the usual way to attempt to do that is to just tense your eyes, which is the whole problem and will ruin everything. This doesn't mean that looking for details necessarily means straining your eyes, but in the beginning it will indeed seem like the same thing.
So one way of practicing this is to take Bates's cue and imagine there's something so small within the object that there's no way you're going to see it. That way, when you look and don't see the imagined detail, you don't react or try to "dig" into the object with your eyes (again, by tensing your eyes), so you're able to keep your eyes relaxed. Maybe imagining the atoms, or something totally imaginary like people moving in a cave like Bates wrote. The key is it's got to be something you don't actually expect to see, so that you don't react when you don't actually see it.
Whether it's that or another method, all your visual system needs is for you to look at details while keeping your eyes totally relaxed. That's it. In the absence of diseases or rare problems, that's all it needs. People have clear flashes as they catch a glimpse of this, as they get sort of lucky and do things right for a moment, but they are confused as to how to continue it.
An eye chart does help.
As for how long it will take, see here.
http://www.iblindness.org/davids-method/results/
RE: Need help getting started - johnmadden - 08-11-2014
Thanks for the reply David, very helpful information. What you mentioned is exactly what I was doing yesterday, trying to see the details too much , therefore trying too hard which is said to leading to the straining of the eyes. However, I didnt notice when I was straining my eyes and felt I hadn't done so when looking at things. I think this is the problem here, trying too hard to see which gradually makes your eyesight worse. I will continue with the visualisation techniques and post updates on a thread if something happens out of the ordinary. Also, these clear flashes, do they happen after a while of doing these techniques and are they noticeable if you've never seen one before?
RE: Need help getting started - David - 08-11-2014
A clear flash is a moment of improved vision. You should notice it, but it might instead seem like your vision is distorted. Either way it's a sign that you're shaking things up and something is changing.
RE: Need help getting started - johnmadden - 08-11-2014
(08-11-2014, 11:16 AM)David Wrote: A clear flash is a moment of improved vision. You should notice it, but it might instead seem like your vision is distorted. Either way it's a sign that you're shaking things up and something is changing.
I think I had one earlier today. When I looked up at the clock the numbers looked more clearer and bold, but looking at it later it went all blurry again. It lasted around 30 mins, I actually thought my eyesight was normally like this until later on and saw that the numbers appeared blurry again.
RE: Need help getting started - sleepmaster - 08-15-2014
Spend a lot of time outside looking at far away distances in a relaxed manner and do a lot of Bates long swings outside.
Never ever read with your glasses on.
Walk to where you need to go or get someone to drive you around so you don't have to wear glasses at all.
Palm in a dark room 15-20 minutes at least several times a day in between your periods of long swinging outside.
Avoid artificial light at night as much as possible, computers, TV, etc.
Good luck.
RE: Need help getting started - johnmadden - 08-16-2014
(08-15-2014, 01:27 PM)sleepmaster Wrote: Spend a lot of time outside looking at far away distances in a relaxed manner and do a lot of Bates long swings outside.
Never ever read with your glasses on.
Walk to where you need to go or get someone to drive you around so you don't have to wear glasses at all.
Palm in a dark room 15-20 minutes at least several times a day in between your periods of long swinging outside.
Avoid artificial light at night as much as possible, computers, TV, etc.
Good luck.
How do I do a long swing? Is it the standing one where you rotate your body and follow you finger or is it when you llook at an object and swing your eyes?
Is wearing glasses really that bad? I don't have a car yet but Im taking driving lessons (once a week) so I have to wear my glasses
RE: Need help getting started - sleepmaster - 08-16-2014
Can you get your eye doctor to give you undercorrected glasses by half a diopter to use when you drive?
Wearing glasses will slow down your rate of progress when used for distance and when used for reading will absolutely destroy your progress.
That reminds me, even when you aren't using glasses for up close stuff(computers, reading, etc), avoid pulling the book or computer in to see more clearly, and instead try to be able to read slightly blurry print. After awhile you'll get to it, since a blurry "the" will have a certain look you are used to, etc.
When doing the long swing, forget looking at fingers or objects. I would just stand still in an open area outdoors, and slowly sway your head from one side to the other, a 180 degree swing, and then try swinging 180 degrees while you are walking. There is an advantage to focusing on detail, but in the beginning, it's better to underfocus than to overfocus, so when you focus on details of an object later on, you are doing it in the context of already having retrained your eyes to using your eyes in a relaxed manner.
RE: Need help getting started - Nancy - 08-16-2014
The Long Swing. I've pointed to this a couple of times in different places, including in the blog post I just wrote last night but clearly people aren't seeing it. Don't go for speed. Let it be easy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7agJ9lxSHEw