I've been practicing the Bates Method for about 2 and a half months and have just started to be able to relax and have flashes. I set my snellen up outside in direct sunlight. The last flash was 20/40! (June was base 20/300) and lasted several seconds.
What I've noticed and what has helped me achieve flashes is that although I don't feel like I'm straining, I do sort of feel like I am staring as the letters begin to clear. This was a bit of a block in the past because I wasn't sure about this sensation and tried to avoid anything that felt like staring. At these times, my eyes are more open than normal, the blinking less noticeable, movement slower, and I often tear up to the point where I must close my eyes which is followed by a powerful wave of prickly warmth around my eyes(perhaps just the sensation that accompanies tearing or maybe a release of blocked energy).
Perhaps, I'm not blinking enough, hard to tell.
So, I don't try to stare but try to let my relaxed eyes do what feels best. This "stare" is how I have dealt with the transition of swinging/shifting to examining something and checking clarity.
Probably everyone is different and this is just my process.
Maybe that wasn't enough to warrant a response.
Anyway, I would like to say thanks to the regular posters.
Reading your words has often been illuminating and has made me feel not so alone on this journey.
Cheers, to all the teens and college students. I am impressed with your determination and enjoy you enthusiasm! Reminds me of my first attempt with Bates You all seem much more diligent than I was!
See how long you can go without checking your clarity. When the letters start to look clearer, don't pay any more attention to them. Keep doing whatever you were doing. At first just avoid looking at the letters for several seconds, and gradually increase your time. Eventually you can look at the letters, and do so without strain, but only once you've detached from needing to see them so much. Like with anything that you're having a hard time getting, you'll only get it when you stop trying and wishing.
The staring you describe sounds like it's a little closer to seeing without strain, but you've still got too much strain in it, or you wouldn't lose your clarity that quickly. But it does bring up a good point - With the Bates method principles we can get the idea that we have to move our eyes, constantly move, move, move, move, and that can easily be taken the wrong way and drive a person mad with anxiety at having to constantly take control of the eyes like that. But it isn't about taking control of the eyes at all, it's the opposite. It would be like that thing about trying to make the plants grow by pulling on them. Better vision is calmer vision.
You kind of have to sit and say "Look, if my eyes are going to stare, I'm going to let them stare. I'm not going to anything about it, because that isn't my place, and overstepping my place is how I got into this mess to begin with. I'm just going to let my eyes do their thing while I make the tiniest, weakest suggestions of where to look, and let's see how my eyes react to me taking a back seat right now and over time." Weird stuff might happen, but...that's what happens when you let go of the leash.
David
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
Quote:I've been practicing the Bates Method for about 2 and a half months and have just started to be able to relax and have flashes. I set my snellen up outside in direct sunlight. The last flash was 20/40! (June was base 20/300) and lasted several seconds.
Since your Snellen was 20/300, I suspect that your
current prescription is about -4 to -4.5 diopters.
It that correct?
As you know, 20/200 is legal blindness with no glasses.
As you slowly clear your vision with Bates, the time
that your eyes "hold" 20/40 will get longer-and longer.
But for now, that is a "flash" as to what is possible.
Dave,
That sounds like sound council. I greatly appreciated your thoughts. My attachment to clarity reminds me of how monkeys are supposedly caught: a jug is left on the jungle floor with a banana in it. The opening to the jar is big enough for the monkey to reach into the jug with his hand but not big enough to extract his hand while grasping the banana. The monkey is caught while refusing to let go of the banana.
I'm rather attached to having that banana, but I'm realizing I may never get it the way I'm going.
Otis,
My six year old prescription is for OD -3.75 , OS -4.25. I'm 20/20 with it. My old lady read your comment about "legal blindness" while powering the computer off for me. No more blind driving for a while! :'( Oh, well. She's probably saving my life.
Otto, I've been working on Bates for nearly 2 years! I must be a particularly slow learner, stuck in my old habits of thinking, but I'm definitely seeing some improvement-- from about -5.75D to -4.25D.
Recently, I've noticed more improvement when allowing myself to "stare" as you mention. I think my perception of staring is more related to relaxing, even though "staring" seems to be discouraged by Bates and others. I find if I try to "constantly move". I'm trying to control my eyes too much instead of let them just do their thing. So I've started to tell myself it's okay to stare. I actually suspect my eyes are really moving around while doing this, but if I try to pay attention, I fall into the control-your-eyes tension trap. It seems to be more about basking in the feeling and not over-thinking it.
Also, while my clear flashes have improved from 1 second to 10 seconds lately, I still lose them because I try to "hold on"-- so frustrating! One method that seems to increase the length of time, is to think of a "falling" sensation in a "let it all go" sort of way. I allow my eyes to "fall into" the clarity they're seeing with a clear flash. As I do that, things get REALLY clear-- which must scare me because then I lose it.
I like Dave's idea of avoiding looking at letters, since I think that puts more pressure to "read" or "see" something. I believe Bates refers to working with one patient and telling him to look at the white space away from the letters, and slowly get closer and closer to the letter.
Joe Wrote:Also, while my clear flashes have improved from 1 second to 10 seconds lately, I still lose them because I try to "hold on"-- so frustrating! One method that seems to increase the length of time, is to think of a "falling" sensation in a "let it all go" sort of way. I allow my eyes to "fall into" the clarity they're seeing with a clear flash. As I do that, things get REALLY clear-- which must scare me because then I lose it.Â
I'm picking up this old thread (the first one I started on iblindness) because my recent work with the chart has reminded me of this thing Joe said about the "let it all go sensation". It's been really remarkable to increase my clarity and sustain of clarity simply by allowing myself to let go in the moment. So many thought and impulses come up while using the chart, so many ideas about how to see more clearly, but the only thing that really seems to work is letting go of those plans. After all, those plans, constant trying, and "thinking"(it's hardly thinking because there is nothing new or thoughtful about it) are really just effort causes my eyes to strain. So it's become a process of "No. I don't need to do that. Oh! What am I trying to do now? Whatever it is, I can let that go too. Ahh. This feels better. I enjoy it when my eyes feel like this." and so on.
I should mention that I have been combining chart work with breathing meditation so I am significantly more relaxed than my "going about business" state of being. I start off breathing with my eyes closed and after I feel relatively more relaxed I might open my eyes and work with the chart. If I am struggling, eyes close and back to meditation. While looking at the chart I continue to follow my breath.
Sorry about the lack of quantifiable information and focus on sensation and thought. That's how I roll!
