I have posted here before but a long while ago. I have been practicing Bates for a couple of years with a little success.
My chief concerns are not with blurry vision (although I would like to improve this) but with the visual distortions I suffer from and have done since about 16 years of age - 2D vision, shifting/moving print, narrow field of vision, constant eye fatigue.....
These are according to Bates practitionerâs common symptoms for people with refractive errors? (Although no-one I know or have met who wears glasses have complained of them, perhaps a lot of glasses wearers just accept them as part of the condition or have learned to ignore them?)
I have worn glasses since the age of 7 although went through a spell form 16 to 21 or so when I did not wear them at all (Vanity). This coincided with the period when my visual distortions commenced which leads me to believe that they were caused by the stress I felt for not wearing my glasses. This stress caused by my then belief that I was damaging my eyes by not wearing my glasses
I have memories of when my eyesight was different, when seeing was a spontaneous joy and everything looked real and alive. I have tried for many years and visited many specialists (eye specialists, neurologists etc) to try to return to this situation. Prior to taking up Bates I tried 'irlen lenses' for 18 months with no success!!
As mentioned I have been practicing Bates for about 2 years and whilst I have had some modest success I am nowhere near where I want to be. I am also thoroughly confused as to how to continue.
Would plus or minus lens therapy etc would help improve things further?
My vision seems clear for quite large distances (over 50ft or so but is not so crisp inside this and I suffer from fatigue whilst reading or using the computer which I do a lot.
Would plus lenses whilst doing close work help to relax my eyes further and prevent deterioration/promote improvement of my distance vision?
My old prescription was
Right sph +0.5 cyl -1.00
left sph +0.75 cyl -1.00
So would this make me short or long sighted?
Would any of you kind folk have any suggestions as to how to proceed?
It seems that eye fatigue is very common in farsighted people. The differences between your and your friend's symptoms may be because they're myopic while you're hyperopic.
People on this forum will disagree with me, but if the eye fatigue is really bothering you, getting some reduced prescription lenses might help you with that. Minus lens therapy might also help you improve faster, but really the question here is about your Bates practice. 2 years with modest success would indicate that something is wrong. Either you're going at it in the wrong way or you aren't applying the principles of Bates all the time. We'd really need more information to advise you on your Bates practice.
I strongly suggest that you begin reading your own Snellen. You can TRUST what you see.
I have also been asked by Dave not to "promote" the plus.
Quote:Would plus lenses whilst doing close work help to relax my eyes further and prevent deterioration/promote improvement of my distance vision?
My old prescription was
Right sph +0.5 cyl -1.00
left sph +0.75 cyl -1.00
Otis> This is ALMOST a "nothing" prescription. It will make your Snellen SLIGHTLY sharper. If you like
it -- wear it.
But, if you wish to avoid the use of a lens, I suggest you read a good Snellen in good light.
I suspect that you would pass the LEGAL DMV requirement of reading 3/4 inch letters
at 20 feet.
This "prescription" would translate this way (in to spherical-equivalent.
Take 1/2 the cyl and add it to the sph,
Thus +1/2 - 1/2 = zero
+3/4 - 1/2 = +1/4 diotper
So would this make me short or long sighted?
If the natural eye has a positive refractive STATE some people call
it "farsighted". You can choose your own words here.
That prescription is for hyperopia, but with a prescription with astigmatism like that, I believe you could flip it around and write it a different way and say you're myopic instead. So I can't tell which you are, but anyway it doesn't matter a whole lot.
What have you been doing so far? I find that once someone describes a single exercise they do in detail, it's easy to make suggestions or point out what they are doing wrong.
Dave
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
I was of the opinion I was farsighted with that prescription and this is how my eyes behave if consideration is given to my fatigue when doing close work, reading etc,
But my eyes also behave like I was myopic in so much as i have blur into the distance beyond 20ft but I can read books/use computers and have reasonable 'short term' clarity at this range but soon develop fatigue. I was considering plus lenses to relieve this fatigue but did not want to worsen the situation!
With regard to Bates i have been practicing long swings, shifting and central fixation and also try to incorporate good vision practices into my daily life
I can blur and sharpen my vision at will and my vision does vary considerably at times of its own accord
regards
Gary
PS I am accessing this forum from the UK so it may seem like I am responding at odd times!
Hey Gary, I'm not that experienced with Bates. but I'll try answer your q's.
It's not wrong to not practise bates everyday. It's good to practise it when you 'need' it, perhaps when your eyes feel fatigue, you might want to palm for a few minutes. Bates practise is to shake you out of the bad habits of using you eyes. Basicly the ultimate goal is to have the Bates methods practised all the time, which would then be your habit of using your eyes. I think constantly reminding yourself all the time to use your eyes correctly is far better than reminding yourself not to skip an hour of Bates practise or so.
Can you share with us how do you blurr and sharpen you vision by will? thanks.
roger89 Wrote:Can you share with us how do you blurr and sharpen you vision by will? thanks.
I just kind of do it through a mental act. When I blur my vision it feels as if i have taken control of some of the eye muscles. I can blur my vision quite dramatically for distances of about 3 feet and beyond but cannot blur my 'up close' vision. I re-sharpen my vision by stopping doing whatever I am doing to blur it i.e. remove the effort to blur it. Unfortunately It doesnt sharpen to 20/20 or better!
roger89 Wrote:Can you share with us how do you blurr and sharpen you vision by will? thanks.
I just kind of do it through a mental act. When I blur my vision it feels as if i have taken control of some of the eye muscles. I can blur my vision quite dramatically for distances of about 3 feet and beyond but cannot blur my 'up close' vision. I re-sharpen my vision by stopping doing whatever I am doing to blur it i.e. remove the effort to blur it. Unfortunately It doesnt sharpen to 20/20 or better!
Gary
That sounds like converging to me. Many people can do that(including me). Does it feel as if your focusing closer? Anyway for example if you were to look at your finger up close the distance will become blurrier. Sounds like your doing the same thing but without a finger.
I know what you mean but I am definitely not converging but I can do that as well!
When i off focus the image remains stable but blurs, if I was converging the image would double to some degree. I can also blur with one eye closed.
I think that when I blurr my vision tlike this I may be hi-jacking the accomodation process. I tried something today whereby I held up some print about 18inches from my face just below the line of sight. As I looked into the distance at a particular object and blurred my sight I could just make out in my periphery that the print had become darker and more focused. When I unblurred my image of the distant object i could just make out in my periphery that the print had blurred. At no time could I detect any shift in convergence and at no time did I look directly at the print but kept my macular attention on the distant object.
Thats interesting. I can also blur my distant vision at will without converging. In fact, I can blur it so much that I can't even read text on the computer, which I normally read without any problems at all.
It's difficult to tell people how to do that, because since I know how to do it, it's nothing more than simply using a muscle... Maybe it is similar to converging the eyes and you can 'learn' this ability with some help. Now, I can converge my eyes without looking at anything particular, but when I was younger I learned this by slowly moving a finger closer to my nose while looking at it.
Perhaps that's also the way Bates' exercises work, because they teach us how to use our eye muscles the right way.
