I'm on about my third try at the bates method now. I've had to give up a couple of times just because my vision is so bad (about -6.50 diopters in both eyes) and I couldn't function without glasses at work/school etc. Anyway, I've decided to just stop wearing my glasses while I work through my summer job and see what progress I can make this time.
I did have some results the first couple of times around. At one point I seemed to learn how to cause edges to appear clear with blurry halos and then the second time around with diligent sunning, palming and attention to oppositional movement, I noticed a marked improvement in my depth perception and 3D vision.
Well, my question now is regarding distance vision versus general acuity. I've been looking as far as I can ahead as I walk around now while paying attention to oppositional movement, and I've noticed that I seem to be able to see traffic lights and crosswalk signals quite far ahead now in bright daylight, whereas before I wouldn't be able to see them at all, not even a blur. What I see, at least for traffic lights, is a somewhat clear image surrounded by halos and doubles. But while I seem to be able to see farther, my general acuity doesn't seem to have increased (although, now that I'm wearing my glasses, I seem to be able to make this text more clear by focusing on smaller areas).
Another strange thing, however, is that I noticed that sometimes I'll blink and I'll be able to see what I'm looking at clearly, but with the same blurry halo outside of it. For example, I'll be at work looking at a letter, and I'll suddenly notice that I can read small print perfectly at a few feet distance, but that clear text will be almost a double image inside of the normal blurry halo that I always see. I'll then blink and it will go away, dissolving kind of into jagged lines with the same blurry halo.
I'm very curious as to what exactly is going on here. I had a bit of astigmatism the time before last that I went to the optometrist, which seemed to have disappeared on my last visit. Is it possible that my eyes are just kind of twisting to give me a distorted clear image inside the halo? It's very strange.
And I'm assuming that my ability to see farther distances is an indication of better centralization. Does this sound correct?
Anyway, I'd be very appreciative of any input you guys have. Hopefully I'll be able to have a little more progress this time as I have about a month until I'll be non-functional without glasses again.
Nanocyte Wrote:Another strange thing, however, is that I noticed that sometimes I'll blink and I'll be able to see what I'm looking at clearly, but with the same blurry halo outside of it. For example, I'll be at work looking at a letter, and I'll suddenly notice that I can read small print perfectly at a few feet distance, but that clear text will be almost a double image inside of the normal blurry halo that I always see. I'll then blink and it will go away, dissolving kind of into jagged lines with the same blurry halo.
I'm very curious as to what exactly is going on here. I had a bit of astigmatism the time before last that I went to the optometrist, which seemed to have disappeared on my last visit. Is it possible that my eyes are just kind of twisting to give me a distorted clear image inside the halo? It's very strange.
What you are doing is blinking a little too hard, which can "nudge" your oblique muscles (which are the eye muscles responsible for near accommodation), which can make you see a little better. A nearsighted eye has chronically tense obliques and even though blinking in an awkward way may force these muscles to slightly relax, it can never cure you and can actually make you strain more, causing worser vision. (This may be why you started getting some astigmatism.) Plus, complete relaxation produces much sharper vision than what you see temporarily after blinking this way.
When you have a distorted clear image inside a halo it means you are using way too much effort. Technically, your recti (farsight) muscles are tensing to a certain degree in addition to your oblique muscles. Bates discovered that when both the oblique and recti muscles are tense, you have astigmatism. The first thing you should do is convince yourself that perfect vision can only be achieved by effortless focusing.
Nanocyte Wrote:And I'm assuming that my ability to see farther distances is an indication of better centralization. Does this sound correct?
Exactly! The smaller the point of centralization, the more detail you see, which is what good eyesight is. When you see things blurry, it is because you are straining to pay attention to more than one object (or part of an object) at the same time.
Thank you for the reply. Your explanation was actually quite helpful. One of the problems I've been having is that I noticed a long time ago that I could create this blinking skewed clarity with edges and sometimes words as I described, but it was always accompanied by doubles and a definite sensation of muscular pressure around the eyes. I've been going back and forth trying to decide whether or not this is "correct" and whether I should keep doing it, but your explanation makes a lot of sense to me and kind of confirms what I have been thinking. Although I don't think I'm actually blinking harder than usual, I think when I blink and refocus my eyes, I've learned to kind of tense my extrinsic muscles in an unnatural way that produces this effect. I walked around today and focused on just relaxing my eyes and not doing that when I was walking around, and it felt a lot better and my depth perception as well as the feeling of being connected to my environment was better.
