Since I found the Bates Work I have been observing the amount of people with vision problems and I'm getting scared from what I see. On every year that pass I see an increase on children, politicians, musicians, sportsmen as any other profession, but the most surprising on this increasing is in the group of yoga, reiki, tai chi, pilates, meditation, martial art's masters. This last group puts me numb. They relax the mind, the body and the soul, they are happy and energetic people. How can they have vision problems? Is because they do relaxation every day?
Could William Bates have the answer? Let's quote him:
"Primarily the strain to see is a strain of the mind, and, as in all cases in which there is a strain of the mind, there is a loss of mental control. Anatomically the results of straining to see at a distance may be the same as those of regarding an object at the near point without strain; but in one case the eye does what the mind desires, and in the other it does not.
These facts appear sufficiently to explain why visual acuity declines as civilization advances. Under the conditions of civilized life men's minds are under a continual strain. They have more things to worry them than uncivilized man had, and they are not obliged to keep cool and collected in order that they may see and do other things upon which existence depends. If he allowed himself to get nervous, primitive man was Promptly eliminated; but civilized man survives and transmits his mental characteristics to posterity." - Chapter IX
What he is trying to say? Are all the relaxed persons in the big cities being influenced by the non relaxed persons? Could the strain be shared because of living together in cities?
Now I want to ask something for those who got vision improvement: How is the environment of your city and how you live it? Maybe you have the answer.
I do my best to carry a peaceful environment around with me wherever I go. Obviously, this is easier in some places than others, but if I can keep myself calm, it matters a lot less when others around me are noisy or rushing. Plus I feel in control and not like a victim. I practice this all the time, breathing deeply and slowly, thinking before I speak.
DaniFixe Wrote:the most surprising on this increasing is in the group of yoga, reiki, tai chi, pilates, meditation, martial art's masters. This last group puts me numb. They relax the mind, the body and the soul, they are happy and energetic people. How can they have vision problems? Is because they do relaxation every day?
They may be able to relax in other ways, but they still make an effort to SEE. And what they practice is not addressing that effort. While these other things may help complement vision improvement, one still has to develop awareness of, and eliminate the strain and effort in seeing. How one is using, or, misusing the eyes.
Early man depended on keen vision for survival in many ways which we cannot even imagine nowadays. We can get by much easier with imperfect vision in these modern times, every street corner has an optometrist ready and waiting to prescribe some fancy lenses to mask the underlying issue. And parents accept it in their children as much as they have accepted it in themselves.
When we were children we had stress at times but immediately after the incident our focus changed back to something fun. I watched a nova show with the guy form MASH Hawkeye. They were showing how antelope in the jungle are relaxed eating grass. A tiger sneaks up and chases them, tryâs to kill one for dinner. They fear instinct, preservation takes over and they run. Then the tiger gives up, leaves. The antelope immediately go back to relaxed, happy state of mind. The TV show told how many of us have stopped using that natural stress prevention instinct. A stressful event happens and we maintain our minds in that state afterward. Our jobs, pressures in this society cause so much stress we get struck in in it mentally all the time. it travels into the physical and sight.
I try to keep a place to go mentally like when I was a kid. When we were young, most of use had that happy place, like the wild animals.
I remember my cousin Mike and I would play together; imagination games; Johnny and Richard, BB and his dad, secret agents and super heroes Star Trek, Man from Uncle, Hogans heroes.., crawling through the underground drain pipe or holes in the cellar walls. Always in a action fantasy world or just hanging out relaxing, playing baseball, Indians, making bows and arrows.
Sometimes Mike and I would get in a argument. Tom and I would play stunt fighting; swing at each others face with fists and purposely miss by 2-3 inches. The being fake hit person would make believe they were hit and fall back violently to the ground, do flips, get up and return the punch. We could go on back and forth this way for a hour!
One day Mike came in the kitchen. I said 'Think Fast'! and threw a hard punch to his face. It was meant to be a stunt punch and miss by 2 inches but somehow I miscalculated and hit him right in the face. He got mad!; we had a for real fist fight that began in the kitchen, went down the porch, around the front and side yards and ended in the low yard.
Then we suddenly thought of something fun to do and quit the fight. No stress, no one mad..,
The fact that so many wear glasses is pretty shocking to me as well. According to some articles I've read 1 out of 3 wears glasses in EU, USA, while in the East some articles claim its much much worse(see http://thoughtfulindia.com/2012/05/90-of...vent-this/ for example). These numbers are slowly but persistently rising. Many consider global problems as those of ecology, famine, disease control etc., but has anyone considered, that we are slowly becoming less and less capable of seing ,as a global issue?
