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.