(10-05-2015, 09:01 AM)vst Wrote: So basically I've been trying every now and then over the past few years to get the shifting thing right, and I've read the chapter on shifting for at least dozens of times. So lately I've been trying to constantly remind myself to shift my attention around all the time, like Bates said in his book to consciously imitate the shifting of the normal eye. And I've also managed to notice oppositional movement, which I suppose is the swing? However, it doesn't feel particularly relaxing and actually feels kind of distracting sometimes.

On the other hand, if I just forget all about my eyes and daydream, my eyes and body seem to feel much more relaxed. This is especially noticeable when I'm reading fine print. I just hold the print at a distance I can look at it comfortably and start thinking about stuff completely unrelated to my vision, and after a minute or so the white parts around the words start to become much brighter, and I am also able to notice a very slow and short swing if I do this long enough.

So is it possible that consciously practicing shifting actually leads to more strain? But if this were true, wouldn't Bates' entire chapter on shifting and swinging be paradoxical? Because he keeps telling you to actively do something to obtain normal shifting or swinging.

Please tell me what you think. I'm quite interested in what people have to say on this subject, for having read through a lot of old posts lately, I don't see many people reporting negative after-effects due to shifting. Is it possible that I'm doing it wrong?

(10-05-2015, 04:47 PM)Nancy Wrote: It's possible you're shifting in a trying way. It's also possible you're moving your gaze around mechanically without really connecting to what you're seeing, which I did for a long time thinking I was curing my staring. Shifting can be from one side of a letter to another, it does not have to be for a large distance. Examine what you call shifting when you feel strain, and you'll see you're off-track somewhere.

(10-06-2015, 11:31 AM)David Wrote: vst, you're doing good noticing the right things. Keep it up!

The primary goal is to keep your eyes relaxed while seeing details. Conscious shifting, even though you can sense that it isn't a very coordinated thing to do, might help as an exercise. When you are more focused on shifting your gaze than on how clearly you can see, you might strain your eyes less because you are distracting yourself from the habit of what you think you need to do to see but which is actually causing your vision to be worse.

You have found that daydreaming, in the way you are doing it, is valuable in that you find your visual system for some reason functions better as a result. You are daydreaming because at some level you know that it is something you need.

And an aside I want to note that when you have a moment of clearer vision, it is much more significant than anything you have read or understood about what is supposed to be true.

I read something fascinating recently about the effects on waking reality for people who sleep the typical 6-9 hours every night, in contrast to a pattern of sleeping only up to 4 hours at a time. The larger blocks of time create a stark disconnect between the two states, and with such division we make little effort to relate the two. Night and day, white and black, good and evil. We harden our thinking in terms of contrasts and become fearful of the unseen.

In terms of blurry vision, people develop a strong underlying belief that they must strain their eyes to see, and they create a division, one side between "straining and seeing", the other side being "relaxing and not seeing", such that it becomes apparently impossible to be able to see when they relax. I experienced this early on, where it felt like relaxing meant switching off my vision. That leads us to the misguided belief that a certain amount of tension is necessary so we don't become "too passive", and that's what we see in people with myopia especially, lots of tension that they accept as a normal and necessary part of their experience. In reality, the extreme of relaxation was right. I had to allow the connection between relaxation and seeing, by believing that's how things work, and being patient.

So in terms of your daydreaming and clearer vision, the more you allow this connection between dreaming and waking, or this in-between state, what you need to do will be more obvious. It should also help to consciously reinforce your belief by reminding yourself that there is something important in this daydreaming state that you can use more consciously while fully alert, instead of requiring daydreaming and the division that goes with it.