Just as we have our own freediving community, with forums & e-mail lists, there is a natural vision improvement (NVI) community, with far more members than the freediving community; after all, our sport is a small one, but more than half of the world suffers from vision problems.
Even though the 'Bates Method' (conceived around 1900) was the first method, it had a very erratic success rate. Other innovators followed in his footsteps, and develop far better methods, and one researcher even invented a machine, called an 'accomotrac', covered by several patents. The accomotrac machine is a multi-thousand dollar device which can train the user to reverse a vision problem by providing biofeedback.
Unfortunately, the whole NVI movement has not been able to make much progress in attracting publicity because of the strong opposition from 'mainstream' optometry and opthalmology, as well as opposition from optics and glasses manufacturers. After all, if a method were publicized which really did correct vision naturally, a multi-billion dollar business would virtually cease to exist. So, there are an enormous number of people who are going out of their way to make sure that you never find out about any NVI techniques. However, the internet is difficult to police, and now thanks to the internet the info is coming out for all.
Most people who have achieved a complete reversal of their vision problems have used a combination of different techniques, from different NVI researchers. However, the most effective single technique ever developed was called 'Vision Freedom.' It worked so well that within a few years, hundreds (or even thousands) of people had testified to curing their eyes with the method. Their voices (in the U.S.) were so strong that the founder of Vision Freedom was eventually put in jail for some charge having nothing to do with NVI. The company Vision Freedom no longer exists, but its founder was so intent on helping people that he cared little for money, and his techniques persist by word of mouth in the NVI community.
The main theory of NVI (in the case of myopia) is this:
Most people develop myopia from too much near work. By constantly focusing up close, the ciliary muscle (which flexes the lens) becomes so exhausted that the extrinsic eye muscles literally change the shape of the eyeball in order that the ciliary muscle can relax, while retaining the near-focus due to the different shape of the eyeball. This is not a defect, but an adaptation to near work. The extrinsic muscles become chronically tense after months of near work, and eventually the chronic tension sticks. Further, the extrinsic muscles are the muscles which control the movements of the eye, both the deliberate movements, and the unconscious micro-vibrations (saccades). As these muscles become tense, their ability to perform the saccadic movements becomes impaired, and their ability to point the eye in the correct direction also becomes impaired. The center of the retina is called the macula, which has the highest density of rods and cones; the center of the macula is called the fovea, and the center of the fovea is called the foveola. The foveola has tremendous 'resolution' capacity, but it is so small that the eye must point precisely at the target in order for the object of interest to hit the foveola. Further, when looking at a tiny character at the bottom of the eye chart (on the 20/5 line), only a fraction of the character can hit the foveola at any one time, so the eye must vibrate and trace the character with the foveola and then reconstruct the image from those sub-images. This is why the extrinsic muscles must be in perfect shape in order to see 20/5. This is the same reason that someone with glasses, contacts or surgery can never see 20/5; their extrinsic muscles are still atrophied.
Other defects such as hyperopia (farsightedness) and astigmatism are also caused by the extrinsic muscles misbehaving. In astigmatism, the extrinsic muscles pull unevently on the eye, distorting the shape of the eyeball, and most noticeably, the cornea.
The purpose of NVI is to re-habilitate the extrinsic muscles. Once rehabilitated, the extrinsic muscles will relax, and regain their original strength, so that the eyeball returns to its original shape, refraction errors disappear, and the extrinsic muscles can once again point the eye with remarkable precision, and they can also vibrate the eye in order to trace distant objects.
Methods of NVI
In a person with vision problems, the extrinsic muscles are both chronically tense, and weak. There has been a dramatic loss of neuro-muscular coordination. One approach to NVI is to try to relax the extrinsic muscles; the Bates method is such an approach. The other main approach is to try to strengthen the extrinsic muscles (the vision freedom approach). While there is some overlap in the methods, most people now find that both approaches must be undertaken simultaneously for maximum results.
When first starting NVI exercises, people will often manage to relax their extrinsic muscles for only a moment, resulting in a brief flash of extreme clarity. Using the accomotrac machine, those 'accidental' clear flashes can be rapidly learned to be deliberate.
Actual Techniques
The actual techniques of NVI take a long time to describe. Concerning methods of relaxation, the book 'Relearning to See' by Quackenbush, covers the Bates method of extrinsic muscle relaxation, as well as habits that must be un-learned to progress rapidly.
The vision freedom system is not longer in print, but I can give a brief description here.
(This assumes you are near sighted -- the method for farsightedness is different)
1. Take off your glasses/contacts, so that your vision is blurry.
2. Sitting in very bright light, lean over a table and place a book or printed text in front of you -- preferably true white paper with clear black writing.
3. Place the book around 10-40cm away from your face.
4. Now, the trick is that you must adjust the book so that the text is just barely in focus. In other words, move the text to the maximum distance possible, such that it remains perfectly clear. You may need to put on +1D, +2D, +3D reading glasses, or even more, +5D if your vision is pretty good. In the end, the maximum distance at which the text is clear should be between 10 and 40cm. (If you cannot even see 10cm away, then use weak contact lenses, or your standard contacts with +10D or higher lenses on top).
5. Move the text about 0.5cm farther away, so that it becomes ever so slightly blurry.
6. Looking at a single word, begin to trace the letters over and over with your eyes. Don't strain.
7. Occasionally, open your eyes as wide as possible, raising your eyebrows with all your might, then relax.
8. Occasionally, close your eyes as hard as possible for a few seconds.
9. Keep tracing the word (and repeat #7 and #8), and remember what the word should look like, fully clear.
10. Eventually, the word will suddenly clear up; it may only last for an instant. (Getting this to happen the first time is difficult, it is called an auto-focus -- it may take several sessions to get the first auto-focus to happen).
11. Keep working on this one word until it clears up and remains clear.
12. Move the text another 0.5cm away, until it gets slightly blurry again.
13. Repeat the above process until it gets clear again.
14. Keep moving the tex farther and farther, until you get stuck and cannot clear the text up. You should be spending several minutes at each distance.
15. Now, bring the text back 0.5cm until it is clear (but this should still be significantly farther away than it was at the beginning of the session).
16. Now you must train your muscles to 'remember' this position. So, start reading the paragraph. If you vision suddenly worsens, repeat the above steps.
17. Once you can read the paragraph over and over, with the text clear, at a farther distance than you started, you are done the session.
18. Now, it is important to perform relaxation exercises on you eyes; these are described in the book 'Relearning to See', and other books.
After the training session, assuming you made it to #17, your vision will be very slightly better for a short period, maybe 0-10 minutes after the 'training' session. Several sessions a day is best. Further, during the day, you must not wear a prescription which allows you to see 20/20. You should wear a 20/40 or 20/60 prescription, and whenever you read ANYTHING (PC or books), always adjust the text so it is just barely in focus, or just beyond that point. This allows your eyes to improve.
Most people, following the above method, improve at a rate of about 0.25 - 0.75D per month.
The process can be dramatically accelerated by gorging the eyes with blood before the training session, by hard cardio, grueling tennis or squash/racketball, etc.
Once your whole body is roasting and drenched with sweat, blood flow to the eyes will be dramatically increased, and the extrinsic muscles can be more easily relaxed, trained and strengthened (just like you should warm up for any strength training or stretching exercises).
So, the general method is:
- Warm up with exercise
- Perform the autofocusing training method
- Perform cool-down relaxation exercises
- Always keep objects on the edge of clarity, during the whole day (by using weaker contacts/glasses, and by using +D lenses during reading or computer work).
Nutrition has only a minor effect; however, eating tons of junk food (especially sweets), will definitely slow your progress.
I strongly recommend joining one of the many yahoogroup lists on this topic if you are serious (i.e.
2see@yahoogroups.com,
i-see@yahoogroups.com etc..)
Eric Fattah
BC, Canada
