Natural Vision Improvement
Posted By johne on November 14, 2008
I first noticed my eyesight deteriorating about twenty five years ago, when I was thirty. It wasn’t bad by any means, I simply noticed that when I was tired it was harder to read the subtitles on the screen - in fact I remember thinking it was the tv at fault, until my wife informed me otherwise!
I’m not sure how long I ignored the problem for (probably several years) but eventually, when I ended up missing my turn-offs on the motorways because they would keep printing road signs in smaller and smaller print, and even the hoardings had to come a little closer in order to be read, I decided I’d better get my eyes tested - especially as my father suffered from glaucoma.
So I made my appointment and was duly given the all-clear from glaucoma, but was told I was mildly short-sighted and handed a prescription for my first glasses.
I already knew that my mother had been prescribed glasses at quite a young age, and had refused to wear them whereas my father wore his most of the time. I learned that my mothers eyesight had then stopped deteriorating for many years, and she only started needing them more as she entered “old age”. My father on the other hand needed a new, stronger prescription almost every time he visited the optician.
I did some research, and quickly came to agree with the widely held opinion that the more one wore ones glasses the worse ones eyes got. I determined I would wear mine as little as possible - basically only when safety and the desire to arrive at the correct destination in a timely manner demanded, i.e. when driving.
As an avid reader (something which tended to get the blame for the problem from some parties) I was grateful that I didn’t need glasses for reading and close up jobs. I would spend hours browsing in bookshops, and many more reading a vast array of “reference books” on subjects ranging from “Practical Electronics” to “Persian Carpets”, “Automatic Arms” to “Microlight Pilots Guide” (rarely novels or biographies).
One of my main interests had long been hypnosis, and I discovered that a number of people had been found to be able to see perfectly without their glasses whilst under hypnosis. It was not deemed a dependable “cure”, since most people needed their glasses as soon as they “came out” of the hypnotic state, or trance as it is often, somewhat misleadingly, called.
However this posed a big question… how come they could see ok without glasses even if it was only temporary? And what could be done to prolong the effect? One of the theories was that it was the extreme degree of relaxation whilst under hypnosis that caused the improvement. This was reinforced by the fact that, for most people, vision is better in the morning than it is later in the day, as tiredness and stress set in.
Whatever the reason, I was convinced that the usual steady decline which most people experience, as was I at the time, was not a foregone conclusion, and that there had to be something one could do to halt that gradual deterioration, if not actually reverse the process.
By this time I was already “into” yoga. Meditation, asanas (postures) and pranayama (breathing exercises) were having a hugely beneficial effect on my overall health (mental and physical) - and at some point in time I noticed that my eyesight seemed to be somewhat improved.
I returned with renewed vigour to my quest for “a cure”. During this period I tried “candle-gazing”, pinhole glasses, and built a “brain entrainment” device, and whilst all had a beneficial effect at least in the short term, I didn’t feel that I’d “cracked it”.
It was then that my habit of spending a huge amount of time in quirky little bookshops paid off, as often happens, with a very fortuitous find. I came across, and avidly devoured, a little book called the “Glass Bead Game”.
This text was my first introduction to eye exercises. Well, that’s not strictly true, because also popular at the time were those stereogram images that require you to stare at them in a particular way in order to see the picture in 3D. I found them quite difficult at first, but persevered, and after a while I came to love them! The same principle of “active eye control” is involved in both disciplines.
The next big breakthrough was to find the book by W. H. Bates - “Better Eyesight Without Glasses”. I have since learned that for many people it is their first introduction to eye exercise and natural vision improvement, but for me it was well down the line, and I have particular reason to be glad that that was so.
Along with the book came a plethora of doubting thomases. Most of them hung their scepticism on the fact that Bates methods were deemed to be based on erroneous thinking, ie on an incorrect anatomical theory. In simple terms, he expounded a theory of eye accomodation being performed by external eye muscles when most experts agreed that that function is performed by internal muscles.
The book was derided by many, and he and his methods lost a lot of credibility as evidence in opposition to his theories mounted steadily. This was compounded by the fact that he appeared to think it necessary to expound his theory in terminology that at best can be described as very hard to follow and extremely confusing “tech speak”, or at worst as utter gobbledygook.
The saddest part about that though, is that “the baby got thrown out with the bath water”. People totally lost sight of the fact that his methods worked even if his explanation of why they worked was incomprehensible or wrong - and they did, and do, work!
The most damning indictments of the book came from the “establishment”, ie his peers, and ranged from the utter derision of his theories by some, to the masses who were saying things like “if this works then why do so many people still need glasses”, and “why does an entire industry exist to look after peoples eyes”. Fortunately the answer is quite simple and obvious - most people don’t know of the existence of the exercises because that industry wouldn’t exist if they did - so why would they promote them!
Others who do know about them do not perform them with due diligence, and so won’t get the results. How much gym equipment, bought with the best of intentions, lies idle in homes around the country - and it certainly won’t keep us fitter or leaner unless we use it regularly - but it doesn’t mean that the equipment doesn’t work, except in so far as we don’t work it!
Luckily for us a number of people tried and tested his methods, and some of them set about “sorting the wheat from the chaff”. We have today a number of systems available to us that set things out clearly and simply, and if followed carefully and diligently for a few weeks they can produce excellent results. We will go on to examine some of those systems in future posts.
