I have been on and off the Bates Method for awhile and this time I am determined to make things truly work. I have started afresh for a few months now and had been trying to adjust my lifestyle to accommodate the change. My full strength spectacles have been ditched and I am only wearing my weaker glasses only when necessary. Anyway, there have been 2 questions that are bugging me for a long time and I hope to get some clarification.
1) I'm not quite sure if it's considered a flash but there have been times when I seem to be able to see much clearer than my usual poor vision. At times like this, I especially focus my attention on my breathing to prevent myself from getting over-excited and this clarity does remain. But the problem is that when i do a 'conscious blink', everything seems to reset and my vision returns to it's blurry state again. I'm not sure if I do blink during the phase of clarity. Are we supposed to feel a natural blink?
2) I have been playing around with the idea of closing my eyes and imagining objects I last see, swing. But the general way I do it is to imagine the entire object swinging, which I think is wrong because we are supposed to shift our focus on different points on the object. So I am wondering where should our vision of focus be if I were to imagine the swinging of objects?
Hope anyone will be able to enlighten me on this. Thanks alot~
Yes I would consider those clear flashes, they may not be near perfect clear flashes, which I seem to get only once a quarter with so little practice. You should blink, but it should be a normal blink, not a squeeze or really open, or something un-natural like that.
Swinging, you can imagine the whole object, while imagining its swing, but that's a little difficult to describe, other than principles. A: it swings B: Central Fixation C: you aren't staring. That's about it I can come up with. You'll probably hear a little more from the more experienced folks soon.
THE SHORT SWING by Dr. Bates: When the swing is short, no more than the width of the letter, the vision is normal; when the vision is normal, the swing is short. One cannot have normal vision of a letter, a normal memory or a normal imagination, without demonstrating the presence of a short optical swing.
It can be demonstrated that it is impossible to remember or imagine with the eyes closed a letter, a color or any object without the optical swing. When the swing is stopped an effort or strain is necessary, which may be conscious or unconscious, and the memory or imagination becomes imperfect. Normal vision is not maintained continuously without the short optical swing. It is not necessary, however, for one to be conscious of the swing in order to demonstrate normal vision.
(Practicing seeing it improves the clarity of vision.)
Methods of treatment which restore the optical swing are a benefit to imperfect sight. When the short swing can be demonstrated, the vision, the memory and the imagination are normal. One cannot imagine the short swing and imperfect sight at the same time. One cannot remember or imagine pain, fatigue or any symptom of disease and the short swing at the same time. For example, the symptoms of acute indigestion have disappeared when the patient imagined the short swing of a letter or some other object. In some cases, hay fever symptoms have disappeared quickly and permanently, through the use of the short swing. Bronchial troubles, the cough associated with influenza and whooping cough, have disappeared quickly when the short swing was imagined quickly.
THE UNIVERSAL SWING: When you hold the Snellen Test Card in your hand, you can imagine a small letter "o" printed on the card to have a slow, short, easy, continuous, regular swing. Of course, when the "o" swings, the card to which it is fastened also swings; when the hand holding the card swings, the card swings and the letter "o" swings. When the letter "o" swings the card swings, the hand swings, the wrist, the forearm, the elbow, are all swinging with the "o". If the elbow rests on the arm of the chair, when the chair moves the elbow moves; when the elbow moves, the card moves. One can demonstrate that a letter "o" pasted on the Brooklyn Bridge moves when the bridge moves, and when the "o" moves the bridge moves. One may think of many objects, one at a time, each one in turn moving with the moving "o". This is called the universal swing.
This movement is caused by the movement, shift of the eyes. Moving the head/face, body with the eyes improves appearance of the movement.
The universal swing has been a wonderful benefit in improving many cases of imperfect sight, in the relief of pain, fatigue and other symptoms of disease. It can be demonstrated that when one has the universal swing the sight is perfect. If the universal swing becomes modified, the sight is imperfect. There are no exceptions. This fact has suggested successful treatment for myopia, cataract, and other causes of imperfect sight.
It is well to remember that some people have difficulty in imagining the universal swing. They are very apt to separate the letter "o" from the card and imagine that either the card or the letter moves; and it is difficult for them to imagine the letter and the card fastened together and one unable to move without the other moving. Of course one can imagine the hand moving and the arm stationary, but when the hand and the arm are in a vise or fastened very closely together without any hinges, it is difficult or impossible to imagine the hand is moving without the arm moving as well. Persons who have difficulty in imagining the universal swing should consult others who can demonstrate it, explain it and help them to accomplish it.
The entire visual field moves âswingsâ in the opposite direction the eyes move, shift to.
I generally suggest to my patients that they practice the universal swing twice daily, morning and night; or better still, practice it at all times, in all places, no matter where they are or what they may be doing.
THE MEMORY SWING: With the eyes closed you can feel your eyes move under your fingers when lightly touching the eyelids. If you imagine that you are looking over your right shoulder, you can feel the eyeballs move to the right, and a long distance to the right. When you imagine that you are looking over your left shoulder, you can feel your eyeballs moving to the left, and far to the left. One can shorten the movement of the eyeballs by looking a shorter distance to the right, alternately looking to the left. With a little practice one can feel or imagine one feels, the eyeballs are moving the shortest possible distance from side to side. The eyeballs can be seen to move under the closed eyelids. The memory swing is a good thing to practice under conditions which would not be so convenient for the other kinds of swings. One can practice the memory swing in a dark room, on a dark night, in a dark cellar, in bed, and obtain a mental relaxation or an optical relaxation or a relaxation of the nerves which is worth while.
Imagine shifting left and right, top and bottom on a tiny fine print letter and feel the eyes move.
Imagine seeing the swing; the letter appears to move in the opposite direction the eyes shift to. Produces very clear vision.
THE VARIABLE SWING: Some years ago a school teacher called for treatment. She had a conical cornea, which is a very serious disease of the front part of the eye. The cornea bulges and becomes conical. The apex of the cornea becomes ulcerated, and may become perforated with loss of aqueous. Various operations have been recommended, but the results have been usually very unsatisfactory. The vision of the patient was 1/20 of the normal. She was very much benefited by the variable swing. The variable swing is shorter at twenty feet, or further than it is at six inches. In this swing the patient holds the forefinger of one hand to one side of the temple, and while looking at the Snellen Test Card, the head is moved from side to side a short distance. The patient when looking straight at the card, was able to imagine the finger moving from side to side an inch or more, while the test card moved a much shorter distance, or did not appear to move at all. By shortening the movement of the head, the swing became still shorter, until the finger seemed to move no more than its own width, and the card seemed stationary. It was very remarkable how her vision improved with the improvement in the swing. At the end of about an hour of the variable swing, her vision had improved to 1/2 with flashes of normal sight occasionally, which was a great deal better than the vision she obtained with her glasses.
There are some people who can practice the variable swing and obtain good results, while there are others who are not able to use it with any help or comfort. It is difficult for me to explain why or how, some people obtain good results from this form of a swing, while others require supervision with a great deal of mental gymnastics from their medical adviser.
FIAT2LUX:
Thanks for the assurance. I think we are probably in the same situation. It can get quite disheartening sometimes when the blur still feels the same before I started NVI. There are also instances when the blur seems the same but my eyes feel deeply relaxed. "At least I'm not straining and this feels good." That's what I have been telling myself.
clarknight:
Thanks for the re-reading of Swinging by Dr. Bates.
My experience so far with the Universal Swing will be what I describe as unnerving. I find David's suggestion of shifting via adjacent details rather helpful. When I shift in this manner, there will be instances where my vision will start to shake and everything starts to move on their own accord. But these instances often last for 2, 3 seconds at most before it stops again. To be frank, I'm not quite sure what I should be doing when my vision starts to shake like this. I know I should not be doing anything or just simply let go of my eyes. It feels like I'm holding on to something and I really have no idea how to just let go! So the only thing I do is to continue the shifting while paying attention to my breathing.
SkyersZ Wrote:FIAT2LUX:
Thanks for the assurance. I think we are probably in the same situation. It can get quite disheartening sometimes when the blur still feels the same before I started NVI. There are also instances when the blur seems the same but my eyes feel deeply relaxed. "At least I'm not straining and this feels good." That's what I have been telling myself.
clarknight:
Thanks for the re-reading of Swinging by Dr. Bates.
My experience so far with the Universal Swing will be what I describe as unnerving. I find David's suggestion of shifting via adjacent details rather helpful. When I shift in this manner, there will be instances where my vision will start to shake and everything starts to move on their own accord. But these instances often last for 2, 3 seconds at most before it stops again. To be frank, I'm not quite sure what I should be doing when my vision starts to shake like this. I know I should not be doing anything or just simply let go of my eyes. It feels like I'm holding on to something and I really have no idea how to just let go! So the only thing I do is to continue the shifting while paying attention to my breathing.
Anyone with a similar experience?
Yeah, probably my first hundered or so clear flashes, I kept staring with those instead of practicing good looking habits. It took me personally that long to find how to get those clear flashes without straining while I had them. The vibrating universal swing btw, I've only had once, and that was while I was imagining something with my eyes closed.
But just as with clear flashes you need to let go and look correctly, I think that's something to remember with those pulsating swings to apply as well. It may take a while, but that will be great all the same. And maybe eventually everything will pulsate in swings for both of us'
When the universal swing started showing up for me a few years ago, and I got it into my head that it was a good thing instead of trying to make everything stop moving, I remembered reading that it's like a massage for the eyes. So I used to imagine the same gentle vibration on my eyeballs in the same rhythm as the swing, feeling the connection between me and what I was looking at even stronger. Now I just relax into it and appreciate it.
