I have been lurking again abit. Still working on getting up the complete resolve to attempt this Bates vision improvement. For those that don't know my background I will throw a little information out then ask my questions. I am 27 years old and have been wearing glasses since I was 8 and I guess that I am lucky. I never really got vision that was much worse then what I orginally had. I test my vision periodically using a snellen test and I can make out the 20/40- 20/50 line depending on the light and the day. I should note that the letters are not crystal clear but I can see them enough to make them out. Edges are a little blurry, but hey I can see not too bad. My brother who started wearing glasses around the same age as I did has -6.25 in one eye and -5.50 in the other. Said without them he is practically blind.
Anyways, My question is when I palm or try imagining things, I can't see black. I see some colors and swirling of colors almost like the northern lights with my eyes closed. So according to Bates this means my eyes are under strain, which I agree with. When you say try imagine black I don't know how to do that. Or visualizing I cannot see a black dot or black ink. Does one actually see a black dot like you would wben looking at a period on a piece of paper or how does one actually go about imagining it. This is where I am getting hung up. Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Remembering black, just like meditation, is something you cannot induce with an effort. It's not a doing, it's rather a non-doing. If your mind is strained and you keep trying to imagine or remember black over and over, you will be locked in inability to do it.
I'd recommend that you stop trying to imagine black, and just sit back and relax, invite the relaxed state of your mind, and wait until it comes. It's like if you want a water stream to clear, you can't help it with stirring. You just have to wait until the silt calms down. Then, in silence, just think abruptly: BLACK! In the very moment you will see a piece of black field for an instant. It should not be an image "constructed" with your mind verbally, it should be a purely visual memory, although not seen with your eyes directly.
The inability to imagine black is a reliable indicator of your strain. If you can't imagine black, you are strained. I have days when I just can't imagine black whatever I do, but other days I can do it perfectly for a few seconds. During a clear flash I can imagine a black dot of pin-hole size, and most of time I can only imagine quite a big piece of black field. Remembering black, even for a small instant, I find extremely efficient for relaxation. When you are remembering the black dot, your have to forget to "use" your eyes for a while and they switch to their natural state of non-doing, which is the goal. Each short memory of black dot is an impulse for relaxation. If such impulses go in series, you'll experience improvement in eyesight very quickly. I train myself to become addicted to black dot, I like to remember it on various backgrounds I am looking at.
I have been most inclined to do the palming when I am going to try and relax my eyes. When I am engaged in palming I should just let the colors come as they may and in doing so I should gradually "see" a lessening of the colors and start to "see" black. Would this be a correct way to proceed with palming?
One important thing to keep in mind is when you close your eyes you can't possibly actually "see" anything on that field of nothingness on the back of your eyelids. The point to remembering a black dot or anything else while palming is to get you to stop looking at that darkish field when you close your eyes, not try to form something out of it. Remembering things takes your mind elsewhere so that you don't look at nothing and strain your eyes by trying to see something that isn't there, whether it's colors or black. So you first start remembering things seen until you get flashes of visualization that while happening will take you away from that illusory black field on the back of your eyelids for as long as they last, then they'll come frequently and last longer.
Dave
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
I was unable to imagine black until lately. I realized that mental shifting improves the memory of black and a black period gradually.
So if you can't imagine black don't do it because it is not a doing as Oleg says.
I suggset mental shifting, but you may ask how can one do mental shifting when he is unable to imagine a black period. The answer is that I mean imagining that you are shifing in your mind and you can see the swing. But this does not mean that you are imagining the shifting itself, but you are imagining that you are doing it! and this will slowly bring the black period back. It has worked for me.
As Dave said, don't expect the black image appear in your eyes or on the back side of your eyelids. Visual memory invokes the same location of the brain as eyesight impressions, but it is not delivered via the ocular nerves. It feels like you see it, but not with your eyes. Forget about your eyes at all. I'd recommend that you also ignore the "colors" you see with your closed eyes. These are illusions caused by strain and by paying attention to them you support the strain. When you succeed to remember black you'll stop noticing the "colors" and realize they are gone.
As Elias said, shifting and swinging the imaginary image is also helpful, especially in order to make the memory of black last longer. In fact, you can't imagine anything longer than a single instance, if you don't do shifting.
