"Practice Time": The Routine of the Bates Method Given by Dr. Bates Himself!

While reading the filing of the Better Eyesight Magazine, I stumbled upon something I thought did not exist. In November 1928 issue, on the first page, there is a small article titled "Practice time" where Dr. Bates gives us a concise yet accurate recipe of what patients should routinely practice to get cured with his method, and most importantly, how much, how long and how often they should do it. 

I was amazed to discover that my own practice has been several times less intense than Dr. Bates suggested it to be. Three weeks ago I discovered this instruction and since then I follow it diligently and literally. As Dr. Bates said many times, the ones that simply do what they are told to are cured the quickest, and finally there is the instruction that is easy to follow. I am already seeing some progress. I admit I was wrong thinking that the Bates method was not routine; now I believe it is more routine and maybe even tedious. Regularity is king. The strategy is to make small improvements as often as possible, never allowing yourself to sink back to deeper strain again. This way the average level of strain decreases. The other strategy - make seldom but long relaxation sessions does not work to make any improvement permanent, I have proved it by two years of my practice.

Because the 1928-11 BEM issue is not available online, I typed it below. 

Practice Time

A large number of people have bought the book "Perfect Sight Without Glasses" but do not derive as much benefit from it as they should because they do not know how long they should practice.

Rest: The eyes are rested in various ways. One of the best methods is to close the eyes for half an hour after testing the sight. This usually improves the vision.

Palming: With the eyes closed and covered with the palms of both hands the vision is usually benefited. The patient should do this five minutes hourly.

Shifting: The patient looks from one side of the room to the other, alternately resting the eyes. This may be done three times daily for half an hour at a time. The head should move with the eyes and the patient should blink.

Swinging: When the shifting is slow, stationary objects appear to move from side to side. This should be observed whenever the head and eyes move.

Long Swing: Nearly all persons should practice the long swing one hundred times daily.

Memory: When the vision is perfect, it is impossible for the memory to be imperfect. One can improve the memory by alternately remembering a letter with the eyes open and closed. This should be practiced for half an hour twice daily.

Imagination: It has been frequently demonstrated and published in this magazine that the vision is only what we imagine it to be. Imagination should be practiced whenever the vision is tested. Imagine a known letter with the eyes open and with the eyes closed. This should be practiced for ten minutes twice daily.

Repetition: When one method is found which improves the vision more than any other method, it should be practiced until the vision is continuously improved.

How I Enter the State of the Universal Swing

I have realized that noticing the universal swing continuously is fundamental for the cure. It is not optional, you cannot get away with just doing "Bates stuff" from time to time. Having understood this and seen a lot of proofs of the fact, I can now stop worrying and just practice the universal swing faithfully, taking my time. The longer the state can be maintained, the deeper it becomes, and the flashes of improved sight follow immediately. The challenge is to remember to notice the swing all the time.

Here are some steps and hints that I have found helpful to enter the state of the universal swing.

1. Let the blur be. For as "negative" it may sound, I find it the most important first thing that I need to do, and it always helps. In other words, stop worrying if the image you get is blurry, just accept what you see as it is. Tell yourself you don't care to see anything, become totally passive. Sometimes I imagine that my eyes are not even mine, and I somehow perceive a visual signal from another person's eyes. Wow, I say to myself, this poor guy's screen is quite blurry, but that's not my problem.

It sometimes feels like a shock, like when you put off your glasses after wearing them for a long time. It feels helpless, like you are thrown into cold water hardly knowing how to swim. Take a deep breath and relax, don't flounder to see, and you will be rewarded in a few seconds.

2. Blink softly and frequently. I thought it was just a wishful recommendation, but it appeared to be very important, surprisingly. Just turn your attention to how you blink. You will find that you blink at irregular jerky intervals, the eyelids shut hardly and with effort, and the muscles under the eyes contract for a moment after each blink. The closed eyelids may be found trembling when you touch them. This is a wrong way of blinking. The right way is to blink frequently, softly and easily. Imagine the eyelids are easy feathers and let them fly easily up and down, all by themselves, withdrawing any effort. The muscles under the eyes should not be involved. Observe your blinking until it ceases to be spasmodic.

Blinking is so important because it's a shortened version of closing the eyes for a few seconds, which is very relaxing, because it reminds me very effectively that I should not fight the blur (see #1). Closing the eyes is also a very efficient technique for balancing in the state of universal swing, recommended by Dr. Bates.

3. Notice the entire view field and practice shifting with central fixation. While in strain, I narrow my view field by an effort. This is a form of eccentric fixation, when I strain to see a big area in the center equally well, at the same time straining not to see the rest of view field at all. Usually when I simply remember that the eccentric view field is still there, though I don't see it as well as the center, I feel an immediate contrasting relief. I guess this is an initial phase of practicing central fixation, when the distance between two points is maximal. Then I proceed with regarding other points closer to each other, as suggested by Dr. Bates. It is important not to stop shifting, because there is always a risk of stare.

4.Look at the white-spaces. Try to look at blank walls, equally colored areas of objects, or white-spaces between letters when you are reading. Imagine the white-spaces and openings are whiter than the letters. Avoid looking at letters and other features directly. Normal eye does not look directly at the letters, but at the white-spaces while reading. Surprised? This is a form of fine-grain central fixation. The feeling somehow reminds me the macro-mode in a camera, like when I was a child, I picked up a beetle and regarded its smallest bits with perfect sight, the rest of world seen not important, but still seen.

5. Imagine small objects and let the micro-movement of the eyes happen. When you strain, you can always notice that you can't move your eyes on a little angle, despite any effort. The best you can do is to move the eyes in a jerky way on quite big angles. Have you ever seen how a couple of eyes with normal sight move? You will be fascinated with the continuous rapid micro movements. Your eyes can't move on small angles because you are holding them by effort. You can't perform the micro-movement, you can only let it happen by itself. Think about it. Sometimes by only thinking about it I unconsciously let my eyes move and it feels very relaxing. Sometimes I imagine small objects and details on the surface of objects I am regarding. Memory of the black period goes here too.

6. Slowness is the key. There is perhaps no other way to make universal swing a habit than to do my work very slowly, at first, while remembering to notice the swing. This is what I am going to pay more attention from now. I don't care if others think I'm slow-brained :). Slowness by itself is also relaxing. As soon as I accept the idea that I will be doing everything slowly, I feel much more relaxed too. I have found that slowly rubbing the pointer finger with the thumb, as described by Dr. Bates, works well to help me remember and agree to stay slow.

If you succeed, you will notice that the objects you are regarding begin to swing in various directions, opposite to the movement of the eyes. The entire view field will also swing accordingly. This is the universal swing. It is important that the swing happens by itself, you do not "produce it" by moving your eyes with effort. At first, this swing may be quite jerky and long, gradually becoming shorter and slower. The eyesight also improves immediately, but try not to look at it, because you may soon forget #1. As Dr. Bates said, "dodge your improved eyesight".

This is what seems to work for me right now, notwithstanding all the rest of techniques suggested by Dr. Bates, of course. Some of my tricks change over time.

Nothing Is Straining, Nothing Is Relaxing

It is a mistake to think that there are some "magic bullets" that will make your mind and eyes necessarily relax or strain every time you use them. I've been misguided by this idea for quite a long time, trying and failing many times to reproduce relaxation "that I had yesterday", while doing seemingly the same thing as yesterday. This is a great source of disappointment for the beginners. 

But in fact, nothing strains or relaxes. It all depends on the state you are currently in, and your attitude to the thing. You can use it, consciously or unconsciously, to strain or to relax your mind (or neither nor). Theoretically any procedure can be both straining and relaxing for you at different times. Even sun treatment, even palming can be straining, and what you think is "a strain to see" can be relaxing. I have experienced these.

In practice, however, there are procedures and circumstances that are as a rule relaxing, for the majority of people. These techniques are all carefully collected in the great book by Dr. Bates. There is however no guarantee that you will not misuse them and cause yourself even more strain. In fact, you will, many times, before you learn to use them correctly, without effort. There is a special frame of the mind that you need to discover before you succeed with any of these practices. It is the state of universal swing. 

Two Years of Bates Practice

In few days it's going to be exactly two years since I discarded my contacts. 

I still haven't got perfect sight, and I am still on my way. The problem of imperfect sight appeared to be way more deeply ingrained, and the Bates method is a way more serious and fundamental treatment than one may think after reading the book. My myopia had been developing for maybe ten years, so I guess the cure should not be expected orders of magnitude faster than that. 

Yet I feel my progress is enormous. It is not about the flashes of improved sight, that have become so natural and self-understood, and even some very slow "average" improvement too. The main thing is that I now know for sure what exactly I should do, or, more precisely, not do, to enter this relaxed state - the state of universal swing. The longer this state lasts, the deeper it becomes, and the eyesight improves accordingly. Currently I am able to maintain the universal swing for maybe 5-10% of all time.

Bates practice feels like balancing on a rope, or like carefully saving a candle light from wind, or like growing a tender flower. At some moment you fail and need to start over again, but eventually you become more successful in this subtle balancing. It is completely not like steady body building thrice a week in a gym.

I am at the barrier right now and I don't expect any major breakthroughs until I learn to balance in the universal swing longer and plant it in the background of my mind. It's not fast and easy but I am prepared. 

Bates treatment is not all about the vision only, it's much more. I am amazed how deep and fundamental are Dr. Bates' findings about the nature of mental strain and its influence on our entire body state and health. The corollaries are very interesting and useful. Take for example fatigue, boredom, annoyance, anxiety, fear and so on - these bad effects are all caused by mental strain. There are many possibilities to try and practice, and I do.

For me it's also the science of quitting the deeply rooted wrong habits and changing beliefs. That's what our mind is ruled by - habits an beliefs. If one masters the art of changing them, one becomes the master of his mind, not a slave anymore.  However, no matter how smart a person can be, the brain is very slow in analyzing and realizing how it works by itself, i.e. reflecting in itself. That's why Dr. Bates was a genius. Very few people I know understand or even care that we can change our own habits and beliefs consciously. The habit of strain and the belief that strain is necessary are the most unfortunate ones. I hear people saying they love sweets or can't live without meat or believe eye troubles are incurable or they can't lose weight etc. In fact most people are proud of their "tastes" and deem them to be part of their beloved character, but these all are just habits and beliefs borrowed non-critically and/or unconsciously from the parents and the society. They can be discarded if one stops associating himself with them. It is not fast, but it is possible, like loading another software into a computer. I look around me and see how many other strains surround me, and by becoming conscious of them, I doom them. My life is becoming happier every day. The Bates practice is the right thing for the daring people whose life's mission is liberation. When you get the right thing, it does not matter how long it takes to master it. 

The Cause of Scotoma

Scotomas are the blind spots of varying color (mine were mostly yellow) that people often experience after looking directly at a brilliant source of light, such as the sun. The blind spots can be lasting and causing much discomfort to people with imperfect sight. However, even people with normal sight may experience the blind spots.

After 1.5 years of practicing sun gazing, I have completely got rid of scotomas. After looking at the sun for arbitrary length of time, I almost never have any blind spots, and never such that last for any appreciable time. My sight is almost always improved after sun gazing and I even no longer have those periods when everything seems darker for the period of adaptation to a lower brightness. I literally turn away from the sun and can read in normal light. I thought that I have completely unlearnt and lost the ability to produce scotomas.

However recently I accidentally produced the old good yellow scotoma (though not lasting) after looking at the sun, and I understood its cause. 

As Dr. Bates rightly said, the blind spots are illusions, an imagination out of mental control coming from a strain. There are many types of strain, each causing its own kind of illusion of imperfect sight. And the blind spots after sun gazing are the result of the strain to see details of a too bright object. Once you stop trying to see anything on the sun, or against the direction of sun rays, and just let the light flood your eyes, you will no longer experience any blind spots. 

That's why even people with normal sight frown, wrinkle their foreheads and squint their eyes and then experience scotomas for a while - because they expect to see details of a too bright image, immediately, that is impossible and is a strain. That's why they immediately experience imperfect sight - the blind spots - specific for this kind of strain.

This is an interesting idea that every kind of illusion of imperfect sight comes from the strain to do the opposite impossible thing. Like blind spots occur in result of trying to see a too bright object makes the object seem darker, the blurred vision at the distance occurs in result of the strain to see far object, and so on, respectively.

Update: I no longer practice and/or recommend sun gazing with opened eyes, because there are much less intrusive techniques of relaxation in the Bates method, and the risk of acquiring additional strain and scotomas during sun gazing is simply not justified. Exposing your eyes with closed eyelids to direct sun is enough. Just take care to cover your face to protect your skin from sun burns and premature forming of wrinkles, don't do it in the middle of summer day, don't do it for more than 5-15 minutes. Also you can use powerful (~1000 lumens) LED flashlights on your closed eyes with nearly the same effect but without the risk of a UV burn.

The Wrongest Idea about Eyesight

Perhaps the wrongest idea about eyesight, yet the most widespread and difficult to get rid of, is that when you "need your eyes" you cannot afford to relax them. 

It is also what prevents many people from discarding their glasses. They say that they would be able to discard them unless they needed their eyes so heavily on their work etc.  

I may declare and preach that relaxation needs to be made permanent, but way too often while working or doing something important, I find myself thinking that after I am done with it, I will relax and practice universal swing, but not now, because now "I need my eyes". 

What the hell? How doesn't it split my mind in two pieces by believing that only relaxation makes my eyesight better and at the same time implicitly believing that the strain is necessary to see? 

It means of course that the idea of strain is not completely unrooted from my subconscious mind. It is quite an amusing manifestation when a subconscious idea is realized by the conscious mind and found contradictory with what the conscious believes is true. :) I am looking forward to see that this contradiction will be resolved. 

The Best Bates Teacher in the World

It is the sun.

People who teach Bates method may be wrong. They may be just earning their living by telling you things that resemble Bates method but actually are against it. They may have been taught by wrong people too. They may not even have perfect sight. There is no guarantee that they completely understand the fundamental principles set forth by Dr. Bates. The reality is that most of them do not.

But even if you find a good teacher, he or she won't tell you the feelings and experiences of your own mind and body you should look for. Human language is just not capable to carry such things. So, the best you can get from a human teacher is just encouragement and a guard from obvious blunders.

The sun is totally different. The sun punishes you immediately with the intolerable discomfort, afterimages and other ill effects when you treat it in the wrong and strained way. And it encourages you with pleasant comfort and improved vision when you find the right way. All this happens directly in your mind, without mediation of words. I often thought that if I only could have a perfect indicator of strain, I would cure myself very quickly. I have finally found it. The discomfort from bright light is a direct manifestation of strain. It IS strain, in a sense.

The next step I have found is a fun game of provoking more discomfort when you reach a certain level of comfort in the bright light. For example, I look at the sky near the sun and notice the sun is seen worse in the eccentric field, look to the earth than back to the sun, swing the sun etc. This all usually breaks my balance, I begin straining and a wave of discomfort returns. Then I dissolve it again, and my comfortable relaxation becomes deeper and more stable.

After successfully learning to obtain comfort in bright light, I began to notice the same discomfort as from looking at the sun with strain, in many other situations, when there is no bright light. It's just too subtle, and that's why I wasn't able to notice it before the sun amplified it hundred times. Now when I am able to sense the discomfort in other situations, I can also apply the same techniques that I use to get accustomed to the bright light. The results are very encouraging.

Right Words and Wrong Words

Our mind uses words to label things. Once a name is called, the corresponding notion of an object or phenomenon begins to exist in the mind, even if the object or phenomenon may not exist in reality. And in reverse, once a name is destroyed, or replaced with a verb meaning an action, the corresponing object or phenomenon disappears from the mind.

Because vision problems are entirely in the mind, it is important to be careful with words, because the ideas behind them may be wrong and thereby retard the cure of imperfect sight. Dr. Bates was EXTREMELY careful with words. Every his word is a gem. I tried to translate Dr. Bates' texts to other languages and I tell you it's very difficult to do so without losing part of the meaning, or using too much words to deliver the full meaning. English is the perfect language for Bates method.

Here is the list of words that Dr. Bates didn't use, and I avoid using myself, in context of eyesight and Bates method:

WRONG: sunning, solarization
RIGHT: sun treatment, sun gazing

WRONG: centralization (I would kill for that! :) )
RIGHT: central fixation

WRONG: clear flash
RIGHT: a flash of improved vision, a flash of perfect vision

There may be others that I will remember and post later

Also, I'd recommend to avoid the following words:
to focus, to concentrate, to try hard, to do my best, to make an effort

And of course stay away from the following optician's words, because the phenomenons meant by them are non-existent but have been brought into your mind by compulsion:
prescription, diopter, myopia, astigmatism, hypermetropia etc.

Imperfect Sight Is Mostly an Illusion

It's hard to believe for a newbie that his or her imperfect sight is mostly a mental illusion, because it feels so real and the glasses that seem to correct it are also very real.

It is however accepted even by the optometrists that eyesight cannot be measured in diopters, as it should have been if imperfect sight was really strictly due to eyeball deformation. That's why the Snellen card X/Y numbers are used, meaning that two persons with the same Snellen reading without glasses may require different glasses for the same correction. Consequently, there's something else that contributes to imperfect sight than eyeball deformation, and it is the illusions caused by mental strain.

It took me quite a long time to demonstrate myself this fact. I learned it from my flashes of improved vision. When a flash occurs, the image does not gradually reduce the blur to the point when it fully converges, as it would be for a focusing camera. During the flash, first a multitude of sharp double-images appear out of the blur, surrounded with a cloud of blur. Then the images line up horizontally. Next, most of the images fade out and only two stay, on quite a big distance from each other, one more vivid than the other. At this point, the fog of blur disappears and the two images appears amazingly clear and three-dimensional. Finally, the less vivid image gradually fades out and the perfect sight arrives. What a weird play of mental illusions! You will never obtain this with just optical systems. I believe my eyeballs come into the right shape quite early, when I begin to see the multiple sharp images, and the rest of time I am observing only mental illusions, when I could already have perfect sight.

The conclusion is: stop trying to do something with your eyes. Switch entirely to practicing with your mind. Don't underestimate memory and imagination techniques.

Sun-Gazing Experience

The day before yesterday, the first time in my life I was able to look at the sun without discomfort for an indefinite length of time, with no afterimages at all, my eyesight profoundly improved immediately during and after sun treatment, and great flashes of improved vision during the same day.

Previously, I was only able to look at the sun without discomfort for a few seconds, then the wave of sleepiness and discomfort returned and I had to look away or close my eyes. This time it was different. By using the burning glass, doing long swing with my eyes up to the sky and getting accustomed to the sky near the sun, in about 10-15 minutes I became able to look at the sun, anywhere at the sky near the sun, and anywhere on earth and then back onto the sun, without losing the comfort and without any afterimages or color changes. I blinked at the normal rate. I even saw the edges of the sun sharp for few moments, although as a rule I see sun in blur. (so, obviously my sun gazing is still not perfect and I still have room to develop). The sun was swinging slowly and I was able to easily remember the swinging black period.

Because I was a bit bewildered with the fact that I no longer have to fight discomfort, I didn't know what to do next :) and decided this time to take a longer session of sun gazing than I normally do. The same day I had unusually sharp flashes of improved vision whenever I looked to the window. The next day the weather was overcast and I had a bad relapse, one like I haven't had for a long time already. I couldn't look even at the clouds without discomfort, and nothing seemed to give me relief. It is however known that relapses often take place the next day after sun gazing, but after they go, the eyesight improves further. Now it's the third day and the relapse is gone, and my vision feels like somewhere on the edge of a flash all the time. I am very intrigued with the power of more lengthy sun treatment, when I am comfortable with it, and look forward to try it again. To be honest, previously I was afraid to try it because of my first bad experience of sun treatment, when I did it wrong and developed a scotoma that lasted for two months.

Universal Swing and Variable Swing

I have noticed that during my flashes of improved vision the space appears transparent and three-dimensional. The entire view field seems overwhelmingly deep and swings slowly in whole, objects at different distances swinging with different speeds.

Looking to reproduce this feeling after few attempts I have found, guess what, that it is the same thing that is described by Dr. Bates as "universal swing" and "variable swing". It feels like realizing that the space is not flat and objects are located in different planes. Even if you can't see the detail, you can always see that objects change their relative positions to each other as you move your body, head or eyes. The easiest it is to notice when doing the long swing. Then, you can make the movement shorter and still notice that the perspective on objects slightly changes. You can also remember this feeling with the eyes closed.

An important point is that you do not pay attention to the blur and not try to clear it away, but instead only pay attention to the swing.

When successful, the strain decreases so that I become able to stop physically moving my head and then keep the swing purely imaginary. It is slow and short, as it should be.

If I am aware of the universal swing for long enough - a couple of minutes, my eyesight improves automatically. So I now remember to practice it all the time. It is easy when you walk outdoors. The challenge is however to practice it while working at the computer screen or book, where the view field is mostly flat.

Improved Experience with Memory of Swinging Black Period

My recent experience with the memory of black period has considerably improved.

As always, after discovering what I previously did wrong, I slap my forehead because it's exactly what and exactly how Dr. Bates wrote about it in his great book. Namely, I tried to imagine the period stationary. Such ongoing "discoveries of the evident" always leave me wondering, whether all the preceding mistakes were really necessary steps or I could have been able, if I weren't such an idiot, to come directly to do the right thing? And in the latter case, how rapid would my cure be? Well, I'm dreaming. :)

So here is the WRONG way to imagine black dot: First I imagined kind of background, such as white sheet of paper and then a black round dot on it. I knew that I should shift over the dot, so I imagined the dot as a quite big circle and looked at different edges of the circle. The problem was however that each time I looked at an edge, I still kept imagining the picture stationary and the entire circle equally well.

The right way is to begin by imagining the swing of the dot, even before the picture of the dot appears in the mind. The feeling of swing I borrowed from my flashes of improved vision, when letters swung like crazy and were perfectly black. If I find it difficult to imagine the dot swinging right away, I may at first imagine that I blink frequently and each time after opening my eyes the dot slightly changes its position. Then the dot begins to swing even without blinking. Then all of a sudden, I can see the perfect black dot of very small size swinging in my mind! It feels like my mind switches to seeing the perfect imaginary picture somewhere else in my mind while still seeing the real picture from eyes. I may even see some background the black dot is on, but it feels unimportant and loose. This may last for a couple of seconds now, or come in series of intermittent short intervals. The vision always improves when I am able to do so. Sometimes I am unable to remember the black dot swinging and I know then that I need to palm or do some sun treatment, because I am under strain. Black period is a reliable indicator of strain.

The blackness of the period also improved. I think it's because of the sun treatment I take a lot recently. Brilliant light is somehow connected with its opposite - perfect blackness. Actually, now I sometimes look at the Snellen card, see those gray blurred letters and I just grin, because I can easily discard this illusion of grayness by comparing the letters with the memory of perfect black that is now more readily available in my mind. And I do! Then the letters clear and become blacker, temporarily. Then the strain returns, just like a fluctuation of discomfort goes during sun treatment (see my other post about this).

So, the main two factors that enabled me to remember the black period better: memory of short swing and universal swing from flashes of improved vision, and memory of blackness improved by sun treatment.

Needless to say that the swinging black period has immediately become my favorite game, along with the universal swing and noticing things moving. As Dr. Bates advised, I always carry with me the memory of a small, round, perfectly black, inky, greasy, wet, sexy black period! :)

A Long-Lasting Flash of Perfect Vision

Yesterday I had the most prominent flash of improved vision in my practice. It just blown my mind away, although I don't usually get excited at the flashes anymore. This one was crisp 20/20 and lasted very long, about 10-15 min. I could do anything (or do nothing) and it didn't go away. I thought I was actually cured until it faded away.

It was not equal in both eyes, but I believe if I stayed like this for a longer time, both eyes would sink to the equal relaxation. Also, there was a little double-image appearing and disappearing, but not making the entire image blurred. I didn't feel like my eyes suddenly relieved from muscular tension - this usually happens before the flash and is obviously due to a cruder level of strain. During the flash my eyes just felt perfectly comfortable, like they should be. No tears, stitching etc.

I have saved the relaxed and comfortable state of the mind that accompanied the flash. It reminded me of my childhood in a way, when I had perfect sight. I can now remember this state to help bring myself back to relaxation.

It looks like I have finally detected what exactly makes me relax and strain and so I can now just keep practicing without doubts. My flashes of improved vision have become oftener and deeper recently.

Psychoanalysis and Bates Method

In context of curing imperfect eyesight, I've found that it's not productive to try to analyze the subconscious and psychological issues that originally caused the strain to build up. It's just the upside-down way. First you should find the way to relax and only then you may discover the cause, but not in reverse order. The ways people strain are countless and knowing the original cause far ago in your childhood will hardly help you cure yourself now, but will more likely divert your attention from the real practice to things that no longer matter.

The Eye Muscles

Forget about the eye muscles. The problem is entirely in the mind. Beside the muscles receiving wrong control impulses from the mind and forcing the eye out of focus, there are also the illusions of imperfect sight, which are the largest defect of imperfect sight, and they are not connected with any muscles, only with the mental strain. As soon as you regain good mental control, the muscles will also be OK, no need to worry about them.

Procedures and Balancers - A Classification of Bates Techniques

I'd split all Bates techniques in two groups: "procedures" and "balancers".

The procedures are routines you do from time to time, several times a day. They are like first aid when you find yourself back in strain, and their aim is to bring you back into a more relaxed state, the best you can get at the moment. Procedures are: palming, sun treatment, sway (also known as long swing) and playing with the Snellen test card.

The balancers are the little tricks you keep doing all the time, when you are more or less relaxed, to prevent building strain and deepen the relaxation further more. Their aim is to dodge your mind and distract it from trying to control the eyes. Balancers are: noticing things moving, shifting, central fixation, remembering black period, imagining things seen clearly, breathing, blinking softly.

Start with the procedures and then proceed to the balancers.

Central Fixation Is Simple

I'm finding recently that I've used to over-complicate my understanding of central fixation, and it should be taken more literally. At the beginning of Chapter XI of his book, Dr. Bates gives quite a mundane explanation, namely, there are more cells and they are tighter packed closer to the central pit of the retina. It means simply less resolution and less brightness on the periphery. That's how to "notice the objects not directly regarded as seen worse". No need to introduce the ambiguous "less attention" thing.

The mind, of course, compensates for this effect, so that people with normal sight think they see the entire field equally well and bright, but when their attention is called to it, they become aware of their central fixation. My wife has got perfect sight, and when I asked her it she admits that she cannot see the neighbor letters on the Shellen card in equal detail and blackness, she answered: "Actually, I can't see them at all." It left me wondering about how something that a woman with normal sight would call "can't see at all" can be permanently used by me as my only way of seeing...

Another important thing I've been ignoring about central fixation is that it first should be practiced on a distance where I see best. It's a vain idea (though maybe more tempting) to start practicing first on distant objects, that are already seen poorly. I just can't see the difference between the objects directly regarded and not directly regarded, or the distance between them should become ridiculously large.

And central fixation is all about noticing the difference!

My Indoor Sun

Two weeks ago I bought a brilliant lamp for sun treatment indoors. Luckily, I no longer depend on the weather, which in winter is overcast 90% of time.

As Rishi advised, I chose a metal-halide (Hg-I) high intensity gas discharge bulb, OSRAM PowerBall HCI-T (see the specs), 150W, NDL (neutral day light), with good, even, white spectrum. The luminous intensity of this class of bulbs is about 10 times greater than that of the conventional halogen bulbs, not to mention the old incandescent bulbs. So, my 150W bulb shines like a 1500W halogen and it really makes my room look like a bright sunny day. Also, because this lamp is very energy-efficient and does not heat, I can leave it turned on all day long, so that my eyes are more relaxed at average.


I bought the bulb bundled with the LIVAL Hawk projector (see the specs), wide-flood (44 degrees) beam, and installed in on a ceiling track. I can move the projector and direct it where I like. The control gear is conventional, although it also ships with the full electronic control gear, I didn't want to wait for the next supply.

These are quite expensive toys. The projector is US $240, including the bulb which itself is about $40, and the 2m track and all its parts about another $40.

The following are my general impressions:

1. This projector, and all other projectors for such bulbs, look quite BIG. Mine is over 12 inches long and 11 inches wide. It was certainly not intended for home installation and I had pretty hard time convincing the salespeople that I knew what I was doing :).

2. The salesman also claimed that it's going to be too bright for a home room, but it appears to be absolutely OK for my purpose. The brilliant light casts contrasting shadows and the Snellen card looks like perfect black letters on a perfect white background.

Moreover, the light beam (44 degrees) is somewhat too narrow. If you want to flood the entire room with bright light, you may need two or three projectors. There have been also double-ended rectangular projectors with "very wide flood" beam, which I could consider as more appropriate, but I decided for the narrower spot light, because it fits better for sun treatment.

Compare with other home lights

3. The color of the light is pure white, meaning that the rest of home lights look like dingy yellowish candles. I wouldn't like to use other lights in the room while the projector is on.

4. The lamp does NOT utter any humming noise, as older gas discharge lamps I heard did, even though the control gear isn't electronic. What I do notice sometimes is that the light is slightly flickering. Not like fluorescent lamps with their nauseating 50 Hz vibration, you know, but there is a hardly noticeable shivering. I wonder if this is because the control gear is not electronic, or if it's a nature of the gas discharge .

5. The lamp does not ignite instantly and it takes about 2-3 min for the lamp to reach its working level of brightness and color. Also after turning off, it cannot be immediately turned back on. This inertia is due to the process of metal evaporation inside the inner capsule of the bulb. The lamp also lives longer if it's not turned on and off too frequently. By the way, the lifespan of this lamp is about 6 times longer that halogens.

Compare with a 500Wt halogen (on the left)

6. I've made a simple calculation and it shows that on a small distance from the lamp (about 5 inches), its luminous intensity is equal to the sun. I don't I do stand that close to the lamp, but my feelings indicate that my calculation should be correct. It's really a very good substitute, whereas the 500W halogen project I used previously does not compare at all. The light spectrum resembles the sun also much closer. I even use the burning glass with the lamp, and it does not burn my skin :)

The Biggest Dilemma of the Bates Method

The biggest dilemma of the Bates method is that you want to change the way you use your eyes, yet you need to completely divert your attention away from your eyes. This may seem contradictory at first glance, but it means simply that you're still sticking to the wrong idea that the problem is in your eyes, while it is truly in your mind. The desire to influence your eyes is simply a wrong goal. Replace the wrong idea of doing something to your eyes with the right idea of leaving them alone and instead playing with your memory and imagination, and the situation will change dramatically. This replacement must happen not only in your rational belief, but also in the emotional attitude, and it always takes time. You should become sincerely MORE interested in imagination and memory than the eyes and current acuity of vision.

While I keep caring about my eyes, every Bates technique I do gets perverted and becomes its opposite. Let's take shifting for example. To move my eyes all the time is the WRONG way. The right way is to DO NOTHING with my eyes, step aside and wait. What's going to happen is that I will become bored in a second and my interest will go to another point, and my eyes will want to shift as well. Bingo! What I should do is just to not interfere with this natural desire. Feel the difference: the INTEREST comes first and the motor impulse comes last. Such shift always produces swing as well. This is very unlike the anxiety to keep moving the eyes all the time at all costs, which is even more strain.

I've re-read Chapter X "Strain" and thought that I've been still missing the subtle point of totally letting go of the idea to do ANYTHING with my eyes, whatever technique I am practicing. Since I realized it over again, it is going to change.

…This relaxation cannot, however, be obtained by any sort of effort. It is fundamental that patients should understand this; for so long as they think, consciously or unconsciously, that relief from strain may be obtained by another strain their cure will be delayed.

Amen.

Imagine Things Seen Clearly

Imagination was not my forte before, but recently I’ve made some progress with it, and it revealed the tight yet subtle connection between imagination and eyesight that I wasn’t aware of before. I’ve found that it’s only the first moment after each eye movement when the eye sees, and the rest of time the brain constructs the image using memory and imagination. There isn’t, in fact, much difference between what we call "to see" and "to imagine". I knew it from the Bates book, but now I also FEEL it.

Strain decouples shifting and imagination, and both decay. You are no longer able to move the eyes, and neither you are able to imagine. By practicing imagination consciously, the mind gets engaged and eventually restores the normal order of things, at least temporarily.

I find very helpful to look at things with ease while imagining I see them clearly. Namely, I can imagine texture on objects, edges seen sharp, glare on glass, black dots as parts at dark objects and other fun stuff. It is amazing how well my eyesight clears when I’m successful in doing so.