Apologies for introducing myself by way of this rant. Ive been wearing glasses for myopia for about 18 years.... Im -2.50 left -2.00 right.
Ive never really had much of a problem with it, after all do you get depressed about being shortsighted or do you think yourself lucky that you can at least see while many are far worse than you or even blind?
Anyway Im a great lover of nature and the countryside, nothing makes me happier than to be out walking in the woods watching the natural world.
Of course Id really love to be without glasses, they can be a pain sometimes and the thought of losing them and being basically blind and helpless in the wilderness has always haunted the back of my mind somewhat.
I started practicing what Ive understood of the bates method about two months ago...centralisation, shifting from one point to another, palming, going without glasses when I can, and wearing pinhole glasses for watching tv, Ive also been wearing weaker glasses as my work and driving glasses, ..half a diopter down in each eye.
Ive been pretty relaxed and positive these past two months, the enthusiasm and little signs that maybe my eyes are improving have kept me going.
Basically though when it comes down to it there has been absolutely no improvement , no clear flashes , nothing, just an increased tolerance to blur and a recognition that you can see better on certain days according to the level of light and tiredness of the eyes.
And so I find myself wanting to now just give up and get on with my life. The only thing is Ive now had it drummed into my head from various books and websites that wearing glasses is basically bad, a poor shadow of normal vision with the eyes locked into a tense and stressful condition etc ect. I feel depressed and in limbo to be honest. If I go for a walk with my glasses now there is an annoying voice in my head that tells me I cant relax and enjoy the visual world because its false, its not my " natural vision"
Ive given it the benefit of the doubt but there is much about the bates method and others like it that just seem complete nonsense to me. it sometimes seems as if people with normal eyesight are held up to be examples of perfect psychological health. Well it dosnt take much looking around to see there is absolutely no correlation between a relaxed and healthy state of mind and perfect eyesight . My friend for instance has been in and out of therapy for years and had an appalling childhood AND he has a habit of sitting starring fixedly at things for ages at a time...of course he has perfect eyesight.
Ive got a three week holiday coming up and im willing to go without glasses completely for that time if someone can convince me that there is anything in all this.
Sorry for rambling on.
I think Bates was on the right "track" -- but that his methods
must be used sooner, before you begin wearing that
minus. I am certain (for reasons of pure-science) that
Bates was correct about that minus.
I can add little to what you said -- but is do suggest some
"enhancements".
I would take the time to personally read your own Snellen -- so
you know EXACTLY where you stand.
I know this is not part of "Bates" theory, but you might get
a weak "plus lens" and use is on the computer -- and
monitor your "Snellen" and look for vision clearing.
Thanks for the reply otis. I have a chart on my wall and often shift from letter to letter but havnt measured my vision properly at 20 ft and I`ll look into using the plus lens, I dont know much about the theory as yet other than that it can work on children before they have started wearing minus lenses ..Im 34 by the way so maybe past it in that regard.
Well, your post sort of hit me where I live since I, like you, am older than most people who try the Bates Method. I am 42 years old and have worn glasses/contacts since I was 8 years old -- 34 years of wearing corrective lenses.
Alas, I don't know what my prescription is because up until about three weeks ago, when I started all this, I didn't care what is was. Since that time I checked out the book Relearning to See (I had to check it in this morning) from the library and have read parts of the books here online. But for all that I've always skipped the sections of the books that describe what a given prescription is for a given 20/XXX vision since I figured whatever my vision is, well, that's what it is. I want to improve it, and calm my mind down, so that was all that mattered.
Anyway, in that short thee week time I have seen a little more improvement than you have, I think. I have had clear-er flashes (no crystal clear, prefect vision flashes yet), and I am seeing things a bit clear more and more often, in general, lately. But just last Friday, I was frustrated and gazing at my Snellen chart with a vision that was not one bit clearer than when I first started. My wife eventually pulled me away and made me do something else. So don't be discouraged if you gaze at the Snellen chart and see no improvement, especially if you are frustrated/stressed/fearful at the time. However, when I was walking past that same Snellen chart a few hours later it was noticeably clearer.
But I do have a few bits of advice. Remember, I've only been dong this for three weeks and am very much a "newbe." My first bit of advise is to dust your glasses if you can. Oh,you might legally be required to wear them while driving, but only do so then. If you are out walking, you don't legally need them, so don't wear them. I know this means your former conferrable world will contract to small blurry space and that can be VERY discouraging (I know, because I'm going through that now myself), but I really don't think that glasses do you any good as far as making faster progress goes. Sometimes, you have to wear them, but regard them as a necessary evil and that the more they are on you nose the slower your progress will be.
Instead, use that contracted, blurry world you live in as a motivation to practice Central Fixation all the time. Now I hasten to add that I don't think that my vision is quite as bad as yours, at least from you description. When I started this my right (and dominant) eye was probably a bit worse than 20/200 (it's already better), but my left eye (which I hardly used) was a bit better than 20/100, so my world didn't contract as much as yours likely does. I wish I could say something that would make you feel better about the "contacted world" of yours, but know that other people have had vision like yours and been successful.
Another thing I'd recommend is to practice one of the Bates Methods at least and hour or two each day. My current favorite is the Swing method, though I palm occasionally too. I do this for about one hour and twenty minutes each day in 5 to 15 minute increments throughout the day. Since I've been doing this (I didn't for the first week or two) my real progress has been better. Not my consistent vision per sae, but my comfort and the number of clear-er flashes has increased.
Last thing. Not everyone who has clear vision is a healthy paragon. Everyone stresses and is tense at times. But everyone internalizes these things in different ways. Take me for example. On the outside I am a very much happy go lucky person. In my single days I was always the center of the party, laughing and taking nothing seriously. My wife was shocked, absolutely shocked, to find, after we had dated for awhile and she got to know me better, that I was very much a stressful person who worried about everything. I graduated in Physics and I am very much a left brained person who wants to solve all problems, personal or otherwise, even when I don't have all the data to do so.
Your friend with the perfect vision, who is tense in other ways, sounds like he has other outlets -- and perhaps he won't have perfect vision forever. Deny him all therapy in the future (as many people like me choose to do), cause him to put on a happy face (so no public, or with friends, loss of temper or any other negative, public, personality traits), cause him to fear potential future events, but give him no easy resolution to his fear, and finally see what he does with his tension. Perhaps he'd being wearing glasses sooner than you think.
For me, and our own souls are the only ones we have a chance and a clear view of, these methods have helped. I am less tense than I was. Though I had enough focus to get a physics degree, I've found I really don't focus that well at all, I just made up for it with determination. But now I can tell I can focus just a bit better. For me, I believe these methods are working.
You can use and succeed with the Bates' method no matter how long you've been wearing lenses, don't worry about that. Let me see if I can help a bit.
I know you don't see it this way right now, but vision improvement is fundamentally a mental process. There is (probably) nothing wrong with your eyes, they're just being used incorrectly. This is extremely important.
If I may disagree with Otis and discourage you from using plus lenses. Improving your vision is relearning to use your eyes correctly - you have learned bad habits and you need to relearn to use your eyes properly. Because using plus lenses does not re-educate you in how to use your eyes, your bad vision habits will probably remain and your myopia will likely return. As you can easily deduce, you can have good vision and bad vision habits - just put on your glasses! Just because it may get better using plus lenses does not mean you've fixed the underlying problem.
One thing I immediately noticed in your post - notably your "being basically blind and helpless in the wilderness" - could be putting a lot of pressure and unreasonable expectations on yourself. One thing that is common among people who use the Bates method is a positive acceptance of seeing blurry. No need to fear seeing blurry, at -2.50 your vision isn't even that bad! I know people who's vision is over -5.00 and happily go about their business in the home without their lenses on (who are not intentionally trying to improve their vision).
As for wearing glasses, Bates does not lie when he says that it is much more difficult to improve your vision if you're still relying on them. Sometimes you may have to, but I seriously recommend you rethink when you actually *need* them.
People with good vision are not models of perfect health, Bates would not say this. If your friend is doing a lot of staring it is very possible he will develop chronic myopia, but at the very least I guarantee his vision lowers while he's staring. But he may not actually be staring, eye movements can be very small...
The Bates method may sound like hocus pocus sometimes, and it did to me as well. But now I just can't get over how ingenious he was.
Hope that helps, and please feel free to ask specific questions!
Unfortunately you do sound like you're going to give up pretty quick, but for the benefit of anyone else, or even you, if you decide to keep at it:
With your friend, like bjsilva already suggested, he's probably using his eyes better than you realize. It doesn't have to be absolutely perfect in that regard to be considered "normal" vision - just good enough. If what you observe doesn't match up with what everyone is saying about how normal sighted people use their eyes, then you have to ask yourself, "How oculd I be misinterpreting this? What could they be referring to in this seemingly simple principle that I'm missing? What could Bates have meant? Should I re-read some of it again?" Because the reality is that people with myopia have larger movements and not so many of the smaller, not-so-perceptible movements, while those with normal vision don't necessarily appear to be moving their eyes much because their movements are so quick and tiny.
Now back to your messed up friend - people deal with their anxieties in different ways, and not everyone strongly weaves them into the way they use their eyes. That's why people get unexpected emotional releases when they improve their vision enough with the Bates method - the emotions were buried in the tension somehow (there are theories as to how this works). But it doesn't mean the reverse is true - it doesn't mean that someone who uses their eyes alright is mentally healthy. Rarely someone suggests that normal sighted people are models of mental health, but again, that's a hasty generalization that isn't actually drawn from what Bates and other experts at his methods suggest.
Dave
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
Many thanks for taking the time to reply bob, bjsilva and dave. It has certainly given me encouragement and plenty to think about.
I think I was having a bit of a downer day yesterday. As it happens though I was cycling to work this morning without my glasses, it was sunny and I felt relaxed, I wasnt really thinking about much or consciously practicing anything to do with Bates but my eyes felt somehow more alive than usual, not just the fixed blur that you see when you take your glasses off. I cant say I could see anything clearly but somehow small details of the environment seemed to be sparkling as I cycled along and I had the impression that my vision was somehow more dynamic, a fluid thing rather than something fixed.
I have had this once or twice before but always outside on sunny days, I had put this down to simply being able to see better in sunlight as once indoors again everything returns to its usual blur and I put my glasses on again .
Anyway I now have pretty much the rest of the month off so my plan is to go without glasses except for driving which I wont be doing much of.
The main method I intend to practice, If you can call it that , is to try to keep my eyes moving all the time and become very curious about life and the visual world, it feels more natural that way, a kind of meditation rather than simply the practicing of a method. Any advice on swinging and noticing the oppositional movement of things would be most welcome though.
Many thanks again.
