Hello,
I've spent the past few weeks thinking things over (and doing exams).
I noticed that our emotional struggle may be the key factor causing poor eyesight. It's how we address problems. Those that address problems with strain and mental torment generally have poor eyesight.
I've been noticing this for a long time now. In fact, I'm currently very interested in parental influences on children's eyesight. I see many cases where children have poor eyesight, even though both parents have good eyesight. It seems like it's related to the amount of pressure parents put on a child, and the amount of free will the child is "allowed" to have by their parents. All my friends with glasses seem to have very strict parents and lack(ed) freedom. I think back to all teenagers who came by this forum, all of which said that their parents did not believe in them improving their eyesight (i.e. Otter and the others, not to pick on anyone); this isn't the main cause, but it sort of gives you an hint at the relationship. If parents aren't the cause, I see that those that agonize about everyone's image of them seem to have poor eyesight ('m talking about yes-men and those that try to please everyone, and those that have trouble making decisions), while those that are stubborn and blunt with a strong unmovable opinion have great eyesight. With the amount of critical decisions we have to make in our lives now and the amount of people we have to please to achieve our goal, it's not surprising there is a global pandemic of poor eyesight. All of this is directly related to Bates because we are trying to do something outside of our control, which leads to mental strain.
Think about it....Bates observed that people WITH CURRENT poor eyesight seem to lack central fixation, imagination of black etc... Now, why would a child with perfect eyesight all of the sudden start to use improper visual habits (i.e. diffuse), which leads to poor eyesight. That makes no sense. Could it be that the effects, such as lack of central fixation and memory of black etc.. are a result of poor eyesight, not the other way around? That isn't to say we can't use them to help improve our eyesight.
Now I realize: how can we improve our eyesight to perfect without resolving the emotional struggles that underly it? Could that be why so many people don't get much benefit from swinging etc.. I keep thinking there is a psychological component that returns and kills progress.
I guess one variable that directly relates to factors influencing emotional struggles is age. Here is a specific question: Do people who acquired defective eyesight as children have an easier time improving in their later years, when parental factors are no longer at bay? Also, could this be the reason most defective eyesight develops in teenage years (or younger)?
This isn't something novel, Bates talked about it a few times, but hasn't given it much weight.
Let me know what you guys think, or if you have any personal experiences as evidence for or against it.
Both of my parents have really good vision, but my brother and I have terrible vision. They used to be very strict, so it's interesting you bring that point up.
I'm reading an out of print book by a British Bates teacher named Peter Mansfield. I can highly recommend this little book. Here is some excepts from it that apply to the discussion:
Quote:In homeopathic expression, an emotional upheaval may be the exciting cause of visual disturbance, but we have to look for the maintaining cause. If it is a continuation of emotional distress it will need healing. If (as is far more common) the poor sight is maintained solely by force of habit) -misuse- it is habit that must be challenged and altered; the original event may be of no relevance at all. At the time, the challenge to habit may well throw up new emotional difficulties, hinging on resistance to change in status quo, and these would certainly need to be worked through.
Generally speaking, the closer to the onset of a problem one begins work the less resistance there is from habit, ... With children it is best to start before glasses are given... Children appear to acquire poor sight - short sight especially - most commonly at certain ages. The biggest hump is around puberty at 11-13, others being found at 7-8 and again at 15-16... One has to remember childhood is a time of intense turmoil. I was once rendered speechless by a well meaning mother saying 'oh, but she's perfectly happy. I mean, children don't have anything to worry about, do they?' She obviously completely erased the memory of her own childhood, and regarded her own child rather two-dimensionally...Puberty is the time when most of these pressures come to a head... The entire scenario could be expressly designed to disrupt eyesight. Normal sight is a coordinated skill that works best when there is emotional balance and a healthy sense of connectedness the the outside world. Hormones playing ping-pong with the emotions, brooding introspection and a sense of isolation from the world do not help.
If fear or anger keep me from being relaxed, then clearly I must address those emotions before i begin to see the world clearly.
A lot of human problems are really the result of suppressing who you really are in favor of some idea that really doesn't support you. In a Bates sense, these ideas take the form of "I have to tense my eyes to see", "I have to strain to accomplish anything", "I have to control my eyes", and any number of more subtle, more revealing, and unconscious ideas that make people feel like the way they use their eyes (and create blur) is the best option.
So whether it's from your parents, or environment, or whatever, you get fixated on ideas of how or what you should be that don't support who you are. What you act upon is what you are presenting yourself as and accepting yourself as being. So if what you do, or what you say, or what you otherwise present yourself as being is in disparity to what your expression really is, you're suppressing yourself and you can only expect disaster from it.
People today are moved along in a system that more and more, at least in this country, tries to limit personal freedom and rewards cookie-cutter lives that do not disrupt. In this way it encourages self denial and self suppression in favor of supporting existing ideas of how we all should be. Every living thing seems to require for itself the space to move freely. If we feel that our time is limited, our space is limited, our options are limited, and we imagine the pressure of these constraints, and we choose to deal with them by suppressing who we are, then we have disaster. Pleasing other people out of a sensed pressure to please (and not as a decision as a true expression of ourselves) is just another one of these traps.
So the exercises in the Bates method are a way of lightly pushing you towards who you are, or getting you to temporarily drop the stuff that is not you. They get you to stop straining, stop all the nonsense that is a suppression of yourself and get you, just for a moment, to open up and see that things work much, much better when you do things from a position of who and what you are, not from a position of your thoughts or emotions.
Dave
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
These experts identify the rate that the eye goes
"down" during the school years as from -7/10 to -8/10 diopters per year.
Listen to the interview at:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.hpb.gov.sg/web/nmpp/">http://www.hpb.gov.sg/web/nmpp/</a><!-- m -->
Otis
Just to side-track from the topic a bit:
Had listened to the interview and realized that the 'experts' had not really done much research on prevention, only more on gathering statistics and quoting researched information from other sources.
The 'experts' claimed that there is nothing we can do to reverse myopia and it will continue to get worse. Only mild myopia(-2 diopters and below) can be reversed by neurovision methods. They even shoot-down Bates' methods, claiming that a 'recent' report from the Ohio State University says that there is absolutely no proof that it works! Really pity the poor young children who are forced to wear their glasses at all times and whose eyesight continues to worsen because of theses 'experts'.
There are some useful information from the interview though, mostly on the risks of blindness associated with myopia, the side effects of other treatment (lasik and 'hard-lens), encouraging children to spend more time outdoors and regular screening for severe myopes. I am resolve to avoid wearing my minus at all cost to save my eyes after listening to this interview, since neurovision won't work and I am exposed to all the blinding risk, being a severe myope myself. They should do a study on children who have myopia and DO NOT wear their glasses.
They are like the great wizard -- in the Wizard of Oz.
Quote:The 'experts' claimed that there is nothing we can do to reverse myopia and it will continue to get worse.
Otis> The experts see their ONLY task is to make your vision very-sharp in 5 minutes -- and send you on
your way "happy". ???
Quote:Only mild myopia(-2 diopters and below) can be reversed by neurovision methods.
Otis> The point here is that we are NOT born with -2 diopter of myopia! But rather, in school,
our refractive STATE simply "moves" in the direction of our "reading" environment. Thus
almost all true myopes went through the -1 diopter stage, where, according to the
1913 study it could have been reversed -- IF the second-opinion metod had been
used CORRECTLY. But these experts spend all their time TRASHING these preventive
methods.
Quote: Theyeven shoot-down Bates' methods, claiming that a 'recent' report from the Ohio State University says that there is absolutely no proof that it works! Really
Otis> I have seen their "research methods". They stink, and are never scientific.
Quote:the poor young children who are forced to wear their glasses at all times and whose eyesight continues to worsen because of theses 'experts'.
Otis> True, but you must keep your Snellen above 20/40 if you wish to avoid that minus lens.
Quote:There are some useful information from the interview though, mostly on the risks of blindness associated with myopia, the side effects of other treatment (lasik and 'hard-lens), encouraging children to spend more time outdoors and regular screening for severe myopes.
Otis> All true.
Quote:I am resolve to avoid wearing my minus at all cost to save my eyes after listening to this interview, since neurovision won't work and I am exposed to all the blinding risk, being a severe myope myself. They should do a study on children who have myopia and DO NOT wear their glasses.
I would be happy if they said my Snellen was 20/60, and it took a -1.25 diopter to clear it.
And then they would say we KNOW that if you do nothing (ag age 8) your eyes will go DOWN
at a rage of -.8 diopters per year.
that's a very good point. The social structures of many countries seem to be directly correlated to their vision visual health.
It seems like we know how to prevent it, now how do we reverse it? I can't say ALL nice guys wear glasses, and I hope becoming mean isn't the only solution
Wow...I just realized that so much that has been written on this page describes my life so exactly that I don't even know what to say. I could literally write a library about how I've experienced precisely what Paul, Otto, Dave, footballman, and some others describe!
Also, just last night I was sure that I was aware exactly how I strain. Earlier that day (yesterday) I did a lot of long swinging and within just a few seconds I burst out laughing because I was so aware of my strain, which did NOT feel like the real me! And just today I had the most clearest clear flash I've ever had (except for my flashes of telescopic and microscopic vision I had as a child, before I even consciously knew about the Bates method). But about the clear flash I had today...it certainly wasn't the only one I had...I had sooo many...that was just the clearest one that I can remember. It lasted around 10 seconds I think. Afterwards I felt as if I was going to faint, but I stopped myself. After that I immediately had a gagging sensation in my throat, like I was actually throwing up but nothing came out!!! I had a feeling it had to do with my throat chakra.
What's also really freaky is that it seems like the Bates method is bringing out a whole nother person inside of me. The Bates method is THE most intense thing I have ever done in my life, by far!
What's also weird is that yesterday and last night I've never been more frightened in my entire life. But that's an insanely long story...
Simply put I have never, ever, ever, ever, ever had as much realizations as I had today. All from doing the Bates method. It's so sick!
And I swear that none of what I have written above was an exaggeration!
I read your post again thoroughly and it totally describes me. I'm finally remembering the facts more clearly! In 3rd grade I started having stuttering problems, extreme nervousness, etc. It was found that I got myopia at that time as well, when I was 10. I was definitely pressured to do well in school and I was a straight-A student.
I also feel totally uncomfortable being around people, especially if I have to talk to them! So much so that I once said that I hate being around people even though I don't want to feel that way.
From doing the Bates method I've been gradually remembering the time when I decided to be more self-conscious about how I talk and act around people, etc. Do you think that decision caused my vision problems?
Oh, I just remembered another detail about that extremely sharp clear flash I had the other day! During the clear flash I reminded myself to blink normally even though my clear flashes usually go away after I blink, and was surprised to find that it stayed clear! Which shocked me so much I almost fainted lol.
Another thing, I was outside at the time looking out toward a line of trees waaaaay in the distance.
Basically, I had so much mental strain that night that I literally went mentally insane and stayed up all night in complete terror. The entire thing felt like the most horrible nightmare I've ever had, but it was in fact real. Even now, looking back on that experience, I can still assure you that it was THE most frightening night in my entire life.
The actual story is VERY interesting actually...but I don't have enough time to explain it all now right now. I'll type it some other time.
It sounds like those old emotions all pent up inside for so long came out strong. That's so awesome, sounds like a good sign of progress to me. Was it a panic attack to the max? This was two years ago how are you now?
I have those self-supressing-people-pleasing tendencies myself and have kind of identified with this...its kind of how I gauge my self-worth. If i'm not a door-mat for others to use then I feel arrogant and selfish...It's hard to see myself equal and likable as assertively confident. I can definitely see this leading to strain in the eyes. Especially when I talk to people I noticed how tense I am and constantly have to remind myself to keep shifting and sketching to avoid that dead stare of fear that I can feel clenched in my eyes.
Something about social interaction that gets us so tense! Like Paul and Dave mentioned, our relation to our parents and peers as we were growing up led us to somehow believe we had to suppress half of our natural spontaneous selves...
I have a friend that is pretty wild and excited and after a day of hanging out with him, he's rubbed off on me and I feel more alive and out of my shell. However just last weekend after a day of hanging out with him then returning home, I noticed how scrutinized and under the scope I am when I return home to my parents. "Whats got into you?" "you sure are happy" ect... I quickly learn to "get back in line" and feel guilty (sometimes ashamed) for upsetting the delicate balance in the house... its so strange.
My theory (based on my life) is that in some groups of people (family/friends), everyone is needed to play their specific role and stick to it...Basic instinct maybe. Insecure people struggle when it comes to handling healthy self-examination, and change is seen as a threat rather than as potential opportunities. So when someone else naturally desires a change or acts differently, it disrupts the comfort zone and system routine in the group, and the different one is greatly shunned. And we learn that this behavior is unacceptable. It's that fear-based tribe-mentality, 'with us or against us'. I can see how us as young kids, looking to be accepted, we would learn through being rejected that extreme self control is necessary in life. We realize that some parts of us are "good" and other parts "bad"...when in reality it's all good, just needs to be steered in the right direction.
So this excessive self-stifling spills over into every act we do, including seeing ("Cant you see??") as we sadly percieve normal and natural function as something harmful to us...
Me, I'm always worried about the future. When the time comes that I will be alone living in this earth without my relatives and parents. When the time comes
that I will be the one that will feed my family and no one else to hold unto.
I can't say ALL nice guys wear glasses, and I hope becoming mean isn't the only solution 
