This man, Meir Schneider, was born legally blind. He got to 20/80, as stated at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.self-healing.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=43">http://www.self-healing.org/index.php?o ... &Itemid=43</a><!-- m -->
He has numerous credentials and is an international holistic speaker and teacher.
What I don't get is how he misinterprets the Bates method, when he claims it helped him tremendously. He emphasizes relaxation through yoga and other methods, but makes claims that Bates is based on strengthening eye muscles, which I know wasn't what Bates was saying all along... Bates made clear that the extrinsic eye muscles needed to loosen to allow the eyeball to go back to its original shape and normal vision.
At <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20060610/ai_n16475701">http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/ ... _n16475701</a><!-- m -->, during an interview he answers with the following statements that seem contrary to Bates teaching...
Q: How do you help others who have cataracts?
A: The biggest part of the program is to strengthen the lens and its muscles so you can prevent cataracts; strengthen the pupils so you can see well in strong light and in dim light. Also to learn to connect better between your brain and your eye. That gets you to pay attention to everything you don't pay attention to in normal use.
Q: Why is that important?
A: We don't use our periphery vision enough. You look at the laptop. Nothing tempts you to see the ceiling, the wall. That's what happens to most people these days. You look at a book and the rest of world does not exist.
The boldfaced parts above seem to be a gross misinterpretation of Bates' doctrine. How did he easily miss Bates' teachings in regard to central fixation versus diffusion when it comes to using peripheral vision? Not to mention the psychological component that trying to use peripheral vision to observe everything causes diffusion. Central fixation is seeing one point best at a time. It's a basic teaching of Bates.
I just read about him today, but found his story interesting in the least. It seems that what helped him restore his eyesight would be a combination of all the relaxation techniques he's been doing like yoga, in addition to some Bates techniques he may be doing correctly like palming. True? However, when someone tries to exercise/strengthen and relax the eye muscles at the same time, all those years, it seems easy to be misled in what was of most benefit. He does not seem to be a true follower of the Bates method but it is interesting how he regained most of his eyesight despite all this.
He also uses the term "eye exercises" to describe the Bates style exercises, which makes it sound like eye-strengthening exercises and not so much about learning to use your vision correctly. But you also have to take into account that the guy was blind, and he still doesn't see perfectly (though much better than he used to), and being blind entails a different way of perceiving the world, so for some obscure reason I tend to give him more leeway in these types of explanations and terms than I would other people. And, like you point out, he still had quite a bit of success regardless, so while he may be missing some things about the Bates method in concept and practice, we are also surely missing some things about Meir's own methods.
Dave
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
I ordered Meir Schneider's book Movement for Self-Healing which I read while I was out of town for over two weeks, and finished it in 6 days.
This discovery that Meir Schneider had taken a physical therapy / holistic approach was further encouraging to me because I want to get a degree in physical therapy. I wanted to see in Schneider's own words what he had to say, in order to understand his point of view better. His main specialty, as I found out, is physical therapy (for other parts of the body) through massage and circulation restoration, breathing techniques, etc. Healing people's eyes was like secondary work when you consider the amount of time he dedicated to people in each area. He found palming and sunning helpful, and those are Bates-oriented. I further read this book to also learn more about him, and have gained tremendous respect for him.
After finishing this book, I checked into the reviews for the older edition Self-Healing: My Life and Vision and saw your review there from June 22, 2001. It seems that I read this book for the same reason you did, aside from other reasons. I believe there may be things we're missing out on too... and one way of learning what works is to listen to what successful people say. Even if they are theoretically 95% correct, and you know only half of what they're saying, you've still gained more of benefit, and it helps you gain a critical eye for what may or may not work when you look at the whole picture.
Even then, I understand why one would be inclined to give Meir Schneider more leeway in these types of explanations and terms. He has had a lot of success for one who was born blind and success speaks for itself.
i think when you use your peripheral vision correctly you are doing the same thing as central fixation.It means you regard the object and see the object very sharp meantime you see the rest of the place (other object) blurry but you see it.
You can try
regard the object and pay attention what else you can see(Less clearly but still see). Object which is at the end of your peripheral vision is there in spite of central fiction.
Read my updated post at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.iblindness.org/forum/index.php/topic,397.msg1642.html#msg1642">http://www.iblindness.org/forum/index.p ... ml#msg1642</a><!-- m --> ... this clarifies a lot of things about Meir Schneider.
karo, I'd just like to add my experience of central fixation and peripheral vision. I was confused at first until I understood that it means you are AWARE mentally of a very fine point (the smaller, the better the vision), and become slightly and gradually less aware of the surrounding objects/detail. Myopes invariably try to see too big picture in sharp vision. I would not describe it as the surroundings being blurry - that confused me personally.
Then to proper central fixation add shifting, and I believe you on your way to natural good vision. The key is to then have these good vision habits take so that they become unconscious.
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