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!