- ORDER
FORM | HOME
PAGE
|
OMNISION
VISION PRACTICES
By Vezhon
|
INTRODUCTION BY
SHEPHERD HOODWIN
HOW TO DO THE OMNISION
PRACTICES
DAILY INTEGRATION OF THE
OMNISION PRACTICES
OMNISION VISION TRAINING:
REMINDERS, ENCOURAGEMENTS, & CONCLUSIONS
HOW TO HELP
OTHERS
PINHOLE
SPECTACLES
INTRODUCTION
BY SHEPHERD HOODWIN
In 1982, I participated in a workshop called
"Omnision," led by Vezhon (called Jiun then) and his partner,
Zhidre. It was designed to enable one to see without glasses.
It had two aspects to it. One was my first
exposure to psychosomatic medicine, illustrating that
nearsightedness can be caused by a decision made, often in
childhood, not to see because of fear of what was going on around
one. Several stories were related about people, both within the
workshop and on their own, who got in touch with that decision and
changed it, enabling them to see without glasses or contact
lenses, either temporarily or permanently. In fact, two friends of
mine had that experience; for one, it only lasted an hour and came
after he decided to stop running away from something he'd been
avoiding. The other friend's seeing was also temporary, and it
"freaked her out"-it brought her face to face with her
fears.
There is a book, Take Off Your Glasses and
See by Jacob Liberman, about the author's experience of
opening to seeing through meditation. His initial experience was
also temporary, but through going back again and again to the
state of seeing, he was able to make it permanent.
The other aspect of the workshop involved
teaching us some powerful, revolutionary vision practices, most of
them created in the 1930s, I believe, by a Captain Hagmann, who
had been an optometrist in San Francisco. Rather than prescribing
glasses, he was curing people's myopia until the AMA ran him out
of town. Vezhon was fortunate enough to study with him, and I am
passing along the gist of the vision practices here. (Vezhon
called them "practices" rather than "exercises" because they are
not exercising muscles, like some of the Bates and other methods.
Instead, they help us let our eyes be in their proper balance,
working together.)
In my mind, Captain Hagmann was an amazing
trailblazer like others early in the century who discovered
holistic cures that worked but who were persecuted as quacks by
threatened establishment practitioners. I am posting this
material, with Vezhon's permission, because not many people know
about it and it would be a shame if his work were lost. (It is
okay for you to distribute this material as long as you don't
receive money for it.)
I did the practices for three weeks after the
workshop and achieved a 20% improvement in my vision. I had an
extremely high correction (-11 diopters). During that time I did
not wear my glasses and was basically blind (couldn't drive,
etc.). I had hoped for a quick, total rehabilitation of my vision.
It turned out that I wasn't doing the practices properly, and I
still got this improvement. However, I needed to go back to work
and life, and I didn't keep up doing them. (After stopping, I lost
half of my improvement fairly quickly, and the other half over
time.) I did, by the way, find the practices to be extremely
relaxing. After doing them for 15 minutes, I'd go sleep for three
hours! So it was working with some pretty deep stuff in
me.
In 1997, I had lasik eye surgery, and now am
able to see without glasses or contacts. For me, it was a good
choice and I'm happy with the results. At that point, I thought
that the Omnision practices might be worth picking up again, to
fine-tune my vision and maintain my improvement. I had saved some
the materials, and Zhidre sent me the rest of the workshop packet.
I had it scanned, and this is what I'm presenting here.
Keep in mind that these materials were an
adjunct to a hands-on workshop, and that it's been fifteen years
since I attended the workshop. The materials weren't intended to
stand alone, to teach the practices without demonstration. I don't
remember a lot of it, and can't coach you on it. However, if you
persevere with the materials, you can probably figure out most of
it. Vezhon is now dealing with a severe illness and is therefore
also not available as a resource. (In fact, he stopped teaching
the workshop many years ago).
Besides these scanned printed materials, each
workshop participant received in his/her packet some simple aids
made with thick paper: a "peripheral vision strip" about 9" x
1.25" and a "split vision strip" about 4.5" x 1.625". A V for
reading was about 8.5" long on each leg and 4.25" from its point
to its "crotch." An "oscillating dominance reinforcer," or
red-green strip glasses, was like a mask with a strip of red gel
over the right eye and a strip of green gel over the left. There
were two pieces of yarn, each about six feet long (one orange, and
one black), and a cotton ball to go in one's telephone
ear.
Vezhon emphasized that "Doubling at the
Peripheries" in a darkroom is by far the most important and
effective practice, and that is the only one I have seriously
worked with. I do it in a bathroom that can be completely
darkened. You'll need a bit of glow-in-the-dark tape (theaters use
it to mark where scenery should go during blackouts). If you can't
find any, I'll send you a piece if you send me a self-addressed
stamped envelope. If you don't have a room or a closet that can be
completely darkened and that is suitable for this practice, you
can do it in regular light (explained in #1), although you should
at least be able to do the darkroom practices at night after
dark.
If you have any other Captain Hagmann resources
to share, let me know and I'll add them to this site.
Good luck on your vision work!
P.S. January, 1998
I was delighted to run across an ad for the
School of Better Eyesight in LA. Gloria, the founder, has traveled
the world over the last 20 years studying with experts in natural
vision improvement, especially with those who had been students of
Dr. Bates. She now probably knows as much about natural vision
improvement techniques as anyone on the planet (that hyperbole is
just a guess on my part). She had wondered why Dr. Bates
documented correcting eyesight in a few weeks but that those who
later used his teachings were not getting those kind of results.
She learned that people were using primitive versions of his work
because they didn't truly understand what he was doing. Gloria
also studied with Capt. Hagmann. Hagmann didn't think much of
Bate's work, but Gloria feels that Hagmann didn't understand it. I
was excited that Gloria had synthesized the teachings of both
Hagmann and Bates.
In January, 1998, seven months after my lasik
eye surgery, my left eye, which had been 20/15 immediately
following the surgery, had regressed to 20/40. Dr. Chayet had
expected it would regress to 20/20, although this amount of
regression is still considered within normal bounds (about 15% of
those who undergo the surgery require a second "touch-up" surgery
later.) I am strongly left-eye dominant, and so life was beginning
to be a blur again. My right eye, which had been 20/30 after the
surgery and had been predicted to regress to 20/40, instead
improved to 20/25, which made no sense to my doctor. He offered to
do a touch-up surgery on the left eye. I told him that I was going
to first try vision retraining. I have long been aware that I
carry a great deal of tension around my eyes. Gloria has seen many
cases of people losing some or much of their vision improvement
after surgery because they didn't correct the underlying cause of
their problem, which is faulty vision habits.
The week after the exam I had a private lesson
and my first class with Gloria, and it was life-changing. The
insights I gained seem simple and even obvious in hindsight, but
they had never occurred to me before. They linked several life
issues for me that I'd never connected before and helped me
release some self-judgments I'd been holding.
I'd long felt some shame and embarrassment over
my problems focusing in life, of staying present in the moment,
and related problems such as remembering names and faces. I've
blamed much of this on my tendency to be chronically tired, and
that certainly relates, but I also felt that if I were more
disciplined and just worked harder to be present, I would overcome
these problems.
Gloria illuminated that my problem was exactly
the opposite: I was already working too hard, and when I naturally
got tired from this, I'd go away--it was just too much
work!
Gloria explained that nearsighted people
typically try to bring the detail of an image that is "out there"
"in here" which makes it bigger but also blurrier (as when you
blow up a photograph). This might have begun as an effort to block
out everything else around it, wanting to keep out the world. This
was certainly the case for me as a seven-year-old when I got my
first pair of glasses: I didn't feel I lived in a friendly world,
what with my mother being ill and my parents getting divorced. I
long ago noticed that I needed new glasses every six months until
I turned 16, when I began to have some hope in life as a result of
finding my first spiritual path. (It is also typical that
nearsightedness follows this kind of pattern, with the degradation
of vision starting in childhood and mostly ending in the
teens.)
I had learned in Vezhon's workshop that often
we don't see because part of us really doesn't want to. Since
then, I often consciously affirmed that I really do want to see,
but my eyesight hadn't improved, so I figured that some part of me
was still invested in my not seeing. However, Gloria said that
frequently, what begins as a dysfunctional method of coping
crystallizes into habit and can remain long after the original
intent has been cleared. So this insight was also helpful in
releasing a self-judgment.
The nearsighted person also tends to fix his
vision, not only staring (which I have tended to do) but trying to
grab hold of the image to make it more clear. I have had this
mental habit as well: trying to hold onto thoughts and wrestle
with them until they were clear. Trying too hard in general has
been an issue I've worked with in this life.
However, the nature of healthy vision is
constant movement in the eyes: letting go allows this. One gets
the clearest vision of a point for only a fraction of a second; as
soon as the gaze is fixed or held, the vision starts to blur.
Observing young children demonstrates much about the natural way
of seeing--their gaze is constantly moving. Another side of this
is moving the head: in dysfunctional vision, the head doesn't move
much, and the eyes are worked. In healthy vision, the whole head
moves on the "hinge" where the neck joins the head. This is where
I tend to get headaches. I think that learning to keep my head
loose and moving in vision is going to release a lot of the
tension I carry there and help eliminate the headaches.
Much of Gloria's work seems to involve
restoring movement and breaking the stare. Practices include
swinging the whole body and noticing movement--for example, the
way that when something moves, the background seems to move in the
opposite direction. She also supplied a black grill that looks a
bit like a heating vent: you move it up and down or sideways as
you move your head in the opposite direction. You can do it with
your eyes closed with the sun directly ahead, or with open eyes
and not looking directly into the sun.
Gloria said that we see with our noses, meaning
that we should point our noses at what we wish to see. She
emphasized that seeing doesn't happen in the eyes but in the part
of the brain that is also where the back of the head and the neck
meet--the eyes are just holes in the head that receive the
information. I'm finding it very helpful to withdraw energy from
the eyes and see from that brain point: it releases tension. It
feels almost as if I'm a robot, moving my head on that hinge and
seeing through "glass holes."
As in all things, there is a right balance. For
me as a person who has habitually used too much tension to see,
relaxing for me seemed like glazing over and not seeing, giving in
to the blur. But what is most relaxing is neither total passivity
nor total activity: it is just noticing what's out
there.
In nearsightedness, there is
self-preoccupation--as a survival technique, one shuts out the
outside and closes in on self (maybe focusing on self because it
seems that nobody else will). In farsightedness, there may be an
avoidance of focusing on self and instead trying to focus on and
take in everything "out there" at once. In healthy seeing, one
looks out there because of genuine, natural interest in what's out
there--there is no trying.
A key concept is that in natural eyesight,
there is one point in the center of our field of vision that is
sharpest, with a slight blurring to the peripheries (I believe
this applies to photography, too.) One keeps moving the focus
point to take things in. The emphasis is on the focus of the
moment, but the periphery provides the context that makes that
focus meaningful. In nearsightedness, there can be an effort to
block out that context; in farsightedness, there can be an effort
to see everything equally all at once, to "gobble it up"
whole.
I think my eyesight has improved already, and I
feel less tension in my eyes, although old habits don't disappear
overnight.
Obviously, I am totally a beginner with Gloria.
I just wanted to share my experience thus far (I have four more
classes to go). I am feeling quite hopeful and excited that I can
learn to see in a relaxed, natural way.
Gloria said that the fact that I had surgery
means that my eyes will never totally relax: the muscles will need
to hold some tension to compensate for the change in the cornea
from the surgery. However, I can get much improvement. I don't
regret the surgery, because otherwise it would have probably taken
a year of much diligence, money, and trips to the eye doctor to
get incrementally weaker prescriptions for contacts. I'm not sure
I would have done that. Using vision practices to go from 20/40 to
better than 20/20 seems much more doable for me than going from
20/1150 to 20/20.
HOW
TO DO THE OMNISION PRACTICES
#1 DOUBLING AT THE PERIPHERIES (Useful all day,
when dark room not available)
STEP I: Hold two pencils as far to the
peripheries as you can double them --gradually work to move them
farther out to the peripheries.
STEP 2: Once in place (held at farthest out
point that you can double them) work to see all the images equally
clearly and stably -- through concentrated attentiveness.
NOTE: Hold them as close in to the face as is
possible to make doubles.
NOTE: The pencils are held still, at your
farthest out point that you can double them.
NOTE: It is much easier if you are looking
against a plain background, like a white wall or even ceiling; I
like to look through a window with the sky as plain background.
NOTE: Protracted holding up of arms is
difficult. The pencils can be stuck in the corrugated folds of a
wall of corrugated box which you set on a table & sit
facing.
NOTE: If you are being exhausted by
experiencing too much strain, try to consciously relax your eyes
and let go in and with them (don't "struggle" with the practice).
Take some deep breaths, blink, push the acupressure point we
demonstrated, or even stop and "palm" for a while, until ready to
move on with the practice.
NOTE: Use affirmations (auto-suggestion)
reinforcing your conviction that you CAN see and are seeing
better. Also your form of meditation, if you have one, may be
compatible while doubling. Music can tie the practice into an
aesthetic, pleasurable experience especially if the music is
non-distracting, soothing, inspiring to you. If you can't keep it
up under your own power, have your mate give you a back massage
during the 15 minutes practice so as to relax and pacify you, and
let you flow with it.
NOTE: The most advanced form of this practice
is several pencils in each hand: each of a different color, so you
can tell if you are doubling each color in each hand.
NOTE: This is the single most important
practice, so do it at every opportunity. In answer to a frequent
question: no, you cannot do it too much and you can not hurt
yourself by doing it too much. The more gung ho the better, but
don't push beyond limits that feel right for you.
#2 DARK ROOM (10 times as effective as doing
same practices outside dark room)
FIRST WEEK OF DARK ROOM WORK: Flash the light
on, and immediately off. Remain in darkness at least 5 seconds.
Repeat this sequence: 5 seconds dark, flashlight on and right off,
5 seconds dark, flash on... exact timing is not imperative, flow
with a pace that feels right for you.
AFTER FIRST WEEK: (if vision not already
restored, or restored but going on for super-vision) Light remains
on until eyes adapted; then off about 4 times as long; repeat.
Your eyes may adapt in 5 seconds, perhaps taking 6,7,8... do a
dark period 4 time as long, say 20 seconds, or up to 30
seconds.
NOTE: Complete darkness is most effective, as
the pupil opens widest in response to it. The degree of brightness
of the light phase is not important, since we are simply closing
the pupil down (in the light) so we can reopen it in the pitch
blackness
PRACTICES FOR THE DARK ROOM (to do while
turning lights on and off by above sequences) There are two
alternative practices. Rotate back and forth between them as
either becomes boring. Thus in a 15 minute session, spend like 4
minutes with "a" and then 4 with "b" followed by another 4 of "a"
and 4 of "b"
a) WATCH THE FOUR CORNERS (all at once) of the
mirror. Cut one of your glow tape squares into 4 pieces, after
peeling backs off, and stick one piece to each corner. For
off-sized mirrors, assume usual medicine chest size dimensions to
place the four pieces arbitrarily in "corners." Your eyeballs are
aimed looking into their mirror images, but all your awareness
(seeing) is on the four corners (there is no doubling involved).
Simply concentrate on the 4 corners, while light goes on and
off.
DOUBLING AT THE PERIPHERIES while in the dark
room setting, using glow tape. Cut your other tape into four,
placing them at same distance apart on mirror as you can hold
pencils apart and double them (or as you can hold glow tapes in
your fingers apart and double them) so that on each side are two,
one above the other, as though on the top and bottom of your two
pencils held to each side... or even DO put glow tape pieces on
tops and bottoms of your pencils in your corrugated box which you
may then use in the dark room setting for this
practice.
#3 OMNI-VISION: STEREOSCOPIC SEEING (Conscious
awareness of peripheries)
MOVIES: Be aware of the four corners of the
screen (even though your eyes move following action).
NOTE: Life is like a movie, a movie occurring,
which we want to watch stereoscopically. Although stereoscopic
seeing was introduced in the workshop as a practice to integrate
in daily life while watching movies, throughout all one's daily
life we now want to ALWAYS BE AWARE TO THE PERIPHERIES!
NOTE: In movies or in life, to avoid dependency
on lenses, nearsighted people should position themselves close to
what needs to be seen (gradually working their way farther back
and away) while farsighted do just the reverse. Break your
dependency!
#4 WATCH OBJECTS GO BY YOUR EARS (Whenever you
are in motion)
RIDING AS A CAR PASSENGER OR WALKING ALONG,
select one object on each side of the road or pathway you are
walking, equally far away from you, but not too far ahead, and
watch each go by simultaneously (there is no doubling involved in
this).
#4B PERIPHERAL VISION STRIP (The long and
narrow piece of card stock in the kit)
ALSO WHILE RIDING IN CAR, tape it to forehead.
Simply watch blurring scenery fly by peripheries. If it is too
frustrating being that wide, narrow down its width.
#5A SPLIT VISION STRIP (Worn between the eyes,
over the nose) (I simply use a 3x5 index card taped vertically,
the long side trimmed, on the bridge of my nose.--SGH)
IDEAL WHILE DRIVING (over or under glasses, if
glasses necessary) but wear it all the time when not doing other
practices (all of which take precedence over this, which is only a
fill-in between other practices).
NOTE: Be sure it is centered on your face,
evenly between the eyes. Ask someone to look at you and tell you
if straight -- or just looking in the mirror should tell you.
NOTE: Beware of getting a suntan with a white
square patch on face, and blowing out open car window.
#5B OSCILLATING DOMINANCE REINFORCER (Red-green
strip glasses)
IDEAL WHILE DRIVING, especially following a red
car. Right eye should be dominant or favored, then left, then
right -- oscillating. The O.D. Reinforcer can help you consciously
encourage this oscillation, or, if too difficult for you at this
point, wait to use the Reinforcer until your vacationing eye is a
little bit more back into function. (This device is meant for use
while watching moving objects.)
#6 READING
RULER: hold vertically just out in front of
one's nose so one reads through its two shadow images. Neither eye
sees entire page by itself (both eyes must work to
read).
V HELD STILL: hold still in front of book, so
one reads through the shadow images of its doubling stems, as one
did through the ruler. The line of print being read should be
about at the level of just above the crotch of the V.
V IN MOTION: let the illusory "pointer" or
pyramid point to and underline each word as you read it (moving
the pointer along the page).In both "V" practices the V can be
held as an "A". (V is courtesy of Chas. R. Kelley)
OMNISION READING: instead of holding head still
and moving eyes (chicken-pecking) hold eyes still in sockets and
glide head along the line (as if nose underlining the line you are
reading) with all in focus at once: a good beginning speed-reading
technique, while also practicing Omnision.
#7 A-V-X (The yarn)
Tape it to a window (or anywhere) and hold
other end to your nose. At first have helper run finger tip up and
down yarn in random manner, while you follow the finger the rest
of the yarn doubling. Then take charge yourself, letting your eyes
randomly flow up and down the yarn, forming the A, V, and various
forms of X.
#8 2-HANDED DRAWING (AND ARITHMETIC)
(Super-Vision)
Stand facing a wall. At eye height, tape two
pieces of paper up, with a small space between them. Focus
eyeballs in space between. With each hand (simultaneously) draw
something different on each page. This will force you to look at
what you are drawing (looking in 2 directions at once), having to
think in 2 directions at once and to physically coordinate in 2
directions at once. Ideal for children, in formative development.
The most creative and fun of Omnision practices and leading to the
capacity to think of two areas of concern (two problems or
challenges) at once and to implement action on both at once
(physically expressing both at once).
Remember the genius that expresses itself
through the ability to creatively think and represent one's
thought in 2 areas at once: President Garfield writing a passage
in Greek with his Left hand, while at the same time writing a
different passage in Latin with his right; Count de St. Germain
writing love letter with left and set of mystical verses with
right, "to prove that he could use both lobes of his brain
independently at the same time." And remember the slow-learner 4th
graders who mastered 2-handed arithmetic basics readily, when
Capt. Hagmann went to parochial school.
#9 3D COTTON IN YOUR TELEPHONE EAR (Equalizing
your Hearing)
Try this further experiment, with your hearing.
For several days, wear a cotton wad in the ear you use for the
telephone. This will dampen its acuity, equalizing it with the
other ear, so you get used to hearing equally through both ears,
by extension of Omnision principles to hearing, and by Hagmann's
claim. Thus you will no longer listen through favoring one ear,
the one cultivated to greater acuity and favored
status.
A FUNDAMENTAL TEST: WATCHING A DOUBLED TV SET
(Learning to stabilize the eyes)
Remember that every Omnision practice demands
that the eyes be held still, never moving them in their sockets
during any practices. And that while many people believe they are
holding their eyes still, they are not. Capt. Hagmann's test
"against that pernicious habit of eyeball wiggling," is holding up
a finger, focusing on it, and perceiving two TV sets operating in
the distance, one on either side of the finger. Each should be
stable to either side of the finger. If one wavers, unstably,
then, says Hagmann, you are not holding your eyes steady. This
then is a technique to use to test and assure your ability to hold
your eyes STILL, which is a prerequisite to all the other
practices, so that you may go on to do all the others correctly
and effectively.
REVIEWING THE HIERARCHY OF VALUE OF THE
PRACTICES (Which are most important)
Remember, the very most effective technique is
Doubling at the Peripheries. And that it is ten times as effective
in the dark room situation. And that while that is the best bet
for restoring optimum eyesight, the best integration of the heart
of the re-balancing program as a whole, for overall development of
personal capacity, is two-handed drawing (or figuring), expanding
one's whole field of functional competence.
CHILDREN (Some Special Adaptations)
Three practices are recommended for children.
Children will find juggling fun and tantalizing, and it lets them
master a skill and develop coordination -- all at once while
working with their vision. Have the child juggle in this way:
start with a ball in each hand, throwing it to the other hand
simultaneously. It will land in each hand simultaneously, and the
child must thus be watching in each direction at once to catch
them when they land.
Remembering the importance of the dark room
situation in making these Omnision practices multiple in
effectiveness, stick little pieces of glow tape intermittently all
over the balls, so some are showing from any direction one views
the ball. Juggle in the dark until the glow is too dim to work
with on the balls. This is not of course restricted to children,
and is good for whole family involvement.
Similarly, 2-handed drawing is not only a fun
and tantalizing trick and game and recreation, but as for adults
it also develops physical coordination and balance, and expanded
mental potential.
Finally, the Split Vision Strip. For
pre-schoolers, who would rebel against imposition of the wearing
of it, let mom wear it too, so toddler mimics mom. For early
school years when playmates mercilessly make fun of each other,
have the child (who wears it around home, watching TV, reading,
playing) tell his playmates it is a "game" or "trick" to sharpen
up eyesight, and his friends can try it too -- it being hard to
make fun of something introduced in the first place as a game or
trick. It is ideal too for any cross-eyed tendencies or
lazy-eyedness, etc., lacks of coordination. (Remember not to worry
about infants, who must take their time to learn to coordinate
their eyes. Crossed eyes in infancy is nothing to worry
about.)
DAILY
INTEGRATION OF THE OMNISION PRACTICES
(You may want to fold this into your pocket or
purse and carry it with you during each day for ready-reference
and reminding: it is the outline of what you have to do on a
day-to-day basis, organized by the time of day or type of
situation you find yourself in.)
MORNING:
Upon waking and arising, do not reach for your
crutches. Abandon that reflex of reaching for the crutch without
even thinking, which reinforces the unconscious dependency you've
fostered. Instead, go straight to your dark room where your glow
tapes are set up, and begin the practices. If too light out to
darken your dark room just do Doubling at the Peripheries.
THINK HAPPY THOUGHTS ABOUT THE NEW DAY and what
you will see today. Even though you had to get up earlier to fit
in Omnision practices before work, etc., erase irritation
absolutely, and begin positive affirmations, about yourself and
your life as well as your vision capability and
potential.
Again, feel free to merge your meditation and
Omnision work, or to have uplifting or soothing music, or to be
massaged by your loved one. (If you sit on the potty a long time,
instead of reading the morning paper or magazines there, hold your
fingers up and do doubling.) When tiring of the dark room
practices (4 corners and doubling) or daylight doubling, if you
have more time (or arranged more time), do the A-V-X (leave the
yarn permanently taped to your bedroom window, conveniently
accessible) or read with the V-pointer. Once having pushed
yourself to saturation with the purely vision-corrective
practices, spend the rest of the time (or take a break for)
2-handed drawing and figuring.
DURING THE DAY:
After your morning vision training session,
continue to spurn your crutches and instead put on your Split
Vision Strip (SVS). Do not take it off again all day, unless
undertaking another Omnision practice in its place (or unless
socially impossible to wear it). Even if you must put your glasses
on to function for some activity, put them over the SVS, or the
SVS over them. Wearing glasses is sabotaging your visual
correction, and is your biggest enemy, except the bigger enemy of
apathy in pursuing active Omnision practicing.
If you can't get by at times without the help
of a crutch, at least try to be using pinhole spectacles instead
of corrective lenses. If pinholes are not yet adequate to provide
good vision for you (until your eyes are more improved) wear your
older prescription glasses which were weaker than your current
ones. That will force your eyes to improve in the right direction
in order to see through them, but whereas pinholes relax and
soothe your eyes, a too-weak prescription lens can cause strain
and fatigue, fighting to see with them. Be positive toward the
too-weak lenses, lest you get irritated with them, increase the
strain and fatigue and resistance because of your resentment:
consider the lenses a useful and helpful necessary blurry
transition period, and "appreciate" them.
Whether wearing pinholes or lenses, wear them
with a chain or cord attached so that you can drop them from your
eyes just as soon as you are doing anything not absolutely
requiring wearing them. During the day, as you have occasion to
read, if it is reading "on the run" just put up two fingers as a
substitute-ruler, reading through the two shadow-images of your
fingers. If it is reading which is more "settled in," even if you
must wear your lenses to enable reading, read through the V held
still (or held as an "A"). If it becomes too tiring (even
psychologically) revert to the ruler which is less taxing. If and
when that too becomes too tedious, put on your SVS and let the
"great retainer" do the work for you.
During the day, as you find yourself driving,
wear your Oscillating Dominance Reinforcer (ODR) -- which Capt.
Hagmann called the "powerhouse" -- and if you require glasses or
pinholes for driving, simply wear these over the top of the ODR.
(Do not try to wear the ODR over the glasses, as it would
dangerously reduce your field of vision!) If you are driving along
a quiet country road without side traffic and activity, if would
be safe to Watch Objects Go By Your Ears or to hold the wheel with
both hands at the top, each hand pointing a finger upwards for
doubling while driving, until cars approach.
Or like Capt. Hagmann, try developing your
"sub-ipheral" vision by driving under overpasses fixing your focus
on the overpass while surveying your visual awareness across your
driving area ahead of and around you. Again please notice that a
situation of NO TRAFFIC on the road was stressed as a precondition
for playing around with taking your awareness off into watching
objects go by your ears, watching overpasses as you pass under
them, or doubling with your fingers while your hands hold the
wheel. In normal urban driving just use the ODR as a practice safe
at all times, and of course, there is always the SVS to fall back
upon, simply wearing it and letting the great retainer do the work
for you.
During the day, as you find yourself a
passenger in a vehicle, walking from your parked car to a building
destination, walking down halls, etc., watch objects go by your
ears. Specifically as a car passenger, wear the Peripheral Vision
Strip. If it is too taxing a practice for you, cut it down so it
is less wide, in blocking out your visual field. When tired of
these practices, including the wearing of the ODR while riding
along, again the SVS great retainer will continue passively for
you. In watching a motion picture at the theatre, even if you must
wear your lenses (or pinholes) to view it, be aware of the four
corners. Tiring of that practice and the effort to concentrate on
sustaining it, surrender to the SVS great taker-over. Similarly
for TV, stake out objects to either side of the set for "being
aware of the peripheries" while watching TV, and when tired of
that, just SVS.
REMEMBER, OMNISION PRACTICES ARE BASICALLY OF
TWO KINDS ONLY: "DOUBLING" AND "BEING AWARE TO BOTH PERIPHERIES AT
ONCE." The former requires taking time out to do and cannot be
integrated with other daily life activities (practices #1 and #2
particularly represent that category). The only practices that
integrate with daily life are the "Awareness to the Peripheries"
type, and just in general, in all of life, one can and should now
start being CONSCIOUSLY AWARE TO THE PERIPHERIES at all times
possible (unless, of course, focusing in on close-point work like
reading).
Reading brings up a third and last category of
Omnision practice, as epitomized by the simple wearing of the SVS:
the splitting of the vision into two, forcing both eyes to equally
participate in a job (such as ruler reading does). The latter
practices, in this third category, are passive and situationally
force both eyes to work together. The prior two categories are
very conscious and insist upon awareness of the action being
compelled upon the vision (doubling and peripheral awareness).
Thus, making us more conscious of our vision, this awareness may
generalize into being more aware of EXACTLY WHEN our vision seems
to especially falter: under what circumstances we seem to most
retreat and tune out what is to be seen.
Omnision is at its best as a ploy to open our
willingness to expand our seeing horizons. We have to take some
part in this process, for seeing is not entirely an automatic
physical act, but a volitional conscious one. Success depends on
really wanting to change-- not in wanting to have a change be
worked upon one, through "exercises" and external actions,
divorced from inner willingness to change.
So, knowing the category of peripheral
awareness is the one to apply in daily life activity, do so at
every opportunity. Remember our workshop examples of mowing the
lawn, scrubbing the floor, doing the dishes, and football games
where you focus not narrowly on the play (which may turn out to be
the fake, and you didn't even see the real play!) but
wide-focusing on the whole formation of players, aware of all
internal movements including the real play, wherever the ball
turns out to surface.
And as always repeated, when your mind loses
interest in the practice, just wear the SVS. By the way, if you
are a doodler, try doodling with both hands at once. During the
day, don't think only of practicing integration techniques, but
take advantage of every break you get, to do doubling at the
peripheries, our most effective practice. Even a few minutes, here
and there, will help. And carry your Daily Record chart along with
you during the day, filling it in as you complete phases of
practicing.
And finally, during your human interactions, be
aware of the receptivity in your eyes to let feeling flow in and
out. Soften your eyes and spirit, let go the hardened
protectiveness, blotting feeling from expression and even
awareness. And notice, as you get older, if you are hardening your
outlook, becoming rigid and less flexible in how you look at
things and life, which is the whole symbolism of presbyopia,
middle-age sight. Keep pliant in outlook and spirit, for rigidity
binds you tightly on every level, including your sight. (By way of
review, presbyopia is a hardening, rigidification, inflexibility
of the lens of the eye. Not everyone falls into that mold of rigid
inflexibility, do they?)
You know that seeing is a mental state, and the
best ammunition to carry away to work with this is admonitions to
cultivate an inner conviction that you really do WANT to see,
followed by that you WILL see. Thus all day long (and even all
night long, even asleep and in your heart of hearts) consistently
affirm:
I have the innate potential to see perfectly,
and now make the decision that I want to accept seeing fully,
honestly, everything that is there to see. I WILL look for the
Good to be seen in things and feel good about being alive and
seeing. Because of this whole-hearted decision to let myself see,
I KNOW THAT IT IS STARTING TO HAPPEN THAT I AM SEEING BETTER AND
BETTER ALL THE TIME. (etc.)
Then rather than "tune things out," look for
the positive so that you want to see, and above all be grateful
for your sight. And the more honest you are, the more your vision
opens. Remember, this inner opening up is all you really need --
not a whole routine of sensory calisthenics! When you really want
to see, you will. Until then, you had better get in touch with
your resistances to seeing, or else at least supplant them via an
attitude such as the above affirmation statement.
EVENING:
What to do during the commercial breaks in the
TV? Having used some commercials for simple Doubling (pencils),
and perhaps tired of doing doubling in every one, scoot yourself
over to the next room which is dark for the night, and spend
commercials playing around juggling glowing balls, as was
described in the "How to Practice" under children's practices. Or
have two papers on the coffee table which you can turn to and
begin 2-handed drawing during the commercials.
If you don't watch TV, go out into your
backyard and enjoy the fresh night air and skies for a while,
being at one with nature. Assuming it is fairly dark, you could
juggle glow balls: again a lovely family sharing-time game you can
all join in, playing together for a while, enjoying the outdoors
and each other, during relaxing play.
Before retiring for the night, to close your
day, even if tired or the practicing itself makes you tired, be
sure to do the vital dark room practices, at this ideal time when
darkness prevails.
Coming to bed, we can now close our day, and
this piece of literature, with a beautiful experience, if only you
have someone in your life who will share it with you. This is the
exquisite Flashlight Practice. From time to time you may wish to
conclude your evening vision session with flashlight sharing.
Having done your straining Omnision practices already, in the dark
room, you now relax and let go through your eyes in a flashlight
imagery and emotive experience, after which catharsis you just
tuck in for a peaceful sleep.
FLASHLIGHT EXPERIENCE: Lie down on a mattress,
unencumbered with clothing or only loosely encumbered (pajamas,
etc.). The guide for the experience, who has at hand a penlight
flashlight (the mini-flashlight with a tiny point bulb), is going
to turn out the light when you are comfortably positioned on your
mattress. Your guide will give you instructions in words such as
the following, everything which follows being words for the guide
to use: (The lights are now turned off, and the guide sits beside
your chest.)
"Let your breathing deepen, and just be aware
... let your body relax and just let go. Feel every part of it
letting go. Be aware of your body, how it feels, and be aware of
any feelings that are in you now. Be aware in the here and now,
and don't let yourself drift away from now-awareness by any
thoughts and digressions. Just stay with awareness of your body
and your feelings in the here and now. Let yourself relax, and
breathe. Be aware of your breathing."
(Guide may reach out and lay a hand on your
belly, both to see that the breathing is deep and full, and to
encourage your awareness of your breathing, to make it deep, full,
and aware.)
"If you start to get sleepy, and lose awareness
and alertness, just begin to move your legs gently in a motion
like walking. In a moment, a light will come on above you,
randomly moving about above you. In a moment, and for the rest of
the experience, you will be relating to this light. Empty yourself
of everything but the light, and have no motivation except to let
the light flow in, and flow out. Because you are nearsighted,
especially encourage a moving out to the light. (Or) Because you
are farsighted, especially encourage the sensation of the light
flowing into you. But do allow both to occur. Let the light in,
let yourself come out to the light. Leave your eyes closed now,
and just be aware of the motion of a light above you."
(Guide now places the penlight about two feet
above your face, and turns it on; the light faces horizontally,
toward a wall, never downward directly into your eyes. The
penlight is circulated in random motions, unexpected patterns, but
never jerky movements for this would cause you stress to react to.
The range the light may circulate is boundaried at the bottom by
your chest, at the top by your forehead, and then about a foot to
either side for width. The light never goes above your forehead
since it would stress you to have to look up over your
forehead.)
"In a moment I am going to ask you to open your
eyes. When you do, I don't want you to particularly look at the
light -- do not move your eyes or head to follow it or look at it,
but simply be aware of its motions above you, while your eyes are
relaxed and still. All right, open your eyes, leave them relaxed,
and just be generally aware of the motions of the light."
(Continue with this sharing for at least 20 seconds)
"Now, while holding your head completely still,
I'd like you to move your eyes to look at and follow the light,
wherever it goes." (at least 30 seconds or so) "Now I'd like you
to keep your eyes still and straight in their sockets, and let
your head rotate to allow you to always look and face straight
toward the light, wherever it goes." (again, at least 30 seconds)
(Note that as of the above stage, we are now in an Omnision form
of practice)
"Now, look beyond the light, until it doubles
into two, and watch the doubled light in its motions, still moving
your head and not your eyes." (Further yet into Omnision form of
practice) "Continuing to do this, increase the emphasis of your
breathing: breathe more fully, more emphatically. You will be
building up a charge, a charged feeling in your body." (This form
of breathing builds a bodily tension the Reichians call "charge,"
and from this point on, it is emphatically a Reichian form of
emotional release approach. This approach is passed on to us with
credit for its origin being given to an orthodox Reichian
practitioner, Barbara Koopman.)
"Let the charged feeling build." (Guide will
seek to keep your attention on building your breathing emphasis
and charge.) (... and in a bit:) "Now begin a running motion with
your legs, start running in pantomime, and while your legs are
running, begin letting out sounds, whatever sounds are there. If
there is any feeling that arises to go with the sounds, let it be
there, express itself, and be aware of it. If there is no special
feeling that arises that you are aware of, that's fine too." (All
of this time, you are continuing to follow the light, moving your
head and not your eyes, and doubling the image, while running and
making sounds.)
(And after a little while of just making sounds
while running, and while the running is still continuing:) "Start
saying 'Please,' 'I want,' 'Help me,' or any longing expressions
that feel like they might want to come out." (And after a bit, as
you are getting tired:) "When you become too tired and exhausted
to run any more, let your legs fall comfortably. Don't push
yourself, just let yourself relax when you are too tired." (When
your body falls into relaxed exhaustion, the guide will instruct:)
"Now, as you lie there feeling where you are, when you are ready,
slowly in your own time, reach for the light, slowly reach out for
it, and take it, and continue its motions over you by yourself
guiding the light. You have wanted it, and now you may have it as
your own." (After you have circulated it a bit -- at least 15
seconds:) "Now take it to yourself, bring it slowly down to hold
next to you, lie it on your chest and extinguish it. You have
taken it to yourself, it is yours now; you wanted it and you have
gained it, and it rests with you.
"Now close your eyes a while. Just feel where
you are." (After you've been allowed to be quiet in the darkness
for a while, perhaps at least a full minute:) "Now I'm going to
turn on the lights, and when you are ready, I'd like you to open
your eyes, and just look into mine, just being wherever you are,
and sharing that with me, silently, through your eyes." (Guide
turns on the room lights, returns to you, seated where you can
easily look into each other's eyes without straining your
position.) (Look into each other's eyes at least a full minute.)
"Whenever you are ready, you may close your eyes again, and just
relax."
(When you do so, guide moves down to foot end
of mattress, kneeling on the mattress facing you, kneeling between
your calves, holding palms against the length of your soles.) "As
you breathe easily, I am going to breathe in as you breathe out,
staying in harmony with your breathing. You continue breathing at
your own pace, and I am finding a flow with you." (After a minute
or two, the guide very slowly separates from the palm/sole
contact, and the experience is over. If you are getting up, and
not going to just fall asleep for the evening, your guide will be
there to help lift you up to your feet. The two of you, once on
your feet, will stand facing each other, taking each other's
hands, and -- at your pace -- start jumping up and down a little,
restoring active energy.)
Obviously the depth to which you allow this
experience to go will depend on the level of trust you have for
your guide, and your mutual recognition of a mutual willingness to
acknowledge and value the experience as one of profound emotional
potential. You have to be willing to, and want to, go into these
levels in yourself, and the guide willing to accept that odyssey.
It cannot really be heavier emotionally than a person wishes to
go, in that those unwilling to voyage very deeply will not allow
themselves to build a very great charge, and without this charge,
and the vulnerability it gives to spontaneous release of feeling
and blocked emotional energy, very little gut-level (core) content
of one's soul will pour out.
Those ready for greater self-confrontation will
have the incentive and urge (even if mixed with fear of that
potential release) to let the situation develop into one
productive of deeper release. Thus you really guide yourself to
your own level of depth of readiness for feeling-release and
coming into touch with deeper feeling levels. We are not
advocating amateur experimentation with Reichian release
procedures, but feel that those unready for the making of a
feeling connection with their vision will use this technique
largely as a relaxing way to come in touch with a peaceful vision
within, a pacifying, harmless experience; while those readier for
the connection open themselves in a vision-specific way enhancing
the commitment really asked of them by the whole Omnision training
program.
With regard to your children, you have now seen
that people who do not see have a vested interest, deep in their
character, in not seeing. If you are to help your children, more
than practices and juggling together ought be asked of you. If you
can elicit an understanding of their need to shut out seeing,
perhaps you can help on basic levels. Perhaps you will find the
necessity to take some responsibility for creating those
conditions leading to the child's response. This is too large an
area to more than touch on here, but it is touched on to be
suggestive, to those open to exploring it. If we had space to
digress into children, we would love to reveal our insights into
how to help the child unfold, to becoming a free, creative,
genius. Such as our brilliant innovation whereby babies, loving
it, learn to read by about 1 year old, hardly able yet to talk! Or
our favorite book on education, "Teaching as a Subversive
Activity," by Neil Postman: "subversive" in teaching that the root
of all learning is questioning, questioning everything, whereas
our schools indoctrinate, to perpetuate our social institutions.
The book delves into how we perceive reality, each in our own way,
and is useful on an adult level fully as much. Most people are so
incredibly skeptical that any program can improve someone's
vision, they are so indoctrinated in their lives that the only
reality is the optometric and corrective lenses and perpetual
handicap. In that dogmatic rut, is but the single expression of a
lifetime of indoctrinated non-questioning of how "it
is."
OMNISION
VISION TRAINING:
REMINDERS, ENCOURAGEMENTS,
& CONCLUSIONS
REMEMBER: THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOUR
PHYSICAL EYES, THE ONLY THING THAT IS "WRONG" IS HOW YOU ARE
SEEING (Through Them).
Seeing again is primarily a decision, or at
least an attitude.
The decision that you really want to see, and
will see, and are ready to fully look at and confront life. Or an
attitude of willingness to let it happen, to let your eyes see, to
let the various practices be effective for you with your
feelings.
In your daily life, be conscious of WHEN your
vision starts tuning out: what is going on in you when this
"tuning out" process starts happening? Vision improvement through
becoming conscious of what you are doing is so much more rewarding
than simply doing rote exercises and hoping for the
best.
As best you can, start a whole new attitude
toward seeing: feel GOOD about seeing, about WHAT you're seeing
and that you CAN see; feel GRATEFUL for being able to see, and for
what you are seeing. Hold no sense of irritation with what you are
seeing, and no Fear of what you are seeing. These negative
feelings about seeing and what you are seeing make you
unconsciously want to close out the seeing clearly of that area.
The result may be that things get fuzzy, or even painful to the
eye. Your self-image is so important. Beliefs that you can't see
things clearly. Beliefs that it is safer to withdraw. Beliefs that
you could not handle the Responsibility of seeing clearly what is.
Above all, try to overcome fear. Fear of "taking in" things and
people and life -- seeing after all is taking in, such as we say
we "took in" a movie. Don't expect that physical techniques alone
are the whole answer. They aren't.
Remember how symbolic we saw that each eye
defect or disease is. A natural outgrowth of one's attitude toward
seeing. How it was that irritated eyes, or inflamed painful eyes,
reflect your irritated outlook, how you are irritated with what
you are seeing/looking at, or finding it painful to look at. And
how your specific condition of not seeing well, so clearly reveals
your character pattern(s) of how and where you do not want to see
or look at things/life. We tune out what we don't want to look at,
or confront; a mental pattern of avoidance becomes a seeing
pattern of avoidance. We erect barriers to protect ourselves, in
wearing glasses, or tuning people and things out by blurring our
focus. Then as we get older, we have a new excuse: it is
"inevitable" with advancing years!
Excuses, excuses. And no taking of
self-responsibility. In fact, the industry has now even found it
profitable to market the popular pink-tinted lenses for those who
want to look at life through "rose-colored glasses." (How have YOU
chosen to be framed?) We can all see life as it is when we are
ready to. Most people come to the vision training program
skeptical that it really will work. (It must be confessed, Vezhon
too as a young ex-student first coming to the discoverer, had,
underneath his enthusiasm and excitement, a basic deep-seated
doubt.) But this skepticism reflects our deep internalization of
the inevitability of perpetual sufferance of our vision
conditions. On an unspoken level, in our heart of hearts, we are
so sure that we are Stuck With It, and our more conscious mind and
will ventures forth to dabble a little and see if maybe some
extravagant claim (like that we can have good vision) might have
some grain of hope in it.
Fortunately, our little trace of hope and
effort brings a corresponding little trace of progress, and that
is enough to fuel the new belief system, that vision REALLY CAN
change! Meanwhile, even accepting the consciousness of vision
(seeing being an act of consciousness), approach the Omnision
techniques and practices as a fun game of "exercising" your new
found visual potential. Take it as a fun and rewarding awareness
game of devices to encourage our use of, and involvement in, our
seeing process.
For isn't it true that: Above all, our Omnision
techniques involve us actively in awareness of our capacity to
see, and expand our awareness, hence our sense of vision. They are
fun and rewarding because they immediately make us more aware of
our capacity. And of course, they are gimmicks to encourage us to
let ourselves really see. As we stress in the program, self-change
involves changing old habits (and attitudes!) into new ones.
Habits (and attitudes) aren't changed without
effort, hence we must first have resolve, and especially have
practical resolutions. And we must be consistent in the
application of our resolutions. And in making the effort, let
yourself feel absolutely positively that it will work for you and
fulfill what you really want -- so be honest with yourself as to
your readiness for, and whether or not you really want, clear
seeing, hence confronting, and responsibility for what you see
clearly. You will no longer be able to hide behind having been
unable to see something, and therefore not being responsible about
or toward it. One can too readily play a game with oneself,
outwardly working for better vision while inwardly sabotaging the
whole thing, by not really wanting to have to look at things, in
life. And get rid of your skepticism. Remember, nothing can work
for you if you believe it won't, or can't, or if you really don't
want it to, or have an ego investment in its not working or being
able to work.
HOW
TO HELP OTHERS
You may be very excited to have discovered
Omnision, and thus eager to share if with others, to show them
what you've learned. But is that the best way to help them,
really? It may be a grave disservice to them. Think about it. Are
you most interested in showing off your latest look-what-I-know or
do you really care about the benefit to others?
If you really care about another, consider the
realities of your trying to take on the role of teacher in
teaching this to them: (1) until you have practiced and applied
these teachings you lack conviction and convincingness as to its
worth, and you cannot provide personal testimonial as to
successful achievement in it -- the person is less likely to be
convinced of some scheme haphazardly presented by his neighbor,
less impressed with its worth, when it is presented by someone
unfamiliar with its application or effective demonstration. And
experience in this happening does indicate that even a
conscientious person rarely can make a really coherent
presentation of this program after just one attendance -- even
though, for his own purposes, he really understands the nature of
it. (2) You do not have the experience upon which to answer their
questions and particular individual needs; (3) you lack background
information and inspirational material with which to inspire them
to pursue this project. THE RESULT IS NEARLY CERTAINLY
PREDICTABLE: hearing it from you, they'll probably just give a nod
to its being fascinating, or provocative, but not be motivatedly
energized from the heart to accept it and to let it change their
life. Thus an ineffective presentation can be a real injustice to
someone whom the program might help or inspire, if given direct
exposure to the professional presentation. Those you want to help
will almost surely not follow-up seriously upon your instructional
sharing. Only from a real investment of themselves in the formal
program are they really likely to take it seriously for their
life, and do something about it. Please urge them to attend for
themselves and to make this serious investment into it.
PINHOLE
SPECTACLES
SOME PEOPLE HAVE A HARD TIME MAKING PROGRESS,
OR RUN INTO SLOWED PROGRESS PERIODS. WEARING PINHOLE SPECTACLES
CAN MAKE THE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE.
GLASSES AND CONTACT LENSES ENABLE YOU TO SEE
CLEARLY, AND ALSO PINHOLES ENABLE GREATER CLARITY, BUT WEARING
CORRECTIVE LENSES MAKES YOU WORSE, AND WEARING PINHOLES MAKES YOU
BETTER!
IN THE BEGINNING
Wearing pinholes does not hold you back: the
eyes are free to change.
Wearing pinholes does not pull you back from
progress you've made when you put them on.
Wearing pinholes is therapeutic in itself,
helping importantly to improve your vision, relax you from
straining misusage, and to keep you from perpetuating the
dependency on lenses, plus attentive to your efforts.
ALONG THE WAY
Pinholes will provide greater and greater
clarity, in that while they might not have quite been enough in
the beginning, they'll more and more be sufficient for clear
vision.
Pinholes keep reinforcing your progress,
through their inherently therapeutic effect.
AFTER OVERCOMING NEED FOR HELP WITH
VISION
Use pinholes as sunglasses in severe glare
situations, etc. (helping eyes to adapt to it) Loan them to
others, or sell or give to others. Save them for future additions
to your family who may need them (such as for forthcoming
children, as therapy vs., dependency on lenses and
deterioration)
SUMMARY: WHEN YOU NEED TO SEE AND CAN'T SEE
CLEARLY WITHOUT HELP, WEAR THE PINHOLES. WHEN YOU CAN GET BY
WITHOUT HELP, WEAR NOTHING AT ALL, AND IF YOUR UNAIDED VISION
BECOMES STRESSFUL (EYE STRAIN), THEN WEAR PINHOLES.
IN THE BEGINNING
Wearing corrective lenses holds you back: the
eyes are not free to change.
Wearing lenses pulls you back from progress
you've been making, when you put them back on. Wearing lenses is
self-defeating and psychologically is the antithesis of our
work.
ALONG THE WAY
Corrective lenses will have become useless due
to your eyes having so changed away from them.
Using old glasses or lenses as interim devices
provides a new kind of distortion and pull in some erroneous
direction.
AFTER OVERCOMING NEED FOR HELP WITH
VISION
Throw your glasses away.
RECOMMENDED USES OF PINHOLE
SPECTACLES
When you try the pinhole spectacles, you find
that they improve your vision over your unaided ability to see. --
unless you have, and until you reach, perfect eyesight. You can
see immediately that "they work."
But the recommendation to use pinhole
spectacles is not to trade one crutch for another. Nor is it for
any claim that wearing pinholes will improve the vision in itself
(in spite of evidence that individuals have been helped in visual
acuity after wearing them a while on a daily basis of several
hours a day). Rather, I am recommending them as a transition
aide.
1. If you cannot function to see without
wearing your glasses, but you could get by if you wore pinholes
instead, in that they helped your vision just enough to let you
get by without wearing your lenses, then notice how much better
off you'd be: instead of relying on lenses to focus for you, and
to keep your own focus locked in to that prescription focus
pattern, you instead rely on your own vision and focus, which can
continue to improve (as you do our Omnision practices) even while
wearing the pinholes, since the pinholes don't keep trying to
re-force you back to the wrong focus, like your lenses
do.
2. When your eyes start improving and are too
good for your corrective lenses -- which make you see fuzzy, then,
because they are designed for worse eyes than yours are becoming
-- what can you do to get by, when you are caught between glasses
that are too strong, and yet you aren't healed enough to see
unaided? The pinholes can help in transition. Unless your eyes are
still too bad, even to see through the pinholes, you will find
that after your glasses have become too strong: that pinholes help
you see fairly clearly until you can discard even them. They are
inexpensive compared to going in for new prescription glasses
continually, while your eyesight keeps shifting -- and they are
permanent investments, unlike the glasses, since all your life you
may fall back on them for the #3 use below:
3. Always use them instead of sunglasses when
you want to cut out glare and ease eyestrain from nonadjustment to
brightness. Wearing sunglasses cuts out 10% of your visual acuity,
diminishes color sight and clarity, dims your vision, and are just
another crutch like glasses. But sometimes we do go out into
brightness or glare which at first is so brilliant we can't make
the adjustment to it. If one wears sunglasses, one never does
adjust to the brightness, since the light is kept out, dimmed. The
pupil remains dilated as if it is dark out, and makes no
adjustment to the brightness.
So they do not help us accommodate to
brightness, but keep us crippled and crutched in order to function
in brightness. But wearing pinholes, by cutting out much of the
light, still lets in half the brightness, allowing us to get used
to half the brightness first, then we can take them off and get
used to the other half. Unlike remaining dependent on sunglasses,
pinholes allow the adjustment to be made to brightness, which
sunglasses never do. The principle of the pinhole spectacles is so
very simple. All glare and brightness in the periphery of the
field of vision is cut out, but the actual area we want to focus
on and look at is left in much of its original brilliance, not
filtered to dim it, nor discolored, or distorted by a glass
obstruction. So we get used to the full brilliance of the
brightness a little at a time, but having it nearly entirely
natural in our immediate field of focus.
(There is a feeling prevalent, too, that
artificial light like fluorescent light is not as healthy for the
eyes as natural sunlight: the full spectrum. With sunglasses, even
the little time we are outdoors exposed to sunlight we are
blocking it out -- particularly the ultra-violet rays and the
potential for Vitamin D creation in response to the full
spectrum.) Furthermore, wearing sunglasses is anti-social,
interfering with communication when people can't see our eyes.
They can't see us through pinholes either, but the pinholes are
brief transition devices we can soon take off when we are adjusted
to the light, which sunglasses never allow us to adjust to or to
be free of.
I am not encouraging any crutch even this one,
every time you go into bright sunlight. Remember the Bates Method
of looking into the sun with your eyes closed when you first step
into brightness, as a means of adjustment. But there are times of
excessive glare: off the snow while skiing, off the water while
sailing or fishing, or off the water and sand on a noon-day beach,
or driving through a flat white-sand desert, to say nothing of the
glare of headlights while driving into thick fog. Pinholes reduce
this glare while not clouding over your color perception,
distorting images through glass panes, or denying you much of the
brightness of unfiltered seeing.
And of course some people never do improve
their sight sufficiently to get by in everything, especially
reading, watching movies or TV. If you rely on reading glasses for
these things, the prescription lenses are training your eyes to
fixate all the time in the way that the lenses are designed, even
though the rest of the time you don't want your eyes thus fixated.
Pinhole glasses allow the doing of difficult eyesight functions
without seeking to re-direct how your eyes focus -- they don't
mold your eyes into wrong focus, nor "focus for you" like
corrective lenses but let you rely on your own focus and vision,
by simply cutting out peripheral distraction while you focus in on
the book or movie screen. Unlike glasses, they cannot hurt your
eyes, since they don't "focus for you." but it is true that you
shouldn't wear them ALL the time, since Omnision and balanced
eyesight is taking in the whole peripheral field, although it is
still all right now and then to narrow down to a narrow focus for
narrow work, and harmless if not continual with never use of
peripheral visions.
Speaking of watching television, where pinholes
give a clearer picture without glare, it is widely known that
color TV in particular gives off rays that are non-beneficial,
especially sitting up close, as children are inclined to do.
Wearing pinholes cuts out more than half of these rays and might
be particularly good for children whose habit of sitting close
cannot be broken.
ARTICLES
ORDER
FORM | HOME
PAGE | TOP
OF PAGE
