Dodging Your Eyesight or "What Is the Bates Routine?"

Look at this impressing story told by Dr. Bates:

"The patient, a man with fifteen diopters of myopia, was so much disturbed by what he saw when his vision had been improved by the memory of a period that he was directed to look away from the Snellen test card, or whatever object he was regarding, when he found the letters or other details coming out; and for about a week he went around persistently dodging his improved sight. As his memory improved, it became more and more difficult for him to do this, and at the end of the week it was impossible. When he looked at the bottom line at a distance of twenty feet he remembered the period perfectly, and when asked if he could see the letters, he replied: "I cannot help but see them."

It is known that Dr. Bates did not provide any routine for his method. This fact is very confusing for most newbies who tend to think about the Bates method as a set of exercises, like bodily ones. Look at the community forums and you'll find that "What is the daily Bates routine?" or alike is a top 10 question. It's hard to get comfortable with the idea that the Bates method should be practiced all the time. It's just unclear how to technically do it.

At first, I tried different routines (even exercises beyond the Bates method), and I confirm that just doing things few times a day (excluding sun treatment) doesn't work in the long run, or works very inefficiently. Even if I get relaxation and a clear flash during my Bates session, it's pointless if I then go back to work and strain. I like how Rishi said: "You have the same time to use your eyes wrongly than you have to use them rightly." So, my real challenge is to put my habit of strain on a slippery slope, so that it would be slipping down all the time, even if I am not busy controlling it.

I think I am close to finding a solution, and it is what I call, following Dr. Bates, dodging your eyesight. In short, it means to consciously divert your mind's attention from the act of seeing, and thereby begin looking without effort. This is nothing new; in fact, all Bates techniques, such as central fixation, memory of black dot, swinging etc. are techniques of dodging. The subtle but important peculiarity is that I learned to identify and support the state when I pretend that I don't care about clear vision and rather engage my mind with other qualities of vision than its acuity. When I succeed to dodge long enough without "getting disturbed", the clear flash arrives almost with no additional action on my part. I'd say anything I do while dodging slips me down to the clear flash.

What I need to do now is take each of my daily activities and learn to dodge at the same time – first dodge consciously and then unconsciously. Currently I have learned to dodge while I'm on a walk outdoors. Unfortunately, when I use my eyes to obtain information, e.g. when I work at the computer, it is very easy to go back to strain. Combining dodging with reading is what I'm currently working on. I have thought up a bunch of "dodging games" that help me obtain that state. I will write about them in my next posts.

One Year of Bates

Today is precisely one year since I set out on my Bates journey, and it's hard to keep myself from summing up.

If you ask me about my progress, you will most likely get different answers at different times. There are clear days when I feel two steps away from the complete cure and there are still days of relapse when I feel like if I were back to the start. After asking me a few questions, Rishi concluded, to my disappointment, that I'm only at the beginning. Surely, I haven't reached stable comfortable vision, but I see improvements in many aspects (that would take too long for one blog post). A good evidence of my progress for you could be that I'm positive to continue my practice.

Every time I make another step forward, I realize what a fool I've been and why I used to fail before. The right thing always appears to be very simple. I am always left wondering - if I were intelligent enough, could I have come straight to what I have found out, or is the progress only possible after I take my time coming through all the blunders?

Also, my criteria for progress have changed. Bates method has appeared to be something that is very accordant with my entire nature. I find my personality, my beliefs and my lifestyle gradually changing to something very exciting, something I have always unconsciously dreamed to be like.

You may have expected me to show numbers, such as Snellen reading, but I don't have them, sorry. It is probably the most difficult thing to stop caring about checking my vision all time to see if there's an improvement. It's only now that I come to realize that I have been doing it all the time and I now strive to cancel this habit. So you shouldn't be expecting any numbers from me in the nearest time. After all those clear flashes and relapses, all I know is that my Snellen reading is approximately between 20/200 and 20/30 :).

My case history: My eyesight grew myopic in age of 8-9 and gradually deteriorated over 10 years down to 20/200. My last glasses prescription was -4D, both eyes. Then I switched to wearing contact lenses (-3.5D) and worn them for another 10 years, without further worsening. On September 15, 2006 I forever discarded contacts and began practicing Bates method.

How to Use the Burning Glass on Yourself

Here's how I learned to point the burning glass blindly, without assistance from another person and without a mirror.

1. Determine the focus distance of the burning glass. Focus sun rays on a sheet of paper and remember the distance between the glass and the paper, approximately. In my case it's about 5 inches.

By the way, here's how to choose the right burning glass. The burning glass is a convex lens ("+" diopters), such as a magnifying glass. It is important that the glass focuses a sufficient ray beam, such that provides the relaxing effect and doesn't overheat your eyeball too fast.

The light beam is greater when the diameter of the glass is greater, and/or the diopter of the glass is greater. In other words, you can take a smaller glass with more "+" diopters or you can take a bigger glass with fewer "+" diopters.

Here's my own burning glass (the ruler is in cm):


2. Sit down in sun light and direct your face to the sun so that the sun rays are square with your face. Under the eyelids, point your eyes to the sun.

3. Use the burning glass with closed eyes. Bring the glass close to one eye, so that the frame touches your eyebrow. From this reference point, move the glass away from your face along the sun rays until you reach the focus distance. You can tell the right position by the maximum of intensity of the light spot seen through the eyelid. Don't forget to move the glass from side to side, to avoid overheating.

4. Holding the glass in the same position, look far down and lift the eyelid with another hand. Voila, you are now pointing the burning glass correctly. Keep moving the glass from side to side. If you accidentally lose the position, repeat from step 3.

What you should see is a bright white field with a network of darker blood vessels. This is the projection of sclera's blood vessels on the retina. As you move the glass, the vessels will move too. In the center of that field you will see a spot of slightly different color and texture. This spot doesn't move so I think this is the macula lutea (the central yellow spot on the retina).

Make sure your eyes stay far down, because otherwise the focused beam may touch the pupil, which is an unpleasant thing. For this reason I point the glass blindly and don't use mirrors or otherwise try to peep at my hands.

Treat one eye as long as you are comfortable with it, then pass to the second eye, then repeat again if you like.