Flashes of clearer vision can be anything from very small amounts up to 20/20 or better. Depends on how much strain and it's accompanying abnormal tension you are able to relieve, and how long you are able to maintain that state of relief. It often comes with a sense of release, like something let it's grip go in our head, like a weight was lifted off it, as many describe it. Some people experience odd aches and pains, as the visual system is rattled from a long hibernation. Squeeze your fist for awhile, then let it go. Takes a lot of effort to keep it squeezed, but does it take any to let it go? The problem with our eye muscles, is that this has been going on for years, ratcheting up ever so slowly, and we become calloused to its presence, our senses numb to it, thanks to our handy corrective lenses. When our senses start to wake up, we may start to realize the uncomfortableness, even pain involved in trying to see with effort, be it conscious or unconscious.
Flashes of clearer vision can also be a catch-22, we get so bedazzled by our sudden clearer vision that we try to latch onto it by doing all the wrong things instantly again - suppress blinking, test our distance vision, concentrate on a single point without continuous, easy shifting. The slightest thought of effort to see the chart or other objects will ruin the flash.
For me flashes are usually accompanied by a feeling of expansion: I start breathing more deeply, my head seems to expand outward a little at the temples (so of course I wonder if I'm unknowingly squeezing there most of the time), and my eyes feel more liquid, softer but very aware, like a deer's.
Shifting is just moving your gaze from point to point to point. You'll get more benefit from smaller shifts, like from the bottom of a letter to the top of it.
Swings are the illusion of movement of stationary objects, like when you move your gaze to the right, the room appears to *swing* to the left. (This is also called oppositional movement.) You'll hear the term Long Swing, which is a simple Bates exercise of slowly twisting your body from one side to the other in a relaxed way, letting your arms dangle, and watching the world swing by in the opposite direction. The view should glide by -- if it's jerky or your eyes get stuck, you are trying to grab on. Bates said "The world moves -- let it move!".
Crown Wrote:Woke Up At 5:20 /Watched Sunrise & Sun gazed Until 6:15 (Using Central Fixation) /Palming For 10 Minutes /Focused From Finger To Snellen Eyechart 40-50 times Per Eye Then Both Eyes (Using Central Fixation) /Practiced Looking At Only One Point Really Fast For 5 Minutes /Went To The Gym At 7:30/(Went to Steam Room and Did Palming After Working Out & Swimming Then Relax In Jacuzzi)Posted Here Probably Will Repeat This Again Twoards Night
Can Some One Clarify Swinging & Shifting ( I read About It But Still Cant Grasp It)
Also Cleer Flashes How Do they Feel And Wehn Do You Get Them? Is Your Vision Better Or 20/20 During Them?
The first accidental clear flash I ever had and the one which started me on this quest: 19.75 years old, late summer, Upper Michigan, late afternoon, seated at desk reading in a dimly lit room without my lenses; rested my forehead on the crook of my left arm, eyes closed, about 5 minutes. Heard a noise, raised head and turned head to right, looking towards windows with slightly open vertical shades; clearly saw poster on wall between windows and could read words which I knew would ordinarily be blurry. Raised hand to adjust glasses to see even better - realized I didn't have them on. Wondered how I (nearsighted since birth; glasses since 11) could see any better at all without them according to optical science. Blur returned. Began my quest.
Quote:When And How Do {You} Get These Flashes? ( Would Me Palming Then Looking At the Snellen Chart & Seeing Pretty Much Everything But Not Very Clear Be One Of Theses Flashes I Dident Feel Anything Just Did It By Itself I Was Relaxed)
I can't force a flash, but they're coming more often and lasting longer, so I feel like I'm making the environment receptive for them to appear. It feels like I have to invite them in, more than making them happen. I get them most often when I'm looking at the eye chart in a relaxed and attentive way (giving it my full attention, not daydreaming), or looking for details in the scene out the window. I get them less often when I'm outside walking or driving -- if I'm moving there still seem to be too many other things to pay attention to and distract me.
@Nancy: First, congratulations on your success, what you have done with your vision is really remarkable. I understand what you mean by 'expansion.' If abnormal tension is a squeezing/pulling in, and over a long period of time that becomes our new norm to which we become accustomed, then when that tension is let go, relieved, it can feel as though we are decompressing, and things are expanding outward - back towards what should be the natural norm.
My most poignant experience of this didn't really come until after a few years of much practice with many things of a more physical nature (shifting, swinging, and all sorts of eye movements). I was making small gains, and clearer flashes, but felt as though I was still missing something, as though I was just nibbling around the edges of some mysterious Loch Ness strain. One weekend on a couple hour drive to my mother-in-laws, I was feeling a bit fatigued so just wanted to close my eyes for a bit (my wife driving, of course). I had no expectation, no anticipation, not looking for results or anything, other than just wanting to rest my eyes and mind. I was a most boring passenger. Probably because I had no kind of expectation, it must have really allowed something deeper to release, because upon opening my eyes (after about 20-25 minutes) my vision was noticeably much clearer, persistently clearer, accompanied by this new, odd sense inside my head that a weight was taken off, something just decompressed. I felt unusually comfortable and deeply relaxed. I was travelling across the Hudson River, which is quite wide, and could see the tiny houses a mile away all along the NJ mountainside across the way, and all sorts of detail popping out. That day struck a deep nerve, one I never forgot, changed my whole outlook on vision improvement, and what I was to place my attention on from thereon out.
Crown Wrote:Damn So When Did You Guys Start Getting You Flashes?? Like How Long After Starting The Exercises
I probably started getting them almost as soon as I started working w/ the eyechart, practicing central fixation, and swinging. Those were mostly very fleeting. Later on, when I learned better eye movement, they became longer episodes of clearer vision. And then as I became more acutely aware of that tension and mental strain, and how to let it go and avoid it, clear vision became more easily persistent.
arocarty, thanks for the praise -- it means a lot. I grew up in Rockland County and still live in the Hudson River Valley now, just further north. I've had some nice flashes myself driving over the Hudson and looking at the houses on the shore. My second flash ever out of doors was like this, and the depth and clarity almost made me weep -- how could anyone ever take their vision for granted when the world looks like this? For the record, the first outdoor flash was when my partner was polishing his silver car in the driveway and I was keeping him company, easily shifting from one black door handle to another one, then then from one end of a handle to the other end. Suddenly the entire scene beyond the car, street and houses and far trees, cleared right up! I was glad I was sitting down or I probably would have lost my balance, I was so stunned. It lasted for almost a full minute and I gloried in it -- what a gift.
Crown, the more you chase flashes the more they will elude you -- it's like trying to grab a handful of cloud. Keep doing the work, looking for details in a relaxed way, and they'll start coming. Your eyes and brain have to get used to a new way of interpreting the world visually. When I first started getting the Universal Swing on the chart, I didn't know what it was and wanted it to stop! (It had seemed incredibly elusive so I finally just gave up looking for it and had forgotten about it.) Now I see it all the time, and smile, knowing it means my vision is healthy.
Probably Will Repeat This Again Twoards Night