I am 51 and have been interested in the Bates method for many years. I suppose like anybody when i first read the book i considered that Bates was saying that if we do things with our eyes then we can get normal vision
Bit by bit i have come around to a very different view.
It seems to me that to see what is in the present moment and see what does not exist inside ourselves in our imagination and importantly to see what is further away from ourself, and our body and our own point of view, that we need to cultivate a certain kind of present mindedness based on relaxed mental control where new points of view are things that are found to be interesting or at least are things that are viewed and not resisted.
Mccraken expresses this kind of thought more than Bates perhaps.
To give you an idea of what i mean, In your mind can you now mentally remember in precise detail, using your imagination, how you leave your present position and go to the precise location you were when you last saw the most important person in your life? So you can skip the stuff that is not about the actual travel so if you arrive at location A for some months you can skip that until you leave location A but you need to remember how you arrive and how you leave and link the two by seeing yourself at the same point.
When you do this, does your mind wander? Do you find it hard to maintain an altertness to the task? Does your mind create stuff that you know does not exist? Do you get stuck and find you cannot get from point A to point B in an effortless manner? Do you cheat?
Bates talks about a mind under control. I believe this kind of skill is related to having good vision because to see normally you need to have your memory and imagination freely available to your vision centre (as mccraken calls it) so that what you sense can be built into something you can imagine you are seeing free from any effort or strain
When Bates talks about central fixation of the eye he makes it clear that in fact he is talking about something much deeper than just the eye
In that respect i found this quote from Mccraken very interesting.
"We often hear the word Relaxation. With most it is little more than a joke. To the thoughtful, it is something they are trying to learn about. They have realized that it is of vital importance. They know that it must be mental. Tersely it means: Be yourself, at your own best, deliberate but alert, confident and expectant, but without abnormal tension, conscious that you are relying on the marvelous inherent power of the organism which is your endowment.
Such a state of mind some of us have, in some measure, sometimes. Today there are many, in humble stations as well as among the great, demonstrating that what they are giving is born of a magnificent endowment, working well.
Relaxation does not necessarily mean rest. It has been described as change of motion. An artist painted it as a bird, perched on a swaying thin branch, waving over a rushing turbulent stream.
The term relaxation applies to all the parts and functions of the system. The foundation of the method of Dr. Bates is: "The eye which is perfectly relaxed sees perfectly. In order to relax the eye, we must relax the mind." "
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.central-fixation.com/normalsight/chapter6.htm">http://www.central-fixation.com/normals ... apter6.htm</a><!-- m -->
I also tend to become philosophic when I try to analyze Bates. However I found that mystifying Bates too much on my own, in a way like you describe (can my mind travel? no, poor me!..) prevented me from starting practising it, for years. Although your analysis I believe is correct, I found that it is more productive first to obtain some experience with Bates, and then have the pleasure to analyze results.
When I only began, I tried so and so, making various things to my eyes and listening to my sensations. More experienced fellows shall correct me, but at my current progress, I think that all Bates exercises and the entire variety of metaphors and explanations are just different ways that may work for different people, but all aimed to lead you to a very simple and clean state that is innate to everyone.
The problem with reaching that relaxed state is that you can't directly command the eye muscles to release the strain. Although you can command the muscles to move the eye balls, there is a persistent share of strain in the same muscles that you can't control. So you have to act indirectly, via imagination, memory, central fixation, palming etc. BTW, the first thing I did that made my life much easier, was that I realized and began to feel the strain in my eyes. Now I can use it to monitor results of my efforts with Bates. So, in my experience, even if I don't see perfect black during palming, but only try to see it, I can feel how my eyes relax. When I feel the relaxation, I also get a clear flash, proportional to the degree of relaxation. At the moment, do I have the "memory and imagination freely available to my vision centre"? I guess so, but why care.
I am wondering if you misinterpreted what i was saying about remembering how you get from where you are now to some other location? This was only a memory and imagination exercise which can teach mental control rather than some kind of mystical mind travel trip!
I agree that fundamentally the Bates method is very simple.
My point is that such excercises might sound too sophisticated to someone who is considering Bates (not for me though). Although your exercise indeed helps relax one's eyes, it's not necessarily the only way to reach that goal.
I wonder what is your current progress, what kind of exercises you do and what is your experience with Bates, if any.
I feel my comments are more directed towards those who want to continue the Bates method but so far are not making the progress they want to.
I personally rather passionately believe that the Bates method while fundamentally a simple idea is also very deep from the point of view of discovering the genious of Bates. After all if it were so simple there would be no need for genious. I first began looking at Bates 19 years ago.
In dioptric terms my two eyed vision is now 50% better being about 1.5D better in my left eye.. At night my vision is very good compared to how i remember it before when it was just a mass of blurr on a rainy night, but although i dont need glasses for day to day purposes i always drive with glasses. To my mind zero diopters is the holy grail and worth reaching for.
I dont really do the Bates exercises as such. My direction is more from the mind side as i indicated above.
For sure if a person is making good progress using their own view of the method then of course they dont need to do anything different
Andrew
Apologies! I got my maths wrong on the % improvement. And have now edited that to correct it
I was wondering if central fixation has something to do with the fact that the middle of our eyebrows on our forehead is a source of energy.
When we look at something, we tend to emit somekind of mental energy towards it. Maybe if we focus on that energy to make it act like a beam, it may help us attain central fixation. Have you noticed sitting in a car in a traffic situation and looking at somebody out of the window, makes him/her look at you, most of the time?
I have generally felt the energy being emited unfocused, and abruptly. When I get a clear flash, I feel that energy being directed like a beam at every object I regard.
Another thing to mention, I have realized that somekind of energy comes out from my hands when palming. I feel it filling in my palm and even pushing my hands away!
∓quot;Elias "\ Wrote:Have you noticed sitting in a car in a traffic situation and looking at somebody out of the window, makes him/her look at you, most of the time?
Yes, to the point that i avoid looking at people in my car for more than a moment! The other side of this is if i feel i am looked at and i object to that i will now turn and look back. But is this a 6th sense or just good peripheral vision? I am not sure.
Quote:I have generally felt the energy being emited unfocused, and abruptly. When I get a clear flash, I feel that energy being directed like a beam at every object I regard.
From a bates point of view central fixation does represent directing all of our energy as best we can towards a single point of awareness. That could be a beam of awareness energy *or* it could feel like one, and the habit in vision problems is to diffuse awareness.
For example if you think somebody looks at you and you feel uncomfortable and you dont fully attend to that thought so that something is done, then a part of your awareness or vision has to maintain a *stare* at the unwanted aspect of awareness in order for it excluded from your main awareness until the uncomfortable feeling goes away. And of course that is an unnatural use of the mind.
I am in Finland at the moment where various alternative beliefs seem relatively common. One thing i do know is that when i believed in spirits and personal guides I had normal vision and now that i am less open to that and find the idea uncomfortable should it suddenly happen in front of me, i am myopic:-)
And my normal sighted mother believed and my myopic dad did not.
I was wondering if central fixation has something to do with the fact that the middle of our eyebrows on our forehead is a source of energy.
When we look at something, we tend to emit somekind of mental energy towards it. Maybe if we focus on that energy to make it act like a beam, it may help us attain central fixation. Have you noticed sitting in a car in a traffic situation and looking at somebody out of the window, makes him/her look at you, most of the time?
I have generally felt the energy being emited unfocused, and abruptly. When I get a clear flash, I feel that energy being directed like a beam at every object I regard.
Another thing to mention, I have realized that somekind of energy comes out from my hands when palming. I feel it filling in my palm and even pushing my hands away!
Any comments?
Well it's an interesting idea. In general I'd be hesistant to recommend anyone imagine they're sending energy out their eyes, because it's an invitation to just direct more strain into their eyes, since strain is the way to feel your eyes. But if you keep playing with what you're talking about, let us know what you get out of it.
Dave
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
Can you have central fixation of the eye if you are feeling something unrelated to what you are looking at? It would seem according to Bates that you cannot do this without creating a strain and losing central fixation
To maintain central fixation you need to release extraneous thoughts unattached to what you are looking at and focus all of your mental energy upon the single point of attention you are looking at, for that instant of time.
Naturally this requires considerable mental control
Naturally used eyes naturally express what a person is feeling.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.iblindness.org/forum/index.php?topic=280.0">http://www.iblindness.org/forum/index.php?topic=280.0</a><!-- m -->
Well I wouldn't say you have to focus "all your mental energy". Just the appropriate amount of it. Otherwise that would be like saying you can't see clearly if you're thinking abtractly about anything, or if you're remembering something that isn't immediately in front of you. It just has to do with the right balance. Focusing without bullying the eyes around, and unlearning beliefs like (as a random example) "I have to lock my eyes in order to think, or to make sure I don't start looking at someone while I'm lost in thought".
Dave
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
