You can only see one point best, and the smaller the point you look at, the clearer it is.
Sit with an eye chart in front of you at a distance where there are several lines you can't currently make out. Close your eyes and think of part of a letter or another object, very small. Just a single detail or point. Keep thinking of it for a few minutes, imagining the point smaller and smaller. You don't have to visualize it perfectly. Just imagine the idea of it. It can change frequently. You don't have to hold onto it, and you shouldn't. It has nothing to do with what you're imagining; it's all about you and your mental focus.
After a few minutes, open your eyes, still thinking of the idea of looking at one small point at a time. Don't get suckered into trying to read the letters. That's the last thing you should be trying to do. Just keep the idea of a tiny point in your mind. You may find in doing this that you look off to the side of the chart, and that's okay. Look back toward it. Blink every few seconds to avoid staring. You may find at first that your vision is almost totally disabled while you're doing this, as if you can't see anything if you don't try to. But after a moment you'll start to notice tiny pieces of blur that match the size of the tiny point you're thinking of. Look at the pieces of blur that don't make any sense. Keep blinking every few seconds and looking around at more. The attitude you take is that the letters are too big to look at, and that you need to be looking at a smaller point than even the size of the smallest letter.
All the usual things apply - If your eyes feel weird or irritated, keep blinking and keep doing it. Stay as relaxed as you can. If you start feeling frustrated or that after a few more minutes it isn't helping, close your eyes and start again.
Dave
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
I just tried this and it worked a treat. Just a tiny point, smaller even than a full stop (period). I shut my eyes for 20 secs (impatience, impatience) and then just looked. A letter's too big to see, too much effort! This is so restful on the eyes I was just enjoying the ride. I have been doing some visualization work based on a Bates "fairy tale" posted by Sorrisi on her website and it has been explosive (much to my surprise), so I really just wanted a little R&R, something undemanding like watching the Ashes (cricket). I suppose this is just slimmed down visualization, eezy-viz as it were.
This is so easy I think it would be hard to muck it up. I remember Elias posting something along these lines over a year ago, it lifts the burden to do anything off your back, you are responsible for seeing just one tiny point at a time. Well, forget about "at a time", just one point. I really didn't care if the chart cleared or not, it just felt nice so I carried on for a little longer and, of course, the chart did clear. I'll be trying this again.
The only hard part, as usual, was just stopping to read the instructions and do it. Now, how easy can you get?!
Nice. This clears all the tension from my eyes, head, shoulders, neck.
Improves my balance; thinking of the point with eyes closed and I can keep my balance, which I have had trouble doing since a recent injury.
This is like Bates old shifting on a period in the mind, central fixation. This new version with the tiny point effect feels like I am using the exact center of the eyes retina - fovea centralis which produces perfect, clearest vision, relaxation.
I tried this a few mornings ago whilst palming in bed. When I opened my eyes and looked at the curtain, it appeared to be moving from side to side. I felt quite relaxed at this moment also.
I allowed the movement to continue for some time then returned to palming. As I palmed I could feel pulsing movements within my eyes.
Incidentally I have realised that when I do imagine I try to see the whole picture in my head, just as I used to do with my eyes open. I assume therefore that closing my eyes and imagining the whole, rather than seeing a point of it clearer is still a strain to the mind. Is this correct?
Just shift from point to point, part to part on objects and object to object in the mind, same as you would when looking at a scene with eyes open.
Imagine objects clear.
From The Honourable Schoolboy by John Le Carre: Chapter 21, pg. 668 (in the 3-book omnibus Search For Karla): Jerry, a rogue British agent, is at the bottom of a cliff, at night, on an island, watching the ocean for an incoming boat. "The moon lifted and still Jerry waited, training his eyes on the darkest spots in an effort to improve his vision."
That is the most illuminating thing I've read in a year. TRY IT! It works during the day just as well.
Shifting over a dark spot reminds me of Bates curing his own hyperopia by looking at a dark spot in a painting & imagining it as a cave with tiny people moving around in it. Since lighter areas are easier for me to see, that's what I usually focus on. I'm going to play with focusing on the dark area now -- thanks for the suggestion.
Thanks Nancy. I'm gong to try that Bates' cave method now also. I am sure now that I had unconsciously been avoiding looking at the darker/est spots/areas. Unconsciously learned bad visual behavior/habits. Hard to overcome at my age. Dark caves with people moving inside them. Sounds like something out of Plato's Republic!
Nancy Wrote:Shifting over a dark spot reminds me of Bates curing his own hyperopia by looking at a dark spot in a painting & imagining it as a cave with tiny people moving around in it. Since lighter areas are easier for me to see, that's what I usually focus on. I'm going to play with focusing on the dark area now -- thanks for the suggestion.
One thing should be noticed with the smallest mathematical point. At night you see not so much with the center but more with your peripheral vision. That's one of the reasons why you can have the most beautiful clear flashes during the day and you are then surprised when none of that good vision is left at night. A lot of people with fairly good daytime vision need glasses when they drive home at night. I never liked night driving either.
You can still think of a point, but it becomes a bigger one, a kind of a halo in your center. I noticed comfort paying attention to what's going on in the corners of the visual field once it gets dark. Your visual field is 10% larger too.
clarknight Wrote:Nice. This clears all the tension from my eyes, head, shoulders, neck.
Improves my balance; thinking of the point with eyes closed and I can keep my balance, which I have had trouble doing since a recent injury.
Yes, I did this one and it's really great to keep my balance especially just thinking of the point with eyes closed. Also, the stress of my head, neck and shoulders and of course my eyes are all get released. When closed eyes, I'll meditate too to keep my thoughts clear, it's good for all tension released as well.
