Schneider Meir - Vision for Life.

antiqueSchneiderfor Life*Vision for Life,* natural health pioneer Meir Schneider shares ten essential principles of healthy vision discovered in his forty-year personal and professional journey. Born blind, Schneider taught himself to see and developed an innovative program of healing and recovery that has helped thousands of people regain and improve their health.The exercises in this book will help you to create a basic eye health routine that you can immediately incorporate into your life. This program is not only strengthening but also restorative and deeply relaxing. You will learn how to reverse developing issues before they cause damage and how to remedy existing problems including near- and far-sightedness and lazy eye as well as cataracts, glaucoma, optic neuritis, detached retinas and tears, macular degeneration, and retinitis pigmentosa. *Vision for Life *is not only for people who see poorly and would like to improve their vision, but also for those with 20/20 vision...for the work of Meir Schneider

“As an ophthalmologist, I always search for the best way to treat my patients. Based on the Bates Method, Meir Schneider’s self-healing system has complemented my practice in those cases where our traditional medicine has its limitations. The best treatment is the one that is directed to the patient’s needs, and the best medicine is the one that uses all knowledge and not only a part of it. Traditional science and complementary medicine are tools that should be used together, focusing on a more holistic health concept.”

—Leonardo Verri Paulino, MD, ophthalmologist and anterior segment surgeon at ABC Medical School, Brazil

“Schneider’s method is effective as a complementary physical therapy for the eyes.”

—Emília Ritsuko Yasuoka Assad, MD, ophthalmologist and acupuncturist, São Paulo, Brazil

“Working with my patients has verified that many sight problems get better and heal by taking up the right habits. Meir Schneider presents us with a complete guide to doing so. He helps us to regain our trust in the power we have over our vision and our lives. As he says in the book, ‘We all can take the time. We just have to decide that we are worth the time and that the process is worth our while.’ ”

—Amelia Salvador, MD, ophthalmologist, Alicante, Spain

“It is wonderful how each new book by Meir Schneider provokes us to incorporate more and more of the self-healing principles into our lives.”

—Laercio Motoryn, MD, ophthalmologist and homeopath, São Paulo, Brazil

“The knowledge and application of the self-healing method was very important improving my practice as an ophthalmologist. The results attained by my patients and with my own vision are proof of the importance of the union of traditional medicine with complementary therapies. I thank Meir Schneider for being such a marvelous instrument for my personal and professional improvement.”

—Ana Cecilia Gois Franco, MD, ophthalmologist and anterior segment surgeon and naturopath, São Paulo, Brazil

“I had the pleasure to meet Meir Schneider and use his method when I was finishing my apprenticeship to become a Bachelor of Optometry in 2005. His holistic approach toward visual dysfunctions changed me forever as a professional. His concepts remain present in my appointments, therapies, and lens prescriptions. Schneider’s work invites us to naturally preserve our organism and to practice healthier visual habits in this very technological world.”

—Fernando Nassif, optometrist with specialization in orthoptics and visual therapy, São Paulo, Brazil

“There are many kinds of patients, but those who get actively involved with their own healing process can surely go further. When I met Meir Schneider years ago, I started to apply some of his techniques to my work and was impressed by the results. We must imprint our will and optimism into everything we do, so we can go beyond it. Congratulations, Meir, for one more book that brings us simple yet useful lessons.”

—Mauro Rabinovitch, MD, ophthalmologist, São Paulo, Brazil

© 2012 by Meir Schneider. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.Published byCover photo @ istockphoto.com/cinobyNorth Atlantic BooksCover design by Suzanne AlbertsonP.O. Box 12327 Berkeley, California 94712charts and red drawings courtesy of Flavio Kauffmannfor Life: Ten Steps to Natural Eyesight Improvement is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.Atlantic Books’ publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.DISCLAIMER: The following information is intended for general information purposes only. Individuals should always see their health care provider before administering any suggestions made in this book. Any application of the material set forth in the following pages is at the reader’s discretion and is his or her sole responsibility.of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, Meir, 1954

Vision for life : ten steps to natural eyesight improvement / Meir Schneider.

p. cm.

Summary: “Presents ten simple steps to relieve eye strain, correct vision problems, and improve eye health; includes a full range of restorative vision exercises”—Provided by publisher.

eISBN: 978-1-58394-515-5

1. Vision disorders—Treatment. 2. Visual training. 3. Orthoptics. 4. Bates method of orthoptics. 5. Eye—Diseases—Treatment. 6. Blindness—Genetic aspects. I. Title.

RE992.O7S27 2012

617.7′5—dc23

.1Pageby M. Fernanda Leite Ribeiroof Materials for Getting Started1Myself of Blindnessthe Bates Methodthe Light2Steps to Better Vision1: The Long Swingto Do the Long Swing2: Looking into the Distanceinto the Distance Can Help Prevent Cataracts!3: Exploring the PeripheryExercise 1: Look at the DistanceExercise 2: The Small Pieces of Paper4: Sunning and Skying5: Night Walking6: Palmingto Palmto PalmLong Should You Palm?While PalmingWhile Palmingthe Earsof PalmingPalming with Other Exercises7: ShiftingShiftingat More Detailsthe Fine PrintInk Is Black and the Page Is WhiteProblems with the Weaker Eye8: Blocking the Strong EyeSunglassesat Details One More Time9: Blink10: Vision and BodyCorrectlyYour EyesPower of BreathYour NeckYour Eye Musclesthe View’t Squintto Move On3Use and Relieving Built-Up Fatigue4and Correcting Errors of Refractionfor Using This Part of the BookDo Corrective Lenses Fit into These Exercises?Myopia and HyperopiaProgram for MyopiaAdditional Note about MyopiaProgram for Hyperopia: 90 Minutes a DayPresbyopiaProgram for Presbyopia: 60–90 Minutes a DayExercises for PresbyopiaOne Eyein Dim LightNear/Look Farand Large and Small PrintControlled Stress on the Ciliary Muscle for StrengthAstigmatismfor Astigmatic ReadersProgram for AstigmatismExercises for Astigmatismin the Dark5Cross-Sightedness and Lazy EyeCross-SightednessProgram for Cross-Sightedness: At Least 90 Minutes a DayExercises for Cross-Sightednessthe Eyes; Look into the DarknessImagesMelissa Exerciseon a StringDoubleColor Exercise (Beak Glasses)and Green Glassesand LineGame6ConditionsCataractsProgram for CataractsNote about Cataract SurgeryExercise for Cataracts: Bounce and CatchDiabetesProgram for Diabetes: 40 Minutes DailyExercises for Diabetesthe Strong EyeNote about Laser Treatmentsand DiabetesGlaucomaProgram for GlaucomaExercises for GlaucomaInstructions for Palming with Glaucomafor GlaucomaOptic NeuritisDetached Retinas and Retinal TearsProgram for Retinal DetachmentExercise for Retinal Detachment: Darkness and LightVitreous DetachmentMacular Puckers and HolesProgram for Macular Puckers and Holes: 80 Minutes a DayExercise for Macular Puckers and Holes: Pinhole GlassesRetinitis PigmentosaProgram for Retinitis PigmentosaExercises for Retinitis PigmentosaMask of ZorroLights in the DarkFinal Note about Peripheral Exercises7Blind Spots of Conventional WisdomHidden Danger of SunglassesDangers of Corrective Lenses: The Real Cost of Vision Problemsthe Authorhas had the privilege to attend a lecture given by Meir Schneider knows that one does not passively listen to his work. The audience members are immediately treated as students and invited to perform exercises right there in the conference room. According to Meir, more important than talking about his method is experiencing it; theory is only valuable when implemented. We are beings with an incredible adaptive capacity, and so is his teaching: simple, direct, and transformative. It goes beyond the barrier of predefined concepts and comes with the assurance that we can walk away from the passiveness of our routine actions and into the freshness of new ones.book is a mirror of his way of teaching. The interactive and dynamic contents express the author’s quality, moving us away from the apparent security of restrictive visual habits, to experience new possibilities. Since he considers that we all can improve our vision naturally, this book is not destined only for those who have diagnosed visual dysfunctions; this is for all of us. As Meir always says, routine is the ultimate degenerative disease.first met Meir Schneider in 1992, at a conference for six hundred people in São Paulo, Brazil. He made such an impression on the audience that it became the perfect time for the first training course in that country. I took part in it, although I had no previous experience in the health area. To be a health professional was not a prerequisite for Meir, however. He wanted to keep his teaching open to whoever was up to working on himself. This closer contact with the technique completely changed my way of relating to my body and my cognitive processes. Soon I started teaching others, thus complementing my learning experience. A few years later, already working as a fully trained therapist who specialized in visual education, I felt an urge to deepen my theoretical knowledge and went back to school to become an optometrist. This skill gave me better conditions under which to appreciate the grandeur of the method—Meir’s great ability to bring complex theory into something that speaks to us. After all, theory tries to explain what we are. And Meir translates it with rare intelligence and generosity. There is no hidden material in his teaching; it is all there, at the reach of minds willing to experience themselves.book is much more than a guide to exercises; it is an invitation to transformation. Good reading.. Fernanda Leite Ribeiro, optometrist and self-healing instructor, São Paulo, Brazilworld may soon be faced with an epidemic of vision disorders, as hundreds of millions of humans who have been subjected to constant contact with computer screens, fluorescent lights, and excessively lit cities gradually enter old age. Tragically, although they seem adequately equipped to predict such a catastrophe, the existing medical establishment is not at all prepared to address this epidemic correctly. From my personal experience, I believe medical doctors often tend to suffer from their own form of myopia, a shortsighted attitude toward holistic approaches to body repair and maintenance.this generation we understand the importance in any successful endeavor of budgeting for repair and maintenance. If we intend to maintain the value and the beauty of any product or system throughout its life span, and to extend that life span for as long as possible, steps must be taken along the way to maintain the usefulness of all vital systems and to correct any defects that develop along the way due to misuse, neglect, or accidental damage. Human beings need even more attention than machines in this respect; we need nurturing.am happy that people are beginning to wake up to this notion, and that a preventive, protective attitude has already begun working its way into the human psyche. Every day, more people pay closer attention to the food and beverages they consume, to the environment in which they live, and to establishing general healthy habits like physical exercise. But we still do not spend enough time addressing the health and well-being of our eyes. That is the purpose of Vision for Life: to help people maintain and repair their vision as a way to increase the length and quality of their lives. It seems ironic to me that the scientific establishment might be to blame for the sorry condition in which we are finding ourselves. The success that optometry and ophthalmology professions have had in recent decades is largely to blame for our culture’s laissez-faire attitude toward the health of our eyes. This has happened by correcting vision problems through prescriptive lenses and surgical technology without offering any alternative.often take it for granted that if something goes wrong with their vision, medical science will come to their rescue. And while this may be true in many cases, I am a firm believer that it is always better to prevent a disease in the first place rather than to simply wait for the system to break down in hopes that science will offer a solution. First of all, preventative medicine is cheaper! Compare twenty minutes a day of aerobic exercise, such as running along the beach or bicycling through the park, to the cost of a $100,000 surgical procedure to correct clogged arteries. Even factoring in the price of an expensive, luxury gym membership and regular massages, the preventative approach is still far less expensive.must commit right now to creating a health regimen for our eyes because the whole body is affected by eyestrain. The human eye was made to hunt, to scan the horizon, to look at birds, to look into the distance. It was designed to be engaged in a variety of circumstances, looking at different things at different distances and in different light. If we stare only at a computer screen all day under the same lighting, we lose the variation as well as the acuity. We lose the passion for looking and seeing the diversity of life around us. What then does this do to our bodies and to our energy levels?many people report that they feel exhausted in the middle of the day, that they need stimulants to revive them. We must remember that whatever we do with the eyes affects the whole body.habits that you will develop if you follow the exercises in Vision for Life can be the lifeline you need. You will reinvent your passion for life while protecting the vision you have and correcting the degenerative condition from which you suffer. Best of all, as with any kind of personal exercise regimen, these habits will impact your life in ways that transcend the utilitarian benefits of disease prevention.the poet said, “The eyes are the windows to the soul.” By connecting with our vision, we connect with light and darkness, with nature, with our physical environment, and with each other in fundamental, simple, and beautiful ways. Going for a jog doesn’t have to be just good physical exercise; it can also be a welcome relief for the mind. It is a way to reconnect with your neighborhood, to break out of your routine, and to expand your psychological comfort zone. And the same can be said of learning how to blink correctly, practicing the scrutiny of details, looking far into the distance, and nighttime walking.have certainly done much to advance the quality of life in our culture. Yet, every year, as hundreds of millions more people worldwide incorporate computers into their routines, they expose their precious eyes to constant, unnatural strain and poor lighting. By straining their central vision to stare blurry-eyed at the screen, people forget to utilize their peripheral vision. They forget to blink. They forget to breathe correctly. They scrunch their shoulders and tense their necks. They squint, trying to analyze digital data. And instead of using the natural human ability to scan for images, they simply sit and wait passively for the flood of constantly changing images to come to them. Remember: the mountain did not come to Muhammad; Muhammad had to go to the mountain.is our joy and responsibility to personally make the effort to connect with nature and with our own human potential. We each must make the commitment to claim our heritage and our birthright, which is health, happiness, and a long-lasting, balanced, productive life. And it all starts with our eyes!senses connect us intimately with each other, with our environment, and with ourselves, perhaps none so much as our sense of vision. When a person loses his or her vision, there is no end to what he or she will pay for a doctor to correct the situation. Sadly, however, many procedures performed on people’s eyes today, including Lasik surgery, do more harm than good.the problem even further is that many people’s eyesight ratings are misdiagnosed at the optometrist’s office because of the stress and nervousness people feel while they are having their eyes tested for glasses. Often, people are understandably stressed, and strain their vision out of fear that it may have declined. Their visual capacity on an average, relaxed day differs greatly from that when they are fearful and stressed. But when have you ever heard of an optometrist confronting this reality? When has your optometrist massaged your shoulders and asked you to breathe deeply before measuring your eyes? When has your ophthalmologist asked you to pray or meditate (sing or dance) prior to measuring your eye pressure?optometrists make no effort to test their patients’ vision under normal, less stressful circumstances. And most people have no capacity to test their own vision when they are in a friendlier environment. Consequently, most people’s eyeglass prescriptions are incorrectly based on stressed vision! The result is that the eyes, having no choice, learn to accommodate the incorrect prescription, adjusting gradually in the wrong direction toward worse, not better, vision. In fact, most optometrists don’t even think stress relates to poor vision at all.personal experience in working with thousands of students and patients contradicts what these doctors think they know. Stress and poor vision do indeed go hand in hand.I advise my patients and students to sometimes take their lenses off while practicing the techniques I teach them, and I advise readers of this book to do the same. When you are in a safe environment, do the exercises in this book with your glasses off periodically. It is no different from learning to walk again after a leg injury. If you never let go of the crutches, your legs can never regain their strength and improve to their full potential. Therefore, work out your eyes the same ways in which you work out the rest of your body at the gym, but remember to do it with great relaxation.exercises in this book are intended to help you to create a basic, fundamentally healthy routine that you can incorporate into your life immediately. If enough of us practice these exercises diligently and follow the advice in Vision for Life, we can avoid the coming epidemic of cataracts, macular degeneration, and other degenerative conditions of the eyes that scientists predict are speeding toward our culture like a freight train.yourself what is in the medical establishment’s best interest. To restudy the eye field and allow new ideas to penetrate from outside of the establishment, or to continue learning new methods with the old way of thinking? Is it to help you to heal yourself with only a minimal investment of time and effort, or to tell you it is okay to have unhealthy habits, because they know how to fix you when you break? I am not trying to be accusatory or conspiratorial. I am simply attempting to rephrase the wisdom of an old adage that says you should never ask a barber if you need a haircut. Therefore, never ask an optometrist if it is possible for you to correct your own vision. The medical establishment is so dependent on technology and chemicals that it has little incentive to embrace a simpler, less expensive, personal, holistic approach to vision maintenance and repair.book is my response to this serious problem, and it is also my attempt to give human beings an alternative to becoming the playthings of profit-driven, surgery-obsessed mad scientists. You are your own patient first. Heal yourself using the techniques in this book and other books like it. Only as a last resort, or in the most serious of situations, should you seek the aid of chemicals and surgery.those of you who have perfect vision, or even better than perfect vision, now is the time to incorporate simple habits into your life to ensure that your extraordinary vision will be maintained for as much of your life as possible! It is my dream that all of us will have good vision for our whole lives.of Materials for Getting Startedpieces of dark construction paper cut 2 inches x 2 inches, 2 inches x 5 inches, 2 inches x 7 inches, and 2 inches x 9 inchestapeballs—at least two (preferably used—your local tennis club would most likely give you a few!)glasses (described in Step 8)*and green glasses*pencil or pen (use a red felt tip pen if vision loss is extreme)white copy paperflash light with red bulb or red tape over lensand green playing cards (optional)*foot and twenty-foot eye charts (charts included in this book)*lights (when working with severe vision loss)*in the dark ball*on a string*glasses (optional)*

* These items can often be made at home from materials found locally, but you can also order them from the School for Self-Healing (www.self-healing.org). Email the School for Self-Healing at officemanager@self-healing.org to order or if you have any questions.one time, this book was to be entitled From Blindness to Vision, because I was born blind but, through years of effort and exploration, have taught myself to see. Today, because of this miracle, I can read, write, and drive a car.idea behind the original title was that my seemingly miraculous progression from blindness to sight would signal to readers that within this book are the resources anyone can use to improve their vision, regardless of their current situation.reality, I believe the great majority of this book’s readers will not be those who are declared, as I was, legally blind. Rather, they will be people from all different points on the continuum of vision, including some with “perfect” vision who want to keep it or even build upon it. As dramatic as the first title sounded, I wanted to make certain that readers would not mistake this for a handbook only for the blind or severely impaired. So I gave up my attention-grabbing idea and looked for another title.

unrestricted California driver’s license., my personal experience in overcoming blindness remains at the core of this work. To anyone who doubts that improving his or her vision is possible, my story is a true testament to hope. Therefore, it was important to describe briefly just how this transformation happened. A detailed account of my life can be found in my earlier book, Movement for Self-Healing, which chronologically addresses the physical challenges I faced, as well as the long series of steps, discoveries, and exercises I underwent to overcome them.I wish to summarize this same process with more emphasis on the psychological aspect. These emotional and spiritual challenges were central to the process of my learning to see.key obstacles that you, the reader, will face—whether you’re legally blind or have the eagle eyes of an Air Force fighter pilot—will be similar to mine, even though the circumstances of our lives probably differ dramatically. The central challenge is for you to make a commitment to invest the necessary time to improve your vision and to expand your world.was difficult enough for me to do this in the 1970s in Israel, even with the burning, intrinsic motivation to rid myself of my blindness. For modern readers to make this kind of dedication of time in our hectic, hyper era, may seem impossible. Yet a commitment to doing it can pay off in two extraordinary ways: you will improve your vision while opening up your life.yourself from the grip of a stressful routine. The amount of time and dedication I have devoted to improving my vision was extreme compared to what most people need, but that is exactly the point. Dedicate as much time as possible to these exercises, and remember that although your life may seem busy, making your vision a central priority is of the utmost importance.1Myself of Blindnesswas born in the Stalinist Soviet Union under difficult circumstances. My father was involved in an illegal business, taking and printing photographs for churches. This work could have resulted in his being sent to Siberia for twenty years. Furthermore, both my parents were deaf.grandparents on my father’s side were opposed to another child coming into the family. At first, it was my paternal grandfather who had noticed that something was wrong with my eyes. After an examination by doctors, it was revealed that I had been born with cataracts. And although many people develop cataracts later in life, very few are born with them. I was, for all practical purposes, born blind.search of a better life for all of us, my family decided to flee the Soviet Union and to relocate to the new country of Israel. During this time of transition for my family, five surgeries were performed on my eyes. The first, done in Poland on our way to Western Europe, was unsuccessful. The other four surgeries—all performed in Israel—had scarred my lenses to the point that 99 percent of them was scar tissue, effectively preventing light from getting through. As a result, I was issued a blind certificate by the state of Israel, and most people in my life had resigned themselves to the idea that I would never be able to see.

1.1. My father, Abraham, mother, Eda, and me, age five, looking and seeing next to nothing.was raised reading Braille, although I attended a standard school with normal-sighted children. I experienced much loneliness and isolation because of this situation. What do you do when you are blind, surrounded by normal-sighted people, and your parents communicate mostly with sign language that you cannot see?

1.2. Blind certificate declaring me permanently blind by the state of Israel.father, who was very interested in current events, often wanted me to listen to the radio and to explain to him what was happening around the world. He would have me listen to the news and repeat it to him, which confused me at first. I didn’t understand why he had always lifted my head up when I tried to tell him what I had heard. I later realized it was because he had wanted to read my lips. But how would I know that reading lips was so important when I couldn’t even see lips moving? This tragic comedy more or less captures the early days of my life. I was surrounded by confusion, frustration, and struggle. But I was also learning that there are many ways to overcome the challenges people face due to the circumstances of their lives.was obvious to me that my parents loved me. Still, our life was marked by fear and insecurity, having escaped the repressions of the Soviet Union, only to move to the young state of Israel, which was ravaged with war. Because of their deafness, my parents could not study Hebrew, which was so different from the Russian they had spoken before. Additionally, my maternal grandparents lost all the money they had brought with them from the Soviet Union on bad investments in Israel. Yet through it all, my grandmother steadfastly believed in me and was able to find ways to help me. She stayed with me in hospital beds after surgeries, when I was traumatized and feeling insecure from hearing many other kids crying.members of my family believed that I should depend on social services. Although I didn’t mind asking for money from my family, somehow I did not want to take it from the government. It was a deep instinct, the origin of which I understood later on as I matured. It is easy for a person who receives help from the government, as many with disabilities do, to develop a poor self-image as being needy or pitiful; it comes automatically, like it or not. But when you do not rely on that help, the image you have of yourself becomes stronger, and you are forced to become self-sufficient.was determined not to have the stigma of being a blind person. That basic resolve was the beginning of my transition and change, without which I would not have gotten to where I am today. As a response to the lack of security and uncertainty that filled my early life, I developed a sense of commitment. Kids often did not want to play with me. Girls would not dance with me at parties. I sometimes became lonely. But I understood the choice was with me to be depressed or to be happy.

1.3. As of the seventh grade, I was the fastest Braille reader in Israel.I escaped into my Braille books. With my books, I was in a different world and would read for hours on end. Even when my mother said, “Time to sleep, lights out,” I would just hide the books under my bed. Although our walls were thin, as soon as the lights were out and I knew that she couldn’t see me anymore, I pulled out my books again and kept reading.more of my Braille books arrived at the post office, I would hurry to pick them up. The books were huge. I was something to marvel at, a small kid carrying a very large school bag on my back, tied and strapped to my shoulders, with a Braille typewriter squeezed under one arm and a sack of Braille books under the other. More than once, the typewriter fell and broke, and we would need to pay to get it repaired. My father always resented the price, and I felt guilty about having let the typewriter fall.but surely, my muscles built up. Many a passerby felt I was engaged in too much lifting and carrying. But that lifting, in many ways, formed my character. I imagined that, one day, something would liberate me from my blindness, and I acted by it.went from doctor to doctor, on my own.struggled against the resentment of the other children in school who thought I was receiving too much special treatment. They resented the fact that they had to explain to me what was on the blackboard. And I agreed with them! I wanted to be able to see the blackboard with my own eyes. I wanted to work on my own. I even had teachers that were mean to me because they felt I was not behaving right. They believed a blind kid was supposed to be submissive and passive—something I never was and, most likely, never would be.desperately wanted to be liberated from my condition. But all the doctors told me there was nothing I could do, that legal blindness was going to be my life, and that my vision would never be more than half of 1 percent without glasses, nor more than 4 or 5 percent with glasses. They said that I should accept the sight I had and that I should be happy with it. Those were nice words, but they did not work for me.the Bates Methodfather was openly upset at the fact that his deafness prevented him from succeeding in life. My mother also felt like she was put down by the hearing world. I understood the prejudice they had experienced but, nonetheless, felt I had a bright future, though I did not know what it was.one day I met another young boy named Jacob, who had dropped out of high school. He showed me eye exercises based on something called the Bates Method. I learned the eye exercises and started to work with them diligently.my amazement, as I practiced the Bates Method and experienced improvement, I received more complaints than ever from the authority figures in my life. You see, a part of my practice was to look from detail to detail; the purpose of this exercise was to stop my brain from being lazy. But my geography teacher would get upset as I moved my eyes from each bell beside the chalkboard to the other, looking at the details during class. She went all the way to the vice principal. Thankfully, the vice principal heard my case and told her that the exercises may help me, and that they did not disturb my ability to listen to her lessons.Bible studies teacher was upset that when my class sat in the yard reading biblical verses, I would close my eyes and face the sun, moving my head from side to side. When I faced the sun, my pupils would contract; when I moved my head to the side, my pupils would expand. My teacher said that it bothered him to see me moving my head from side to side, even though he recognized that I understood everything he was saying. He said that even though I was the best student in the class, I should stop doing the sunning because it bothered him.these reactions, I persisted. My retina started to wake up to light, and that was my vehicle to removing the thick, heavy, dark glasses that had made the world dimmer for me.mother was upset with the fact that I would run, ten times a day, up to the roof to do sunning. She said, “You are taking time out from your homework.” Then she was upset that I would for sit three hours a day and do palming, an exercise to rest my eyes and stop them from moving involuntarily.short, I encountered so much resistance to what I did that I didn’t even know it was possible to attempt change without facing resistance. When everybody resists you, difficulty comes not only in doing the exercises, but also in dealing with the fact that your family, friends, teachers, and even neighbors oppose your efforts. Still, I persisted.

1.4. With these glasses I was able to read the largest letter on the eye chart from a distance of five feet (20/800).three months, I was able to see print. And not with 38 diopters, which is a microscopical lens, but with 20 diopters, which is simply a very thick lens. Headaches that had plagued me all my life disappeared within six months.the Lighta year of practicing the Bates Method, I was able to see regular letters. I’ll never forget the day I was doing the sunning exercise on a roof and looking at sharp black letters printed on white paper. I placed the paper at the tip of my nose. For the very first time in my life, at the age of seventeen and a half, I could see the printed word without magnification. This success took such a huge effort that I threw up. Again, I sunned and palmed and threw up, until I saw another letter, then another. Soon, I heard loud voices in argument. It was the neighbors downstairs accusing each other of creating a mess on the windows. I hadn’t realized that each time I threw up, it was over their windows. So I went downstairs and told them what had happened. Instead of being angry with me, they were amazed at my honesty. I could have ignored my deeds, but I didn’t. I was proud of the fact that I could finally see a letter. I honed my process and, within three months, could see multiple letters by putting the print right in front of my nose.then on, I continued to work. People were surprised that instead of just feeling my way down the road, I could literally see the road. Instead of not recognizing them, I started to know their faces. One neighbor was actually upset that I could recognize her! “What is wrong?” she would ask. “You’re the blind person in the neighborhood. How can you see us? What have you done? What’s going on?” It was amazing. I had taken away from her the feeling of security that resulted from her knowing what was going on in the neighborhood. It was almost as if she felt that the world she knew had been taken away from her. Here is the blind kid looking at everyone and actually seeing them. I was used to resistance but was pleasantly surprised by the first voices of admiration I received.diligence continued. I looked from detail to detail. People finally accepted that I could see and recognize them, so my status soon changed from being one who was nearly blind to one who was nearly sighted. I kept working despite the fact that my progress was slow.landmark came when Jacob, my friend and mentor on the path to vision improvement, told me I no longer had astigmatism. Don’t ask me how he knew, but when I went to the ophthalmologist in the public clinic, she was shocked. She said to me, “I don’t know how it happened, but you don’t need the cylinders in your glasses to correct your astigmatism because you don’t have astigmatism anymore!” I was not surprised to hear this.was at this time that I was taught the connection between the health of my eyes and that of the rest of my physical body. Another friend, Miriam, the librarian, taught me a series of exercises to improve my body. I began to practice movement techniques and learned that movement is life. Whenever circumstances block possibilities of improvement, there are always other possibilities that can help you to move forward. I learned from experience that the human body is capable of improving and healing itself. We forget that we have the potential to improve our vision. The world is so engaged in the myth that poor eyesight cannot improve, especially in a case like mine, that it is difficult to imagine a story like mine being true. I’ve proven the conventional wisdom wrong and have shown the power of healing exercises.am grateful that Miriam and Jacob taught me eye exercises and body movement and encouraged me to share these exercises with other people. I have met with people who have improved their body even from major conditions such as paralysis from polio, motor neuron disease, muscular dystrophy, spinal injuries, arthritis, strokes, and many other ailments.

1.5. We forget that we have the potential to improve our vision.knew I had found my calling: to bring this consciousness to others. Most people have little faith in their own healing ability. My faith in their ability is great because of my faith in my own ability and my success.are two ways for me to describe how you can improve. One is to explain that the body has a greater functional potential than most people ever experience in life. The other is to demonstrate how to meet that potential through exercise. Whenever I work with people, I demonstrate to them that they can do more than they think. When they have pain, this means helping them not to let the pain restrict them too much. When they have tension, it means first helping them recognize the tension to its fullest extent, then decreasing it.own process was not smooth. My eyes used to move involuntarily three hundred times per minute until I learned palming: rubbing my hands, putting them around my eye orbits very gently, and visualizing darkness. This would calm and relax my eyes. In one strange way, it actually helped me to have deaf parents in my teens. I could play loud rock and roll music, and relax with it. In spite of our thin walls, my parents couldn’t hear it! Whenever I played this music, I would place my hands very gently around my eye orbits to relax my eyes. The movement of my eyes decreased to sixty movements per minute within three months. That’s when my vision started to clear. The additional exercise of sunning warmed my eyes and started to activate my irregular pupils.I could not exactly see, I gradually learned to look, even though it was sometimes painful. I had been taught by my Braille teacher to “feel the Braille and not look at the page. For God’s sake, don’t look, because if you look, you’ll confuse your senses. You’ve got to feel and not look.” That order was so vigorous that I had learned to live a life without looking at anything. Looking was a new order to my brain. The result, even though I was starting to see more, was that my eyes hurt. Palming and lying down for a long time had helped me. Sometimes I just didn’t want to see anything; it was just too much. But I kept looking.

1.6. My eyes used to move involuntarily three hundred times per minute until I learned palming.I arrived in the United States, I met some people who were very interested in my work. They offered to help me train other people in my methods. It was new to me to have people embrace my experiences. I learned how to teach individuals—Miriam always taught me to work only with individuals—and how to teach classes in a way that would enable each individual to learn how to work with himself or herself. From this I learned that the greatest difficulty most people have is that they don’t believe they can find the time to work on themselves. Most people think they are too busy. Others feel impatient and aren’t willing to invest the effort it takes to quiet and to relax their minds and bodies. I teach them how to incorporate these exercises into their existing routines. I teach them that looking at details is something they had stopped being motivated to do a long time ago and that to do so stimulates the macula—the central part of the retina—and can prevent macular degeneration. I teach them that sitting with a loose neck is worth the investment of moving the head in a rotating motion before sitting in a chair. I teach people that while they use their computers, they should look far away from time to time to rest their eyes. These are simple habits that are easily incorporated into day-to-day life.own two children were born with cataracts, which was traumatic for me and for their mother, as we knew from experience the struggle they would face. At the age of two weeks, they went through cataract surgeries that allowed the visual brain to develop normally. This was not known in my generation. Because their surgeries were successful, they did not have to deal with the scarring that I dealt with when I was young. Using the techniques you will read about in this book, their vision has improved tremendously. Throughout their childhood and adolescence, my children have covered their strong eyes and looked with their weak eyes at objects in order to ease the strain of looking with the strong eyes all the time.an artist’s mind and an artist’s heart, my son is often in his own world in many ways. While in his world, however, he looks at details with great interest. Because of his powerful capacity of observation and love of detail, he sees much that others don’t see. He has developed the best vision of any kid who was ever born with cataracts. He now sees at 20/40 without glasses. This is 80 percent of 20/20 vision, without his natural lenses. Anyone else without the natural lens of the eye would be seeing 20/400 (5 percent of normal vision). He sees 20/15 with glasses. Most other kids who were born with cataracts and had successful surgeries see 20/80 or 20/100 using much thicker lenses; 20/40 is unheard of for someone who has no natural lens of his own.daughter has also passed through many transitions. We used to play a lot of games in our living room, where she would cover her strong eye and play ball with me using her weaker eye. Seeing that ball as it rolled close and far made a huge difference for her, and her vision greatly improved. At the age of twelve, she developed elevated eye pressure. Immediately, the doctors wanted to give her eye drops to reduce her pressure. We declined the doctors’ recommendation because we believed the drops could be damaging. I worked with her instead, and in spite of incredibly demanding middle school and high school schedules with many extracurricular activities, she found some time to work on her periphery, which reduced eye pressure. She also found some time to work on her neck. She saw acupuncturists and homeopathic specialists, took vitamin treatments, and got massage treatments to reduce the tension in her back and neck. I taught her how to relax her whole body in many different ways in order to bring more blood circulation to her head. Her pressure was reduced enormously.process was long, hard, and cumbersome, and had its ups and downs, but it worked. With high pressure, some people have a tendency toward developing glaucoma, and glaucoma expresses itself by damaging the optic nerve and diminishing the field of vision. So our success with her is partial but good; her vision is 20/20. Though her tendency is for high pressure, her optic nerve is very healthy, and her field of vision is excellent.these experiences with myself, with my children, and with thousands of patients and students with whom I have worked, I have come to truly believe that people can improve their vision and find the time to do so, whether they’re in school or in the workplace.wonderful computer engineer, who once came to a class of mine, was able to improve his vision from 20/200 to 20/80 during the class. He reduced his prescription by half within eight months, from 7 diopters to 3.5 diopters. For the first time in his adult life, and still in his forties, he felt comfortable driving without glasses.all can take the time. We just have to decide that we are worth the time and that the process is worth our while. We need to make an effort to combine eye exercises with our everyday lives. Then we can thrive. Then we can excel. Imagine never needing to have any major treatments from the eye doctor. Imagine your life without cataracts, macular degeneration, glaucoma, or retinal detachment. Imagine that you can improve your life simply by creating more life in your eyes.far, the oldest person I’ve worked with was 101 years old. This patient experienced great changes and was able to see better and to improve his brain and eye functions quite a bit, even after just one session. Since he was one of only two patients over the age of a hundred with whom I have worked, I can only give these examples. I did, however, have success with both of them. I have also worked with several patients in their eighties and nineties and have witnessed tremendous positive changes in their visual systems through working with these exercises.is no doubt in my mind that, whether you are in your twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, or beyond, you can change the function of your eyes. There is enough elasticity in your brain to back it up. The problem isn’t age itself, but whether or not a person is practicing the correct exercises for his or her age. It may be easier for a five-year-old child to get used to the weaker eye’s workings by putting on a patch for four or eight hours a day as he or she plays. And truly, the brain has more plasticity when you’re five than when you’re seventy-five. But there are good, age-appropriate exercises you can do at anytime in your life that can change your visual system completely.2Steps to Better Visionyou take care of your vision, not only will you see better, but you will also feel better, and you will positively affect your whole body’s health. In addition to the exercises aimed at combating specific disorders and conditions, I have developed ten important steps that are perfect for incorporating into your daily life. These exercises are based on my seven principles of healthy vision:

. Deep relaxation

. Adjusting to light frequencies

. Looking at details

. Looking into the distance

. Expanding your periphery

. Balanced use of the two eyes

. Body and eye coordinationare the essential principles of healthy vision, and they can be attained by consistently practicing the eye exercises in this chapter.1: The Long Swingwill never forget when I met Alan. He was a young French-Canadian banker who, while driving home after a meeting in his bank, fell asleep at the wheel and found himself in intensive care three days later. By the time he woke up, they had replaced his forehead with platinum. He had lost all his vision. The optic nerve in his left eye was destroyed, in addition to most of the optic nerve in his right eye. But that little bit of nerve tissue remained, so Alan discovered that he still had some visual sensation.physicians thought that only 4 percent of his potentially functional nerve was not enough to regain any vision. Alan heard about my book The Handbook of Self Healing. In it, I suggest that people who are legally blind start working with blinking lights in a dark room. Alan experimented with the techniques in the book, and, sure enough, the little bit of remaining optic nerve woke up. He called me in San Francisco and soon came out for a series of therapy sessions. Alan’s girlfriend held his hand to walk him into the office because he couldn’t see most objects. His brain did not yet know how to use that little bit of remaining healthy nerve tissue in his right eye.our first session we practiced an exercise called the long swing. As he did this exercise, he said, “I’m noticing twelve objects that I’ve never noticed before in the room.” Within minutes, his sense of orientation built up even more. When the series of sessions finished, he no longer needed to be led around. The long swing is what is called an integrative exercise. It allowed Alan to perceive a sense of space.long swing exercise develops a sense of fluidity and flexibility that will allow you to look at details with more ease, to adapt to light easier, and to adapt to new, livelier visual habits.to Do the Long Swingwith your legs slightly more than hip-width apart and your knees slightly bent. Hold your index finger about one foot in front of your face, pointing up to the ceiling. Look at your finger with a soft gaze. If you are legally blind, or even with correction have very poor vision, you can look at your index and middle fingers together. While looking at your finger(s), swing your body from side to side. As you swing to the right, twist your body so that your left heel rises slightly off the ground. As you twist your body to the left, your right heel raises slightly off the ground. If your hand becomes tired, you can switch hands. Do this at least twenty times.will notice the sensation that everything in the background seems to be moving in the opposite direction of your finger, like scenery passing by you as you look out the window of a train. Allow yourself to feel the sense of relaxation that comes when you don’t need to place a hard focus on any one object. Move to the right, and the world moves to the left. Move to the left, and the world moves to the right.

2.1. (a) Long swing, front view; keep your eye on your finger. (b) Long swing, right profile. (c) Long swing, left profile view.hold your finger horizontally in front of your face. Move your finger up and down in front of you, moving your head vertically along with your finger. Remember to continue to hold a soft gaze. When you move up, everything in the background seems to be moving down. When you move down, everything seems to be moving up., hold your finger in front of you and do the long swing, pointing your finger to the ceiling as in the first explanation, but this time as you swing to one side, bend at the waist and sweep down in a half circle—just to knee level. Don’t lower your head below your knees, but continue the swing until your arm is fully extended and you are looking up at your finger. This exercise should relax your eyes further.next step is very important. This is where we visualize the long swing. We close our eyes and do the movement with our bodies, and visualize in our mind’s eye that the world is swinging back and forth, passing in front of our eyes. Everything you visualize is moving directly opposite. When you move to the right, the neighborhood moves to the left. When you move to the left, the whole world moves to the right. Remember how you saw objects this way. Now you open your eyes and continue the exercise.you look in this way, you stop yourself from freezing. It becomes easier to look at details and much easier to blink. Remind yourself to blink. Blinking will help you to relax.I started to work on my own vision, my eyes had a constant nystagmus, which is an involuntary rapid movement of the eyes caused by continuous strain from trying to see the world with a total lack of success. So I practiced the long swing for about forty minutes a day, and it immediately eased the involuntary flutter of my eyes. I had a feeling of more light entering my eyes. Details started to appear in the background, and when I started to look at details like windows and books on shelves, they gradually became clearer and clearer to me. Long swinging prepared my brain for new exercises.you practice the rest of the exercises in this book followed by long swinging, you will absorb the exercises better because long swinging alleviates tension and stiffness in the brain, in addition to preparing us to learn and benefit from new visual techniques.will never forget the time when I was walking in the streets of Tel Aviv with my eye instructor, Jacob, who was then only sixteen years old. Jacob told me to look at a building full of windows. In the corners of the windows I could see tiny, fuzzy black squares, which I later realized were air conditioners. At Jacob’s instruction, I looked from window to air conditioner, back and forth for a whole summer, not understanding why I was doing this. Slowly, by looking at windows and air conditioners, looking at patterns of squares, a new habit developed in me, a habit of looking and not freezing. Long swinging helped to prepare me for this exercise and alleviated the rigidity that prevented me from looking at details, which allowed the program to sink in.reason that long swinging is referred to as an integrative exercise is that it takes you away from the stress you’re used to. When people wear thick glasses that have a very specific focal point, they often strain their eyes so much that it becomes very difficult for them to look with vitality at the world. They look without seeing details, partially from fatigue and partially from the habits they have developed by straining to see. Long swinging breaks that tension. You cannot stare with this exercise, so more light enters your eyes through the movement, and therefore you won’t need to strain to bring the new programming to your brain.long swinging exercise will also help you to develop your peripheral vision and to create a better sense of orientation. You don’t have to swing for forty minutes at a time. In fact, even two minutes of twenty swings can help you loosen up. Think of it as warming up before a workout.2: Looking into the Distanceis no coincidence that our school is located near the beach. In fact, it took us almost five years to convince San Francisco authorities and neighborhood groups to allow us to operate in this residential area. The reason this location is ideal for us is that we look at the waves on a daily basis and use their sparkling beauty in our work. They shine in sunlight and have different coloration, even in the fog. You can almost always see waves here, even when the weather is gray.at the waves. Look at the sky. Look at the clouds. Look at the hills and valleys.you are not near the beach, look out your window at the many other buildings.you look near (as when staring at a computer screen), you unknowingly strain your eyes. The ciliary muscles contract, and this changes the shape of your lens from flat to round. When you look into the distance, however, the ciliary muscles relax, and the suspensory ligaments keep the lens flat and more flexible.people in our culture are used to eyestrain from looking at computers, televisions, and books so much of the time. They pay attention to the contents and not to their eyes, which causes them to strain. Looking close makes you strain. Looking with boredom makes you strain. When you push on with the computer project, or the television show, or the book, you strain your eyes—even when you are aware of the strain.

2.2. The reason this location is ideal for us is that we look at the waves on a daily basis and use their sparkling beauty in our work.attention so that your face is relaxed and your jaw is not clenched. Release and rest your eyes. If it is possible, give yourself a few hours away from close work. Even if it is a deadline you are struggling to meet, do yourself a favor and take ten minutes to rest your eyes by looking into the distance. Look at the movements of the waves or the clouds. Look into the distance.look closer than forty yards away, because you need to look far enough to rest the eyes from looking near. Know that when you look into the distance, you don’t have to stay focused on one point; you can scan or look at different areas within the point you are looking at. Remember to blink and to avoid straining to see it. If it is fuzzy, let it be fuzzy.at least ten minutes every single day, look into the distance. If you wear corrective lenses, be brave: take your contact lenses out, take your glasses off, and allow your eyes to enjoy a breath of fresh air. One student in San Francisco came to me and said that after two and a half weeks of not wearing her lenses, she had started to feel comfortable, because of “the air bouncing on her eyes.” This habit will reduce your dependency on glasses or lenses, and it will gradually strengthen your visual system.into the Distance Can Help to Prevent Cataracts!you can share this simple concept with other people, you will help to create a revolution in the world by helping to prevent the otherwise predictable cataract. Today, most physicians believe that, sooner or later, most people will develop cataracts. Looking into the distance can prevent the onset of cataracts because it gives the lens its full mobility and more life.realize that even if you practice this exercise every day, you will probably not look into the distance as much as life requires you to look near. Nevertheless, looking into the distance for eight to ten minutes, three times a day, will at least allow your eyes to rest and will compensate for the strain of looking near.3: Exploring the Peripheryis impossible to strain your eyes while looking centrally if you remember to simultaneously focus on your periphery. In our culture, we suppress parts of the eye that help us to see well naturally. It is a subconscious suppression. We suppress the periphery because we make it irrelevant to our lives. As we focus on objects in front of us, we simply don’t pay attention to what’s around us. On the other hand, our ancient fathers and mothers, our predecessors, had to pay attention to their surroundings; in the jungle, you wouldn’t last more than a week without noticing the periphery. In fact, you would be eaten or you would starve to death if you didn’t notice what was around you.Your Strong Eye20 percent of the people that I’ve met have no difference in strength between their two eyes. Even so, the majority of people do have very different levels of strength between their eyes. A small number of those people have one eye stronger for looking from a distance, and the other is stronger for looking near.you experience an extreme difference of ability between your two eyes, you probably already know it by now. You may know which eye needs a stronger prescription for correction. You may have had an injury to one of your eyes, or you may simply be aware of which eye you tend to use to look. If you are not sure which one of your eyes is your dominant eye, there is a way you can test it.see which eye is dominant for distance, make a loose fist with a pencil-sized hole through the center, like a telescope. Hold your loose fist about a foot away from your face. (It could be closer for people who see poorly or farther for people who see sharply.) With both eyes at the same time, look at some distant point through the hole in your fist. Now close one eye and see if that point disappears. For example, if your stronger eye is your left eye, when you close the right eye, you will still see the object through your fist. When you close the left eye, you will not see the object, and vice versa. Then you’ll know which eye is stronger.see which eye is dominant for close distances, look at a page in this book, with its big and small letters. Look at the smallest letters you can see, and then close one eye at a time. Whichever eye can see the small letters better is your strong eye for nearby vision.you cannot figure out on your own which eye is stronger, you can go to an optometrist and ask for help.

2.3. Discovering the dominant eye.we ignore the periphery so we can focus on computers and paperwork all day without being distracted by our environment. We try to concentrate on the task at hand and can’t be distracted by the commotions around us. When we don’t notice the periphery, the strain on our central vision becomes much greater, which, in time, makes us use it poorly. This causes us to strain our central vision, decreasing its clarity and eventually losing it. The old adage that says use it or lose it holds true here. With time, we lose the connection between our brain, our optic nerve, and the rod cells of the periphery. Along with genetic tendencies, this can be a cause of glaucoma.we need to do right now is to exercise our periphery.Exercise 1: Look into the Distancesomewhere comfortable where you can see something in the distance that you enjoy looking at. As you look into the distance, start to wave your hands to the sides of your head to notify your eyes that a periphery exists. Don’t look at your hands waving; just look into the distance. Allow your eyes to recognize the movement of your hands.your hands in such a way that your fingers point toward you and your wrists are loose. Do this for a minute or two. As you do this, you should feel your eyes release their tension; this relaxation in your eyes is vitally important to healthy vision.

2.4. Will wakes up his periphery with a wave of his hands as he looks at the distance.Exercise 2: The Small Pieces of Paperout a small piece of opaque paper (about one inch by two inches) and tape the paper horizontally on the bridge of your nose so that the wide parts are centered in front of your eyes. This will disrupt part of your vision.around in a familiar environment with this paper on your nose for a minute or two. Now sit down and wave your hands to the sides of your head like you did before. Stand up and sit down several times, moving your whole body up and down, as you wave your hands to the sides. As you do this, it reveals to your brain the existence of a moving periphery with which it normally does not connect.

2.5. Will uses the smallest piece of paper to block his central vision while activating his periphery.the past, people used to walk at night, sometimes in total darkness and sometimes with light from the stars and moon. Imagine how important it was for them to notice things moving in their periphery at night! For millions of years, our ancestors used to walk this way. Now we have the city lights at night, and our peripheral cells are hardly being used because they are mainly designed for night vision.our hands to our sides wakes up the peripheral cells because the rods of the retina respond to movement rather than to still images; conversely, the cones respond better to a still picture. These cones are mainly in the central part of the retina (the macula) and are used to look at details. An overwhelming number of the retina’s cells are the rods, which respond mainly to the impression of movement. When we exercise these rods, we take away a lot of stress from the overworked cones, and we make it easier for them to function more correctly. Instead of the brain forcing the eye to freeze and to strenuously see a picture, the brain will command the eye to look gently and easily in order to see the entire landscape better.

2.6. (a) Will blocks even more of his central vision. (b) As he waves, he leans forward and back to create more movement in his periphery., put a longer piece of paper (one inch by five inches) on the bridge of your nose and repeat this exercise. Then use a piece of paper that is one inch by seven inches. By blocking so much of your central vision, and even some of your peripheral vision, you will discover a periphery that you hardly ever use consciously. Now go back to the medium-sized paper and repeat the exercise. Then use the small piece of paper and repeat the exercise for a final time. You may find that the small piece now seems even smaller in your perception. That is because much of your brain that had been suppressed is now engaged in peripheral vision.finish, take the small paper off, stand, and do the long swing so your brain will absorb the exercise you have just performed.4: Sunning and Skyingto the sun briefly each day can make a huge difference in terms of our overall feeling of well-being.the 1980s, physicians have warned us agains

Date: 2015-04-20; view: 690