I think i never took sunning as seriously as i should have and since summer has just started I still have plenty of sunshine to use before my first semester of university
I've only maybe done it once in a few days for a few minutes but i plan to do it everyday now...but i never knew how to do it properly, do i just stare straight at the sun for like 20 minutes (blinking of course) ? And anyone know the potential hazards of sungazing? (i could care less what would happen to me when im older as long as it cures me now ) Whats the difference doing it eyes closed or eyes open and how long should i do it each day?
fidisolo Wrote:I think i never took sunning as seriously as i should have and since summer has just started I still have plenty of sunshine to use before my first semester of university
I've only maybe done it once in a few days for a few minutes but i plan to do it everyday now...but i never knew how to do it properly, do i just stare straight at the sun for like 20 minutes (blinking of course) ? And anyone know the potential hazards of sungazing? (i could care less what would happen to me when im older as long as it cures me now ) Whats the difference doing it eyes closed or eyes open and how long should i do it each day?
I basically do sunning as Bates suggested: with eyes closed, and feeling the presence and position of the sun. It is recommended to do it for about an hour, but I can't handle it more than half an hour or so. I think that this is one of the effective methods.
I don't think Bates himself ever recommended closed-eye sunning - that's something later teachers came up with. A couple things Bates wrote about was sungazing with open eyes and a helper using a magnifying glass to focus the light of the sun on a person's sclera (white of the eye), moving it rapidly to prevent any burning. The sungazing wasn't so much of a recommendation as it was some cases illustrating that the sun was not nearly so dangerous to the eyes as was (and still is) believed.
If you're going to do sungazing, start very slowly and avoid doing it where you have to squint or otherwise tense your face from the brightness. Near sunrise and sunset are easy to do and also are considered very safe.
Dave
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
So just stare straight right? Do i have to shift my view to anything else? Or do I have to rest a 10 seconds or so every 5 mins if i were to do it half an hour each day?
Well the whole idea of the Bates method is to learn to stop staring, so you don't want to be doing it in a way that makes you stare or lock your eyes. Half an hour is a long time. Some people recommend staring with only 10 seconds and working slowly up from there, whereas others start with like 20 minutes. You just have to keep in mind that the sun is very powerful, with the power to help you or hurt you, and you need to be careful about it and follow your intuition and pay attention to what your body is telling you.
Dave
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
i see i see...so ya got any ideas/techniques/tips (such as imagining the sun as a clock and shift around it cw and ccw, i must made this up as an example) I'd like to hear everyones methods so i can try each and see what works best
Up until now i think im pretty good at sensing when my eyes are straining and i think i'd be better starting off with many but short periods of sunning...
Sorry I thought, Dr Bates told that. I remember now that Dr Bates referred to sunning as using sunglasses in his book. I think that Dr Bates recommends using sunglasses for sunning, or using them when starting to do sunning.
Sorry I thought, Dr Bates told that. I remember now that Dr Bates referred to sunning as using sunglasses in his book. I think that Dr Bates recommends using sunglasses for sunning, or using them when starting to do sunning.
He didn't recommend sunglasses either. You must be getting this stuff from another source?
Dave
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
Well,
I had seen using the use sunglasses in Mrs. Lierman's book. But I read this part more carefully and found out that she means magnifying glasses, by the sun-glass. Here is where she talks about the sun-glass.
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Mother love is one of the greatest things in the world. Betty was telling me how her mother had suffered all day long, and at night she had walked the floor because she could not sleep with the pain. As I held her close I could feel the mother relax. Then she began to talk about Betty's good qualities, and what a help she was. I placed the mother in the sun, still keeping the palm of my hand over her eyes. Then I held my sun-glass in a position so that the strong light of the sun would focus directly on her closed eyelids when I removed my hand. Knowing that the sunlight had been painful to her during her illness, I did not tell her what I was about to do. I planned to use the sun-glass very quickly, and not give her a chance to strain. I did this successfully, although I feared I would not, as some patients strain so in their agony of pain, that it is difficult to use the sun-glass for the first time. After the first treatment this patient enjoyed it.
Elias, Emily's "sun-glass" is not sunglasses as we know them. What she is referring to is a small magnifying glass that can focus the sun's rays to a point. Both she and Dr Bates were very emphatic that what we today call sunglasses were a danger.
