Hello!
I am new to this forum so I hope I put this question in the right section and I hope I am not repeating a topic that is already being talked about. My question is in the last paragraph. First I want to tell you about my eye condition and what I have been doing. I am a 62 year old male with -8 diaptors in one eye and -7.5 in the other. I have also been diagnosed with beginning cataracts. Last year I had a partial detached retina and I allowed laser surgery to reattach the retina. I was left with everything looking like it is under water in that eye. The doctor said there is nothing they can do about that plus they can't see anything abnormal in the eye. I also have an incredible amount of floaters that seem to be getting worse as my eyesight gets worse.
I have started a series of eye exercises I got from the Jane Kabarguina. I also do yoga asanas for the eyes, mainly inversions. I put drops in my eyes each day of one of the following 1) Castor oil 2) Honey 3) A combination of lemon, white onion, ginger and 5 parts honey. These are all ayuvedic remedies. It is too soon to say if I see any improvement.
Now that I have found this site, I will study the Bates Method and figure out what are the core eye exercises and incorporate them into my eye routine and maybe even drop the ones that don't seem to work.
I started sun gazing a week ago because I read about it in the Bates Method and also being mentioned by the other website I referred to earlier. I look at the rising sun and slowly blink for maybe 30 seconds. I stop if my eyes feel strained. I also do this two hours later but this time I blink a lot and stop quickly if my eyes feel strain. I also just swing my head to and fro with my eyes closed when the sun is higher up during the day. It seems that my eyesight is worse and the haze around objects is greater, but it is hard to tell if this is true because of the large degree of myopia I have.
So I ask, is this sun gazing safe or am I adding more damage to my eyes? Is sun gazing healing for cataracts in the long run? I wish I could find someone to have an intelligent conversation with about this because everyone in my life thinks I am crazy. The medical profession wants to take out the lenses surgically. I want to figure out the cause and then heal myself naturally. I trust nature. After all, I did this to myself by not paying attention to my body for years. I can reverse it with hard work.
The sun can't damage you, but you can cause some harm (though temporary) by staring at it. Do sunning with eyes closed, moving your head gently from side to side, up and down and/or in a circle. Dr. Bates says it's not recommended for people with imperfect sight to look at the sun directly, due to the great effort we're making to see, yet not aware of it. And yes, eventually the Sun is going to help you with the issue, but take it like a play, as a means to help you raise the awareness of tension and not a hard work!. On the other side people with perfect sight can look at it directly without any nuisance, consequently never causing any damage.
I used to had a lot of floaters two years ago, like I was straining a lot to see (now at a less degree). At the present time, on rare ocassions I can let them annoying me, usually I can notice them when I'm more in fear, stressed, etc. But overall I hardly noticed them.
Wow, thanks for such quick replies! This is a great website. Thanks David for giving this gift to the world.
First of all, the eye doctor told me that the laser surgery had healed and I could do any activities. It has been 9 months. He said anyone with such great myopia has a tendency to have a retinal detachment at any time.
I will try sunning with my eyes closed for now. I tend to want to go all out when I learn something new and reading about how sun gazing let's the sun into the brain through the optic nerve sounds wonderful. I have also learned that it is easy to look at the sun for 30 seconds as it rises over the horizon without causing me any apparent strain. I look forward to getting back to that in the future.
I had read Bates years ago and recently from this website and I finally understand what he is saying! He prescribes exercises that you can do during the day or for a short time. I finally understood that when I scan a line of text, there is no apparent movement in the opposite direction of where my eyes go. However, when I move my head with my eye movements, for a moment I see it. And when I look from one letter to another in text, both letters stay dark. Of course the second letter is more blurry but it still looks dark. So I finally understand that I don't have central fixation. When I palm, I cannot remember a black dot even for a second. It is all so simple.
As far as floaters go, I have had them my whole life. However, in the last year they have increased tremendously as my eyes went from -6 to -8 diopters. I have also struggled with serious dizziness and vertigo from falling off a ladder 3 years ago. It is all related. I am encouraged to think that I can reduce these floaters as I do these exercises. It is good to hear from others who have had some success with floaters and cataracts.
Looking through this forum I realize that there aren't many people who have healed cataracts. I see there are over 195 people who read this question on sunning and cataracts. Maybe that might mean there are a lot of people like myself wondering if we can heal our cataracts. I hope I can be one of those people. So far, I don't know anyone who has only what I have read from Bates. However as I read the literature I can see that it is possible. The hardest part is to have relaxed eyes all day long not just during the exercises. I notice that my eyes are tense all day long even when I close them and even as I do the exercises, that is, shifting, central fixation, sunny etc. I read that when a fish's lenses were squeezed, it got cataracts. When the pressure was released, the cataract went away. So my tense eyes are causing cataracts. Better said, my life long tension in my eyes are creating cataracts after 62 years of strain.
Another thing on sunning, I keep reading in conventional medicine that sun light causes cataracts. So in the back of my mind I wonder if this is true.
So I am trying to focus on relaxing my eyes. That is hard. I stopped wearing my glasses two weeks ago except to drive. I have -8 diopters in right eye and -7 in left. I have very many floater that also get in the way of my seeing. However, my left eye sees like its underwater. I had a partial retinal detachment last year and allowed the laser surgery for reattachment. It left my eyesight damaged. I wish I knew about this site before I did the surgery. However, I hope I can undo the damage they caused as i do the Bates Method.
It would be good to find a teacher one day because i don't think I am doing it right.
Welcome to the forum, there are lots of helpful caring people here. Granted, I haven't come across people with caracts on this site, majority of the people here are myopes, but there's plenty of literature by Dr. Bates and I have come across sunlight being used to cure cataracts too.
"Sunshine is Food for the Eyes. The eyes thrive on the sunâs energy. Go outdoors in the sunlight everyday that you can. Outdoor people generally have better vision than people who spend most of their time inside.
The best time to enjoy the sunshine on your eyes is in the morning before 11:00 am or after 3:00 pm.
The sun improves the eyes and pupils in many wonderful ways. For instance, it loosens tight muscles. The nerves and muscles just naturally let go of stress and tension, a leading cause of poor eyesight."
"Even Dr. Bates was surprised at what one man in his late 60's accomplished with palming. This man had worn glasses for forty years for distance, and twenty years for reading. He was also developing cataracts. When he asked how long he could palm, Dr. Bates told him he could not overdo it.
At his next appointment the man reported "It was tedious, very tedious, but I did it." He had palmed from 4 am to midnight, eating nothing and drinking lots of water. He could now see perfectly both in the distance and for reading, and his cataract had cleared up significantly. Two years later there was no relapse."
I am 69 years old and have been sungazing for over 2 years using Hira Retan Manek's (HRM - youtube) protocalls.
I started with 10 seconds and added another 10 seconds each session, first hour at dawn or last hour at sunset when UV is less than 2 and now I gaze regularly from 30 to 45 minutes.
Also I employ some of the Bates method techniques: Palming and the swing.
My nearsighted vision previously was 2.25 - to 3.0 diopters (used for for the lens prescription). My vision has improved greatly and sometimes it is 20/20 for brief periods.
So far I have not noticed any cataracts but many people, including doctors, will convince you that the sun is bad for your eyes.
Will sungazing remove cataracts? I feel that training the eyes to accept more light will strength your eyes -especially as you get older- and the mechanisms behind the eye to the point where Cataracts will not appear. I personally, as an experiment, would try gazing as I did starting with 10 seconds at dawn or sunset (do not go over 45 minutes) otherwise you will have to have them removed through surgery and new lenses installed.
