Improving vision

[Otter]

When you use the bates method, does your vision improve by clear flashes, or by a little each day?

[Jason]

Mine improves by clear flashes. I've never heard of someone's vision improving a little each day. Most people improve by clear flashes, when the clear flashes get longer and longer. Improving vision isn't like, say, healing a wound. I like how Dave puts it:

Recovery from psycho-physical disorders doesn't happen linearly. When improvement does come, it often comes in flashes. These "clear flashes", as they are commonly referred to by Bates teachers and students, are the common sign of improvement. They may be a flash of better vision or what seems like absolutely perfect vision, lasting for an instant or much longer. The improvement to normal vision can happen at any time with refractive errors (with disease states, it's hard to say). It happens whenever we let go of the strain to see, and it continues for as long as we don't fall back into strain. One day you might suddenly have a flash of clear vision and not have another for weeks. Or you might have a few most days, and eventually several prolonged periods of clear vision almost every day. The frequency, duration, and quality of clear flashes can be a good indication of how well you're progressing.

Jason

[Otter]

can you get clear flashes by palming/sunning and improve your vision?  How do you let go of the strain so you can get more clear flashes?

[apavel]

All Bates techniques are built to reduce strain and promote clear flashes.  These include shifting, swinging, central fixation, palming, sunning, memory, imagination, and more.

Otter, what's your eyesight right now?  As you're performing palming and sunning, do you get clear flashes throughout the day?

Paul

[Kazekage]

Dear Otter,

When you use the bates method, does your vision improve by clear flashes, or by a little each day?

"Results

It is impossible to say how quickly success will come, if indeed it comes at all. Erring on the side of caution, you should think in terms of one year at least and probably two. Nor it is possible to predict whether you will eventually be able to do without glasses altogether. the worse your eyesight now, and the longer (in years) and the more persistently (each day) you have worn your glasses, the harder it is likely to be. Much of course depends on your own motivation and self discipline. the rate of progress also varies with the individual. Some people, even with with quite bad eyesight, respond quickly, while others with only minor problems are not so lucky and must be more patient.

Broadly speaking, the first results come within a few hours or days of starting, but these are so elusive that they are liable to be discounted. Your eyes will probably feel more comfortable and you may find that you are able to distinguish slightly more of the test chart.

This slow, unremarkable progress may turn out the be the general pattern, but, for most people, there will sooner or later (usually within a couple of months) come more convincing evidence.. While practicing with the test material, or perhaps at some other time, you may experience a brief flash of vision which, if not actually perfect, will be so much better than your usual standard that you will hardly be able to believe your own eyes. This flash will be the first of many, gradually increasing in clarity, frequency, and duration as you proceed. At the same time the quality of your other; "non-flash" vision will be improving.

Your progress may be smoothly continuous, or it may run in steps. In the latter case, progress will be very slow or even absent for several weeks, whereupon there will be a sudden advance The eyesight then remains more or less static for another period of weeks before the next advance.

In either case, the object of the method is to reach the point where your "non-flash vision is not greatly inferior to that experienced during flashes. Flash vision is the best that you are currently capable of; non-flash vision is being impaired by the influences that the Bates method sets out to minimize. Since it is not possible to eliminate these influences altogether, you should not imagine that, at some future time, your eyesight  will be continuously perfect. It may achieve a very high average standard indeed, but the performance of the eyesight, like that of any human function, is influenced by such variable factors as mood, fatigue, and general state of health."

-Jonathan Barnes

can you get clear flashes by palming/sunning and improve your vision?

Yes indeed.

How do you let go of the strain so you can get more clear flashes?

The best answer is simple and repeated throughout the works of Bates; Do not try to see. When you are palming, "look" for the source of the strain. Search for a physical place within your mind from which the stain is being caused. Eliminate the strain in this area. If done correctly, and the area is relieved of tension, a clear flash will result [and last until the (source of) strain reappears].

Make sure to read Spock's post - understand it.

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-Kaze

[Otter]

One more thing, so those ARE clear flashes after palming and sunning?  If so, I have gotten a lot of clear flashes ;D.  The last time I got a clear flash without doing any exercise, before I heard of this, was last November.  It was a cloudy day and I was on my way home in a car.  I was eating ice Cream.

[Otter]

ahem, sry i have to post this but i need to it make this topic bolded and people will read.  So anyways, plz answer question above.

[David]

One more thing, so those ARE clear flashes after palming and sunning?

Maybe, maybe not. It can be just from the sunlight narrowing your pupils. But not necessarily.

Dave

[otis]

Dear Otter,

Subject: CONFIRMING clear "Flashes" after palming.


Otter>  One more thing, so those ARE clear flashes after palming and sunning?  If so, I have gotten a lot of clear flashes .  The last time I got a clear flash without doing any exercise, before I heard of this, was last November.  It was a cloudy day and I was on my way home in a car.  I was eating ice Cream.


Just read the Snellen below, before and after palming.

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Thus if you read 20/100 BEFORE palming, and are
able to glimpse the 20/50 line (intermittently) then
you are having clear "flashes".

That is the best way to confimr clear-flashes.

Try it -- you will enjoy the results.

Otis

[David]

Well it may or may not be what we call a clear flash, a real improvement in vision and not just the effect of bright light. One of the best ways to tell which is is by how your eyes feel. If they feel more strained, then it isn't a clear flash. However, if they feel strangely different, more relaxed, more open, more loose, something along those lines, then it's a pretty good bet it's a real clear flash.

Dave