I'm not picking on anyone in particular, because a number of people have used the word "producing" clear vision, or a clear flash, or relaxation. I think it represents a way of thinking that will steer you far enough off track that I want to make a post and explain why.
Consider the word "produce". It implies a product you're bringing into existence. That would imply that it's some sort of product that isn't there until you make it or present it. It implies that you think clear vision is like a foreign thing, outside of yourself, or different from yourself, that you have to create in order for it to exist. In terms of other body functions it would be like saying I'm producing walking, or I'm producing my voice. It makes it sound as though it's a special thing. But it isn't special.
The words we use indicate how we really think about things. And people way underestimate the role of their constant, consistent thoughts and beliefs in how their vision plays out. Beliefs about vision have everything to do with how good vision is. And what I've noticed is people with blurry vision who are attempting to improve their vision think of good vision as something so extraordinary, as if good vision isn't a part of who they are. Do you think of good vision as more distant from who you are than your ability to walk well?
It's good to be enthusiastic about improving your vision, but in that enthusiasm, we often delve into unnecessary tangents and intellectual explorations and fascinations with implications of other things the essence of the Bates method reveals or suggests. And we end up making things far more complex than they need to be in creating philosophical ideas and meanderings, symbolically suggesting that good vision is so fantastic that it must be created outside of ourselves in some wonderful way instead of realized as who we are.
And even the term "vision improvement", or "natural vision improvement", which have gotten to be standard terms that I've struggled with a good replacement for, reveals that we think of our vision in terms of something that must be improved somehow. And yet we also talk about improving vision to normal, which is an oxymoron. If you want it normal, then it doesn't need to be improved. You only need to do it right. What happens is you get so stuck in thinking of bad vision as part of yourself that it remains part of you until you reject it.
When you begin rejecting blurry vision, you have no choice but to reject your way of seeing that is causing blurry vision, and in doing so you have no choice but in every moment be consistent in your way of seeing that is in line with good vision. If you keep "falling back" to blurry vision when you "have to" see something quickly, you haven't rejected bad vision yet. If you want to see, then you will reject bad vision, always, no matter what. You will consistently use your eyes/vision in the correct way that promotes good vision, even if your vision is blurry or unclear at the moment and you "need" to see something clearly quickly.
Of course, you do still have to understand how to do things right, but your thoughts about your vision are a stumbling block that will prevent you from understanding what good vision means, because you can't have good vision until you accept it as who you are and work on integrating it into you as who you are. Integrating it as who you are means a period of confusion and uncertainty as you try to understand how to do things right. But you will not understand how to do things right until you've accepted good vision as who you are. When you've done that, you will be incredibly fast and efficient at learning how to see correctly, because your mind will frantically work on it on overdrive until you've inevitably got it just right.
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"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
David, that's a real coincidence. This morning I was looking at the chart, focussing on detail, and it wasn't responding as I'd hoped (yesterday was great). And then I thought to myself: how am I thinking about this, how is it that it can be so easy on occasion? How can I make it easy? And the image came into my mind of somebody in hospital recovering from a leg injury and starting to learn to walk again, something that he'd got out of the habit of doing but which was easy and natural. How would somebody like that approach it? And it worked. And then I read your post.
I don't know if the following is directly relevant here or not. Two weeks ago my wife, who is learning, took the car to her mother's some miles away. Half way there she stopped to do some shopping and when she got back into the car it wouldn't start. She turned the key but nothing. She rang me at work and explained and I could hear her turning the key, quickly and repeatedly. It has a new battery. It was a wet day - was it the electrics? Damn, I thought, another bill. I asked her to calm down and see if we could think our way round it but she kept talking, more or less repeating the same thing. She got help from a local garage - a couple of fellows came out to her, put the key in and it started without any problem. What had happened was that she had inadvertently put the steering lock on when she got out of the car. This allows the key to turn only a very small amount. This explains why she was turning it so quickly, repeatedly. She hadn't noticed the key wasn't turning much, she could have broken it if she'd been really rough with it. I'd never explained the steering lock to her - I since realize that I apply it when parking out on the street but never in the drive at home - in all cases without thinking about it. It never occurred ot me to show it to her. The mechanic probably gave that simple slight twist automatically to the steering wheel when he unlocked it and started the car and without realizing what he had done. Unless he was clued in to what was going on.
David, thanks for this excellent post. I'm one of the culprits who thinks of "producing clear vision" (rather than allowing it), which I'm afraid reflects my belief, still, that to see clearly is hard work. I've been thinking about this a lot lately (like Sean) -- why am I trying so hard to see clearly when it's natural and normal and babies can do it? I've been trying to change my attitude about vision from a gym workout (where I'm skinny but determined and can get strong if I really work hard and long) to the way I approach something I can do easily and enjoyably, like using my math or word skills. I do think part of this for me is confidence in my vision. As much as I've improved, and as much as I'm aware of how I'm looking most of the time, I can very easily fall into the discouraged mindset of believing my vision is just not good enough when I'm faced with difficult visual conditions. It's really hard for me sometimes not to feel defective around this issue, which of course is not helpful at all. I'll keep chipping away at this "wrong thought". Thanks.
Nancy Wrote:why am I trying so hard to see clearly when it's natural and normal and babies can do it?
No kidding! And consider all the people in the world who have made a mess of their lives or don't ever work long at trying to accomplish anything, or seem "stupid", or have no self-control, who have good vision.
Sometimes people feel like it's an altered state of consciousness when they have a clear flash (again, with the idea that they themselves have to be "improved" or attain to something as a part of having good vision), but I think it's really just more parts of their brain activating that deal with high resolution vision.
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"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
David Wrote:Sometimes people feel like it's an altered state of consciousness when they have a clear flash (again, with the idea that they themselves have to be "improved" or attain to something as a part of having good vision), but I think it's really just more parts of their brain activating that deal with high resolution vision.
That is true,
The more you gradually gets aware of where you see best, the more natural it also becomes to see where you see best,
and the more natural it becomes that also clear vision is actually really part of you,
because the central high resolution field and information is so intense and powerfully interconnected with your brain and the objects you look at.
I would call it the last third step in consciousness called wakefullness, the first step was some understanding and the second step was some awareness, and thus the third step wakefullness is that you suddenly realize that you are linked to the object you look at via a high speed high resolution redundantly interconnect highway optic link, and that your mind controls that link, it is connecting your clarity right at the base of instant mind to what mind decides to focus on in the present, when you have realized the difference between that central field and the peripheral field then you get the awareness, the second step.
I mean think of it, why on earth should you use anything else than the part of the vision field where you see best.
Should you use the part of the vision field where you see a lot worse,
and try to stand or even endure that worse vision than you could easily have got if you just focused on the foveas, no, a stupid man can also realize this, it is all insane because we are like some monkey in a zoo that cannot be released into the wild nature because that monkey does not know how to search for something to eat, some empirical knowledge has been lost when it comes to how you in the most efficient way finds food for your day,
but it is all simultaneously so simple and beautiful. It is also tragic. Tragic things are sometimes beautiful, there is thus light also in darkness.
I know this because this has been my own motto when I grew up: "Light is just around the corner."
I think I will use that motto and just also say that "Light of high resolution vision is just around the corner" ,
What is good about it is that this poor vision doesn't have to be tragic, you can actually do something to improve it, relax and use your foveas for instance.
I'm not quite sure, but when I have clear flashes, then I nearly always seem to have a feeling of......... sadness? Nostalgia?
Does this mean anything? Does it have anything to do with my beliefs that are causing bad vision? Is it clueing to me something that I have to change?
Also, some people say that you need to accept that good vision is part of you and that you have it as a birthright so that your vision can improve whereas other people say that to acquire good vision you need to accept the blurriness?
Which one is right?
Aura Wrote:I'm not quite sure, but when I have clear flashes, then I nearly always seem to have a feeling of......... sadness? Nostalgia?
Does this mean anything? Does it have anything to do with my beliefs that are causing bad vision? Is it clueing to me something that I have to change?
Also, some people say that you need to accept that good vision is part of you and that you have it as a birthright so that your vision can improve whereas other people say that to acquire good vision you need to accept the blurriness?
Which one is right?
Feeling sad about something in the past does not improve vision. Instead you need to take control over your actions such that you have/get all power in the now. Maybe that was what happened for you to some extent.
Aura Wrote:I'm not quite sure, but when I have clear flashes, then I nearly always seem to have a feeling of......... sadness? Nostalgia?
Does this mean anything? Does it have anything to do with my beliefs that are causing bad vision? Is it clueing to me something that I have to change?
Also, some people say that you need to accept that good vision is part of you and that you have it as a birthright so that your vision can improve whereas other people say that to acquire good vision you need to accept the blurriness?
Which one is right?
What David said refers to Dr. Bates' appointment "Remember your successes (things seen perfectly); forget your failures (things seen imperfectly); patients who do this are cured quickly."
So clear vision is not something in which you must tighten or if this is an impossible thing. Keep 'dodging' clear vision
Aura, I wonder if the sadness that arises with a clear flash for you is like visual strain someone's been carrying for a long time, but they only become aware of it when they start to relax their visual system. That is, the sadness was always there, it's just that you're relaxed enough now to notice it. I could be wrong, but I don't think it's the clear flashes themselves which are making you sad.
I think now that the sadness might be caused by something that I am not willing to let go of, something that happened in the past that I am still holding onto and right now I'm trying to find out what it is so that I can progress further into vision improvement and that I can correct or change the way I think about something that may be holding me back from clear vision.
Aura Wrote:I think now that the sadness might be caused by something that I am not willing to let go of, something that happened in the past that I am still holding onto and right now I'm trying to find out what it is so that I can progress further into vision improvement and that I can correct or change the way I think about something that may be holding me back from clear vision.
Ok, but try instead to think about something positive that happened in your life,
and see if it also works while you relax your eyes.
I am sure you must have good memories also that you can think of.
The bad memories you can handle by understanding what really happened and what makes you able to be unconnected from these circumstances now in your life.
For instance you might have grown wiser or something, that excuses leaving that trouble behind you, so it doesn't interfere with the actions you are gonna be responsible for taking in this very now.
, 
