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.
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.
18 comments:
I am wondering if you have some suggestions for a fellow sungazer. I have been an avid sungazer for more than 1.5yrs without any spots, discomfort, strain, etc. This has always been a very beautiful and enlightening process. Over the last several weeks during my gazes it has been hazy and on my last gaze it was very bright and clear. I only gaze before sunset and for some reason this gaze has left me with what seems to be scotoma which is very confusing after all this time for this to happen. I experience it when looking into something bright like white pages, monitor, bright spaces, etc.
How long after you experienced your scotoma did you reintroduce the sun back as I noted in your previous blog that you suggested "the best way to get rid of the afterimage was to look at the sun again."
I trust the Sun and already miss gazing. As well of course I would like this spot to go away. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
Corinne
As I already said, I've demonstrated to myself that scotoma is just one of the many illusions that our mind imagines when it's out of mental control. Just like blur and imperfect sight are also illusions of our mind. You will see it as long as you keep imagining that you see it. And you will likely be imagining it while you are thinking about it, and while you are scared that the scotoma will never go away. You should stop worrying, distract, and practice central fixation. You will see that when you obtain central fixation, even for a fraction of second, the scotoma immediately goes away. Then after you stop practicing you may see the scotoma again, but you should not worry again because you will already know it is just an illusion. If scotoma was not an illusion, it would not go away under no circumstances. You can return to sun gazing as soon as you feel safe. You can always practice with the burning glass, which never produces scotomas.
I myself was very scared and my scotoma lasted for a couple of months. I don't quite remember when it was gone because to make it go I had to forget about it :). Currently I don't have any scotomas after sun- and lamp-gazing, however I can produce them at will by staring at the test card in bright light.
Do you experience flashes of perfect sight right after sun-gazing? If you really have no discomfort and strain, it should be the case.
I agree that any imbalance within any of our systems is an illusion created from an imbalanced thought.
I wasn't familiar with "central fixation" but have now researched it. I understand what you say when the scotoma temporarily disappears and then reappears.
I have stopped sungazing for the moment. When I was sungazing and finished my gaze everything would be bright for a few seconds and then my vision was always clear after. On rare occasions I remember immediate random spots of yellowing, but very temporary.
I am staying fairly relaxed about it although admittedly feel frustrated with reading or using the computer.
Did you continue sungazing while you had scotoma?
Thank you for your thoughts!
Corinne
If you don't even know about central fixation, you should read the original book by Dr. Bates thoroughly. It is very important. How do you practice if you don't know the fundamentals in the first place?
While I had my lasting scotoma, I was scared to look at the sun again, of course. It lasted as long as I imagined erroneously that I had permanently harmed my eyes. As soon as I coped to demonstrate to myself that it was an illusion, I tried to look at the sun again, cautiously at first, then more confidently. Currently I can look at the sun for any duration of time, with no after-images. However, my relaxation is still not perfect during sun-gazing. Scotoma is only the top of the iceberg of strain.
Thank you for all of your suggestions. I started sungazing for the purpose of recharging the Light within my body, not as a means of restoring my eyesight and therefore I prescribe to another sungazing program. Having found the Bates information however is an added bonus.
As time goes on I am finding that as I relax the scotoma is lessening and I'm regaining my ability to see centrally. I trust that in a short time all will be clear and I will be back sungazing.
Thanks for all of your help!
Corinne
Oh my god I can't believe that worked! I gazed upon the sun at midday for 3 separate periods of 10 seconds each and produced a scotoma that lasted for 2 days. I was really worried about permanent damage and your blog is about the only resource I've found that actually recommends looking at the sun again to clear it up. And it worked! There is no more scotoma which saved me a lot of worry and frustration! Thank you!
Good for you, Fisher. Note though that currently I think that instead of looking into the sun with open eyes people should use the burning glass, on both open and closed eyes, as recommended by Dr. Bates. It provides the same amount of relaxation and does not get you into the risk of producing scotomas, which are very annoying, even though always temporary. Newbies should always start with simpler things.
Sun holds vast energy that can be of great help to us mankind. Many people practice sun gazing to improve their health. Sun gazing practice is good but it should be done carefully. Just recently I was able to watched a movie that talks about sun gazing where the sun gazer master Hira Ratan Manek talks about sun gazing @ http://www.whatifthemovie.tv.
But I look in the distance and it IS blurry...How can it be an illusion? I kinda see how looking at the sun and getting a scotoma is from straining but aren't my eyes myopic because they are misshapen?
Right, your eyes are misshapen by the extra-ocular muscles, and therefore the light isn't focused on the retina and the image is blurred. This is not an illusion.
However, it is accompanied with a diversity of illusions of imperfect sight, like multiple images, changes in color and size, etc. (all described in Chapter 16 of PSWG, http://www.central-fixation.com/perfect-sight-without-glasses/chapter-16.php) which do not occur when you simply take an image with a mis-focused camera.
When the vision is perfect, it's also full of "good" illusions, like movement of stationary objects, white halos in black letters etc. also described by Dr. Bates in PSWG.
Our vision is generally an illusion constructed by the mind. The light falls onto retina, then the mind analyzes the receptors data and builds some meaningful image. Meaningful only for your mind based on its past experience. Every person may see and notice something slightly different on the same picture.
We all tend to think that we just see everything equally well all the time, like if there was a square computer screen in our eyes. That's not true. We forget that we see only one point at a time and only for an instant, then the eyes move to the next point. Otherwise you'd not see anything at all. The illusion of continuous image full of detail is constructed by imagination in between these moments, but it does not physically exist. This is a scientific fact and there are lots of experiments proving the fact.
When vision is perfect, the mind continuously imagines the object it's regarding, and the eyes move accordingly to the point you are currently imagining, providing new information to reinforce or correct that image. Not another way around.
Now when the vision is impaired, misshapen eyes are not the cause of the problem. It is also not something that you can directly change. It's a consequence of the original problem – mental strain. You should not worry about misshapen eyes – they will come into the right shape immediately once you eliminate the cause. The real problem is the disconnection between mental imagination and the eyes.
The mental strain is like you are grasping your attention too tightly on your eyes and "seeing", and not allowing imagination to happen the natural way. Then your "eyes controller" goes out of order, the eyes get misshapen and the mind provides you with all kinds of disagreeable illusions.
Instead, you should let imagination happen. You can practice it in all forms. Like imagine more detail in what you are looking at, or imagine something different like black period, or a picture with eyes closed. Any imagination immediately improves vision a bit, for some time.
How did u work with Computer during this period.. I'm having same problem since 2 days... I can see the sun with my eyes closed.. and that spot blurs when I try to focus my eyes.. checked with each eye and it's the same... Let me know should I stop gazing.. I still gaze for few mins and started since 2 weeks Thank u..
@THE MAZE of course, please stop doing it!!! You are doing it wrong and not benefitting from it, but just making harm to yourself!
As I stated above in the comments, I no longer practice and recommend sun gazing with opened eyes, because there are much less intrusive methods of relaxation, 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 and 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).
The scotomas will go away but they are definitely not useful for the health.
Thank you..
Hi, i am the same the MAze above. Can you let me know if its advisable to visit a doctor and will it help or wait for it to disappear automatically since you say its an illusion.. the overall brightness has reduced a little... little worried. working on computer has become a pain now... any relaxing techniques to fix it up. appreciate your help.... once again thank you
@bala: Man, I cannot tell you anything about/for yourself! You know yourself better!!!
I don't know what doctors have to offer as a treatment for scotomas.
I can only tell that my own scotoma finally disappeared, but it took long time (weeks) and I don't advise anyone to develop scotoma by doing stupid sun gazing like I did. Dr. Bates told us that scotoma was an illusion and no organic damage could be detected by him, but to be honest, maybe he just didn't have the precise equipment back in the day. Maybe some temporary damage is done, but then the eyes can recover. Maybe some small unnoticeable damage remains. I don't know! I know that sometimes I could do sun gazing the right way, without scotomas, and it's likely no damage was produced either. This uncertainty is the main reason I stopped the practice of sun gazing myself, and don't recommend it to others from my experience. The sun light on closed eyelids – is really great!
It's certainly worth to stop worrying about it, and checking all the time if it's still there. This is what seems to make it persist. Also try practicing central fixation, it's seems relevant for the problem. All Bates techniques actually bring relaxation, try each and every of them.
Thank you... Any links to Central fixation
This thread is amazing. Someone will read this in a distant future and have a good laugh...
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