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The Pinhole ‘No-Glasses’ e-Booklet A Self-Help Eye Relaxation Program for Persons having Nearsightedness, Nearsightedness, Farsightedness, Farsightedness, Astigmatism, Amblyopia and Strabismus
R OBERTO OBERTO KAPLAN O.D. M.E
D,
FCOVD, FCSO.
Doctor and Former Professor of Optometry Specialist Consultant in Vision Board Certified In Vision Therapy
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The Pinhole ‘No-Glasses’ Booklet A Self-Help Eye Relaxation Program for f or Persons having Nearsightedness, Farsightedness, Astigmatism, Amblyopia and Strabismus Dr. Roberto Kaplan , Doctor and Former Professor of Optometry, Board Certified in Vision Therapy, Author of Seeing Without Glasses, The Power Behind Your Eyes and Conscious Seeing is is the stated independent consultant and author of this Booklet. © 2006/7 All Rights Reserved. Reserved. It is illegal to copy this booklet booklet
Table of Contents PART ONE Introduction to Pinholes ‘No-Glasses’………………………………… ‘No-Glasses’…………………………………………………… ………………… 4 Tension Means Loss of Fitness………………………………………… Fitness…………………………………………………………… ………………… 5 Pinhole ‘No-Glasses’ and Normal Eyeglasses……………… Eyeglasses……………………………… ……………… 6 The Medical Use of ‘Pinholes’, Stress Reduction and Vision Therapy……….………. 8 An Experiment in Seeing………………………………………… Seeing………………………………………………...………… ……...………… 9 Back to the Questions!…………………………………… Questions!…………………………………………………………….... ……………………….... 10 Eye Relaxation Continues…………………………………… Continues………………………………………………………………… …………………………….. 11 Doctor’s Points of View……………………………………………… View…………………………………………………………….. …………….. 12 Design and Use of the Pinhole ‘No-Glasses’………………………………… ‘No-Glasses’……………………………………………. …………. 13 What can the Pinhole ‘No-Glasses’ Do For You?……………………… You?………………………………………. ………………. 14 Preparing Your Self To Wear the Pinhole ‘No-Glasses’……………………………….. ‘No-Glasses’……………………………….. 15 a. Observing pupil size-Role of Autonomic Nervous System b. Taking off regular contact lenses and glasses glasses c. Sitting Down d. Mental Relaxation e. Eye Relaxation - Muscles and Focus f. Stillness/ Light Receptivity What can the Pinhole ‘no-glasses’ not do for you?…………………………… you?…………………………….… .… 20 The Dangers and Contraindications of pinhole ‘no-glasses’……………... ‘no-glasses’……………... 21 Precautions……………………………………………………………………… 21 Understanding the resistance from Eye Doctors and Optometrists……… 22 Research Points…………………………………………… Points………………………………………………………………… …………………… . 23 References………………………………………………………………………… 24 What if you wear contact lenses?………………………………………… lenses?……………………………………………… …… 24 Regular eyeglasses and complimenting with Pinhole ‘No-Glasses”……….. ‘No-Glasses”……….. 25 Pinholes and Eye Diseases…………………………………… Diseases……………………………………………………… ………………… 26 Basic Use of Pinholes……………………………………… Pinholes…………………………………………………………... …………………... 26
PART TWO - Specialized Sequential Fitness Practices for 30 Days Suggestions for the Step by step process……………………… process……………………………………… ……………… Your diagnosed Eye Problem:
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A. Nearsightedness Specialised Sequential Fitness Practices for Nearsightedness……………… Nearsightedness……………… 1. Naked vision
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2. Covering one eye 3. Zooming
4. Eye Closing 5. Eye Opening 6. Eye Stretch 7. Body Swing 8. Thumb zapping 9. Thumb zooming 10. Eye crossing 11. Visual feedback 12. Visual acuity (Eyesight) 13. Neck roll B. Farsightedness Specialised Sequential Fitness Practices for Farsightedness…………………… Farsightedness……………………………… …………
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1. Naked vision 2. Covering one eye 3. Zooming 4. Eye stretch 5. Finger touch 6. Body Swing 7. Thumb Zapping 8. Thumb Zooming 9. Lighting 10. Eye crossing 11. Finger doubling 12. Visual acuity (Eyesight) 13. Near card
C. Astigmatism Specialised Sequential Fitness Practices for Astigmatism…………… Astigmatism………………………………… ……………………
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1. Naked vision 2. Covering one eye 3. Slit Experiment 4. Zooming 5. Eye Movement 6. Car Passenger 7. Body Swing 8. Watching faces __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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9. Thumb Zapping 10. Eye crossing 11. Visual Biofeedback 12. Visual acuity (Eyesight) 13. Neck Roll
D. Amblyopia and Strabismus…………………………………………..
Follow-ups……………………………………………………………………… Disclaimer…………………………………………………………………………
67 67 68
Introduction to Pinholes ‘No-Glasses’ Unlike regular eyeglasses that have lenses with a prescription, Pinholes ‘no-glasses’ have no lenses. (See Figure 1) They consist of a plastic disk with lots of little holes almost as small as a pinprick. They are not really glasses with lenses. They are glasses without lenses. For this reason they are called pinholes ‘no-glasses’. Figure 1
Vision and health care practices are changing as we move into the 21st century. More and more people are looking for ways to participate in their own individual program of overall fitness and wellness. The body works as one system. Helping your body also helps your eyes and visa versa. Millions of people are being diagnosed with eye and vision problems every day. 30 percent of the population are now nearsighted. This implicates that conventional treatment options are not addressing the cause of eye distortions. The underlying eye condition should get better as you wear your eyeglasses or contact lenses. The opposite is true. The evidence and statistics say the opposite. The presence of eye disease has doubled in 20 years. In the Far East, nearsightedness has tripled in young people between the ages of 16 and 18. Universally, we are becoming more dependent upon lens prescriptions and suffering with more eye diseases. Is there something else you can do to help yourself? The answer is a definite yes. In this booklet you are going to learn about the science and art of seeing. You will soon discover that relaxation of your eyes and mind is one of the best steps you can take to help yourself. Interest in __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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complimentary health is on the increase. You are one of these persons wishing to learn new ways to take care of your eyes and enhance your visual performance. The Pinhole ‘no-glasses’ are one of the many tools you can utilize on your journey to having more relaxation, maintaining and increasing vision fitness. This booklet will give you the background information, research and the history of pinhole ‘no-glasses’ as well as the most prudent ways to use these tools in your daily life.
Tension Means Loss of Fitness The basis of the Pinhole ‘no-glasses’ ‘no-glass es’ approach is quite simple to understand. understan d. Your eyes were not designed to perform the way they are being demanded. For example, driving for more than an hour per day, working on a computer, reading for hours, watching TV, looking at small screens of our cell phones, palms and MP3 layers places your eyes under stress. This means your eye muscles, the six surrounding your eyes, and the two inside the eye, are subject to tension and fatigue. (See Figure 2)
Figure 2
When you place yourself yoursel f in these stressful stressf ul situations situati ons for longer and longer periods period s of time, your fitness of your eyes can drop. Besides losing sharpness of vision, you may find yourself becoming tired, not comprehending as much, and overall being less efficient. Research shows that under general and visual stress your two eyes work less and less together.
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Fortunately, this is not all bad news. A branch of Optometry, called vision therapy has existed for over 60 years. This discipline has developed a broad approach to helping people maintain and increase their visual performance by using training practices. You can learn eye and vision visio n practices practi ces that have a remarkable remar kable affect upon your fitness. fitnes s. Vision Visio n therapy has been subjected to clinical studies that we will reference to help you use the pinhole ‘noglasses’ in the most effective way. The first step is to master the steps of eye relaxation. The pinhole ‘no-glasses’ will help you feel more mo re relaxed before and after doing intense visual tasks. In addition, you can re-examine your relationship with your normal glasses or contact lenses. It is our intention to provide a rational, clear, scientific procedural way to best use your pinhole ‘noglasses’ to produce the maximum results for general and visual relaxation and at the same time introduce you to the researched practices of vision therapy modified into a self-help format for use with wit h the pinho pi nhole le ‘no-gl ‘no -glass asses’ es’.. You will wil l also als o be infor inf ormed med how to best bes t consu con sult lt with wit h an Ophthalmologist, Optometrist or Optician to have new lenses prescribed.
Pinhole ‘No-Glasses’ and Normal Eyeglasses The pinhole’ no-glasses’ works differently than your regular eyeglasses. Firstly, if you are near/farsighted or astigmatic, the rays of light entering the eye do not form a precise focus on the sensitive fovea of the eye. (See Figure 3) The rays can fall short (short-sightedness) or go too far (farsightedness). Even in Astigmatism (unequal curvature of the cornea of the eye - the outer transparent thr ough your lens curved surface ) there is a specialized ‘blur circle’. In all cases, when you do not look through prescription a blur circle results. You experience unclear eyesight.
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Figure 3
When you put on your normal eyeglasses or contact lenses the optical power of the lens, measured in dioptres, bends the direction of the rays to focus precisely on the fovea. Because lenses have refracting power, the most accurate registration of this power is in the centre of the lens. The rays that enter the peripheral part of the lens are subject to what are called lens aberrations. You may remember when you first received your new glasses your view through the these lenses may have seemed strange at first, first, perhaps distorted or wavy. Soon your brain adjusted. Actually what happens is that your brain learned to suppress the rays striking the retina associated with the aberrations in the off- centre part of the lens. Usually these are the rays that strike the peripheral retina. This fact will be discussed in more detail later. The point for now is that looking through a lens and having clearness in the centre of your vision at the same time produces distortion of peripheral seeing. When you look through thro ugh the Pinhole‘ no-glasses’ the effect is not the same as a normal lens prescription. Firstly, there is immediate clarity, as much as 60 percent, compared to your ‘naked’ (that is without glasses or contact lenses) vision. This clarity, unlike that t hat of a lens, is not no t caused by refraction refr action of the light. On O n the contrary, the small sm all hole acts like a reduced aperture stop in a camera. The small ‘pin like’ hole increases the depth of __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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focus or field. It is like the unclear region is stretched out to make a greater length of clearness. This means that the greater depth of focus reduces the ‘blur circle’ on the fovea. This is why the eyesight usually is clearer. (See figure 3.) You will find out that mental and muscular relaxation can reduce the ‘blur circle’ as does a lens or pinhole. As you go through the eye relaxation process in this booklet you will further understand the advantage of the clarity of your ‘naked eyes’, versus the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ or the sharpness of normal eyeglass lenses.
Single Figure 4 - Single ‘Pinhole’
A single ‘pinhole’ ‘pinho le’ can restrict restri ct the field of vision, so the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ is made up of many holes. This will encourage you to stay aware of your peripheral peripheral vision by stimulating the retinal retina.
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Figure 5 – Single and Multiple ‘Pinholes’
The pinhole pin hole‘‘ no-glas no-g lasses’ ses’ are useful use ful as a training trai ning tool that provide pro videss a sharper shar per image ima ge without with out demanding that your eyes conform to the fixed focus forced by a dioptre lens prescription. You may allow your eyes to be free to "let go" while you first relax and later perform special practices specially adapted from the science of vision therapy Just as you slip into a comfortable comfortab le relaxing pair of shoes at the end of o f the day, you can consider your pinhole‘ no-glasses’ the ’slippers’ for your eyes and vision. You may continue using your regular shoes for certain times of the day, you can also continue using your regular glasses and/or contact lenses for certain activities like driving, movies and sports etc. Then you are at choice when to wear the pinhole‘ no-glasses’ so you can relax and reenergize your eyes.
The Medical Use of ‘Pinholes’, Stress Reduction and Vision Therapy A small sm all hole has been one o ne of the diagnostic d iagnostic tools used by optometrists opt ometrists and ophthalmologists ophthalmologi sts since the early days of eye refraction. When a person with a measurable refractive error of the eye, such as nearsightedness (difficulty seeing clearly far away), farsightedness (blurry eyesight at a closer distance), or astigmatism (distorted vision) looks through the little hole, clearer eyesight can result. From this __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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screening the practitioner can determine whether the poor eyesight results from a refractive problem. When the eyesight does not become clearer while looking through the th e hole, the patient probably has an eye disease condition like, cataracts, glaucoma etc., or amblyopia, a ‘lazy eye’ condition, usually associated with strabismus. (The eyes do not coordinate together) If the eyesight improves in one eye only, then the eye that shows no improvement is probably amblyopic. Even Ophthalmologists have confirmed the reasoning that a pinhole can sharpen eyesight in a 1992 press release by the American Academy of Ophthalmology that that stated: “People with nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism may temporarily see more clearly while wearing the multiple pinhole glasses.”
The key word here is ‘temporarily.’ This raises many interesting questions. Did the Ophthalmologists mean that the clearness lasts only while the multiple holes are before the eyes? Did they mean that the clearness could stay after the pinholes are removed? What is the difference in clearness between looking through the holes and a lens prescripti on? Is there a different affect upon the person as a whole in these two conditions?
An Experiment in Seeing These questions questi ons remind me of a common clinical clini cal experience experi ence witnessed witnes sed by most clinicians. clini cians. You should try this experiment. If you use glasses more than 50 percent of the time obtain an eye chart with letters on it. (You can obtain your own computerized eye chart testing program for your personal computer by logging onto: www.michaelbach.de/fract/index. onto: www.michaelbach.de/fract/index.html html ) )
Before you place your glasses on at the beginning of the day, stand at between 50 centimetres and 3 meters, and observe how many of the letters you can see without glasses. If you use the Bach Freiburg visual acuity test test you will obtain a percentage percentage score. If not, write the row of letters letters you could see with both eyes open. If your eyesight is good in one eye and not so good in the other, use the eye that perceives less. Then wear your yo ur normal n ormal glasses or contact co ntact lenses len ses as usual. At the end of o f the day take them off o ff and repeat the experiment. Are you able to see as many letters as at the beginning of the day? Has your percentage eyesight gone down? The second is most likely the case. Clinical evidence suggests that the wearing of normal eyeglasses with the full strength lens dioptres for 100 percent eyesight leads to a lowering of eyesight when removing the lens prescription. Perhaps you should ask yourself why? This will be explained in more detail in later sections of the booklet. __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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The obvious obvio us next step is to repeat the experiment experi ment with the pinhole pinhol e ‘no-glasses’. ‘no-glas ses’. As before you first firs t record your ‘naked’ eyesight. Then wear the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ for between 20 and 60 minutes. Sit down in a quiet place, read for 5 minute periods, talk to a friend, walk in a garden, being careful of course. Repeat the eye chart chart analysis. Did your ‘naked’ ‘naked’ eyesight stay the the same, get worse or even even improve after you removed the pinhole ‘no-glasses’? More than likely your eyesight did not get worse this time, and perhaps it even improved. Improved means more contrast and depth and the letters can be sharper too. Why is this the case? Why is it that with normal eyeglasses the ‘naked’ eyesight gets worse? Why with the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ does the ‘naked’ eyesight stay the same or get better? Does relaxation play a part in de-stressing the seeing mechanism between the eye and your brain? Answers to these questions will be covered in this booklet. This experiment experime nt in seeing offers many interesting interes ting insights insight s and valid facts: (These point will be later verified from clinical studies)
i) Looking through normal lens prescriptions for sharp eyesight increases the probability of a loss of eyesight, what we call vision fitness. This would be like wearing tight shoes that results in cramping in the feet. Wearing slippers do not produce the same feeling. When you remove the tight shoes your feet retain the the cramped feeling for a while. Wearing the slippers slippers gives you the warmth warmth and protection to your feet and slowly the normal feeling returns. This would not happen with the shoes. The cramped feeling would stay. Likewise, when you keep wearing your normally strong lens prescriptions your eye stays in the focused position. The muscles (See figure 2) can become cramped and tense. Wearing the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ gives the eye muscles a chance to un-focus and relax while you are able to have at least 60 percent more eyesight than with your ’naked’ eyesight. ii) It is not dangerous for you to take off your glasses for short periods when you are in the comfort of your home. If you are nearsighted and/or have astigmatism wearing your normally strong glasses will, more than likely, create more measurable measur able stress if you look at distances closer than three meters. You will be forced to focus even more through the lens and this i ncreases the stress that prevents the eyes from cooperating together.
Back to the Questions! Did the Ophthalmologists mean that the clearness lasts only while the multiple holes are before the eyes? Did they mean that the clearness could stay after the pinholes are removed? You can investigat inves tigatee these points poin ts yourself. your self. Take off your normal norm al eyeglasse eyegl assess and spend spen d a few moments observing the blur without glasses. Get a base-line feeling of the degree of unclearness and what you can actually see and make out. __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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After 5 minutes, minutes , put on the pinhole‘ pinhol e‘ no-glasses’. no-glas ses’. Look through throug h the central holes directing direc ting your attention further and further into the distance. Of course your eyesight is sharper while looking through the holes? Take a breath and look around at different objects. Then remove the pinhole‘ no-glasses’ and compare your level of seeing to the time before you put them on. Most people report a slight slight clearness and/or brightness, brightness, with more contrast contrast and greater sense of depth. Most eye doctors are not familiar with the concept of vision therapy. The idea that you can use modified lens prescriptions or pinhole‘ no-glasses’ as relaxation and a training tool is mostly a foreign concept for their thinking. Maintaining relaxation plays a very big part in the overall way you see. Lets begin your journey from this point. Here is some evidence. My research1 began by my looking at the role of stress upon seeing. While at Pacific University’s College of Optometry, I designed an experiment 1 where I had subjects listen to an 8-minute relaxation voice dialogue. Prior to the listening the subjects eyesight was measured both with and without their strong glasses. This was repeated after they listened to the relaxation audio suggestions. On the average, there were statistical significant increases in unaided visual acuity for the group, by as much as 30 percent. Did the improvement improvement in visual acuity (eyesight) (eyesight) last? No it did not! How do you explain this? this? The relaxation through the audio suggestions only had a temporary affect upon the eyesight. The person themselves was still under stress when the audio program stopped. This means that the relaxation needs to be practiced in order for there to be long lasting affects. The reason for this is that your eyes do not work independently from your brain and body. For there to be true eye relaxation, we have to also consider what is going on behind your eyes, making sure that you you are relaxed all over. This This is called vision training. training. The principles of vision vision training draw on the science of vision therapy where scientists have a deep understanding of how your brain directs your eyes to see. You will learn special techniques of using the pinhole‘ no-glasses’ to encourage deep relaxation that includes your eyes and brain.
Eye Relaxation Continues A later study2 confirmed that increases in visual acuity (eyesight) do not necessarily provide significant changes in dioptric measurements. The opposite was true. In most cases the refractive measurements of the eyes do not change when the visual acuity increases. This perplexing
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Report from The The Portland Optometric Optometric Clinic, Clinic, Pacific University. University. U.S.A. 1981. 1981. 1982 Paper Presented to The American Academy of Optometry, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. Published in Seeing Without Glasses, Beyond Words Publishing 2002. 2
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finding caught my attention. How could people see significantly better in spite of their eye findings not changing? With the help of a professorial colleague, who specialized in visual evoked potential measurements (brain wave patterns) of the back of the head known as the visual cortex, we repeated the experiment with the relaxation. Before and after listening to the relaxation piece, subjects had their brain wave patterns measured in the area of the visual cortex, Area 17 (The place where the neck goes into the skull).
There were no significant different findings in the visual cortex waveforms due to the relaxation. The implication of this finding was that increases in visual acuity occurred in deeper layers of visual integration in the brain. In addition, the improvements in sharpness of vision vision implicated the active involvement of the person in the process. This latter point is the most important consideration when using the pinhole‘ no-glasses.’ It is not the pinhole‘ no-glasses’ alone that will provide the full relaxation response you are needing for there to be a deep and meaningful experience through your eyes. This is where adding the eye relaxation practices will make such a difference in the results you will obtain with the pinhole‘ no-glasses’ Let me give you another example of this process. 3
In a 1999 study a German Ophthalmologist, Dr. W. Krell, administered conventional vision therapy on a young nearsighted boy for a period of six weeks. The changes in visual acuity was insignificant. Then he told the parents to have the boy listen to a specially prepared audio relaxation, called nearsightedness, in addition to continuing the program of vision exercises. In the following 12 weeks the visual acuity of each eye significantly improved where the boy no longer needed to use glasses for sharpness of vision. The evidence suggests that adding relaxation to a program of vision training gave and very necessary component for more effective and long lasting results. (See Figure 6)
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Paper presented by Dr. W. Krell at Seeing Deeply Conference, Sechelt, B.C. Canada. 1999 __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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Figure 6
Doctor’s Points of View Since looking through a tiny hole artificially eliminates a significant amount of the refractive error (dioptres) and aberrations, there is a potential illusion that if the pinholes are worn instead of glasses it could lead to an improvement in eyesight. As an eye doctor, I can understand why my colleague’s become upset when they see a good marketing program to sell pinholes is built on this idea. “Wear these pinholes, correct your eyesight and you can throw away your glasses,” says the Internet advertisements. Is it true? Is it possible? Is this false advertising? Particularly in the USA with its strict consumer protection, pinhole company’s activities are stopped if they make false claims and advertising. There is no scientific evidence that just the wearing of pinholes alone will lead to improved eyesight. In actual fact, is the wearing of pinholes really any different than an eye doctor showing you how eyeglasses or contact lenses improve your vision?
Historically, the wearing of glasses was designed to permit the natural function of the eye to begin a healing process, which would later result in less dependency on glasses. Research reveals that the contrary is occurring. In the same in 1992 press release, the American Academy of Ophthalmology stated: “Eyes are neither strengthened nor weakened by glasses. Using your eyes will not damage them, whether or not you are wearing your glasses.” Most eyeglasses and contact lens wearers will refute this claim. The more the eyeglasses are worn, the more dependent the eyes become to the external aid that provides the clearness. __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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The statistics also say something else. There is significant rise in the wearing of eyeglasses in every country, especially as more people are using computers and taking advanced education. It is obvious that it is time for people to be taught relaxation techniques for maintaining and increasing the vision fitness. The ideal scenario would be that wearing eyeglasses or contact lenses should ‘correct’ your vision. Obviously this is not currently happ ening. Presently, over 162 million North Americans need spectacles or contact lens prescriptions. When an individual habitually wears eyeglasses, there seems to be a lessening of his or her natural ability to see without them. Over time, there is a need for stronger and stronger prescriptions in order to maintain sharp eyesight. According to the National Advisory Eye Council, 1993, in the United States, less than 2% of all children beginning school (age 5) are nearsighted. By the end of grade school (age 11 or 12) more than 15% are myopic. By adulthood, about 25% Americans are myopic, thereby requiring some form of optical correction to see clearly beyond an arm's length. In a 2002 report from Prevent Blindness, Myopia (nearsightedness) affects more than 30.5 million Americans age 40 and older (26%) Hyperopia (farsightedness) affects 12 million Americans age 40 and older (10%). It is predicted that twice as many people will be blind in 2030 as there are today. It is time to offer a viable program to prevent this epidemic problem from continuing. It is your responsibility to take charge of the well being of your eyes. Let’s begin.
Design and Use of the Pinhole ‘No-Glasses’ The most effective design of the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ uses machine drilled multiple holes in a durable plastic/nylon reinforced opaque background. (See Figure 7)
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Figure 7
The opening holes for the left eye matches the placement for the holes of the right eye maximizing the possibility for you to use both eyes while looking through. The result is less likelihood of double images being present. Comfortable and sturdy optical standard sunglass frames are used to ensure the precise positioning of the holes before both your you r eyes. (See figure 8)
Figure 8
What can the Pinhole ‘No-Glasses’ Do For You? Before wearing the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ you will mentally prepare yourself by following some simple internal relaxation steps. Then you can wear the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ and these tools will permit you to see small objects far and near away as a s much as 60 percent more compared to when you do not have your regular glasses or contacts in place. You wear the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ for short 20-minute periods in safe places. Later you will introduce relaxation for not only your eyes, but also your mind and body. This feeling feelin g of relaxation relaxa tion will assist you in keeping keepi ng yourself yourse lf __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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relaxed in your everyday life. You can compare the feeling of wearing the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ (slippers) to when you wear your normal glasses g lasses or contact lenses.
Preparing Your Self To Wear the Pinhole ‘No-Glasses’ a. Observing pupil size - Role of Autonomic Nervous System One observation you can make is to look into a mirror or have somebody look at your pupil size. This is the black part of the eye. A normal pupil size ranges from 1.9 to 3.6 millimetres in size. Scientists report that under fluorescent lighting the pupil ranges from 2.6 to 5.0 millimetres. (Is it possible that fluorescent lighting is missing some of the ingredients of natural sunlight?) sunlight? ) A pupil size larger than 3.6 millimetres can be considered abnormal. In Figure 9, you can see the larger pupil on the right.
Figure 9
The pupil size is related to the autonomic nervous system (ANS). This nervous system is divided into two parts, sympathetic and parasympathetic. Consider that the white light, from a natural source, that enters your will typically reduce your pupil pupi l size of the eye. The light strikes strike s the retina and when transmitted transm itted it is converted conv erted into electrical impulses. 25 percent of light at the retina travels to your brain’s hypothalamus. Through a complex series of exchanges and mostly unknown processes, the energy components of the different colours are directed to the autonomic nervous system. Each colour or combination has a slightly different physiological effect upon the nervous system, which in turn regulates many of the organs and deep reflex physiological functions of your body. When the sympathetic nervous system dominates d ominates we call this stress. This means that you will feel over stimulated. In order for relaxation to occur the parasympathetic system needs stimulation. How do you accomplish this? Your pupils have to be smaller. Looking through the pinhole ‘noglasses’ will give you this practice. As you are successful, you will notice your pupil staying __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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slightly smaller after removing the pinhole ‘no-glasses’. Of course this will take time and the advanced practices you will be introduced to from vision therapy will assist you further. Ideally the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system will stay in perfect harmony. This is the exception rather than the rule in modern day stressful living. The sympathetic nervous system is more than likely the ruler. How can c an you tell? A larger than normal pupil size is the indicator. b. Taking off regular contact lenses and glasses There is a possibility that by removing your eyeglasses and/or contact lenses will change your pupil size. It is worthwhile worthwh ile investigating this. For example, if you use contact lenses lense s when going out of your home, consider removing your lenses when you come home. Are your pupils smaller when you wear your eyeglasses? What happens to the pupil size when you remove your eyeglasses? One of the advantages of the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ is that you can use them as a way to transition out of wearing your glasses or contact lenses all the time. Consider the example in Figure 10 of what a pinhole ‘no-glasses’ user did over a period of 3 months.
Figure 10
In the beginning, the person was using their eyeglasses 100 percent of the time. Once she heard about the pinhole ‘no-glasses’, she had her old glasses checked. Her eyesight through the old eyeglasses gave her 50 percent eyesight, which was perfect for her eye relaxation program. She started wearing her older glasses more of the time than her 100 percent eyesight eyeglasses. By the end of the 2nd month she reached 20 percent wearing time and her stronger glasses were only worn 60 percent. For the rest of the time she used the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ for 10 percent and for the first time in 20 years spent 10 percent of her time with no glasses in her naked vision state. __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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In only one month, the person had reduced their wearing of their normal strong glasses by 20 percent. By the completion of the third month she had a 65 percent reduction from the strong glasses and was now up to 20 percent of the time in her naked vision. The remaining 15 percent of the time she wore her weaker glasses (30 percent) and the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ 15 15 percent. Needless to say the client was very happy with the success of lessening her dependency upon her stronger eyeglasses. An added advantage was the extra relaxation she achieved not only in her eyes, but also in her whole body. If you are wearing contact lenses you will later be introduced to the steps to take. Now it is your turn to practice relaxation. c. Sitting Down Take a seat and consider the concept concept relaxation. What exactly does this mean? mean? Consider that to relax means more than just let your muscles be free of tension. There is also a mind or mental kind of relaxation. This is where you deliberately stop thinking. Whenever a new thought enters into your awareness, you imagine the thought to be like a cloud in the sky. You watch it move away. You train yourself for short periods per day to let your thoughts flow through and away from you. You let go of analysing and thinking about every thought.
So sit down in quiet place in your home where you will not be interrupted for about 5 to 10 minutes. With your eyes open and your eyeglasses off, look out into the distance at one point. You can use also use a candle to gaze at. With each breath you practice keeping a neutral mental state. When a thought pops in your awareness imagine the cloud floating away. This quiet sitting and keeping an ‘empty mind’ is a very necessary step in order to successfully use the pinhole ‘no-glasses’. ‘no-glasses’. The practice will give you the practice to look through through the holes towards a far distance. Soon the holes will appear less solid. d. Mental Relaxation Research on brain functioning reveals that when your eyes are relaxed and you are unfocused your brain enters into a particular wave pattern form. It is a matter of how you direct your attention. Artists show a preponderance of one kind of rhythm called the alpha rhythm. Activating mental attention decreases the presence of the alpha rhythm.
When you look through your eyes it is easy to become overly visually attentive. The fovea (See figure 3) is the structure of your eye that can become over stimulated. Research has shown that this foveal dominant mechanism is one of the ways that leads to distress. Thinking is promoted by an overly focused fovea. This can lead to less of your retina of your eyes being used. used. This is opposite to being being relaxed. There are also psychological psychological factors factors to 5 nearsightedness for example. Doctors Charles Kelly and Ray Gottlieb demonstrated that
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Kelley, Charles R. "Psychological Factors in Myopia." Ph.D. dissertation. New School for Social Research, New York: 1958. Gottlieb, Ray. "The Psychophysiology of Nearsightedness." Ph.D. dissertation. Berkeley: 1978. __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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nearsightedness is not a fixed structure of the eye. Nearsightedness varies as the person has fear, becomes un-relaxed or engages in pleasant visual imagery. This means while you wear pinhole ‘no-glasses’ you are going to engage yourself in activities that both relax your mind as well as practices that stimulate nerve and oxygen flow. Overall your concentration and attention span through your eyes will greatly improve. We call this being more efficient. Jack Fox6 measured eyesight after subjects went into a deeply suggestive state of relaxation. The conclusion of his research research was that nearsightedness nearsightedness is improved by way of mind mind relaxation. You relaxation of your mind by lessening the hold thoughts have over your attention will also help you balance the autonomic nervous system. Slip on your pinhole ‘no-glasses’ and recall everything you have read so far. While looking into the distance begin a gentle breathing. breathing. Keep thoughts from entering entering into your awareness. Direct your attention to the holes in your line of vision becoming less and less obvious. Imagine you are gliding out into the world passing through the little holes. Train yourself to have the awareness that your attention is to observe. You are certainly not trying to measure how well you are seeing in this moment. You are just being in your experience of enjoying the relaxed feeling in looking through and past the little holes. Remember to breathe.
e. Eye Relaxation - Muscles and Focus Recall what your eye muscles look like from Figure 2. These muscles are very often misunderstood. It is not that you will be exercising these muscles while looking through the pinhole ‘no-glasses’. On the contrary, these muscles are many hundred times stronger than they need to be. Relaxation for your eye muscles means that you have to relieve tension that creeps into these muscles due to the excessive demand you put on them while leading your modern day life. Looking at one place can lead to muscle cramping. It is then difficult for the muscle to function in an efficient manner.
Continue now looking through the pinhole ‘no-glasses’. Keep your visual attention as far away in the distance as you can. While maintaining a slow rhythmical in and out breath, begin gently moving your eyes in a horizontal left right motion. Repeat this movement of your eyes five times. Then repeat for the vertical and diagonal directions as well. (See Figure 11) This will be for a total of 20 motions. Then close your eyes and rest for five breaths.
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Fox, Jack. "Functional Factors in Myopia." Ph.D. dissertation. UCLA: 1958. __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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Figure 11
Open your eyes and bring your full attention to your eye muscles. How do they feel? At first you may experience some tension and possible even discomfort. This means that you are feeling tension that was there all along and now you can bring about more relaxation. With another series of breaths let the tension ease out out of the muscles like a gentle stretch. stretch. If necessary, close your eyes again and imagine the tension flowing away like a running stream. Next, you move your attention from the far off distance you are looking at. Bring your focus directly to the holes themselves as you take a full in-breath. It may feel a little like you are crossing your eyes. This is satisfactory. You are now stimulating the lens focus of your eyes. Then on the out-breath once again let your attention and focus go off into the distance. Feel how good it feels to relax and let go. This is the feeling you wish to encourage when you take breaks form working on the computer or reading. Your focus muscles are designed to often go through these variations. Your eyes are not meant to look at one place for long periods for extended times. How do your eyes feel when when you make this change? Write down down your experiences. experiences. Now repeat the practice and notice what happens to the holes when you look from far to near. Does the appearance of the hole seem different? If you are keeping your relaxed feelings while engaging in this practice you will notice changes in the presence of the holes. (See Figure 12)
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Figure 12
Afterwards, take off the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ and observe your naked vision eyesight. Do you observe more contrast? Does your eyesight seem sharper? If your eyesight seems unclear, it means you still need to bring about more relaxation.
f. Stillness/ Light Receptivity By now it is becoming clear that both and eye relaxation have a profound affect upon your view through your eyes. Also, pinhole ‘no-glasses’, is a good tool to learn how to master experiencing experiencing these changes. Mental relaxation means stillness of presence.
Recall the differences in feeling when you watch a stormy sea versus a calm lake. Stillness provides a certain ambience. Whenever you put on the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ your first practice is to recreate this feeling of stillness by looking through the holes into the viewing a distance point. Soft looking at one point also produces this feeling of stillness. As you practice this you will find your mind relaxing even further. You can always check the effect of this by removing the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ and retaking the computerized visual acuity test. There is an additional benefit to stillness and relaxation. Studies have found that a relaxed person can process information more quickly through the retina of the eye to the brain. This happens because during relaxation your retina’s become more receptive to incoming light. It is a little like a rechargeable battery. If you become stressed in your looking through your eyes the retina becomes static. The retina needs movement. When this happens the retina becomes less __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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efficient in receiving incoming light. Like a battery that recharges, your retina becomes recharged when you are still or have your eyes closed. As a practice, once you have experienced eye and mind relaxation, close your eyes every 5 minutes for 30 seconds when you wear the pinhole ‘no-glasses’. Imagine your retinas recharging. Feel the regenerative ability of the retina. You will know this is working when you open your eyes and there appears to be more light and contrast.
What can the Pinhole ‘no-glasses’ not do for you? The wearing of pinhole ‘no-glasses’ for short periods does not necessarily mean that your eyesight will improve after you remove them. This means there is no promise promise that the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ will correct or even lead to an improvement in eyesight. The question we are asking you to find the answer is, do the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ encourage more relaxation by taking a break from compensating spectacle or contact lenses? In addition, as you become more relaxed do you notice changes in your eyesight? Overall eye and mind relaxation has been shown to have a positive effect upon visual acuity – eyesight measurements. measurements. A clinical clinical trial 7 where farsighted persons wore their regular glasses and substituted pinholes for 20-minute periods was conducted. The subject’s naked (unaided) visual acuity was measured before and after wearing pinhole ‘no-glasses’. The naked visual acuity was significantly sharper after they wore the pinhole ‘no-glasses compared to their normal 100 percent strength eyeglasses. What does this mean? Other research 2 demonstrated demonstrated that looking through compensation minus lenses tended to increase visual stress on the foveal (See Figure 3) looking mechanism of the eye. This led to less two –eyed viewing compared to using a weaker lens prescription. Pinholes, like weaker lens prescription eyeglasses, also better maintain the relationship of the binocular viewing conditions. As you progress through this booklet you will be undertaking an advanced series of practices to observe this affect.
The Dangers and Contraindications of pinhole ‘no-glasses’ The wearing of the pinhole pinhole ‘no-glasses’ can have certain side effects that you should be very aware of. At first you might experience seeing seeing two images. This will happen when when you are not precisely looking through the centre of two matching holes for each eye. Also, if you do not look far away enough in a relaxation frame of mind the double vision appearance can stay. This is good feedback to reintroduce the eye relaxation and stillness practices. This should minimize the doubling affect. There may be more tension in the surrounding eye muscles muscles and in the eyes themselves. themselves. Breathing will help, and if necessary, remove the pinhole ‘no-glasses’, and gently cover your eyes for about 5 breaths before continuing. 7
Pilot study done in Austria in 2002 and presented at Doctor’s Meeting in Wurzburg July, 2005
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The pinhole ‘no-glasses’ is not meant as a replacement for your eyeglasses or contact lenses. Consider the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ to be like a very comfortable pair of shoes that you use sometimes for extra relaxation and comfort. If you do not relax while wearing the pinhole ‘noglasses’ you will need to take them off and first master the relaxation principles within this booklet. The pinhole ‘no-glasses’ alone does not guide you to adopt good visual habits essential for you to use your eyes in a relaxed way. There can be certain undesirable effects of the pinhole ‘no-glasses’. The multiple holes can create an insect-vision type of effect, with multiple overlapping images, and a flicker whenever your head is moved. It may not be possible to have normal binocular (two-eyed) vision with pinhole ‘no-glasses’ due to the multiple holes, Your central vision of each eye won't always be focused on the same point through corresponding holes. You may find these effects intolerable, become nauseous or get a headache. Others find them quite tolerable for short or long periods of time. If you have a strabismus, lazy eye or diagnosed or suspected eye disease, the pinhole ‘noglasses’ may be contraindicated for you. You will need to practise moving your head at first to accurately align yourself with the little holes. Certainly you should never wear the pinhole ‘noglasses’ as a sunglass device.
Precautions Wear the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ only in non-life-threatening situations. Do not use them while driving, working around mechanical or electrical devices, when using knives or instruments, or when you are tired. It is best to wear them in daylight hours when there is ample light. The pinhole ‘no-glasses’ will be less efficient in low level light and in fact wearing them in poor light may increase the level of eyestrain. When first putting on the pinhole ‘no-glasses’, please be aware that there is an adjustment period. Your brain needs to re-orientate itself to the new the relaxed way of looking. Begin with short periods of 5 to 20 minutes only. If necessary, wear the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ fro one or two-minute periods increasing your wearing time as you become more relaxed. When you take them off, notice your increase awareness of light as your retinas adjust. This may take a few minutes of adjustment. Wait at least 5 minutes before doing anything active, like driving or using tools.
While you wear pinhole ‘no-glasses’, remind yourself to relax by taking a few breaths. Spend a few moments fine-tuning your breathing and blinking every 3 to 5 seconds. Keep both eyes open even though there may be a tendency to feel that one eye is “the preferred eye” or dominating one. There is a small probability that if you are not consciously aware of your breathing and blinking exercises, your perception through both eyes may not be integrated. The movement of the eyes, __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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coupled with the breathing and blinking, provides a better better chance for integration. Recall it is your brain that has to adjust to this new-relaxed way of perceiving. Become aware of any straining, feelings of tiredness, or tension that may build up in your eyes.
Understanding the resistance from Eye Doctors and Optometrists Like other users of pinhole the ‘no-glasses’, you will probably have a high degree of excitement when beginning to use your new tool for relaxation. Be aware that professionals in the field of eye and vision care may not be as enthusiastic as you. You may hear remarks like: “There is no scientific evidence that pinholes can help your eyes”. For example, Dr. Bruce E. Spivey, Executive Vice-President of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Ophthalmology, stated that there is no data to support the claims made for the glasses (pinholes), nor that eye exercises will reduce or eliminate the need for glasses. Dr. Walter Chase of the California College of Optometry. Dr. Chase pointed out that a person is nearsighted or farsighted because of the shape of their eyeball. "Looking through a hole in an opaque material isn't going to change the length of your eye," he said. As you can see from these remarks, doctors who strictly take a physical approach to vision see the cause of eye problems being in the eye itself. That is, a nearsighted eye is because the eye length is too long. Also, Dr. Spivey’s reference reference is to ‘eye exercises’. As you have already read, your use of the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ is not an eye exercise, nor are you trying to alter the length of your eye. You are mastering how to use the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ as a means to increase your ability to relax which in turn reduces the stress levels in your eyes, neck, body and mind. You will conduct your own experiment on the changes in visual acuity (eyesight) and modifying your use of eyeglasses or contact lenses. Before you learn the advanced practices of using the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ it is worthwhile to learn about research in vision therapy. This will help you understand the extra benefits you can look forward to while relaxing and increasing your visual efficiency. If you choose to speak to your eye or vision professional then you will be more informed about the clinical and scientific validity of using the pinhole ‘no-glasses’. In turn you can be less intimidated by any negative comments you hear from uninformed professionals.
Research Points (The number of each point corresponds to the research reference) 1. When you learn to focus your attention from your mind through your eyes there can be changes in visual acuity. 2. College students learned how to relax one side of there body using a particular method. There were positive changes in external perception such as “vividness of the external world,” “breadth __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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of the visual field,” and “active impression of the external world” for subjects' vision on the side receiving relaxation training. Furthermore, visual and hearing acuity on the side on which relaxation training was administered improved significantly. 3. Eye-scanning exercises (See Figure 11) have a positive effect on the reduction and control of astigmatism. (Usually the unequal curvature of the outer curved shiny portion of the eye or in the lens of the eye) The eye-scanning exercises were done for two minutes, 10-15 times per day while eating, brushing teeth or watching TV over a consecutive three-month period of time. 4. When the two eyes are unable to turn inward together (convergence) this creates distress in the eyes. Vision therapists have shown that when subjects consistently practice eye-centring techniques from 4 to 10 weeks up to one-half hour per day there is a 72 to 96% improvement in this vision skill. Shorter 10-minute sessions per day are more effective than longer session. This eye centring process is a vital skill needed to maintain high level visual efficiency and will again be addressed in the advanced techniques. The pinhole ‘no-glasses’ provides an ideal medium to train the centring process from the brain to the eyes. 5. In order for the two eyes to function well together a fusion of each eyes image has to occur in a very precise and simultaneous manner. This process calls for a moderate amount of control from your brain to your eyes. In visual science this is known as ‘fusion reserve’. Persons who spend 10 minutes per day, five days a week, for three weeks practicing fusion exercises has increased the ability to handle handle visual stress. You will practice a form of fusion training using the pinhole ‘no-glasses’. 6. Through a 21-day program including vision games, breathing and relaxation techniques 83 persons increased their visual acuity (eyesight) on the average of 30%, which was statistically significant. The benefits of the training also carried over to their every day life. Overall vision fitness scores were obtained from questionnaires they filled out. 7. Specific vision training management program for nearsighted persons has a positive effect in improving vision, not needing glasses, when the nearsightedness is –2.25 dioptres of less, or being able to move to weaker lens prescriptions. 8. Behavioural vision therapy results in significant improvements in visual acuity and trends toward a lessening of dioptres. The same results were not obtained in a control group. 9. Certain vision skills skills are needed to perform perform successfully successfully in sports. Professional athletes athletes perform better in depth perception; have a larger field of vision, better centring, and a re more aware of what is happening in their visual periphery. While using the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ you will be introduced to practices that will give you chance to also increase your visual performance.
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References Interna tional Journal of Clinical and Experimental Experime ntal Hypnosis Publisher: Routledge, part of 1. International the Taylor & Francis Group Issue: Volume 52, Number 2 / April 01, 2004
2. The lateral effects of Dohsa-method relaxation on visual and auditory responses, Konno Y.1 Source: Japanese Psychological Research, Volume 41, Number 4, November 1999, pp. 193202(10) 3. Eye Scan Therapy for Astigmatism, E.B. Forrest, Journal of the American Optometric Association 1984, Dec.; 55(12): 894-901 4. Visual Therapy Results for Convergence Insufficiency: A Literature Review American Journal of Optometry & Physiological Optics 1988, June; 65(6): 448-54 5. The Course & Effect of Visual Training on the Vergence System, K.M. Daum, American Journal of Optometry & Physiological Optics 1982, March; 59(3): 223-7 6. 1982 paper presentation at the American Academy of Optometry in Chicago, Dr. Roberto Kaplan’s Clinical Research Project - Portland Optometric Clinic, Portland University 7. Vision Training Program for Myopia Management, E. Friedman, American Journal of Optometry & Physiological Optics 1981, July; 58(7): 546-53 8. Behavioural Treatment of Myopia-Refractive Error and Acuity Changes in Relation to Axial Length and Intraocular Pressure, R.C. Rosen, H.R. Schiffman, H. Meyers, American Journal of Optometry & Physiological Optics 1984, Feb.; 61(2): 101-5 9. Visual Skills of Athletes Versus Nonathletes: Development of a Sports Vision Testing Battery G.N. Christensen, A.M. Winkelstein, Journal of the American Optometric Association 1988, Sept.; 59(9) 666-75
What if you wear contact lenses? In Figure 10 the steps you were shown how a person wearing glasses can over a few months lessen their dependency on full strength dioptres by using the pinhole ‘no-glasses’. The added advantage is that you begin to spend time in safe places in your ‘naked vision,’ that is having no dioptres before your eyes. This weaning process is part of the relaxation concept. If you happen to be a contact lens wearer you will need to do some inner exploration and ask yourself soul-searching questions. To effectively use the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ you will need to have no contact lenses in place. You might consider removing your contact lenses once you return home at the end of the day and begin using the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ in the late afternoon or early summer evenings. __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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The disadvantage of that time of day is the lessening of the daylight. Remember you need good natural light to make the best use of the pinhole ‘no-glasses’. On the other hand, if you use disposable or soft contact lenses, you may come to the point that you wish to wear your contact lenses less. In this way you can wear your contact lenses every other day for example and begin using glasses and the pinhole ‘no-glasses’. This is your decision and if you use the more rigid type of contact lenses certainly consult with your vision practitioner to fully explore your options. The point is are you willing to make your own experience of increase relaxation and more visual efficiency by using the pinhole ‘no-glasses’, and then you can make a more informed decision about weaning yourself from contact lenses.
Regular eyeglasses and complimenting with Pinhole ‘No-Glasses” Going to school, working in offices and with computers, leading a more sedentary lifestyle has led to vast increases increases in nearsightedness. nearsightedness. Also, the wearing of minus lenses increases increases the nearsighted optical measurements of the eye resulting in further drops in your visual acuity. In 383 school children from ages 6 to 17 years, the prevalence of myopia increased from 30% at ages 6-7 years, to 70% at ages 16-17 years. ‘Corrective’ versus compensating lenses. A full compensating minus lens prescription forces you to construct a perceptual reality that ‘who I am” is whom I think or understand I am. This thought driven myopic behaviour is further cemented in its development by over focused minus lens light traveling to your foveas. You will have the tendency to explain and rationalize your feelings and your perceptions characterize the myopic behaviour. Nearsightedness compensated with a full minus lens creates a frozen state of your existing, where you are driven to look to understand.
Looking through the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ will give you the possibility to reduce your inner myopic behaviour. The pinhole ‘no-glasses’ slows you down so you have to pay more attention to your feelings and perceptions. You will break b reak the tendency to suppress what you see and feel - to know who you really are and have a deeper interpretation of your life. Compensating minus lenses for 100 percent visual acuity does not correct nearsightedness or myopic behavior. The evidence suggests the opposite. Minus lenses increase the probability of over-use of the foveal mechanisms of vision. While the strong minus lens prescription provides maximum acuity of vision, you are also increasing the probability of myopic behavior. beh avior. So begin wearing your pinhole ‘no-glasses’ and not only are you mastering relaxation, you are affecting deeper changes in your brain that frees you from your deeper myopic conditioning
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Pinholes and Eye Diseases As a general rule the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ will not increase your visual acuity if you have an eye disease condition like, cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, retinal, optic nerve, corneal or other eye pathologies. The reason is that the increase depth of focus does not affect diseased structure of the eye. Having said this, the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ can affect the diffused light caused by cataracts or other obstructive conditions in the eye such as floaters. This is an exception rather than the rule. However, if you are receiving corrective therapies from you eye doctor perhaps with time you can use the pinhole ‘no-glasses’ to help increase your eye relaxation for your refractive condition like near/farsightedness and astigmatism.
Basic Use of Pinholes Now you are well informed to begin an active program of using the pinhole ‘no-glasses’. These are the basic steps you can follow: i) Set aside time each day where you can remove your contact lenses and strong eyeglasses. This is best done at home or in nature where you feel secure. Spend a minimum of 5 minutes getting to know your unclearness. This is called blur. Begin a good rhythmical breathing of in and out breaths. Introduce a pause between the out and in breath. Feel the oxygen entering your lungs and circulating through through your neck into your eyes. The blood is also carrying the vitamins vitamins and minerals necessary for your eyes to function at their optimum level.
ii) Recall your eye muscles. Look again at Figure 2. Move your eyes and feel if there is any tension in the outer eye muscles. Breathe in and melt the tension. Move your eyes and let the tension drain away. The focus your eyes at a close object at 20cms. and then look away. Do this five times and this reduces tension in the inner muscles and focusing system of your eyes. By reducing tension you will be preparing yourself well to use the pinhole ‘no-glasses’. iii) Put on your pinhole ‘no-glasses’ but leave your eyes closed for the first part of the practice. Imagine the holes and look through them keeping the relaxed feeling. Play some of your favourite relaxing music for a 5-minute period. Your goal is to use this practice to increase your mental relaxation. relaxation. After 5 minutes you open open your eyes and look look through the holes into into the distance in the most relaxed way possible. iv) While you look through the holes into the distance imagine pleasant images like a lake, a forest, mountains, your home and a loved one. Train yourself to focus on pleasant images. This will promote more mental relaxation. v) At this stage you are ready to once again introduce looking at the plastic holes and then through them into the distance. This vision game is called zooming. See Figure 12 to recall the appearance of the holes as you zoom. Do the zooms for between 10 and 20 breaths at a time. vi) Either early or later in the day when the sun is not too strong, sit on a bench while wearing the pinhole ‘no-glasses’. With your eyes closed, turn your head and face the direction of the sun. Imagine and feel the suns rays entering through the holes. Remind yourself of the importance of these light rays since they can produce a balanced relaxed feeling through your __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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autonomic nervous system. system. Your retina enjoys the stimulation from the light. light. Next, blink your eye rapidly ten times and let see the light through the holes. This is a stimulating practice. Your pupils of your eyes enjoy this stimulation as well. Once again close your eyes for 10 breaths remove the pinhole ‘no-glasses’. Blink your eyes gently and slowly adjust to looking through your naked. Look around at the details and observe the changes you see. Write about your experiences.
Part Two- Specialized Sequential Fitness Practices for 30 Days In this part of the booklet you will be taken on a sequential step-by-step approach of specialized practices while using the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”. Knowing your eye condition you can choose a specific program for your situation. If you are nearsighted, then you choose that program and so on. There are specific eye relaxation programs for:
A. B. C. D.
Nearsightedness Farsightedness Astigmatism Amblyopia and Strabismus
Suggestions for the Step by step process: i)
ii) iii)
Set aside a specific time each day when you will implement the new practice as well as review the previous ones. In this way you will gain the experience you will need in order to reach mastery. Find a quiet place where you will not be interrupted. Before you begin the active practice do the overall relaxation steps mentioned under the earlier basic use of the pinholes.
Your diagnosed Eye Problem: Eye problems diagnosed by your eye doctor are divided into two categories. If the difficulty is is in the optics of the eye, then the condition is defined as a refractive condition. When the tissue of your eye is changing, more than likely a disease condition of the eye exists. exists. As mentioned in part one, the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” are best suited for refractive eye conditions. A. Nearsightedness Nearsightedness affects your eyes' long distance v ision. In nearsightedness you have no difficulty focusing your eyes on close-up objects, but have varying degrees of difficulty focusing on more distant objects. The conventional explanation of nearsightedness is an abnormal elongation of the eyeball, where it becomes stretched from front to back, or the curvature of the cornea is greater than usual. The distance between the retina - the light sensitive part of the eye on the back part of the eyeball - and the cornea at the front of the eye increases, and so light rays entering the eye __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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come to focus in front of the retina. This leaves a 'blur circle' on the retina itself as the light rays cross paths and begin to diverge beyond the focal point. Clinical studies have determined that although nearsightedness can be hereditary, it is also accentuated by chronic use of the eyes for near-distance focusing, such as when working at a computer screen. Evolution has programmed your eyes to naturally focus in the middle to longdistance when our eyes are at rest. To focus on close-up work your eye muscles must alter their shape, broadening the lens of the eye, in order to focus the light rays upon the retina. Persistent or prolonged short-distance focusing causes pressure to increase in crease in the vitreous chamber of the eye, e ye, thus leading to an elongation of the eyeball. Pinhole ‘no-glasses” offer immediate relief as the small aperture produces a greater focal range. Combined with the 'narrower than normal' beam of light entering the eye, the Pinhole ‘noglasses” reduce the blur circle on the retina. If you are nearsighted, the pinholes can be primarily worn when looking into the far distance. The aim is to look far away and beyond the holes, while maintaining a relaxed perception. The farther you can train yourself to look into the distance, the more effective the vision benefits will be after you remove the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”.
Specialized Sequential Fitness Practices for Nearsightedness Your practices are divided into 13 sequences. In figure 13 you can see on which day you should begin beg in a practic prac tice. e. Also you can dete rmine rmin e which whi ch practic pra ctices es are to be either eith er continu con tinued ed or discontinued during your first 30-days
Figure 13
For example the naked vision practice number 1 is conducted all 30 days. Number 2, the covering of one eye is only started on day 5, and discontinued on day 15. Number 12 Visual acuity is the Bach Freiburg visual acuity test used on day 10, 20 and 30. This is actually a reminder activity to show you your progress. And so on. If the vision practice is coloured in on a particular day that means you use this practice that day even though you may have 4 or 5 activities to practice that __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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day. This is a very specific training sequence so you will need to set aside time to include all the practices.
Here is a description for each practice.
1. Naked vision Before wearing the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” remove your contact lenses and eyeglasses. Have the experience of looking through your eyes in in your ‘naked ‘naked vision’. Of course do this in a safe safe place, preferably sitting down. Take a full in and out breath and look around. First pay careful attention to the unclearness in the distance. Become aware that the blur or unclearness is not the same at all distances. The closer you look, the more you will notice clearness. The further you look away from yourself, the greater is the unclear view. This is a very important discernment in nearsightedness. Train yourself to notice these these differences in your eyesight ability. ability. In addition, as you continue your breathing, become notice carefully that the unclearness can vary. Especially as you alter your thinking. Let you breathing and stillness guide you to remember to keep a calm inner state. This will help you increase the length of the clearness. You may also notice flashes of clearness. Notice the colours and the different contrasts. contrasts. Continue this practice for approximately 5 minutes or longer if you have time. 2. Covering one eye In your naked vision you will cover one eye and then the other and observe if there is a difference in your eyesight. If you find there is difference you will be covering the clearer perceiving eye. This can be accomplished by placing masking tape or black electrical tape on the back of the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” over the eye you do not wish to look out of. Make sure all the holes are covered. Even if light can still be perceived in front of the covered eye, this is fine. Now put on the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and the light will enter fast and quickly before the uncovered eye, while the light will be slowed down before the covered eye.
This practice has the advantage of focusing light to the lower perceiving eye. The purpose of this is to encourage the light to wake up the visual pathway through that eye. This practice may be strenuous and even cause some physical and emotional discomfort at first. Practice for 5 minutes in the beginning and then increase the wearing time of the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” for up to 20 minutes. Write down your experiences. You can have a conversation with with a person, read a book, look out of the window and even watch TV. You may have some of the following experiences: i) While you are looking out of your open eye, it appears grey or pieces of your vision seem to be missing. This means that your covered eye is trying to take over. This indicates a stronger preference preferen ce for that eye. This can change over time as you gain proficiency proficien cy with this practice. practice . After 5 minutes or more, remove the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and repeat the practice 1, in your naked vision.
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ii) While in your naked vision you may at first notice certain greyness before the formerly uncovered eye. This is a normal adaptation process and should disappear after a few minutes. iii) You will use this practice longer than the recommended time on the chart in figure 1 if the difference between your eyes is more than 10 percent different. There is no limit to how long you can use this practice in the 30-day cycle, and you can repeat it in the future. 3. Zooming With the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” observe that your visual world is made up of many distances from your eyes. This is called space. Choose an object like a chair, window or object that are different distances from your eyes. Choose an object at 1, 2 and 3 meters distance. As you breathe begin to let your eyes change focus from the object at 1 meter to the object at 2 meters. Then change your looking to the 3-meter distance. This changing focus is like zooming a camera. Repeat for 10 to 20 breaths. Each time you practice choose different objects to look at. You can with time use the first object as close as 40 centimetres. Lastly, use an object like printed material at 20 centimetres. Then remove the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and close your eyes and rest. Continue breathing. Open your yo ur eyes and repeat repe at practice 1 in your naked nake d vision. Recall from figure 12 that the appearance of the holes will change as you zoom from a close to far distance. It is important that you notice the change in the holes.
4. Eye Closing Close your eye while wearing the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”. Imagine in your mind’s eye the little holes and travelling through them into the distance. This will encourage relaxation of your eyes and mind. This is practice you will use each day as a way to rest in between the other activities. Breathe in and out and with time let the out breath become longer and longer. This will permit you to appreciate the pause between the in and out breath. This also deepens the relaxation. Feel how your inner and outer eye muscles are more relaxed and free of tension. Notice the feeling of resilience in your eyes. On the other hand if your eyes feel tired, extend the eye closing practice longer than the recommended 5 minutes. 5. Eye Opening Now open your eyes while wearing the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”. Enjoy the feeling of going past the holes into the distance. Do this with no effort from your thinking mind. Imagine yourself to be very calm on your inside. Consider your visual world to be a peaceful place for you to travel through your eyes. Your eyesight is sharp, as you remain perfectly relaxed. Stand up. Check your posture by seeing if the horizontal row of holes ho les appears to be level. le vel. This is a good way for you to verify if your head is in the correct position above your shoulders. If necessary, move your head with the left ear going in the direction of your left shoulder and then the opposite for the right ear. Find the best position for your head.
Begin to move around the room you are in. Take in your visual world with ease. No thinking. Just observing. Practice being still while your body moves. Breathe into your eyes filling them with the life-giving oxygen and nutrients. Let your eyes glide over what you are looking at. Keep your eyes softly moving as you move. Put on a piece of your favourite music and begin to dance.
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After day 2, introduce the zooming practice while you move and dance. Vary the music from slow to fast. What is the affect upon your y our eyesight? After 5 minutes remove the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”, and repeat practice 1, looking in your naked vision. Celebrate the progress you are making.
6.
Eye Stretch
Figure 14
This practice is a variation of eye muscle relaxation in figure 11. The difference is that now you will stimulate and gently stretch the muscles. With the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” on slowly move your eyes in the 4 major directions, first horizontal, then vertical and then the oblique directions, first using the holes as a guide to know your direction. Thereafter, look through the holes into the distance. The important point here is to breathe in as you move in one direction and breathe out in the opposite direction. Towards the end of the motion, stretch a little more without straining. If your dioptres are –5.00 or higher please be very careful not to strain when you do this stretch. There is a small probability that you could tear the retina. So gentle is the key word. If you feel discomfort stop the practice. Move the eyes in each direction for three breaths. Use the holes as a means to know the direction of movement. In-breath to the right and out breath to the left. After each direction, zoom your vision into the distance and relax for two breaths.
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Figure 15
7.
Body Swing
Figure 16
This practice is to train your self to observe the swing of things. As you move your gaze from one point to another, an other, things seen should move in the th e opposite o pposite direction. For example, e xample, if you look at the upper left corner of a large letter “W” and then shift your gaze to the lower left corner, the “W” should appear to move, or “swing” up. If it doesn’t, this is a sign of strain. There are a variety of ways to practice the swing. You can gently swing your whole body to the left and to the right, and watch a distant tree swing to the right and to the left: You can move just your head; you can move just your eyes. The better your eyesight, the shorter the swing can be made to be. Now that you have an idea of the swing concept, here are some steps to follow. __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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a. Stand with both feet firmly on the ground. When you feel stable, slip on the Pinhole ‘noglasses” and once again check that your stance is firm. Then close your eyes and keep your balance. b. Take in a full in-breath and exhale. As you repeat the breathing pattern, let your thoughts melt away and focus your attention on moving from the top of your head slowly downwards to your feet. In your mind’s eye keep a distant point of focus in view, even though your eyes are closed. This will allow you to be fully present in your body while relaxing your mind. The more you relax the more you will feel your body standing firmly. In this way you will not lose your balance in the next step. If you do lose your balance remember you have probably started thinking. c. Begin to slowly move your body so that your left hip first moves forward. Then let your right hip moving forward. Ideally, when the left hip goes forward, you right ankle will arch outwards like in a golf swing. d. Repeat this swinging motion for at least 10 breaths and keep your balance while feeling perfectly perfectl y relaxed. relaxed . For the next 10 breaths, imagine you can see through your closed eyes and through the holes and observe the world around you. As you become practiced you will become aware of an apparent movement. As you move, the world will move in the opposite direction. This awareness will promote your feeling of relaxation of not only your mind but also your eyes. Awareness of movement is key in clear and relaxed seeing. e. If step d is difficult, open your eyes for brief moments and while looking through the holes notice the movement. If it is still not obvious, put up a single thumb of one hand. While looking at the thumb, observe the movement behind the thumb. Of course the distant view will be unclear but you y ou can ca n still see the th e movement. move ment. Remember R emember this motion and again close your y our eyes ey es and recall the movement from memory. Repeat for another 10 breaths and then stop and rest. You can also add music to help the movement. Experiment with different kinds of music, slow and fast. Let yourself slip into a meditative state while keeping y our eyes relaxed. f. Open your eyes while standing still and look around through the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”. Remove them and then enjoy the freedom of seeing in your naked vision. How is the contrast and colours of objects around you? 8.
Thumb zapping Figure 17
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While looking through the pinholes at a point far away, choose a particular object that stands out from the rest of the environment. Place your thumb between your eyes and the object you are looking at. While blinking and breathing and maintaining a fixed focus on the distant object, become aware that there are a re probably pro bably two thumbs thu mbs visible. visib le. (This (Th is will be dependent on both b oth eyes working together at the same time-If this does not happen you may have to practice step 2 for a longer period.) You can also try moving an outstretched pointing finger up and down before one of your eyes and observe if you see a second thumb.
Figure 18
If this is not the case, keep blinking and breathing in an attempt to make yourself see two thumbs while looking far past the thumbs. If you cannot accomplish this, it might mean your eyes are not sending equal messages to the brain and, therefore, your brain is not able to create two-eyed perception. You will not be able a ble to advance to the next phase of the vision game until your y our two eyes are more able to cooperate. Continue covering the eye with the “less clear” vision. Assuming that you are aware of two thumbs, notice if one thumb is higher than the other. Adjust your head by cocking your right earlobe toward the right shoulder and then the left shoulder until the two thumbs appear equally high. Maintain breathing and blinking pattern that visibly sustains the presence of the two thumbs. Look through and beyond the holes. Recall the farther away you can look, the less apparent the holes will be. In the presence of the perception of two thumbs, explore the following way: * * *
Does one thumb look more ‘real’ than the other? Give one word that describes the other thumb? Can you make one thumb go away?
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* * * *
Can you switch between one thumb and another? Does one thumb seem less ‘solid’ than the other? Does one thumb seem smaller or bigger? Are there differences in height between the thumbs? (If so, cock your head from side to side,
right ear toward right shoulder. After aligning the two thumbs, are the eyes in the same horizontal line or plane? If not, what is the implication?)
You may wish to explore thumb zapping zapping at different distances distances like you did in step 2. Record your results of this practice as follows
Vision Fitness Levels: 1. One thumb only. 2. No change in the thumb. 3. Two, and the one thumb fades. 4. Two, one thumb is higher. 5. Two, and equal. You can also rank your thumb-zapping vision fitness on a scale of 0 to 10, 0 being not able to perform, and 10 being the maximum m aximum skill level. le vel. The subjective quantification results are a re worth wo rth having for later comparison. Remember to take off the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and repeat step 1. How is your clearness and unclearness after this practice? How do your eyes feel? Write down your responses in your diary.
8. Thumb zooming As you have completed step 8, change your point of looking and focus on your extended thumb. You will notice that the two thumbs now come into one image and the object beyond the thumb now appears to be two images. Repeat this zooming from your thumb to the object, back and forth, always maintaining the awareness of there being two images where you are not directly looking. While zooming and practicing the thumb-zapping awareness, watch the appearance of the little holes. While you are looking at the thumb, the borders of the hole will appear more filled-in and darker. When you then zoom out, it appears that you are seeing through the holes, such that it seems you have more space in the holes to look through. Repeat this practice until you can maintain the awareness of the increased darkness while looking at the thumb, and the image of the lesser darkness while looking far away. Always keep the relaxed feeling.
9. Eye crossing Introduction Eye crossing can be defined as the ability for you to voluntarily cross your eyes with no external support like a finger or pencil. You will be accurately centring each eye inward in equal amounts and being able to perceive a distant double image equally separated on each side of the thumb. Note: There is no danger of your eyes becoming stuck while you do the eye-crossing vision game even though you may have been told that as a child. __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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In many instances, this simple physical skill has not been developed or practised. Clinical research has shown the importance of this voluntary control process is highly necessary for maintaining high degrees of eye crossing. In visual science this is called convergence. When there is a low ability to converge then supposedly, the involuntary eye-focusing system, called ‘accommodation’, ‘accommodation ’, may be over-stimulated to compensate for a low convergence capacity. This could be one ‘untalked about’ mechanism for the development of ‘school’ nearsightedness. Eye crossing is actually good for you and should be practiced. When you are properly visually centred then you can maintain better concentration, complete assignments and more effectively play sports and be comfortable while working on a computer. If you cannot cross your eyes, you have to use props like a thumb or a pencil. It is normal for you see two images in the background. This is known as physiological diplopia or ‘normal’ double vision. The practice- Step 9 continued If you have mastered the technique of step 9, attempt to see the object far away as two, without the presence of the thumb at all. That is, align your gaze where the thumb used to be and maintain the appearance of double vision far away.
You can accomplish this by looking where the thumb used to be. As you adjust your eye crossing closer and closer to the little holes, the distance of the double object widens while the little holes begin to overlap each other. By practicing the eye crossing and thumb zapping game, you are training your eye muscle flexibility combined with relaxation. This helps the eyes cross inward, as well as sharpening the precision of the focusing muscle inside in side your yo ur eyes. ey es. Stimulating Stimu lating the th e outside ou tside and an d inside muscles is most desirable for the eyes to work together as a team. Do this for 10 breaths. Notice that while crossing your eyes, everything far away also seems to become smaller and is unclear than objects closer by. Keep the feeling feeling of relaxation relaxation present. After you have completed this practice, remove the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and check your eyesight by looking through a window, win dow, at a calendar or painting. pa inting. It is quite common and most gratifying gratify ing for an increase in clearness to occur as a result of this vision practice. The important point as always is to practice without strain of effort. Observing your results The levels of eye crossing skill can be broken down as follows: (A score of 1 represents a lower level of vision fitness. A score of 5 is the highest level.)
Levels: 1. 2.
The eyes are physically unable to cross. You cannot mobilise the eyes to the point of seeing one pencil or thumb at your check distance.
3.
You need a single pencil positioned at the point of eye-crossing in
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4.
5.
order to give yourself something to look at. You can cross your eyes, see two distant objects and hold this view with out effort. You can zoom away and make one distant object and then zoom back towards the holes and make see two distant objects.
As you practice eye crossing from day 21 you will notice yourself travelling through the 5 steps above. Give yourself more time if you need it. You can always continue this practice after day 30. As a general rule, you can introduce the eye crossing practice provided the following criteria are met: i) You report two thumbs on the thumb zapping at some level; and ii) Compare your level of eyesight and vision fitness between your right and left eyes. If the percentage difference between the eyes is no more than 10% (This is determined by comparing the right and left eye percentages you recorded off the Bach Freiburg visual acuity test.
Figure 19
This can be evaluated with or without the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”; if the difference is greater than 10% without a lens prescription, always use the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” during any two-eyed activity, such as thumb zapping or eye crossing.)
6. Visual feedback As you have noticed your naked vision eyesight can change in any moment. Relaxation, breathing breath ing and other factors play a part in this variability. variab ility. The visual biofeedback biofee dback practice practic e is designed to refine your ability to make these changes possible. In addition, you will be able to more accurately be able to monitor these changes.
You will need a poster, calendar or a distant object that has details on it. After you have done practices 1, 4, 6, 7 and 8 for the day, remove the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and choose your distant object to look at. Stand at a distance where you can just make out the details. There should still be the possibility for the letters to become clearer. Take a good full breath and relax. There are three possibilities that you may encounter. __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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i) ii) iii)
You experience the details becoming clearer. The details do not change The details become unclear.
Part of your experience in this practice is to refine your looking abilities. In addition, you will be able to explore how your mind affects your eyesight. Keep your vision centred. When you regard the object, only one small part should be seen best. This is because only the centre of your retina -- the fovea -- has the best vision for detail. Farther away from the fovea, the retinal receptors get progressively less able to pick up fine detail. Therefore, trying to perceive all the detail with large parts of your retina at once causes strain. Instead of staring at the entirety of the details, limit your attention to the smallest area that you can. This is called central looking. It is the feeling you have been experiencing while looking through the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”. If you need to review this point put on the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and practice this centring concept. Then remove the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and close your eyes for 5 breaths and rest. In central looking you are training yourself to look at only one thing and not bothering about the clarity of the field of vision around where you are looking. Put on the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”, and return in a relaxed manner to the object you were looking at. While breathing, let your attention go to just that object letting go of the immediate immediate surroundings. Then let your head swing to another object, letting your eyes follow effortlessly. The shifting from one object to another is an important feature to master. In this way, you don’t get fixated on one point of reference. Your fovea needs to move. Keep shifting and swinging swinging your head to other objects you notice. In this way your vision (mind) remains relaxed and clear and you may discern more details. Then move to more detailed objects, shifting/swinging from detail to de tail. In the beginning you will train your self to look through one hole at a time. Also, move from nearer objects further and further into space practising the concept of central looking and shifting. Now remove remov e the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”. ‘no-glasses”. Repeat in your your naked vision. vision. Make notes about about the changes you saw in your eyesight.
12. Visual acuity (Eyesight) You can choose to use a regular eye chart of different size letters that you can make your self on a computer or use the Bach Freiburg visual acuity test.
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Figure 20
What is important is that in addition to the feedback you will gain from step 11, you should have a numerical record of your progress. It is suggested that you repeat the Bach Freiburg visual acuity test on days 1, 10, 20 and 30. If you apply the principles of this booklet longer than the 30 days, repeat this test every 10 days. 13. Neck roll As you can appreciate you neck is a vital part of the process of having relaxed eyes and clearer eyesight. Your eyes are nourished by your blood that flows from the heart through your neck and to the eyes. If your neck is stiff and tense, you will limit the flow of blood.
First gently practice moving your head towards your right shoulder being in your naked vision. Repeat in the opposite direction toward your left shoulder. Then gently guide your head forward to your chest. Move slowly while breathing. Then let your head gently glide backwards to the point where w here your yo ur head hea d touches touch es the top of your back. b ack. It is important that you yo u do not use pressure in this practice. Be careful not to strain. Lastly, you make a circular motion with your head traversing all the positions you went through, first clockwise and then counter clockwise. Repeat for 5 breaths for each movement. Thereafter, do an additional 5 breaths wearing the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”. This time observe distance details after each 5-breath sequence. Move your eyes from one object to another and then repeat the next neck roll movement.
B.
Farsightedness
Farsightedness Farsightedness is a refractive eye disorder caused by a shorter than normal eyeball or a flatter than usual cornea. Light entering the unaided eye comes to focus behind the retina, thus casting a blur circle on the retina itself. People under age 40 with farsightedness usually find it more difficult to focus in the short-distance, whilst has fewer problems focusing in the middle to long-distance. Young people with this condition can naturally improve their vision by training the focusing (accommodation) of their eyes. By continuously trying to focus in the short-distance their eye muscles will become more flexible, enabling the eye lens to shorten the focal length of __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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the light rays, and therefore decrease the blur circle on the retina. The Pinhole ‘no-glasses” offer ‘no-glasses” offer instant relief as the 'stopped down' aperture produces a greater focal range. Combined with the 'narrower than normal' beam of light entering the eye, the blur circle on the retina is decreased, so enabling you to see more clearly.
Specialized Sequential Fitness Practices for Farsightedness Your practices are divided into 13 sequences. In figure 21 you can see on which day you should begin beg in a practic prac tice. e. Also you can dete rmine rmin e which whi ch practic pra ctices es are to be either eith er continu con tinued ed or discontinued during your first 30-days.
Figure 21
For example the naked vision practice number 1 is conducted all 30 days. Number 2, the covering of one eye is only started on day 5, and discontinued on day 15. Number 12 Visual acuity is the Bach Freiburg visual acuity test used on day 10, 20 and 30. This is actually a reminder activity to show you your progress. And so on. If the vision practice is coloured in on a particular day that means you use this practice that day even though you may have 4 or 5 activities to practice that day. This is a very specific training sequence so you will need to set aside time to include all the practices. Here is a description for each practice. 1. Naked vision Before wearing the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” remove your eyeglasses if you wear them. Have the experience of looking through your eyes in in your ‘naked ‘naked vision’. Of course do this in a safe safe place, preferably sitting down. Take a full in and out breath and look around. First pay careful attention to the unclearness at whatever distance you experience it. Become aware that the blur or unclearness is not the same at all distances. Probably the closer you look, the more you will notice unclearness. The further you look away from yourself, the greater is the clear view. This is a very important discernment in farsightedness. farsightedness. Train yourself to notice these differences in your eyesight ability. In addition, as you continue your breathing, become notice carefully that the unclearness can vary. Especially as you alter your thinking. Let you breathing and stillness guide __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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you to remember to keep a calm inner state. This will help you increase the length of the clearness. You may also notice periods of clearness. Notice the colours and the different contrasts. Continue this practice for approximately 5 minutes or longer if you have time. 2. Covering one eye In your naked vision you will cover one eye and then the other and observe if there is a difference in your eyesight. If you find there is difference you will be covering the clearer perceiving eye. This can be accomplished by placing masking tape or black electrical tape on the back of the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” over the eye you do not wish to look out of. Make sure all the holes are covered. Even if light can still be perceived in front of the covered eye, this is fine. Now put on the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and the light will enter fast and quickly before the uncovered eye, while the light will be slowed down before the covered eye.
This practice has the advantage of focusing light to the lower perceiving eye. The purpose of this is to encourage the light to wake up the visual pathway through that eye. This practice may be strenuous and even cause some physical and emotional discomfort at first. Practice for 5 minutes in the beginning and then increase the wearing time of the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” for up to 20 minutes. Write down your experiences. You can have a conversation with with a person, read a book, look out of the window and even watch TV. You may have some of the following experiences: iv) While you are looking out of your open eye, it appears grey or pieces of your vision seem to be missing. This means that your covered eye is trying to take over. This indicates a stronger preference preferen ce for that eye. This can change over time as you gain proficiency proficien cy with this practice. practice . After 5 minutes or more, remove the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and repeat the practice 1, in your naked vision. v) While in your naked vision you may at first notice certain greyness before the formerly uncovered eye. This is a normal adaptation process and should disappear after a few minutes. vi) You will use this practice longer than the recommended time on the chart in figure 1 if the difference between your eyes is more than 10 percent different. There is no limit to how long you can use this practice in the 30-day cycle. 3. Zooming With the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” observe that your visual world is made up of many distances from your eyes. This is called space. Choose an object like a chair, window or object that are different distances from your eyes. Choose an object at 1, 2 and 3 meters distance. As you breathe begin to let your eyes change focus from the object a t 1 meter to the object at 2 meters. Then change your looking to the 3-meter distance. This changing focus is like zooming a camera. Repeat for 10 to 20 breaths. Each time you practice choose different objects to look at. You can with time use the first object as close as 40 centimetres. Lastly, use an object like printed material at 20 centimetres. Then remove the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and close your eyes and rest. Continue breathing. Open your yo ur eyes and repeat repe at practice 1 in your naked nake d vision. Recall from figure 12 that the appearance of the holes will change as you zoom from a close to far distance. It is important that you notice the change in the holes.
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4.
Eye Stretch
Figure 14
This practice is a variation of eye muscle relaxation in figure 11. The difference is that now you will stimulate and gently stretch the muscles. With the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” on slowly move your eyes in the 4 major directions, first horizontal, then vertical and then the oblique directions, first using the holes as a guide to know your direction. Thereafter, look through the holes into the distance. The important point here is to breathe in as you move in one direction and breathe out in the opposite direction. Towards the end of the motion, stretch a little more without straining. So gentle is the key word. If you feel discomfort stop the practice. Move the eyes in each direction for three breaths. Use the holes as a means to know the direction of movement. In breath to the right and out breathes to the left. After each direction, zoom your vision into the various distances in space and relax for two breaths.
Figure 15
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5.
Finger touch
After removing the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” close your eyes and take a full in and out breath. Let your body , mind and eyes become relaxed. Place your pointed index fingers over your closed eyes (preferably looking downwards) with the finger print side gently touching the lids. Feel the calmness and let what ever you feel from your fingers enter into your eyes. It may be warmth or a feeling like a current of energy. Stay with this feeling for 10 to 20 breaths. Imagine that it is like being given a soft healing massage. On opening your eyes look around the room and at some small detail and observe the changes in clearness and ease you can focus.
6.
Body Swing
Figure 16
This practice is to train your self to observe the swing of things. As you move your gaze from one point to another, an other, things seen should move in the th e opposite o pposite direction. For example, e xample, if you look at the upper left corner of a large letter “W” and then shift your gaze to the lower left corner, the “W” should appear to move, or “swing” up. If it doesn’t, this is a sign of strain. There are a variety of ways to practice the swing. You can gently swing your whole body to the left and to the right, and watch a distant tree swing to the right and to the left: You can move just your head. You can move just your eyes. The better your eyesight, the shorter the swing can be made to be. __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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Now that you have an idea of the swing concept, here are some steps to follow. a. Stand with both feet firmly on the ground. When you feel stable, slip on the Pinhole ‘noglasses” and once again check that your stance is firm. Then close your eyes and keep your balance. b. Take in a full in-breath and exhale. As you repeat the breathing pattern, let your thoughts melt away and focus your attention on moving from the top of your head moving slowly downwards. In your mind’s eye keep a distant point of focus in view, even though your eyes are closed. This will permit you to be fully present in your body while relaxing your mind. The more you relax the more you will feel your body standing firmly. In this way you will not lose your balance in the next step. If you do lose your balance remember you have probably have started thinking. c. Begin to slowly move your body so that your left hip first moves forward. Then let your right hip moving forward. Ideally, when the left hip goes forward, you right ankle will arch outwards like in a golf swing. d. Repeat this swinging motion for at least 10 breaths and keep your balance while feeling perfectly perfectl y relaxed. relaxed . For the next 10 breaths, imagine you can see through your closed eyes and through the holes and observe the world around you. As you become practiced you will become aware of an apparent movement. As you move, the world will move in the opposite direction. This awareness will promote your feeling of relaxation of not only your mind but also your eyes. Awareness of movement is key in clear and relaxed seeing. e. If step d is difficult, open your eyes for brief moments and while looking through the holes notice the movement. If it is still not obvious, put up a single thumb of one hand. While looking at the thumb, observe the movement behind the thumb. Of course the distant view will be unclear but you y ou can ca n still see the th e movement. move ment. Remember R emember this motion and again close your y our eyes ey es and recall the movement from memory. Repeat for another 10 breaths and then stop and rest. You can also add music to help the movement. Experiment with different kinds of music, slow and fast. Let yourself slip into a meditative state while keeping y our eyes relaxed. f. Open your eyes while standing still and look around through the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”. Remove them and then enjoy the freedom of seeing in your naked vision. How is the contrast and colours of objects around you?
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7.
Thumb zapping
Figure 17
While looking through the pinholes at a point far away, choose a particular object that stands out from the rest of the environment. Place your thumb between your eyes and the object you are looking at. While blinking and breathing and maintaining a fixed focus on the distant object, become aware that there are a re probably pro bably two thumbs thu mbs visible. visib le. (This (Th is will be dependent on both b oth eyes working together at the same time-If this does not happen you may have to practice step 2 for a longer period.) You can also try moving an outstretched pointing finger up and down before one of your eyes and observe if you see a second thumb.
Figure 18
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If this is not the case, keep blinking and breathing in an attempt to make yourself see two thumbs while looking far past the thumbs. If you cannot accomplish this, it might mean your eyes are not sending equal messages to the brain and, therefore, your brain is not able to create two-eyed perception. You will not be able a ble to advance to the next phase of the vision game until your y our two eyes are more able to cooperate. Continue covering the eye with the “less clear” vision. Assuming that you are aware of two thumbs, notice if one thumb is higher than the other. Adjust your head by cocking your right earlobe toward the right shoulder and the left shoulder until the two thumbs appear equally high. Maintain breathing and blinking pattern that visibly sustains the presence of the two thumbs. Look through throu gh and beyond beyon d the holes. Recall Rec all the farther away you can look, the less apparent the holes will be. In the presence of the perception of two thumbs, explore the following way: * * * * * * *
Does one thumb look more ‘real’ than the other? Give one word that describes the other thumb? Can you make one thumb go away? Can you switch between one thumb and another? Does one thumb seem less ‘solid’ than the other? Does one thumb seem smaller or bigger? Are there differences in height between the thumbs? (If so, cock your head from side to side,
right ear toward right shoulder. After aligning the two thumbs, are the eyes in the same horizontal line or plane? If not, what is the implication?)
You may wish to explore thumb zapping zapping at different distances distances like you did in step 2. Record your results of this practice as follows Vision Fitness Levels: 1. One thumb only. 2. No change in the thumb. 3. Two, and the one thumb fades. 4. Two, one thumb is higher. 5. Two, and equal. You can also rank your thumb-zapping vision fitness on a scale of 0 to 10, 0 being not able to perform, and 10 being the maximum m aximum skill level. le vel. The subjective quantification results are a re worth wo rth having for later comparison. Remember to take off the Pinhole Pinho le ‘no-glasses” and repeat step 1. How is your clearness and unclearness after this practice? How do your eyes feel? Write down your responses in your diary.
8. Thumb zooming As you have completed step 8, change your point of looking and focus on your extended thumb. You will notice that the two thumbs now come into one image and the object beyond the thumb now appears to be two images. Repeat this zooming from your thumb to the object, back and __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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forth, always maintaining the awareness of there being two images where you are not looking directly. While zooming and practicing the thumb-zapping awareness, watch the appearance of the little holes. While you are looking at the thumb, the borders of the hole will appear more filled-in and darker. When you then zoom out, it appears that you are seeing through the holes, such that it seems you have more space in the holes to look through. Repeat this practice until you can maintain the awareness of the increased darkness while looking at the thumb, and the image of the lesser darkness while looking far away. Always keep the relaxed feeling. 9. Lighting Especially in farsightedness it is very important to have good lighting when reading, working on the computer or doing activities where there are small details. In addition, you will have much better results using the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”, ‘no -glasses”, when there is good light. This means using at least lea st a 60-watt light bulb shining from behind. You can also use this light bulb for a relaxation practice.
Here are the steps. i) Close your eyes and point your head in the direction of the 60-watt light bulb placed about 50 centimetres from your eyes. (Do not look directly at the light source.) ii) Begin by slowly moving your head so that your left ear moves in the direction of your left shoulder. Then repeat the movement in the opposite direction. Repeat for 10 breaths. Feel the warmth of the light entering your closed eyelids. Notice how this creates a relaxed feeling. It is like a warm bath for your eyes. iii) Next slip on the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and when you come to the farthest point of the left movement blink your eyes and let the light come through the holes into your eyes. At this point you will not be looking directly at the light source. Repeat this for the end of the right movement as well. iv) As you become proficient with the feeling of letting in the light extend the practice to blink your eyes throughout the motion of o f your head back and forth and continue c ontinue to blink. b link. Repeat for 10 breaths. v) Take off the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and look back at the near chart (step 13 – figure 23) and observe your clearness. This practice has the added advantage of reducing the pupil size and thus deepening the possibility of you becoming more relaxed. 10. Eye crossing Introduction Eye crossing can be defined as the ability for you to voluntarily cross your eyes with no external support like a finger or pencil. You will be accurately centring each eye inward in equal amounts and being able to perceive a distant double image equally separated on each side of the thumb. Note: There is no danger of your eyes becoming stuck while you do the eye-crossing vision game even though you may have been told that as a child.
In many instances, this simple physical skill has not been developed or practised. Clinical research has shown the importance of this voluntary control process is highly necessary for maintaining high degrees of eye crossing. In visual science this is called convergence. When there is a low ability to converge then supposedly, the involuntary eye-focusing system, called ‘accommodation’, may be over-stimulated to compensate for a low convergence capacity. Eye __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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crossing is actually good for farsightedness and should be practiced. When you are properly visually centred then you can maintain better concentration, complete assignments and more effectively play sports and be comfortable while working on a computer. This is called being more focused. If you cannot cross your eyes, you have to use props like a thumb or a pencil. It is normal for you see two images in the background. This is known as physiological diplopia or ‘normal’ double vision.
Attempt to see the object far away as two, without the presence of the thumb at all. That is, align your gaze where the thumb used to be and maintain the appearance of double vision far away. You can accomplish this by adjusting your focus to the place where the thumb used to be. As you adjust your eye crossing closer and closer to the little holes, the distance of the double object widens while the little holes begin to overlap ov erlap each other. By practicing the eye crossing and thumb zapping game, you are training your eye muscle flexibility combined with relaxation. This helps the eyes cross inward, as well as sharpening the precision of the focusing muscle inside in side your yo ur eyes. ey es. Stimulating Stimu lating the th e outside ou tside and an d inside muscles is most desirable for the eyes to work together as a team. Do this for 10 breaths. Notice that while crossing your eyes, everything far away also seems to become smaller and is unclear than objects closer by. Keep the feeling feeling of relaxation relaxation present. After you have completed this practice, remove the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and check your eyesight by looking at small print p rint or o r at an intermediate distance. It is quite common and most gratifying for an increase in clearness to occur as a result of this vision practice. The important point as always is to practice without strain of effort. Your goal is to increase the sharpness of your eyesight at intermediate and far distances. In this way you can minimize needing to wear normal compensating eyeglasses for these distances. Observing your results The levels of eye crossing skill can be broken down as follows: (A score of 1 represents a lower level of vision fitness. A score of 5 is the highest level.)
Levels: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
The eyes are physically unable to cross. You cannot mobilise the eyes to the point of seeing one pencil or thumb at your check distance. You need a single pencil positioned at the point of eye-crossing in order to give yourself something to look at. You can cross your eyes, see two distant objects and hold this view with out effort. You can zoom away and make one distant object and then zoom
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back towards the holes and make see two distant objects. As you practice eye crossing from day 21 you will notice yourself travelling through the 5 steps above. Give yourself more time if you need it. You can always continue this practice after day 30. As a general rule, you can introduce the eye crossing practice provided the following criteria are met: i) You report two thumbs on the thumb zapping at some level; and ii) Compare your level of eyesight and vision fitness between your right and left eyes. If the percentage difference between the eyes is no more than 10% (This is determined by comparing the right and left eye percentages you recorded off the Bach Freiburg visual acuity test.
Figure 19
This can be evaluated with or without the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”; if the difference is greater than 10% without a lens prescription, always use the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” during any two-eyed activity, such as thumb zapping or eye crossing.)
11. Finger doubling In Thumb zapping you learned how to look past your thumb and see two thumbs. In finger doubling you are actually going to place your left and right thumb upwards. Put on the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and look past your two outstretched thumbs as in Figure 22. Become aware that as you slightly vary the separation of your two thumbs a third thumb will appear in the middle of the two ‘real’ thumbs. You may at first see four until you find the exact separation that is needed to see three. Breathe and also vary the distance of the two thumbs from your eyes.
The more relaxed you are the less you will be aware of the two holes. Keep the three thumbs present for at least 10 breaths. Then zoom your focus into the distance. You Can practice this step from day11 until 24. Then include the next step. Put on the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”. Look towards the holes and also see three thumbs. This is an extension of the eye crossing from step 10. The appearance of the third thumb will be different. Notice what this is. The middle thumb will appear smaller. Stay in this position seeing three thumbs for 10 breaths.
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Then look away into the distance for 5 breaths. Then come back and get three thumbs in the eye-crossing mode. Do this zooming for 5 breaths. Figure 22
Visual acuity You can use the near chart from Step 13 to record the numbers corresponding to the clearest letters you can see for day 10, 20 and 30, and/or if your distance eyesight is also Unclear you can use the Bach Freiburg visual acuity test described and referenced earlier in the booklet.
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13.
Near Card
Figure 23
Figure 23 is the near card you will be using for this next practice. The card consists of letters of different sizes beginning with the small letters on the top and the larger letters on the bottom. There are four triangles one in each corner. The largest letter O stands by itself on the bottom in between the two bottom triangles. In your naked vision observe which letters you can see without straining or squinting at a distance of 40 centimetres. Do this first for your right ey e, then left and lastly for both eyes. Make a note of your results in your diary by using the number on the row corresponding to the highest letters you could see clearly. If the last letters you can see clearly were C D F U, for example, __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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then you would record row 4. This will become your baseline so you can observe your progress over the 30-day period. Put on the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and notice how many more letters you can see. Let your head slightly move around with your eyes following so you can look at different letters but still looking through the same holes. This will take practice until you know exactly how big or small the head movement should be. In this way you can also keep a clear view of the letters. Do this for 10 to 20 breaths then remove the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and look off towards an intermediate distance at some detail and examine the clearness of your eyesight. Spend a moment looking in your naked vision at the near chart at between 30 to 40 centimetres or even a further distance if none of the letters are in focus. Breathe in and move the chart toward your eyes as close as you can even if the letters do become a little blurry. Breathe out and then move it away to 40 centimetres. This tromboning action will stimulate and relax your eye focus. This is letting go. You no longer need to try and grab the print with your eyes, and make it clear! The point is to look softly and with presence, and let the details come to you without straining. Repeat with the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”
C.
Astigmatism
Astigmatism is a refractive eye difficulty caused by a misshapen cornea at the front of the eye. A normal cornea is spherical in shape, but some people are either born or acquire an oblong shaped cornea that projects two points of light on to the retina at the back of the eye. The resultant image processed by the brain is blurred, the degree of blur determined by b y the distance between be tween the two points on the retina. The closer the points are the less blurred the image appears. The Pinhole ‘no-glasses” reduce the blur of astigmatism by limiting the distance between the two points of light on the retina, thus helping you y ou to see more clearly. In this particular condition, the curvature of the cornea is different in one direction, compared to another. This could be producing varying degrees of visual blurriness in your eyesight. Astigmatism results in a greater distortion or blurriness in one orientation of your gaze (vertical or horizontal). Usually, the distorted shape of the outside eye structure of the cornea reflects this astigmatism. The Pinhole ‘no-glasses” bypass the corneal distortion and resulting blurriness, and a clear focus in all orientations of gaze is maintained. With the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” in place, look at small print or looking off into the distance, move your eyes in a horizontal horizonta l direction, a vertical, and then on a diagonal plane while you breathe and blink. Do you feel that one of these eye movements feels more uncomfortable than another? Practice the one that feels the most difficult. More than likely, the meridian that is the most uncomfortable, jerky, or feels different is the blurriest orientation of your vision. As you practice moving your eyes along this meridian, you will be activating your inner clearness in a relaxed way. That specific eye movement is a stimulation that activates the eye muscles, which, in turn, stimulate the nerves from the brain, and then focuses your attention on the unclear orientation of your perceiving. __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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Specialized Sequential Fitness Practices for Astigmatism Your practices are divided into 13 sequences. In figure 21 you can see on which day you should begin beg in a practic prac tice. e. Also you can dete rmine rmin e which whi ch practic pra ctices es are to be either eith er continu con tinued ed or discontinued during your first 30-days
Figure 24
For example the naked vision practice number 1 is conducted all 30 days. Number 2, the covering of one eye is only started on day 5, and discontinued on day 15. Number 12 Visual acuity is the Bach Freiburg visual acuity test used on day 10, 20 and 30. This is actually a reminder activity to show you your progress. And so on. If the vision practice is coloured in on a particular day that means you use this practice that day even though you may have 4 or 5 activities to practice that day. This is a very specific training sequence so you will need to set aside time to include all the practices.
1. Naked vision Before wearing the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” remove your eyeglasses if you wear them. Have the experience of looking through your eyes in in your ‘naked ‘naked vision’. Of course do this in a safe safe place, preferably sitting down. Take a full in and out breath and look around. First pay careful attention to the unclearness at whatever distance you experience it. Become aware that the blur or unclearness is not the same at all distances. Probably the further away you look, the more you will notice unclearness. The closer you look toward yourself, the greater is the clear view. (This of course depends that your astigmatism is associated with nearsightedness. – The opposite will be true if you are farsighted)
Notice vertical and horizontal objects and become aware if one is clearer than the other. This is a very important discernment discernment in astigmatism. astigmatism. Train yourself to notice notice these differences in your eyesight ability. In addition, as you continue your breathing, become notice carefully that the unclearness can vary. Especially as you alter your thinking. Let you breathing and stillness guide __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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you to remember to keep a calm inner state. This will help you increase the length of the clearness. You may also notice periods of clearness. Notice the colours and the different contrasts. Continue this practice for approximately 5 minutes or longer if you have time.
2. Covering one eye In your naked vision you will cover one eye and then the other and observe if there is a difference in your eyesight. If you find there is difference you will be covering the clearer perceiving eye. This can be accomplished by placing masking tape or black electrical tape on the back of the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” over the eye you do not wish to look out of. Make sure all the holes are covered. Even if light can still be perceived in front of the covered eye, this is fine. Now put on the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and the light will enter fast and quickly before the uncovered eye, while the light will be slowed down before the covered eye.
This practice has the advantage of focusing light to the lower perceiving eye. The purpose of this is to encourage the light to wake up the visual pathway through that eye. In addition, you will be stimulating specific orientations of viewing such as the vertical and horizontal. This practice may be strenuous strenu ous and even cause some physical physic al and emotional emotio nal discomfort discom fort at first. Practice Practic e for 5 minutes in the beginning and then increase the wearing time of the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” for up to 20 minutes. Write down your experiences. You can have a conversation conversation with with a person, read a book, look out of the window and even watch TV. You may have some of the following experiences: i) While you are looking out of your open eye, it appears grey or pieces of your vision seem to be missing. This means that your covered eye is trying to take over. This indicates a stronger preference preferen ce for that eye. This can change over time as you gain proficiency proficien cy with this practice. practice . After 5 minutes or more, remove the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and repeat the practice 1, in your naked vision. ii) While in your naked vision you may at first notice certain greyness before the formerly uncovered eye. This is a normal adaptation process and should disappear after a few minutes. iii) You will use this practice longer than the recommended time on the chart in figure 1 if the difference between your eyes is more than 10 percent different. There is no limit to how long you can use this practice in the 30-day cycle. 3. Slit experiment Take a piece of stiff dark board or thin plastic about the size of a business card. Using a sharp cutting knife slice out a narrow slit about 1 millimetre in width and 3 or 4 centimetres in length. Round the edges of the board/plastic so it won’t accidentally stick into your eye. Cover one eye, and without your glasses or contact lenses, place the slit in the vertical position before your open eye. (See figure 25) The right eye is covered and in position 1, the vertical slit is in front of the left eye. Look at a calendar or an object with letters on it at a distance where you can just make out the details. Do the letters appear clearer through the vertical slit? Begin rotating the slit (through position 2 until position 3 in figure 25) so that you are eventually looking through a horizontal slit. Do you see more or less clearly in the horizontal position? Experiment with __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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positions other than the vertical and horizontal. You may find a clearer position in one of the diagonal directions or meridians. If you observe no differences in eyesight between any of the positions then you have no astigmatism. The greater the difference in clearness and unclearness between two meridians, that is horizontal and vertical or diagonal one direction and diagonal in the opposite, indicates astigmatism. Take note if your clearness is more in the vertical orientation versus the horizontal. The orientation where there is the most unclearness indicates where there is the most near or farsightedness. Once you have determined the line of the most unclearness you will be using the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” to train your looking along this orientation. Repeat the process for the other ey e.
Figure 25
Record your results as follows: For example you find that through your right and left eyes you are unclear in the vertical, and the left has more unclearness than the right. You can make a diagram like this and write 1 for the vertical of the left eye and 2 for the vertical of the right eye. e ye.
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Right eye
Left eye
1 2
This will act as a reminder for when you are going through the practices. The next step is to use the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and begin Practicing your new way of looking for your astigmatism. Use masking tape placed over the holes as illustrated in Figure 26.
Figure 26 A
B
In A you can see how to place masking tape in such a way to create a vertical slit for a particular eye. Of course, if the very unclear orientation is horizontal or oblique then the slit will be constructed accordingly. In the example shown you can see that only one hole In the vertical is shown. Your design can also have two holes be visible if need be. B is an example of the view when you look through. The holes along the vertical are open and not blocked by the masking tape. This means when you wear the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” the masking tape will block the light coming through the covered holes and you will practice to look through only the holes in the vertical. This is a good training for you to become familiar with your unclear view and train it. Once you have completed placing the masking tape in place (remember to completely cover the other eye with masking tape) put on the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”. Use step 1 practice and for 10 breaths to acquaint your self with this kind of patching. Breathe and shift your view to different positions. After an additional 10 breaths, begin to move your eyes along in the direction of the slit. Do this for at least 5 full breaths and then take off the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and notice your clearness.
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This practice can replace step 3 from day 8 to day 22 or longer. You can expect the sharpness of your naked vision through the slit to increase. You can also use the same approach for the other eye’s unclear orientation that you can ca n find using this step 2, the slit experiment. expe riment. 4. Zooming With the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” observe that your visual world is made up of many distances from your eyes. This is called space. Choose an object like a chair, window or object that are different distances from your eyes. Choose an object at 1, 2 and 3 meters distance. As you breathe begin to let your eyes change focus from the object a t 1 meter to the object at 2 meters. Then change your looking to the 3-meter distance. This changing focus is like zooming a camera. Repeat for 10 to 20 breaths. Each time you practice choose different objects to look at. You can with time use the first object as close as 40 centimetres. Lastly, use an object like printed material at 20 centimetres. Then remove the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and close your eyes and rest. Continue breathing. Open your eyes and repeat practice 1 in your naked vision. Recall from figure 12 that the appearance of the holes will change as you zoom from a close to far distance. It is important that you notice the change in the holes.
5. Eye movement In the introduction to astigmatism I mentioned that one of the directions might have a different feeling than the others. You were suggested to see if this is true for you. Now you know which is the unclear meridian of view. In this eye movement step you are going to refine your eye movement practice on day 8 or 9 to include a specific movement practice of your eyes.
6. Car passenger As a passenger in a car, breathe, relax, and start looking through the side window. Let the scenery slide past your eyes. Don't try to see anything in particular; on the contrary, do something similar to swinging, just letting your eyes brush the fast-moving objects -- not even seeing them as objects, seeing only the the movement of space. After a while, objects start "popping out" of this movement, here and there, but don't chase them, don't try to prolong the instantaneous impression of seeing something clearly.
Alternate this with looking through the front window as far ahead as you can, again without straining or trying to see. Widen your field of perception and give nothing in sight any priority over anything else. Occasionally outline the trees far ahead -- just the contour of the top. Look at the white divider lines, as far ahead as possible, but don't chase them when they move closer - just keep on looking far, far away. Say to yourself, "Whatever comes." Don't try to see the signs, the license plates, etc., but eventually they’ll start "jumping" at you, spontaneously coming into focus. Again, don't chase them; don't stare stare to "make "make sure" you saw them. Whatever comes, comes. Notice all of the things that you never knew were there -- for instance, all the birds that happen to fly by over the highway. __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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7.
Body swing
Figure 16
This practice is to train your self to observe the swing of things. As you move your gaze from one point to another, an other, things seen should move in the th e opposite o pposite direction. For example, e xample, if you look at the upper left corner of a large letter “W” and then shift your gaze to the lower left corner, the “W” should appear to move, or “swing” up. If it doesn’t, this is a sign of strain. There are a variety of ways to practice the swing. You can gently swing your whole body to the left and to the right, and watch a distant tree swing to the right and to the left: You can move just your head. You can move just your eyes. The better the vision, the shorter the swing can be made to be. Since you have astigmatism, it is most important that you observe your posture. You head should feel like it coming straight up from your extended spine. As you swing feel your spine moving and creating freedom of tension. Now that you have an idea of the swing concept, here are some steps to follow. a. Stand with both feet firmly on the ground. When you feel stable, slip on the Pinhole ‘noglasses” and once again check that your stance is firm. Then close your eyes and keep your balance. __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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b. Take in a full in-breath and exhale. As you repeat the breathing pattern, let your thoughts melt away and focus your attention on moving from the top of your head moving slowly downwards. In your mind’s eye keep a distant point of focus in view, even though your eyes are closed. This will permit you to be fully present in your body while relaxing your mind. The more you feel the more you will feel your body standing firmly. In this way you will not lose your balance in the next step. If you do lose your balance remember you have probably have started thinking. c. Begin to slowly move your body so that your left hip first moves forward. Then let your right hip moving forward. Ideally, when the left hip goes forward, you right ankle will arch outwards like in a golf swing. d. Repeat this swinging motion for at least 10 breaths and keep your balance while feeling perfectly perfectl y relaxed. relaxed . For the next 10 breaths, imagine you can see through your closed eyes and through the holes and observe the world around you. As you become practiced you will become aware of an apparent movement. As you move, the world will move in the opposite direction. This awareness will promote your feeling of relaxation of not only your mind but also your eyes. Awareness of movement is key in clear and relaxed seeing. e. If step d is difficult, open your eyes for brief moments and while looking through the holes notice the movement. If it is still not obvious, put up a single thumb of one hand. While looking at the thumb, observe the movement behind the thumb. Of course the distant view will be unclear but you y ou can ca n still see the th e movement. move ment. Remember R emember this motion and again close your y our eyes ey es and recall the movement from memory. Repeat for another 10 breaths and then stop and rest. You can also add music to help the movement. Experiment with different kinds of music, slow and fast. Let yourself slip into a meditative state while keeping y our eyes relaxed. f. Open your eyes while standing still and look around through the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”. Remove them and then enjoy the freedom of seeing in your naked vision. How is the contrast and colours of objects around you? 8. Watching faces Spend a minute or so looking at a human face. face. This may be a person or even a photograph. Look at the mouth, one eye, the other eye, and the mouth again, and notice, as it gets clearer. After a while, look at a letter X and observe if both arms look sharp and black. Keep looking at the X and check if one of the arms slowly fades to grey and appears fuzzy! Your mind may not be sure how the X is supposed to look.
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9.
Thumb zapping
Figure 17
While looking through the pinholes at a point far away, choose a particular object that stands out from the rest of the environment. Place your thumb between your eyes and the object you are looking at. While blinking and breathing and maintaining a fixed focus on the distant object, become aware that there are a re probably pro bably two thumbs thu mbs visible. visib le. (This (Th is will be dependent on both b oth eyes working together at the same time-If this does not happen you may have to practice step 2 for a longer period.) You can also try moving an outstretched pointing finger up and down before one of your eyes and observe if you see a second thumb.
Figure 18
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If this is not the case, keep blinking and breathing in an attempt to make yourself see two thumbs while looking far past the thumbs. If you cannot accomplish this, it might mean your eyes are not sending equal messages to the brain and, therefore, your brain is not able to create two-eyed perception. You will not be able a ble to advance to the next phase of the vision game until your y our two eyes are more able to cooperate. Continue covering the eye with the “less clear” vision. Assuming that you are aware of two thumbs, notice if one thumb is higher than the other. Adjust your head by cocking your right earlobe toward the right shoulder or the left shoulder until the two thumbs appear equally high. Maintain breathing and blinking pattern that visibly sustains the presence of the two thumbs. Look through throu gh and beyond beyon d the holes. Recall Rec all the farther away you can look, the less apparent the holes will be. In the presence of the perception of two thumbs, explore the following way: * * * * * * *
Does one thumb look more ‘real’ than the other? Give one word that describes the other thumb? Can you make one thumb go away? Can you switch between one thumb and another? Does one thumb seem less ‘solid’ than the other? Does one thumb seem smaller or bigger? Are there differences in height between the thumbs? (If so, cock your head from side to side,
right ear toward right shoulder. After aligning the two thumbs, are the eyes in the same horizontal line or plane? If not, what is the implication? implicati on? The difference in height between the two thumbs is particularly particularl y relevant to astigmatism. By keeping both thumbs the same height will reduce your astigmatic way of looking.)
You may wish to explore thumb zapping zapping at different distances distances like you did in step 2. Record your results of this practice as follows Vision Fitness Levels: 1. One thumb only. 2. No change in the thumb. 3. Two, and the one thumb fades. 4. Two, one thumb is higher. 5. Two, and equal. You can also rank your thumb-zapping vision fitness on a scale of 0 to 10, 0 being not able to perform, and 10 being the maximum m aximum skill level. le vel. The subjective quantification results are a re worth wo rth having for later comparison. Remember to take off the Pinhole Pinho le ‘no-glasses” and repeat step 1. How is your clearness and unclearness after this practice? How do your eyes feel? Write down your responses in your diary.
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9. Eye crossing Introduction Eye crossing can be defined as the ability for you to voluntarily cross your eyes with no external support like a finger or pencil. You will be accurately centring each eye inward in equal amounts and being able to perceive a distant double image equally separated on each side of the thumb. Note: There is no danger of your eyes becoming stuck while you do the eye-crossing vision game even though you may have been told that as a child.
In many instances, this simple physical skill has not been developed or practised. Clinical research has shown the importance of this voluntary control process is highly necessary for maintaining high degrees of eye crossing. In visual science this is called convergence. When there is a low ability to converge then supposedly, the involuntary eye-focusing system, called ‘accommodation’, may be over-stimulated to compensate for a low convergence capacity. Eye crossing is actually good for astigmatism and should be practiced. This will be necessary for you to be able to perform in step 11. When you are properly visually centred then you can maintain better concentration, complete assignments and more m ore effectively effec tively play sports sp orts and be comfortable c omfortable while working on a computer. This is called being more focused. If you cannot cross your eyes, you have to use props like a thumb or a pencil. It is normal for you see two images in the background. This is known as physiological diplopia or ‘normal’ double vision. Attempt to see the object far away as two, without the presence of the thumb at all. That is, align your gaze where the thumb used to be and maintain the appearance of double vision far away. You can accomplish this by tuning into the darkness of the circles as you adjust your focus to the place where the thumb used to be. As A s you adjust your yo ur eye crossing closer close r and closer to the little holes, the distance of the double object widens while the little holes begin to overlap each other. By practicing the eye crossing and thumb zapping game, you are training your eye muscle flexibility combined with relaxation. This helps the eyes cross inward, as well as sharpening the precision of the focusing muscle inside in side your yo ur eyes. ey es. Stimulating Stimu lating the th e outside ou tside and an d inside muscles is most desirable for the eyes to work together as a team. Do this for 10 breaths. Notice that while crossing your eyes, everything far away also seems to become smaller and is unclear than objects closer by. Keep the feeling feeling of relaxation relaxation present. After you have completed this practice, remove the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” and check your eyesight by looking at objects in the far distance. You can even repeat the slit experiment experimen t –step 3. It is quite common and most gratifying for an increase in clearness to occur as a result of this vision practice. practice . The important point as always is to practice without strain of effort. Your goal is to increase the sharpness of your eyesight at intermediate and far distances. In this way you can minimize needing to wear normal compensating compe nsating eyeglasses for these distances.
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Observing your results The levels of eye crossing skill can be broken down as follows: (A score of 1 represents a lower level of vision fitness. A score of 5 is the highest level.)
Levels: 1. 2.
The eyes are physically unable to cross. You cannot mobilise the eyes to the point of seeing one pencil or thumb at your check distance.
3.
You need a single pencil positioned at the point of eye-crossing in order to give yourself something to look at.
4.
You can cross your eyes, see two distant objects and hold this view with out effort.
5.
You can zoom away and make one distant object and then zoom back towards the holes and make see two distant objects.
As you practice eye crossing from day 21 you will notice yourself travelling through the 5 steps above. Give yourself more time if you need it. You can always continue this practice after day 30. As a general rule, you can introduce the eye crossing practice provided the following criteria are met: i) You report two thumbs on the thumb zapping at some level; and ii) Compare your level of eyesight and vision fitness between your right and left eyes. If the percentage difference between the eyes is no more than 10% (This is determined by comparing the right and left eye percentages you recorded off the Bach Freiburg visual acuity test.
Figure 19
This can be evaluated with or without the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”; if the difference is greater than 10% without a lens prescription, always use the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” during any two-eyed activity, such as thumb zapping or eye crossing.)
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a. Visual biofeedback There are four diagrams for each kind of astigmatism. Choose the figure suited for your kind of astigmatism. For example, if you have unclear vertical kind of astigmatism, then choose figure 27, and so on.
The following basic steps apply for all diagrams. For each diagram observe the specific suggestions noted.
Figure 27 A Vertical Astigmatism
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Figure 27 B
This is a two-eyed practice. Both eyes should be open. Begin with the eye-crossing mode on day 11. If your vision skills are good enough you can do this without using your thumb or another object between your eyes ey es and the figure. Position yourself y ourself 40 centimetres from the figure and an d wear the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”. ‘no-glasses”. When your eyes are in the crossing mode, you will observe a third imaginary image in between the two ‘real’ images. It will look like figure 27 B. When you are in either the eye crossing or uncrossing mode the two images can be directed into what will appear as an overlapped third image directly between the two real images. Repeat also for the thumb-zapping phase where you look past the two real images. Observe size differences. Remember that the third, middle image will appear smaller in the crossed mode and larger in the thumb-zapping thumb-zapping mode. Attempt to trombone (move (move the figure closer and further) the figure while you keep the presence of the third “fused” image and be aware of all the elements of the picture clearly focused. Breathe as well, and repeat for 10 breaths and then rest your eyes, as this can be a very strenuous practice. If you have horizontal or oblique astigmatism you will use one of the following figures.
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Figure 28A Horizontal Astigmatism.
Figure 28B
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Figure 29A
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Figure 29B
12. Visual acuity (Eyesight) You can choose to use a regular eye chart of different size letters that you can make your self on a computer or use the Bach Freiburg visual acuity test.
Figure 20
What is important is that in addition to the feedback you will gain from step 11, you should have a numerical record of your progress. It is suggested that you repeat the Bach Freiburg visual acuity test on days 1, 10, 20 and 30. If you apply the principles of this booklet longer than the 30 days, repeat this test every 10 days. __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ __________________________________________________________ ____________________________ © 2006 to 2010 – All Rights Reserved. Reserved. Copying of this e-book is Illegal. Offenders will be prosecuted without warning. You have the right to make one copy copy for your self ONLY.
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13. Neck roll As you can appreciate you neck is a vital part of the process of having relaxed eyes and clearer eyesight. Your eyes are nourished by your blood that flows from the heart through your neck and to the eyes. If your neck is stiff and tense, you will limit the flow of blood. In addition, the neck is quite often misaligned when astigmatism exists. The neck roll practise keeps the muscles of your neck flexible.
First gently practice moving your head towards your right shoulder being in your naked vision. Repeat in the opposite direction toward your left shoulder. Then gently guide your head forward to your chest. Move slowly while breathing. Then let your head gently glide backwards to the point where w here your yo ur head hea d touches touch es the top of your back. b ack. It is important that you yo u do not use pressure in this practice. Be careful not to strain. Lastly, you make a circular motion with your head traversing all the positions you went through, first clockwise and then counter clockwise. Repeat for 5 breaths for each movement. Thereafter, do an additional 5 breaths wearing the Pinhole ‘no-glasses”. This time observe distance details after each 5-breath sequence. Move your eyes from one object to another and then repeat the next neck roll movement.
D.
Amblyopia and Strabismus
Amblyopia is called a lazy eye condition. In conventional medical science, it is believed that this condition cannot be helped beyond age 7. Amblyopia exists when no matter what lens is placed before the eye, the eyesight does not improve beyond a certain level. Conventional Conventiona l eye e ye doctors have been trained to believe that the brain cannot be changed after a certain age. Since 1999, research has shown that the brain has a ‘plasticity’ that exists even in adults. There is now clinical evidence that the adult brain can be trained to increase the number of axon and dendrite nerve connections. It is from this position, that the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” are ‘no-glasses” are used to increase the function of a so-called ‘lazy eye’. However, there is a word of caution. There is a risk that if your lazy eye begins to see again it may not be happy to cooperate with your normally functioning eye. There is a possibility of short periods of double vision. As always, you should discuss your vision needs with your eye doctor. The condition of amblyopia is usually associated with a secondary condition of strabismus. This means that there is a turning in or out of one of the eyes. If one eye turns in there is a very high probability that you will be farsighted. In this case you will use the farsightedness section of the booklet. Please recognize that your progress will be slow and you may not be able to the more difficult steps where both eyes are demanded to cooperate as a team.
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In this case you are probably only using one eye to look with. You can test this by attempting to do the thumb-zapping practice in step 7 of the farsightedness section. If you are nearsighted and have an amblyopia and/or strabismus you can use the nearsightedness section and follow the steps as far as you can. Rather than progress to the two-eyed practices, stay with the one-eyed steps for a longer period of time. Because of the complexity of these eye conditions you may need to seek the support of a vision therapy or behavioural oriented optometrist.
Follow-ups During your training process it is predictable that you will need progress vision examinations with your eye doctor. If you use a lens prescription, the first sign of successful relaxation is that your current contact lenses or eyeglasses will seem to be too strong. This is good news. This is the time to obtain a lesser lens prescription. If your progress is slow during the 30 day cycle, you can always repeat and do a second 30 day sequence. You are to be commended for helping yourself be more relaxed and helping your eyes to function at the highest possible level of efficiency. efficienc y. Enjoy your Pinhole ‘no-glasses” ‘no-glass es” and this wonderful wonderf ul way to build relaxation into your daily life.
Disclaimer The information, training processes and solutions offered in this booklet are for the purpose of enhancing a relaxed lifestyle and are educational based. Beyond 2020 Vision® does not offer medical diagnosis or optometric treatments and is not a replacement for such a service. The Pinhole ‘no-glasses” process is a considered a complement to your conventional medical programs and you are recommended recommende d to consult with your medical and eye doctor regarding all decisions regarding the health of your eyes. All material in this booklet is presented in an accurate and scientific way and is copyrighted. How the information from this booklet is used is not under the direct control of Beyond 2020 Vision® therefore, Beyond 2020 Vision® nor representatives, do not take responsibility for the misuse of the booklet content or the Pinhole ‘no-glasses” or the results you obtain. Every person is responsible for his or her own results and experiences. Beyond 2020 Vision® and EyeCode® trademarks are registered. All rights are reserved. No parts of the booklet may be duplicated or distributed without the written consent of the author.
Beyond 2020Vision® Post Office Box 68 Roberts Creek B.C. V0N 2W0 Canada Tel (206) 905-1393 Fax (604) 608-3519 Skype – robertokaplan
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