Clear Flashes

[nicolas]

Hello I have a few qustions about the clear flashes that most people experience while doing the Bates method, and my experience with them so far.

Basically I found out about this around a month ago and started doing the described exercises. I did them for one or two weeks with no noticable results. However I wasn't going to lose faith just like that but I found a lot of things coming up, mainly tests >, so anyway I couldn't properly continue with all the exercises. I did still do a bit of palming at school and around home and a bit of the swing when I was walking my dog, but by no means did I do this for a long time and not even daily.

Anyway about a week ago I had a clear flash, my first, of perfect vision. It was in a school mass and we were we singing a hymn which I couldn't read being near the back. I didn't focus on the words and just stumbled my along and then my eyes began watering. I looked back and I could see the words perfectly (or as perfect as possible with water in your eyes) the words seemed to jump out at me they were so clear compared to what I was used to. This lasted for about four seconds and then it all faded back to a blur.

My second one happened just today. Again we were singing, this time in assembly, but I was at the front so I could see the words. Behind the projector screen stood our school flag. I could just make out the school motto and name - probably because I already knew whatit said. As the song went one my eyes watered again I looked behind the screen and there was the school motto and name - perfectly clear. I looked at it for about 10 seconds while it remained clear I decided to put it to the test. I looked over to my right where, well away, stood a crest with our school motto written on it. If I looked at his earlier I couldn't even tell there were words there but now I called read as easily as could be  - Sectare Fidem Hold firm to the faith. I looked back to the flag and my clear vision lated for about another 4 seconds, around 16 to 20 total.

Does anyone have any input into this, why my eyes watered, why I experienced these when I did the Bates method only very rarely and not while I was being very strict with  it? Also these, especially the last one, seem to be very long 'flashes' true or no?
Any input would be appreciated. Cheers, and sorry for the loooong post.

[David]

Hi Nicolas,

In what I would call "real" clear flashes, the eyes don't water. Watering of the eyes creates a bigger layer of tears over your cornea so that your focus changes like if you were wearing weak glasses, so if you're myopic the image is sharper. But watering can be a good thing too - there can be a lot of holding in of stuff, the eyes doing all kinds of strange things as a result of strain, and when something changes, like if your eyes start watering a lot when they didn't use to, I interpret that as probably a good thing.

People often find their vision improves when they give up on the Bates method or spend less time on it. The reason is people approach the Bates method the only way they know how - with strain. So while the exercises can be productive, a good portion of the time they're straining even more than normal in an effort to make their vision change. So my suggestion is that however much time you spend on it, be sure to take it really easy and don't get frustrated about it, as that can manifest immediately as strain on the eyes as a sort of punishment.

Dave