Hi guys, an amazing highly evolved spiritual teacher has shared with me an incredible ancient chinese remedy for ALL eye problems. After taking these for the first day my kidneys got really hot and I began to sweat out of them. Two wet spots on my lower back began to form where these organs are located. It is said these “tonify and purify” the kidneys and liver. It has been known for years that the kidneys and liver link to eyesight in TCM(traditional chinese medicine). It’s unbelievable how clear my eyesight has become!!!! Try them for yourself and find out!!!!!
Here is what others have to say about these Goji Berries (aka “wolf berries”, lyci berries to name a few other names…)
They are known as Goji Berries.
Take a look at what others have to say about this mysterious ancient eyesight remedy:
I’ve had eye floaters for a number of years. They started out as spots that would float across my eyes. They progressed to a spider web type floater which impaired my vision. I talked with a lot of people my age who have them, too. My doctor said there was nothing short of surgery that could be done. She said most doctors, including herself, perform such surgery only in rare instances. She said that often times the brain would adjust and that even though I still had them I wouldn’t be so aware of them.
I’m happy to say that since I’ve started drinking goji, my eyes have gotten better to where now I rarely have any floaters at all! And my night vision is better too!
Bob W., California
I have been drinking goji for the last five months. There are some things that happen in my life that I sometimes don’t believe. I had one eye that could not see very clear and after drinking goji I have seen changes. I can now see things at a distance where I could not before. Just having sight in both eyes has made me feel whole again. Thank you for giving me my vision back. I feel so blessed to have Goji in my life.
Bill T., New Zealand
Never, in all the years I have gone for eye appointments, has my vision ever improved, until my appointment yesterday, Friday, March 4th.
My optometrist stated that not just one, but both eyes, have improved a full 1/2 a point each. She was surprised, but I wasn’t! The information on why we should drink Goji and documented scientific research says one of the many benefits is that it “supports eye health and improves your vision.”
My appointment confirms that research and statement to be absolutely true. I am looking forward to increased good vision and more changes to help me with my high risk of retinal tears and holes resulting in detachments.
This is only one of many improvements goji has made to my health. I love my Goji and will not be without it.
Karen L., Surrey BC Canada
I’ve been taking goji for 2 months. Some things that happen are very subtle and some dramatic. My eyesight has improved tremendously. I’m able to read small print on the television in my room. I always needed my glasses to do that. I can’t even look through my glasses anymore. I thought there was something wrong with the glasses, but it’s my eyesight that has gotten better!
Linda, Florida
I wore glasses for distance vision since I was 11 years old; as of this date, I am 64. During the years, as I aged, my eyes got worse and at one point the doctor told me that I was considered legally blind without glasses; my vision was 220/20 in one eye and 230/20 in the other. At age 17, when I acquired my first driver’s license, it was marked on my license that I was required to wear corrective lenses.
After I started drinking Goji Juice, I noticed that I could no longer see with my glasses and thought that my eyes had gotten worse. When I went in for new glasses, the doctor told me that my prescription was “too strong” for me and made me a new pair of glasses with weaker lenses; my vision then tested out to be 150/20. A short time later this happened again. I then noticed that I could no longer see with that second pair of new glasses and stopped wearing them completely. I could see ok …didn’t even bother to go back to the doctor this time.
But the real test came when I moved to Colorado and had to get a CO driver’s license. I had it in my mind that I would go back to the eye doctor if I didn’t pass the eye test. Guess what? I passed the eye exam with flying colors and, after all these years, that “Corrective Lenses Required” is not printed on my license!
P.S. We have found this organic (highest nutrient dense quality) retailer the best and cheapest(you can grow your own using the dried fruit as it contains the seed!!! They are very easy to grow yourself, but take time to start producing fruit. Put three of the dried berries in a small pot of damp compost. Seedlings will grow within 3 weeks. Once they are 10cm tall transfer them to a bigger pot. The plants can’t quite make up their mind if they are a bush or a vine. They will climb to some extent. They grow to about ten feet in 3 / 4 years. They like practically any soil, shade or sunshine. A high phosphate fertilizer will help; use it in spring. You’ll need to protect them from slugs – they love the leaves. (Rabbits like them too unfortunately) The plants flower from June, producing attractive pale blue-lilac blossoms. Berries grow from the fourth year and you’ll need to protect them from birds who also love them. We have ours where we grow roses and hawthorn bushes.).
We wanted to share this with you guys – all the way from India, enjoy!
(Note: Some of the suggestions are way too far out there, but the majority of them are great such as the amla + water in the morning and ginger lemon onion eye drops.)
This week we are very excited to have a very informative guest article written by Martin Sussman, a pioneer in the natural vision therapy field to say the least. Enjoy!
The visual system — the eyes, muscles, nerves and vision centers of the brain — is one of the most complex and highly demanding systems of the body.
More than 25% of the nutrition your body absorbs goes to feed the visual system. The visual system consumes one third of all the oxygen that you take in. Metabolism in the eyes is faster than anywhere else in the body. The concentration of vitamin C and other important nutrients is higher in the healthy eye than almost anywhere else in the body.
It’s not surprising, then, that proper nutrition plays an extremely important role in preventing and treating all of the common eye problems — myopia, presbyopia, cataract, macular degeneration and glaucoma. Nutrition’s exact role is becoming more and more clear. Some facts are already well documented and pioneering doctors are uncovering other directions that are very promising.
Before we can discuss each eye problem in greater detail, it’s important to keep in mind some general nutritional information:
1. Proper balance is important. The body does not use each vitamin and mineral in isolation. The absence of one may affect the body’s ability to use another. For example, proper amounts of magnesium and vitamin D are needed in order to absorb calcium efficiently and completely. And, without adequate levels of zinc, the body cannot utilize all the vitamin A it receives.
2. The Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA) suggested for most vitamins and minerals are most often only the minimum levels needed to prevent deficiencies. However, visual health – and total body health – most probably requires supplement levels that are significantly higher than the RDA. Cataract prevention, for example, may require the intake of vitamin C at a level 15 times greater than the RDA.
3. In today’s society, it is probably not realistic to expect to get all of our nutrients from food alone. No matter how wholesome and pure our diet might be, there are other factors that affect the nutrient content of the food we eat. How food is grown, how it is stored and how it is cooked all affect its nutrient value. Besides, the amount of nutrients a particular food is supposed to contain is measured under ideal laboratory conditions, which probably don’t reflect the food you are actually eating. Most of us have long known that carrots and vitamin A are supposed to be good for the eyes. Even so, 68% of the population is deficient in vitamin A. Over the last 50 years, the carrot has lost 75% of its magnesium content, 48% of its calcium, 46% of its iron and 75% of its copper. Modern farming methods have depleted the soil of trace minerals vital to our health, such as selenium, manganese and vanadium. Even calcium and vitamin C are found in lower levels in fruits and vegetables now than they were 50 years ago.
4. On the other hand, “popping” vitamin pills is no substitute for a wholesome diet. The body loses a significant amount of nutrients depending on the kind of food we consume. For example, we lose the trace mineral chromium as our body tries to absorb white sugar. And caffeine, refined flour, medication and preservatives also leach trace minerals and vitamins from our system. Also, there may be as yet undiscovered vitamins and minerals in food that someday will prove to be very important to our health.
5. Age, activity level and stress affect what your body needs and how well your body can absorb and use what nutrients it does get.
Keeping these general ideas in mind, let’s look at the role that nutrition may play in myopia. In the next issue we’ll look at other eye conditions.
Myopia
Myopia (nearsightedness) is a condition that affects nearly 1 out of every 3 people in the United States. Yet, only 3 out of every 100 myopic people are born that way; for everyone else, myopia is acquired at some point during their life span.
Myopia is the result of a degeneration of some part of the visual system. It’s so common to see someone wearing glasses that we forget that it is not natural. Myopic people are also more prone to develop more serious eye conditions, such as retinal detachment, glaucoma and cataracts.
The search for nutritional answers to myopia has focused on two different parts of the visual system: the shape of the eye and the functioning of the lens.
Let’s look at each of these separately:
One possible explanation for myopia is that it occurs when the eye elongates, stretching from front to back. Distortions as small as 4/100 of an inch are enough to produce extreme degrees of myopia. Exactly what causes this stretching is not clear, though it seems to be due to either increased intraocular pressure or excessive tension in the extra-ocular muscles.
Dr. Gary Price Todd, a North Carolina ophthalmologist, has been using nutritional and metabolic healing for different eye problems for more than 20 years. He is trained to do all the standard surgeries for the eyes, but he prefers to promote the natural healing of the eyes whenever possible.
Dr. Todd believes that most myopia develops in children during growth spurts. If the child is not receiving proper nutrition, the body literally takes minerals from the eye to use in the growth of the body. The resulting mineral depletion in the eye weakens its structure, making it susceptible to the forces and stresses involved in prolonged near work, including reading, studying, watching TV or using a computer — all of which are common activities for most of today’s children.
Dr. Todd has success in arresting the progression of myopia in children that he treats; in some cases, the degree of myopia has decreased. Dr. Todd achieves these results just by recommending that children under his care supplement their diet with a total vitamin and mineral formula which is particularly rich in the minerals selenium, chromium and zinc. The formula that Dr. Todd originally developed for eye and body health is EYEMAX-plus.
Dr. Ben Lane, New Jersey optometrist and another pioneer in the role of nutrition in myopia and other eye diseases, concurs in the importance of these trace minerals in maintaining the strength of the eye. Dr. Lane has found that chromium levels in myopic children are 1/3 that of children with normal vision. (It is interesting to note that chromium is depleted in the body by white sugar, eaten all too frequently by many children today.)
Calcium levels are also lower in nearsighted children. Dr. Lane found that children increasing in the degree of myopia have diets extremely deficient in calcium. Dr. Lane thinks that in the face of this dietary deficiency, the body takes calcium from the eye to help support bone growth. This calcium lack then makes the eye susceptible to the forces playing on it during prolonged periods of near work and visual stress. Dr. Lane has also found that these children also eat too much meat protein (a poor source of calcium) and too little calcium-rich milk products and stalky vegetables. Caffeine (found in soda as well as in coffee) is known to leach calcium from the body.
Dr. Lane has also found that Vitamin C is important. He has noted that low levels of dietary intake of Vitamin C are associated with increases in pressure in the eye. This increasing pressure also is associated with the visual fatigue that can result from extended periods of near work. The focusing mechanism needs adequate levels of vitamin C and chromium for efficient functioning. Adequate levels of Vitamin C are also needed to ensure the strength and structural integrity of the eyes.
Vitamin C is leached from the body by artificial flavors and ingredients and aspirin. It is generally recommended that an adult take between 500 and 1000 mg. a day, increasing the quantity during periods of high stress (including visual stress and extended periods of near range work).
Another vitamin that Dr. Lane thinks is of critical importance is folic acid, which helps the eyes to maintain near focus for longer periods of time as well as increase the eyes’ ability to absorb nutrition from the body. He thinks that folic acid should come from food sources rather than from vitamins.
Drs. Todd and Lane have focused their studies on the nutritional factors involved in maintaining the structural integrity of the eye. Another explanation for myopia, also incorporated in Dr. Lane’s theory, is that the lens has lost some of its ability to change focus, due to the constant pressure placed on it to maintain near point focus (e.g., when reading, writing, using a computer).
According to this theory, myopia occurs when the lens becomes “stuck” for near point vision and is unable to shift its focus to distant objects. Normally, the lens has the power to change its focus more than enough to compensate for individual differences in the length of the eye.
Dr. David A. Kubicek, a California doctor of chiropractic, explored the role of the lens in a research paper he wrote in 1988. This is a synopsis of his theory and his recommendations:
The ciliary muscle (which controls the focusing of the lens) is itself stimulated by both the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nerve systems of the body. Parasympathetic stimulation increases accommodation — the lens’ ability to focus on near objects. Sympathetic stimulation decreases this ability, allowing the lens to focus on distant objects. Clear vision at all distances requires the nervous system of the body to constantly balance and re-balance these two types of stimulation.
Nearsighted people, Dr. Kubicek reasoned, would lack sufficient sympathetic stimulation to bring distant objects into focus. Farsighted people, on the other hand, would show a weakness in parasympathetic stimulation.
To test his theory, Dr. Kubicek devised a simple muscular test that would tell him which system was weak for an individual. By performing only this simple test, he was able to predict — with 100% accuracy — which subjects were nearsighted and which were farsighted. Dr. Kubicek was then able to use this procedure and his knowledge of biochemistry to devise the right combination of nutrients that could promote proper functioning of the lens and thus help to improve vision at all distances.
Certain nutrients are known to increase sympathetic activity and others are known to increase parasympathetic activity. Nutrients that might be beneficial to nearsighted people would be vitamins B-2 and B-6, folic acid, niacinamide, zinc, magnesium and phosphorus, among others. (On the other hand, Dr. Lane cautions against phosphorus intake. His research indicates that what is most important is maintaining the balance in the body between calcium and phosphorus, a balance which is upset by the intake of too much animal-derived protein.)
The answers aren’t all in yet as to the exact role that various nutrients play, but it is clear that the onset of myopia can be an early indicator of nutritional deficiencies and imbalances in the visual system – and in the entire body.
BIO:
Martin Sussman, an internationally known expert in holistic vision care, is the author of five books, audio courses and DVDs, including the #1 best-selling The Program for Better Vision and the Read Without Glasses Method (for middle age sight). He is the founder and president of the Cambridge Institute for Better Vision, which he established in 1977. He can be reached at marty@bettervision.com. Information about his approach to vision improvement that is more than eye exercises can be found at www.bettervision.com. The nutritional formula for vision he recommends, EYEMAX-plus, is available at a special discounted price for readers of this column.
“Approximately 143.2 million American adults or 64 percent of the adult population wear glasses.” — VisionWatch, June 2006
Almost half the population in America wears some sort of artificial lens, glasses or contact lenses. Artificial lenses may help improve your vision, but it is just a temporary quick-fix. Glasses and lenses can never fix your eye problems. Artificial lenses can help you see things more clearly, but they are mainly for the symptoms of eye problems and do not cure the actual ailment.
The main problem with artificial lenses is they teach you bad habits and allow your eyes to work incorrectly. They reinforce strain and frozen staring, which is the cause of poor eyesight in the first place. You quickly become dependent on the lenses and keep your eyes from healing themselves. If you can teach your eyes to be more relaxed and utilize essential daily eye habits, the need for glasses and lenses, as well as all your eye problems would go away completely.
The main cause of most eye ailments is mental stress and strain on the eyes. The key is to learn how to avoid strain in the first place. That is not always possible, so learning new habits to deal with strain is the next step.
One of the largest problems with artificial lenses is finding the perfect prescription. Your eyes are constantly changing. Many things play a factor in how well you can see. Weather, health, mood, distractions, and outside stressors all play a part in your vision. When it’s sunny and bright out our moods are usually better and so is our eyesight. For a doctor to find the perfect prescription is impossible. You may go to the doctor when you are in a bad mood and its dark and rainy out. Your prescription will reflect this making them not work at all when you are happy and it’s bright out.
Try going without your glasses for a few weeks and see what happens. You may be surprised at the results. Of course at first things may be blurry, but once your eyes start to adjust to a life without artificial lenses things will become clearer. The trick is to make sure you are free of too much mental strain. Try some relaxation techniques and rest your eyes when things start to get out of focus. Accept your blur, love your blur, and know oneday the blur will be gone because ultimately it is just an illusion, a warning sign symptom letting you know you need to be easier on your visual system and take care of it better.
Wearing artificial lenses can make our eyes lazy and teach us many bad habits, as well as amplify and prolong eyestrain. Concentrate on fixing the problem of mental strain and don’t just cover up the problem. If the engine light in your car turned on, you wouldn’t go patch a piece of black duct tape over it would you? Thank your body and its’ natural healing processes for blurring your vision, letting you know something is awry about your visual system, and that thankfully it can and will be reversed.
Good luck, and remember go without your glasses as much as possible (especially outdoors) but NEVER drive without them or partake in activities that would endanger your safety or the safety of others.
Sure you’ve heard it before, “Relax your eyes!” “Just relax!” “Quit being so nervous and shaky, just relax!”
Surely you would if you could!
“Okay okay I’m relaxed!” You have probably said before.
But are you really?
Here’s an excerpt taken from a forum conversation…
“I tried palming for 30 minutes before falling asleep Saturday night. Wow, I had the most restful sleep in months! Also, I now know the benefit of palming for longer than 5-15 minutes. After some time, my thoughts, although pleasant, suddenly just stoped, I suddenly relaxed, and everything just felt more peaceful. Then I understood for the first time what it should really feel like to palm and relax.”
Response: “EX-ACTLY. I used to palm for like 20 minutes and always wonder why I didnt feel anything but sleepy and/or wet eyes after. Then one night I tried meditating with holosync for the first time and suddenly my thoughts stopped and I felt this deep deep indescribeable feeling, I quickly fell asleep and awoke the next morning at 7am BURSTING with energy. The most refreshing sleep I’ve had in YEARS. Literally. I read somewhere that we tense even in our sleep, which drains energy TERRIBLY. Try squeezing your hand. Imagine doing that ALL day in MULTIPLE PARTS OF YOUR BODY unconsciously for hours at a time. Energy sapping? Shallow exhausting sleep? Crappy health? Stress? You bet. Once you really hit that DEEP relaxation your thinking stops being so compulsive(better concentration) and a warm gooey feeling of deep relaxation (like telling a fish he’s wet.. the fish wont understand, your concept of relaxation and my concept are two separate entities entirely.) My vision is also getting sharper and more clearflashes / movement is sensed.”
A note on holosync, many of our customers and staff use this program daily, the way it deeply relaxes your muscle tissues, mind, body, and emotions is incredible. People report having drastically improved health, energy levels, and of course permanent clearer vision within the first week or so of using. It is an essential part of our daily routine, we wish we found it earlier in our lives! To learn more information about it check out holosync.
Relaxation is also extremely important for overall health. One thing we noticed when we began meditating was that our facial muscles became soft and warm. More color was brought to our faces as the deep structures of the facial muscles began to relax, increasing circulation and blood flow. Deep relaxation also reduces stress and helps the body calm down and sleep more soundly. Relaxation relieves unwanted tension and gives an overall good feeling. Relaxation also helps the eyes see more clearly and focus better.
The hardest part of relaxing is silencing the mind. Thoughts move at a rapid pace and as the ‘to do’ list grows so do the racing thoughts. Shutting down the mind is the tricky part of total relaxation, but it is possible. The key is to move all that energy stuck in the head down through the entire body and out the feet. May sound like hocus pocus, but it actually works through a process known as ‘exhaling through the feet’.
Here’s how it works. Lie on your back in a dark room, works great just before bed. Imagine your breath moving from your lungs down through the entire body. As you exhale, picture the air moving down toward your toes. Picture your breath passing through every organ, heart, liver, kidneys, and continuing down the thighs, calves, ankles, and toes. Exhale completely, until all the air is out of your lungs and the next breath naturally comes. Inhale naturally, don’t force anything, and let your body do its own work. Once the lungs are full once again, start the process again of picturing the air moving through the body.
Repeat the process as many times a possible until you fall into a deep sleep. The next morning you will feel relaxed and refreshed ready to face the day. A great night’s sleep is important to reduce stress and strain and start the day out right. Staying up late and waking up early, leaves us feeling groggy and lacking sleep. This can leave us ‘off’ for the remainder of the day. We are not as productive and the eyes are straining through the day. Plenty of rest, but not too much, starts the day out right and in a positive mind frame. We will feel more productive and happy to get work done.
Learning to relax is an important habit to pick up. Once you learn good relaxation techniques, getting to sleep will come more naturally. Your body and eyes will thank you.
It is now over 100 years since Dr William H Bates first began developing and refining his theories of the causes of poor sight. He used his method for short sight, long sight, astigmatism, old-age sight, squint, ‘lazy’ eye, and even structural diseases such as macular degeneration – nothing was left out and he found all could be benefited by learning normal and relaxed use of the eyes and mind.
Bates had fully trained as an ophthalmologist and in the late 1800s ran his practice as conventionally as any other: he put people in glasses and told them there was nothing that could be done about it. How he changed his opinion to the opposite view is not fully known, but the change was absolute.
The latter part of his life until his death in 1931 was punctuated by episodes of conflict between himself and his former colleagues and many attempts were made to discredit him – near the end of his life he was due to appear in court but his death curtailed the event. The people who followed in Bates’ footsteps have come to his method from a different route. A new model of vision required a new approach, and almost all practitioners of the Method are rarely medical people. They are educators.
Techniques: Palming
This lesson is an introduction to the art of palming, as developed over a hundred years ago by Dr. Bates:
“All the methods used in the eradication of errors of refraction (improving vision) are simply different ways of obtaining relaxation…
… most people, though by no means all, find it easiest to relax with their eyes shut. This usually lessens the strain to see, and in such cases is followed by a temporary or more lasting improvement in vision…..
….. But some light comes through the closed eyelids and a still greater degree of relaxation can be obtained in all but a few exceptional cases, by excluding it. This is done by covering the closed lids with the palms of the hands (the fingers being crossed upon the forehead) in such a way as to avoid pressure on the eyeballs. So efficacious is this practice, which I have called “palming”, as a means of relieving strain, that we all instinctively respond to it at times, and from it most people are able to get a considerable degree of relaxation.” Dr Wm. H. Bates:
The Cure of Imperfect Sight Without Glasses (1919)
Spend some time each day Palming
To palm is to cover your closed eyes with your hands in such a way that there is no pressure on your eyeballs. The palms of your hands are slightly cupped over each eye (left over left and right over right), and usually the fingers are partly interlaced on your forehead.
There should be no light, or as little as possible, allowed to enter the eye. Once you are palming, open your eyes and look around to see if you can adjust your hands in such a way as to exclude as much light as possible. Close your eyes.
Note:
Palming is supposed to be relaxing, but you may end up being tight in your hands and arms in order to exclude light. Don’t overdo it, and if necessary compromise. The next time you palm you may find a better position for the hands. Palming in a darkened room can be helpful.
Palming Positions
Sitting in a dining-type chair in front of a table with a stack of cushions, (or foam pads) on it. The cushions are for resting your elbows: there should be enough cushions so that you are able to easily bring your palms to your eyes without stooping forward (too few cushions), or having to look up (too many cushions). Rest your elbows on the cushions and bring your hands to your eyes. Close your eyes, rest with the darkness, and don’t forget to breathe!
Lying on your back, with a few books or pillow under your head, and your knees up and feet flat on the floor. Bring your hands to your eyes, and start palming. The disadvantage of this is that you have to hold your arms up, which can be difficult if you want to palm for a long period.
How long should I palm?
There is no fixed answer to this question. Some people enjoy palming as soon as they first try it, while a few people never find it enjoyable. As a result there is a different answer for each person, and it can vary from day to day for the same person – it would be counterproductive to force any strict rule: vision rebels against this.
For the first time, try setting your alarm clock to ring at the end of five or ten minutes. Palm, and after the alarm goes off ask yourself if the ringing alarm left you feeling relieved…. or annoyed! If you felt relieved, then palm for less time; you can benefit from palming for just fifteen breaths at a time. If you felt annoyed, then ….. throw the alarm out the window.
If you one day find yourself happy to continue, then do so: you can’t do too much palming if you are feeling happy.
How often should I palm?
If you quite like palming then find at least one time in each day that you will be able to palm without disturbance. Make a mental note of any feelings you have ( e.g. happy, sad, confused, spaced out…) and also note what your other senses are receiving: listen, be, feel the support of the chair and floor, breathe.
During the day take regular short breaks and have mini-palms. You don’t have to set yourself up in one of the “palming positions”, just start palming as soon as you think of it. As you have a mini-palm, notice how your breath rises and falls. Count each breath cycle until you get to fifteen or so, and then stop.
This latter method can also be used if you find palming unenjoyable. Don’t palm for long, but do palm often, up to as much as twenty times in one day.
Some questions to ask yourself:
Do you see nothing, or shapes, lights and colours?
How do you feel when you palm?
Do you feel relaxed after palming, or do you feel anxious? …
There are so many things that you could notice – even not being able to palm is interesting and gives you valuable information for further work. The only rules are those you make up for yourself!
Start palming today, and do it every day for a week. If you like it, keep going and make it a regular part of your every day routine.
Techniques: Sunning
It’s easiest to first try this out with a lamp, as the light source is constant and controllable. The best type of lamp for this is a desk lamp – something like one of those equipoise lamps that can be directed to different angles (also known as anglepoise – see photo).
If you’ve not got one of those, then any lamp that can be directed up toward your face will do fine. The best light source of course is the sun, but if you find that too bright at first, a lamp is easier to manage.
I’ll talk this through assuming you’ve got an angle poise lamp with about 100 or 60 watts for the bulb.
Sit somewhere you can palm easily after sunning and can direct the light source straight at your face – you’re going to go straight into palming after sunning, so the easier you can do this, the better.
In sunning, the eyes are closed throughout
So, close your eyes, and slowly direct the light to your face. If there is any discomfort, it means the light is too close and too bright at first. One of the key things to look for is any sign of pain or strain coming into the muscles around the eyes. What I want to encourage you to do, is to go so slowly that at no point do you experience “too much”. So, go slowly. If you feel comfortable, you can bring the light closer, until it feels like a pleasant warmth all over your face.
Think of a point far in the distance (imaginary horizon) Imagine where your nose is pointing to, and imagine you are looking in that direction (eyes are still closed, but if they opened, would be gazing toward that far point).
Turn your head gently from side to side As you turn, each eye goes into the shade. This movement is slow and steady, taking about 3 seconds or so to move from the left to the right (or the right to the left).
Keep in touch with the point
As you turn your head, keep in touch with the point that your nose is directed toward – this will of course be moving across your imaginary horizon, but the relationship to your sight will still be in the same place, thus your eyes and head move together.
Remember to go slow!
If your eyes are sticking or dragging, or wanting to fly ahead, take your time even more, and notice when they go into their jumpy mode. See if you can take yourself over the point of “choosing” to jump, without actually doing so (this is a lesson in it’s own right)
Sun for no more than three minutes
This is all that is needed to relax the eyes.
Always palm after sunning!
When you start to palm – turn the light away, or off, and notice all the gradations from the change of light into darkness as your hands come to cover your eyes. Going slow helps a lot here.
Palm
Palm as per normal, you may notice a different quality to the palming, sometimes more images, sometimes less. Palm until your field of vision is calm, or ‘normal’ for you.
Techniques: The Long Swing
For the Long Swing you can be looking out a window, standing in a field or in a forest, or just in a room – each place provides a slightly different experience, but they can all be very effective in their own ways.
There are four levels of difficulty in the Long Swing – the one described in this lesson is the easiest, and is the way beginners are generally taught. There are two preliminary steps, which are described next.
Note – many of the instructions can be varied, but for the purposes of clarity, and for initial learning, it is good to have clear boundaries around each step. Just bear in mind that you may wish to experiment at a later stage.
Preliminary 1 – Using a pointer
It is good to first practise the long swing with a pointer; something like a knitting needle works well, or just a long thin stick of similar length or a bit longer. The stick is held with both hands directly in front of you, so that the tip of it is pointing straight up or a little away, and at eye level or slightly below.
Key points:
Stick or similar pointer
Hold with both hands
Directly in front.
Preliminary 2 – Choreography
The Long Swing is a little trickier to learn without demonstration than the sway – the footwork particularly seems difficult to learn with words, which is why I tend to teach it in correspondence as leading from the Sway. If you’re at all unfamiliar with the original instructions for the sway, it may be worth while just refreshing your memory on them. You can learn this part of the long swing without paying too much attention to what your eyes are seeing – that will come in later.
Learning the movement
First, stand with your feet about shoulder width apart and then gently rock from side to side as if you were going to practise the sway. Remember to let each heel lift from the floor in turn, and when you have a good motion going, perhaps noticing the movement around you as you already know, start to turn your upper torso, keeping the head and shoulders moving together, in the direction of your sway.
This means, that as you rock toward your left foot, turn your upper body to face that direction, then as you rock toward your right foot, turn your upper body to face that direction, to the right.
At this point you should find it reasonably comfortable to turn about 45 degrees to the left and 45 degrees to the right of centre.
Now, bring your attention to your heels. Firstly, allow your heels to turn further out. This should provide considerable ease with the turning at the top of your body – so much so that it becomes possible to do a full 180 degrees – 90 degrees to the left and right of centre without much trouble.
Imagine you can point with your heels. You will find the turning easiest if you think of pointing each heel in turn directly back and up to the wall behind you.
Close up of feet in long swing – note the heel has started to point out. The person is at this point turning to look to their left.
You may also find it comfortable if, when turning toward the foot you are about to stand on, the heel comes further in than where you originally started. Think of the way Charlie Chaplin would walk – with toes pointing out.
Close up of feet at mid-point of long swing. The heels come together Charlie Chaplin style.
You are only in that position for a moment, before the heel of the other foot lifts, and then you’re turning it out again.
The Long Swing
Once you’ve got this feeling pretty easy, it’s time to add the visual part of it. For this, you just take up your pointer with both hands, and hold it at eye level. Look at the tip of it, and if all is going right, you should suddenly see that the world turns, like the swing of a pendulum, from one side to the other.
How it looks:
Do this for about five to ten minutes, and see how it feels. It’s unlikely that you will get unpleasant symptoms – sometimes people feel a little dizzy, sometimes even a little sick, but mostly it should be without any sign of discomfort. If you are feeling strange, it is OK to stop, rest, and palm, and try again later. If you feel it is easy, you are welcome to do it longer than ten minutes.
The Head Swing is a little more difficult to practise successfully compared to the Long Swing. The reason for this lies in the nature of the movement.
To explain: as with the Long Swing the desired movement is to allow the eyes to slide easily across the surfaces that are in front of you. It’s a slightly strange request, because naturally the eyes and mind prefer to regard objects and take them in, not move on in every instant. The problem with regarding objects and taking them in only arises when eyes have become impaired in some way and looking at objects has become habitually an experience of getting stuck: a process of forcing the vision or staring. In this condition it feels very awkward to move on easily and so we use these techniques to help the sight back to being free and fluid.
In addition, the eyes constantly compensate for any movement of the head and body – as you move or walk along your head may go through many continuous subtle shifts of angle, whether turning to the left or right, or just tilting slightly with each step. Every one of these movements is assessed and adjusted automatically by the visual system, making it possible to track objects that are changing their position in relation to you.
What’s needed with the Head Swing
With the Head Swing it’s necessary to learn how to let the eyes rest and not constantly adjust for the movement of the head. The reason the Long Swing is easier for this is because the movement that turns your eyes in the Long Swing is located further down the body – in the legs and hips, whereas with the Head Swing the movement takes place through the neck, making the movement in very close proximity to the eyes.
Tools to help
As with the Long Swing there are various ways in which people have found assistance through the use of pointers or with the conceptual equivalent. Here are a few that you may find useful:
A physical pointer
Similar to the use in the Long Swing, this can be applied in the same ways, as a point to look directly at, or beyond, or to split the point (gate technique). Use a knitting needle or a stick. I have two orchestral conductor batons that are wonderfully light for this.
Nose pencil
Imagine your nose is very long and touches the surface of everything you a looking at. Draw an unbroken line from one side of the room to the other. Slowly. Follow the point with your eyes.
Nose brush/nose feather
Some people find the ‘pencil’ too rigid and are helped more with a softer concept. Touching your visual field lightly with your eyes can make it easier to keep moving.
Third eye
Imagine your Third Eye just in the middle of your forehead, picture it as being unable to turn in a socket so it always has to look directly out of your face. Imagine you are looking out of this eye and your two physical eyes just follow along.
Busy bugs
As you look at the surface of your visual field imagine a small bug crawling along exactly where you are looking. This is great for showing just how slow you can go.
Scooters, bicycles, cars etc.
Any object that moves and you can imagine it can be of assistance, the main thing is to keep your head and nose directly facing it – at least for the purposes of the head swing.
Real moving things
This can be a fun game – using real cars or crowds of people all moving around, just pick one, follow it/him/her with your nose (turning your head, not literally snifing the ground where they walked!) and notice the way in which the rest of the world moves in the opposite direction.
The Head Swing
To make this as effective as possible, sun and palm first.
Sitting comfortably with your eyes closed, turn your head easily to the left and open your eyes. Regard a point on the surface of your visual field in the direction your nose is pointing. Imagine touching it with a finger/nose pencil, or whatever method you find most helpful.
Slowly and gently turn your head to the right, allowing the head and eyes to remain in alignment at all times. This can take some getting used to and it’s helpful if you can have an observer give you independent feedback. The following images show examples of what to look for:
In this first image the student is looking directly ahead, the vision is attentive and focused on the distant surfaces in the room.
Here the head swing continues with the eyes and head still in alignment
Here is an example where the eyes have drifted ahead which indicates exertion of the eye muscles. While this sort of movement is quite normal in everyday use, for the purposes of learning how to relax the eyes it’s important to let the head do as much of the movement as possible. See if you can go gently enough to notice exactly when your eyes start to jump in on the act!
Getting the movement going
As objects pass under your central gaze, notice them and let go of them. As you move to the right, objects in your right visual field move to the centre, cross it, and then move to the left visual field.
When you get to the far right, move in the opposite direction to the left – and all movements described above are reversed.
The sensation of movement in the visual field can come easily or can be difficult – for some people it can take many weeks to get it really going. The essential feature to understand is that the experience of movement is not only natural, but the more you see the movement the more it indicates that your eyes and mind are relaxing.
Once you’ve done a few passes, try it again with the eyes closed, remembering however much you can of the objects in your visual field: where they are and how they move from one field to the other in the opposite direction of the movement of your head.
It’s not a race and not a test, there is no requirement to remember everything perfectly. Being gentle with yourself is the guaranteed method of making all of these things become very easy.
Open your eyes and carry on with the Head Swing. Once you know it well it’s very quick to apply at any time during the day: waiting for the bus, on the phone, washing the dishes, talking to your boss.
Or perhaps not the last one!
Techniques: The Prayer Swing
The Prayer Swing is really a form of Head Swing, the main difference being that it is done with the eyes closed. Here’s how to do it:
The Prayer Swing
Position: Sitting at a desk with your elbows resting on some cushions – ideally a position suitable for Sunning and Palming first.
After you finish Palming keep your eyes closed and bring your hands out in front of you. You can clasp them together as if you were to pray, but the purpose is simply to allow your hands easy support of each other, putting them about six to ten centimetres in front of your face.
Eyes Closed
With your eyes gently shut, register the presence of your hands.
Wait a few moments then breathing gently and without hurry, slowly turn your head continuously a few centimetres to the right and then the left.
You may notice that your eyes start to dance – trying to either look ahead of your movement (further to the left or further to the right) or to stick and drag back to where your hands are; the aim is to give your eyes the time to calm down and what this usually means is to go a little slower.
The principles of the movement are exactly the same as with the Long Swing and Head Swing – keeping the eyes resting calmly in alignment with your head. Thinking of a nose pencil, third eye, or distant moving object are all supportive methods to enable the eyes to be calm (see Head Swing).
Prayer Swing showing hands to the right of the eyes – from the student’s point of view. While it is the head that moves, the relative position of the hands has changed.
Prayer Swing showing hands to the left of the eyes – from the student’s point of view.
When you feel your eyes are calm, gently allow the awareness of your hands to grow – so that you can experience an easy apparent oppositional movement of the hands.
Let things move
As the movement you experience is in the imagination and the eyes are not affected by visual edges, it become possible to expand the movement of the Prayer Swing very easily. Logically, your hands are attached to your wrists and forearms, leading to the cushion under your elbows, your lap or the desk you’re resting on – each of these items also can be experienced as moving. Let your awareness expand step by step; if you suddenly find the movement locking down, come back to a more basic movement.
With a little practise it is possible to get your whole room moving, the building you’re in, the surrounding country, the world, and even the stars above. With a little more practise it’s even possible to know that your head is still, and everything really is actually moving.
Techniques: The Optical Swing
The Optical Swing is easier after learning and practising the other swings. What is needed is plenty of familiarity with allowing the visual field to move; the Long Swing, Head Swing and Prayer Swing all lead to that end.
The Optical Swing
The Optical Swing involves tracing a line either vertically or horizontally with the eyes only. When the mind is at rest, the movement of the objects viewed is apparent and real, but this effect only becomes possible when you stop looking for it
If that doesn’t quite make sense, think of it this way: Always with the Bates Techniques we are trying to break free from the habit to stare. Allowing the eyes to move freely and letting the world move as a result is the stare’s nemesis. But when a person attempts to look for the movement, the first thing to jump back in is the habit to lock the eyes and the perception down – the stare comes in with a vengeance.
You can’t lock down something that needs to be released and the optical swing is the most subtle form of swing to test your ability to let go. Any effort or force will show itself instantly, giving you clear feedback as to the state of your thoughts.
Bates made the following observations about the optical swing:
MOST people when they look at stationary objects believe that they see such objects stationary; but if they observe the facts more closely, they find that when the normal eye regards a small letter of the Snellen Test Card with normal sight, the letter does not appear to be stationary, but seems to move from side to side, a distance about the width of the letter. This is called the optical swing.
During the late war, a soldier, who was rated as a sharpshooter, told me that when he regarded the bull’s eye of a target five hundred yards away or further, that he had difficulty in aiming his gun properly because the bull’s eye seemed to move from side to side a very short distance. Both he and others who had observed it did not discuss the matter with any great interest.
The movement of a letter or other object from side to side in the optical swing is so short, so slow, that most persons with normal eyes have never noticed it. There is no reference to the optical swing in any publication which I have seen. It is a truth that in all cases of normal sight the optical swing can be demonstrated. In all cases of imperfect sight the optical swing is modified; it may be lengthened, it may become too rapid and irregular. The swing is a necessary part of perfect sight. The importance of it has not been realized. With the short optical swing the vision is good while the mental efficiency and the efficiency of the nerves and muscles is enormously increased.
Techniques: The Drifting Swing
The Drifting Swing was born of necessity. Bates relates the story in the Better Eyesight Magazines, where one day a patient came to him who could not be helped by any of the other techniques that he had already devised.
I tried many things that I knew and after I had exhausted the things that I had already practiced, I realized that I was up against it, and had to devise and have him practice with benefit, something that I had never recommended before. As he could not think of anything continuously without discomfort, I suggested that he let his mind drift…
Wm H Bates: Better Eyesight Magazines, January 1924
The Drifting Swing
The technique is to let your eyes and mind keep moving continuously from object to object in the room. As you regard each object, think about a similar object that you know of already in your memory. For example, if you happened to glance at a curtain, think of another curtain that you can recall for a brief moment; then move on.
Each object you see and think of is held only momentarily, the sensation of seeing is constantly linked in with your memory of similar objects, and so with a little application it becomes possible to experience seeing without responsibility or expectation.
The links in the memory do not have to be precise or factual – this is not a test, all that is required is that your eyes and mind are engaged in doing the same thing at the same time: this is every Bates technique.
After a little time the lack of pressure on the visual system, and the lack of pressure on the mind in ‘performing’ has the effect of making an apparent effortless movement in the opposite direction of the movement of the head and eyes.
It’s a quiet and apparently innocuous technique, but perhaps the most subtly powerful of all.
The effect on Bates’ patient on that day was very gratifying, as related, when he first came in nothing had been able to help him:
To hear him talk, he gave you the impression of being very miserable; and for some reason or other, he could describe the condition of general misery more vividly than I have ever had the pleasure (?) of hearing it described before.
Wm H Bates: Better Eyesight Magazines, January 1924
And later on after teaching him the Drifting Swing:
In this I believe, he succeeded, because when I invited him to go into another room, where he could test his sight with the Snellen Test Card, he was smiling, a new experience for him. His vision for distance was normal, and the speed with which he read all the letters on the test card was gratifying. The rest had given him, at least temporarily, perfect sight for the distance, whereas before even with his glasses on his vision was less than one-half the normal. He was also unable to read diamond type with or without his glasses. After practicing the drifting swing he read the diamond type rapidly, perfectly and without any apparent effort, at less than twelve inches. Then he said to me,
“Doctor, do you think you can help me?”
I answered him, “Did you read the test card and the fine print perfectly?”
“Yes,” he answered and blushed.
That was the first time I ever saw a man blush under such circumstances. The blush was to me an admission that he realized that I had given him a temporary cure.
Wm H Bates: Better Eyesight Magazines, January 1924
The worst thing we can do to our eyes is strain them. Too much mental strain and focus can actually harm our eyesight and cause the eyes permanent damage. Bad habits start from childhood, especially once school starts. These bad habits carry over into adulthood and cause damage to the eyes. Most of eye problems and ailments are simply caused by the bad habits learned in our youth.
Children have a natural curiosity to learn new things. Ask any kindergartener or first grader if they are excited for school and they will almost always say yes with genuine enthusiasm. Ask the same question of a junior high or high school student and they will moan at the thought of going back to school for another year.
Why the huge difference between the two? School is too disciplined and children are forced to spend hours each day learning and memorizing things that don’t interest them. Any subject that is uninteresting causes more concentration and the eyes to strain through. Not every person enjoys the same subjects, yet all children are forced to memorize and learn things in an uninteresting way.
The eyes strain when forced to concentrate on images that don’t interest us. Like numbers on an analytical report for work isn’t going to interest all the employees, mathematics, science, and English won’t interest every student. This doesn’t mean that have a well-rounded education should be thrown out the window. It simply means there needs to be a change in how children are educated.
The Bates Method was discovered by Dr. William Bates, a famous eye doctor. In his method, Dr. Bates put together a large, poster-sized card covered in common shapes and letters familiar to most school age children. The card was hung at the front on the classroom and offered the students something to look at when they were feeling tired or overwhelmed. The purpose of the card was to give the children a chance to relax their eyes. Looking at new material puts strain on the eyes, but familiar objects allow the eyes to relax.
Teaching children not to strain their eyes from a young age will help keep their vision sharp for years to follow.
