Method of the Month, Nov 2006 - Constant Movement

[David]

I'm getting the idea now to make the Method of the Month more of a thing where everyone tries a method and shares any experiences and thoughts after trying it. This will not only be of benefit to everyone participating, but to me too, because I regularly give so much advice on this forum, other forums, and by email, and I don't usually get much immediate feedback on what exactly people got or didn't get out of it.

Restoring the free flow of movement is as core to vision improvement as relaxation. Move your eyes all day long. Imagine the world, too, continues to move all day long. If you imagine the world as fixed and unmoving, so will you be. Even stationary objects appear to move as your point of view changes with each tiny shift of your eyes. The movement isn't something you practice for a short time, like when working with a chart, but something that you have to incorporate into your way of being all day long and all night long. It becomes a part of who you are. If you stop moving, it is only because you are locking on. Your heart never gets tired of beating, and your lungs never get tired and cease to function. The eyes are meant to be allowed to maintain their own style of movement as well. They do not need to rest.

But you have to start somewhere, and if you start by doing the movement in forced way, it's better than locking your eyes in place.

I invite everyone to try seeing movement and releasing your eyes (as much as you can; even a little is a lot) to be in constant motion for an entire day. It is too hard to try to control the movement and keep it up in a controlled way for very long, so find out just what it takes to be able to continue the movement, even if it begins to feel weird or wrong or as if you will not be able to see if you do it. And reply here to share your experience and thoughts with the rest of us.

Dave

[Lucia]

This is something I've been doing for the last few days, having my eyes constantly moving. What I noticed is that when I need to have my attention focused on something else, rather than my eyes, I realize later that I've been staring. But when I have the opportunity to let my mind free and remember to consciously move my eyes, things around me begin to clear. This seems like a contradiction (the free mind and the conscious movement), but having the eyes moving and being aware of its movement seems to ease the mental strain I have when I'm concentrated. I don't know if this is clear enough for you to understand...

"It is too hard to try to control the movement and keep it up in a controlled way for very long"
I agree with you. Doing this for a few minutes is easy, but for a longer period it requires a lot of persistance. Something that I have noticed, too, especially when I'm practicing the shifting, is that my eyes don't always move. Seems like I want them to move but they don't want to; I don't feel their movement. Is this something I should expect? I think it's related to central fixation, because I try to shift small objects (from the left side to the right, from bottom to top, etc.), but I can see equally well the entire object, no matter what part of it I'm looking at. It's like the eyes were thinking: we don't need to move, we see the entire object... I hope you understand these thoughts...

Just to finish this post, the other day I was on the subway without glasses, and started to shift a blue sign that was more than 10 meters away. Then, suddenly, the word "Exit" cleared enough for me to read it very easily. ;D After a few blinks my vision was "normal" again, ie, very poor. Today, with the glasses on, the word "Exit" seemed blurrier...

[David]

Lucia,

Thanks for sharing! You bring up some good points too.

You don't need to feel the movement of your eyes. They can shift so rapidly that it would be too distracting to feel it all the time. The only thing you would really ever feel from the eyes is strain. It can be sort of confusing to instruct people to move their eyes all day long, while at the same time saying don't think about your eyes, and the way Bates got around this conundrum was to usually suggest, instead of moving the eyes all day long, imagine the world moving all day long. When your eyes are in motion, you can get a sense of everything around you moving in the opposite direction. But when you move your eyes a lot, you can't really keep track of the whole thing (ie: "I'm moving my eyes this way and the world appears to move that way), so just having a sense of noticing the continuous movement and being okay with it is the way to go. People with vision problems tend to lock their eyes, and bringing back movement, even imperfect movement, can have a big effect.

I know what you're talking about with reference to not actually seeing the reason to shift your eyes to see details, because it all looks equally clear without doing so. The problem is you see everything equally poorly, and glasses have encouraged the habit of locking your eyes. One good thing to do is look at your finger at the distance at which you can see best, in good enough light to see your fingerprint pattern. Study your finger as you see it with good vision, and study how you see the details. Notice that in fact you do shift among them rapidly, without really thinking about it. How does this differ from how you look at an eye chart in the distance?

Dave

[Lucia]

Sometimes is difficult to imagine the world moving in an opposite direction, so I have to constantly repeat to myself: "my eyes go to the left, the world goes to the right; my eyes go to the right, the world goes to the left". And this constant repetition of sentences ends up to be something boring, as if I was learning something for a written test at school. Do you understand this idea? So, I prefer to move my eyes without noticing the opposite movement of the world. The most important thing is to have a constant movement, even if imperfect. Like you said, even imperfect movement can have a big effect. And the more I practice it, I guess the more I will understand how the world moves, without thinking of it in a logical way. It is something that I will realize when I gain a good unconscious movement of the eyes and things finally clear up, when the movement becomes perfect. (oh, is so difficult to express myself in another language!)

About the finger and the eyechart, I must say I don't use much an eyechart for testing my vision, just for looking at the halos. And I don't use it because my vision is so poor that I have to place the eyechart very close to my face in order to see at least clearly the first line. (let me say I downloaded my chart from the internet and it's designed to be used at ten feet.) About the finger, the eye really shifts without me noticing the movement. Now that I'm thinking about it, when looking at the halos, there is a rapid shifting of the eyes...

[David]

If you're not able to see the world moving, then as you look around you just be mentally open to the idea that the world is moving around you as you constantly shift perspective. The long swing or something similar is one way to jump-start it. But even if you aren't moving your body much at the time you're looking around, consider how things could be perceived as moving just when you glance at one point and then glance to the side of it. People with vision problems tend to not only lock their eyes, but as a projection of their own inner fixedness they mentally try to lock the world in place, to stop it from moving around and past them. But the world can be perceived much better with a series of glances than with one hard long stare, even when the world is moving.

So the eye chart aside, compare how you look at your finger to how you look at a distant object, several times.

Dave

[Lucia]

I'm able to see the world moving when I'm walking, specially outdoors. When I'm walking around the house I can see it too, but that movement is not so noticeable. When I'm not moving my body, is almost impossible to see the world moving (when I'm moving just my eyes, for example). I always try to be open to that idea (the world moving) but as you say, maybe I tend to lock that movement. I still wasn't able to let go, to not lock things in their place. Maybe is a logical way of thinking, even if not conscious: "things don't move, so why imagine they're moving? I walk, I move. A tree doesn't walk, a building doesn't walk, so they're not moving".

Yes, when I look at a distant object, maybe I have a constant movement; at least I try not to stare (which is difficult, because I want to see and the very bad habit of staring to see a distant object is still very present). Looking at my finger is much easier, I know I'm not staring, I can see it perfectly well, and the eyes shift constantly...

I just remembered something. In my first post in this topic, I mentioned I was able to see a very distant blue sign with the world "Exit". When I saw it, the word seemed to be dancing in front of me. It was amazing! Is this a sign that my eyes were really moving during that moment of clearer vision? Because I didn't feel their movement; it seemed natural. Is this what the expression "world moving" really means?

Lucia

[David]

Yes, the Exit sign is an excellent example of what you're supposed to perceive. And the way you didn't feel your eyes. Everything comes at once, because it's all representative of an easy state of the eyes working under no strain - the relaxation, the movement, and the seeing one point best. When one of these things are impaired, they all are.

Dave

[bkowalski]

Excellent discussion.  I have been trying to swing things as I walk throughout the day.  I have been told in the past that I walk very rigidly, so this is quite a change for me, but one that brings me to a more natural walk I believe. 

I have also noticed recently how a friend of mine with good vision smoothly shifts his eyes when we are having a conversation.  He doesn't stare at one part of my face.  I think I got the notion as a young child that I needed to stare at things or people to show that I was concentrating or paying attention. 

And just today after reading this thread, I closed my eyes and imagined how our world is constantly in motion, how it turns about an axis, how it revolves around the sun, how all planets in the solar system revolve around the sun, how our solar system moves through the galaxy, and how the galaxy moves throughout the universe.  When I opened my eyes, I could see letters on the eye chart better, and my eyes felt lighter. 

[brent f]

Hi, new to the forum, but keen to try some of these methods.

My eyesight has been stuck on myopic for 15years, since university, but I've always refused to get glasses.

Regarding the movement, looking at my fingerprint was enlightening.
When I look at distant objects however, should the shifting movement of the eye move in bigger shifts or small shifts, compared to the small 'fingerprint' movements? 
I feel that bigger shifts means I'm not looking at the object of my attention anymore.

[David]

The way you use your eyes should be the same whether you look at your finger or a distant object. It isn't necessarily easy to do so right away, but it's good practice anyway.

Does that answer your question?

Dave

[brent f]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the reply, that does go some way to answering my question.
I guess I've been in the bad habit of staring at whole objects in the distance rather than exploring  them with my eyes.

Also I've noticed I have a tendency to stare at nothing when my mind is concentrating on something - that was a surprise to me. 
My whole system seems to lock up.  {I think Lucia mentioned something similar}
When I got movement in my eyes going again though I found that couldn't remember what I was trying to concentrate on.  I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.  Something tells me that my mind has been under some sort of self-induced rigid forced concentration.  I'm guessing that you think it would be a good idea to experiment with that, would that be right?

Any ideas on what's going on with the mind in that sort of situation where it locks up during concentration?

By the way this is a great web site.
Brent.

[David]

Brent,

I think you're touching on something that doesn't often get addressed. You're used to using your mind in a particular way, and that way can't coexist with the way you're supposed to use your eyes. So you just have to gradually adapt, practicing different mental tasks without losing your clarity. Almost like you're learning to think all over again, but it isn't as hard as that. It's the basis for personality changes that happen when people improve their vision, and things like the "myopic personality," which sometimes gets described in a backwards way.

Dave

[brent f]

Dave,

I expect that my vision will be a good indication of whether my mental processess are natural, and vice versa.
Meaning that correct mental processess will hopefully lead to my vision improving.

I experimented further with movement.  Yesterday I allowed mental movement instead of mentally locking up and I was really happy with the results.
I did things that  I wouldn't normally  do - or perhaps I should say wouldn't easily do - and the result was I gained more energy & enjoyment.  There was less holding back involved.  It was a case of 'just doing it' worked well. 

I couldn't see, he he, whether that led to seeing better, I didn't notice any vision improvements to speak of.  My eyes felt tired at the end of a long day and I found it hard to see movement when I was driving home late last night. 
Perhaps that I could have used the fast movement of driving on a highway to help, any ideas on how to do that.  Which leads me to another interesting question - how do you relax your eyes when you notice they're straining in the middle of some activity you're engaged in?

Brent.

[koukichoc]

hello,
I'm wondering at something since a few day...
does central fixation and constant movement are link together ?

I find out I'm not good at central fixation, when I look at a text all seem as clear as where I look, (when I say clear, it's not very clear of course).
And I lock my gaze where I want to see, my eyes don't move constantly.

So may-be because they don't move constantly, my eyes started to see equally well but not too well every-where instead of clearer at the center...
Stupid idea or good one ?

PS : I'm french, so if I made mistake, excuse me

[apavel]

    Due to central fixation, the area that is clear is surprisingly tiny - maybe 2mm at 1 meter.  As the clear area is so small, how can your eye see words and vehicles on the road then?  The answer is  saccadic eye movements. 
    When you look at a point, the eye shifts very rapidly - roughly 600 times/second, around the point so you can see the entire image.  This type of shifting is very important in clear vision.  When you stare at a point while you practice central fixation, you are forcing your shifting rate into a halt.  This lowers the shift rate and messes up the pattern causing considerable eye strain accompanied by lowered vision.  This is why central fixation is difficult to practice.  If you want to improve it, Bates suggests to glance at a point and consider that you see it clearer than the other points around it.  You shouldn't "stare" at a point for more than 1-2 seconds.  After 1-2 seconds, shift to another point and do the same thing.

Good luck,
Paul