Improving the Sight

According to statistics released by The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), of the eight million children deprived of schooling in 19 Arab countries, more than half are girls. As in other countries, when girls do have the right to an education, they tend to perform better than boys, repeating grades less and earning better marks. The report also shows that investment by international organizations and national governments over the past four decades have given way to a substantial rise in the number of girls attending secondary school.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, Pravda

'Keenness of sight has achieved instances transcending belief in the highest degree', wrote Pliny. 'Cicero records that a parchment copy of Homer's Iliad was enclosed in a nutshell. He also records the case of a man who could see 123 miles. Marcus Varro also gives this man's name, which was Strabo, and states that in the Punic Wars he was in the habit of telling from the promontory of Lilybaeum in Sicily the actual number of ships in a fleet that was passing out from the harbour at Carthage.'

The normal human eye in good health is capable of detecting the light of a match on a clear, dark night at a distance of fifteen miles. It is capable of detecting the light of a candle at a distance of thirty miles. When a person who is not night-blind passes from a brilliantly lighted room into one that is dimly lit, his eyes may become as much as 2000 times more sensitive to light. The eye is the basis of the most important of all man's five senses and is one of the most extraordinary organs in the human body.

Nonetheless, many people have difficulty with their eyes. Possibly as many as half the young adult population cannot see well without corrective lenses. With age the number increases. The majority of older people suffer from what is called 'middle-aged sight' or presbyopiawhich is caused by atrophy of the ciliary muscle in the eye and by a gradual hardening of the crystalline lens that is used for focusing.

There is something strange about this because every other organ in the human body seems to be capable of self-repair, especially in young people. As the doctors say, "medicus curat, natura sanat", (the doctor treats, nature heals). Only the eye is exempted from this privilege, and only the eye must, in every case, be fitted with what one professional in the field called 'those valuable crutches'--spectacles.

This seems strange to an oculist, who is accustomed to questioning orthodox theories about this and that, but it also seemed strange to at least one oculist in New York named William Horatio Bates.

Bates' arguments were all based on the fact that the orthodox theory was first proposed by Helmholz in the last century. He believed that focusing in the eye, which is technically called accomodation , was due entirely to the ciliary muscle and to the crystalline lens, which it controls. If you want to see something far away, for example, the ciliary muscle tends to relax, allowing the lens to flatten. This brings distant scenes to a sharp focus on the retina of the eye, which is composed of light-sensitive cells. If you want to see something close up, the muscles tend to tighten, causing the lens to bulge.

Dr. Bates pointed out, though, that some ability to accommodate has been noticed in cataract patients who have had their lenses totally removed. This is an astonishing fact that cannot be explained in terms of Helmholz's theory. Dr. Bates concluded that Helmholz's theory was either inadequate or positively incorrect.

He suggested instead that the six external muscles that we use when looking up, down, right, or left have a part to play by changing the shape of the eye.

A near-sighted person, for example, has an eye that is slightly elongated, so that images come to a focus in front of the retina instead of on it. The ciliary muscle and lens cannot correct for so great an error of refraction. Corrective lenses are, therefore necessary. Concave lenses are required for near-sightedness and convex lenses for far-sightedness depending on whether the retinal image needs to be moved forwards or backwards.

Dr. Bates believed that the external muscles might be pulling the eye out of shape in a person with visual problems and that, if the situation could be corrected, the person might be able to see normally without any corrective lenses at all. If that is true, it means the end of a large and prosperous industry. And-that being the case-it is not surprising that Bates' theories found little favor with the makers of optical glass.

An intense advertising campaign was initiated to convince people that they needed to continue buying spectacles for ever and ever. It was pointed out that some of Bates' theories were pretty wild and it was suggested on that basis that his methods would not work.

The facts is, though, that they do work. Eye expert harris Gruman, who assessed both Bates' theories and methods, wrote that in spite of Bates' hypotheses and theories, he did hit upon some worthwhile methods of aiding human sight. Time has proven their worth and for that the world should be grateful.

Lawrence Galton mentions a woman who had only one-tenth of normal vision who could, therefore, be considered blind. After a few months of visual training she passed a driving test with 20/40 vision. In two years her vision was completely normal.

Another of Galton's examples is a 'far-sighted businessman' who could not read without glasses. The printed word was a mere blur to him, yet after three months of Bates' training, he discovered that his glasses were no longer necessary. He discarded them and has not used them since.

One of the most interesting testimonials, however, comes from an article in the Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift. The author was a German Army Surgeon who presided over a test of Bates' methods with near-sighted recruits. The recruits were asked to discard their glasses temporarily and try to pass their marksmanship tests using Bates' exercises instead. The results were so excellent that visual training was officially endorsed by the German Government.

The basis of it is quite simple. Sight consists of three processes: Sensing, Selecting, and Perceiving. Only the first of these, sensing, has anything to do with the eyes. Selecting and perceiving take place entirely in the brain.

In fact, even sensing involves the brain to an extent because accomodation is performed requiring that the brain control the necessary muscles. After sensing has taken place, the brain must aright the image projected on the retina. The retinal image is upside down and there must be other corrections in the visual image--again performed by the visual centers in the brain.

'The optical quality of the human eye is extraordinarily bad', writes Lyall Watson. 'The image projected onto the retina is blurred at the edges and fades away into iridescent halos. All these defects are put right in the brain.' That being the case it is obvious that the brain must be in good working order for vision to proceed unimpaired. That is where Bates comes in; he contends that owing to stress our brains are not always in good working order.

'The origin of any error of refraction,' he wrote, 'is simply a thought - a wrong thought - and its disappearance is as quick as the thought that relaxes.' Bates mentioned a young man who happened to be twenty-five years old and who was one of his patients. If he stared at a blank wall 'without trying to see' he showed no error in refraction. But if someone caused stress, for example, by saying that he was twenty-six instead of twenty-five, he became near-sighted. 'When he stated or remembered the truth his vision was normal,' wrote Bates, 'but when he stated or imagined an error he had an error of refraction.'

When this was first published the world was astonished. Since then we have learned that stress - the very same thing that appears to cause visual problems - is also responsible for high blood pressure, heart disease, allergies, asthma, stomach ulcers, and possibly even cancer. It is worth mentioning here that two of these - heart disease and cancer - between them are responsible for three out of every four deaths in the Western World today. It is, therefore, not surprising if stress affects such a delicate sense as that of sight.

Although we do not normally notice these effects, our ancestors did and they made them a part of our folklore. Aldous Huxley collected numerous examples: Fear makes the world 'go black' or 'swim before our eyes'. We are 'numb with worry'. There is the proverbial seamstress who can see to thread a needle, but who cannot see to read. And there is the following well known effect mentioned by Arthur Edward Waite in The Mysteries of Magic. 'If a man be bidden to look for anything by another whose will dominates, but perturbs his own and whom he fears to displease, his anxiety to find it will sometimes so confuse him that he will not see the object, though it may be under his very eyes.'

There are several ways in which you may reverse that process. Dr. Forbes Winslow quotes a 'distinguished oculist' to the effect that 'light is injurious to the eyes in proportion as the red and yellow rays prevail'. These produce what he calls 'cerebral and visual excitement', stress in modern language, 'followed by debility of the retina'. Lamp shades which favour calming and soothing colours, such as blue, produce less stress and better sight.

Another technique is what Bates called central fixation. The average reading distance is fourteen inches. The best clarity is attained within a circle one half inch in diameter. This is the part of the printed page which produces an image at the exact center of the retina. The central portion of the retina is called the macula lutea and the center of the macula lutea is called the fovea centralis.

Exercise for Better Vision

Since it is in this one have inch circle that you can see best it is obvious that you want to direct your eyes, so that whatever you want to see produces an image in that area. Your brain has to work harder to resolve images at the edge of the retina. That produces strain, therefore, when you are looking, you need to be sure that you are looking directly at whatever you are looking at. Simple as this principle is it does not occur to many people who are not trained in optics (and better trained at casual glancing. e.g. notice in a grocery store how people are constantly misjudging where to push their baskets in relation to the person in front of them. This is because most people try to rely on their peripheral vision rather than looking directly at other people. This sort of behaviour is also taken onto the highways-where misjudgment can be a lot more deadly).

To encourage central fixation, Bates recommended mobility drills and swinging. The next time you are walking along the street glance at the people on the other side of the street. Glance directly at the first person, then allow your eyes to smoothly pass from that person to the next, and the next, and the next. Each time look directly at your target.

After you have tried that, try moving your eye back and forth, so that you get the illusions of things 'swinging' from side to side. This is essentially a relaxation exercise. Avoid staring, keep your eyes level as you swing, and allow yourself to blink. Blinking not only relaxes the eye, but helps to keep it clean, and by swinging you can get the idea of calmly looking without strain.

Now we are going to cover only one more Bates exercise. It is the one which most interesting to oculists. Those who wish to work with the complete Bates system will do well to get one of the excellent manuals that have been published. Especially recommended is Aldous Huxley's The Art of Seeing. Not only was it written by one of England's great men of letters, but it is widely available in the public libraries. As for us I should recommend palming even to those who have 20/20 vision.

Like swinging, palming is a relaxation exercise. Unlike swinging it is done with the eyes closed, usually after any other eye exercises.

Cover your closed eyes with the palms of your hands. Your eyes should be relaxed and there should be no tension in either hand or in the muscles of your face. You should not rub your eyes with your palms. Just allow your palms to lightly touch your eyelids. As you do this - visualize a sea of blackness.

Bates says that to the extent that you do not see blackness while palming, you are suffering from mental stress and consequent strain. 'When you palm perfectly,' he wrote, 'you will see a field so black that it is impossible to remember, imagine, or see anything blacker. When you are able to do this your sight will be normal.

One of Bates' patients suffered from astigmatism and incipient cataract. He was seventy years old and effected a complete cure after palming continuously for twenty hours. Aldous Huxley recommends mental palming when the normal method is impossible. Simply close your eyes and imagine that you have covered them with your palms. It is not as effective as actually using your hands, of course, but extremely beneficial nonetheless.

The reason that this works according to Huxley is that 'all parts of the body carry their own characteristic potentials'. He suggest that 'the placing of the hands over the eyes does something to the electrical condition of the fatigued organs'.

Edwin Babbit anticipated many of Bates' ideas in his Principles of Light and Colour. He suggests that 'a person strongly charged with vitalizing force may sometimes animate and regulate these muscles [in the eye] with the ends of the fingers.

The AMORC Rosicrucians teach their members to 'palm' using only the first finger of each hand on the theory that this is where the 'radial nerve' terminates. AMORC Members have worked with this technique and were eventually able to discard their glasses using this method alone. One of these, a South American, had his progress monitored by an ophthalmologist, who confirmed that his eyesight was indeed improving. After you have allowed your forefingers to rest lightly on your closed eyelids for five or ten minutes, you will find it helpful to remove them and just let your eyes relax for a few minutes before opening them. If you open your eyes immediately after removing your fingers, you may find that they will not focus for several minutes. This is a normal result, and comes from the excellent relaxation that is induced by the exercise.

Tensor Exercises

The human nervous system is uniquely capable of unlimited training, but the method is the determining factor. This tensor method of relaxation is based on vision. A relaxed eye sees best. The normal eye is relaxed when it shifts steadily. When, for any reason, an eye capable of good vision, begins to stare, the image blurs. Unlike a camera, the eye clearly only on the instant following the relaxing shift. Since the clear formation of images depends on a relaxed brain how do we cause the brain to relax? An obvious approach would be the associative relaxation of the surrounding tissue. You now, consciously, set about relaxing blood vessels of the cortex, the thalamus, and the sub-cortex where the embryo (tensor centers) are located. By association all of the cells around the blood vessels will also automatically relax.

Follow these instructions. This is an exercise for your eyes: Relax - Look, relax - look, relax - look, relax - look, relax - look, etcetera. Practice is necessary. It will be determined by your individual awareness how soon a state of relaxation is achieved. After the method is grasped, this little exercise may be discarded.

Mind Training-Multiple Mentality Course 101

"A True Course in Right/Left Brain Training

Introduction

One of the saddest things the people is this complex world of today are confronted with -- is the disuse of their brains! We are constantly beset and bombarded with ever increasing demands that we are ill equipped or unprepared to handle! Hence, very often, stress sets in. Stress can then contribute to physiological and psychological disruptions which bring about disease and illness. Efficiency is down. Accidents and mistakes become more frequent.

This course may not turn us into an Einstein or an Edison, but it will help us to think with more of what GOD gave us -- our brains. It is the only course of its kind in the world. If we proceed with it lesson by lesson, without deviating or digressing, we will be master over the most difficult problems and the answers will show themselves easily. This course is the key to clearer thinking. It will elicit that latent potential that has always been within us and we will mentally grow strong and vibrant -- full of life and health.

Have you ever watched an unusual performer do something that you thought was fantastic? Did you ever wonder how he got that way? He certainly wasn't born with his talent, but instead he learned to develop such a talent by training himself. We are endowed with the same basic mental and bodily functions as such a performer. Of two people, each possessing the same natural ability and identical schooling, one will attain great heights of achievement, while the other remains in a status of mediocrity.

There are many examples in history of those who excel and use their brain. Some mechanics become Thomas Edisons or Henry Fords while others are "grease monkeys" to the day of their deaths. This wide discrepancy in the fortunes of people is due to the fact that some see and do the right thing at the right time -- while others do not. But... the one man in a thousand who sees correctly and acts with decisiveness at precisely the proper time does not blindly HAPPEN to do so. He sees and acts courageously and correctly because his mind is trained to react efficiently under all conditions, to tell him the right thing to do under any and all circumstances. He has acquired this mental training -- this ability to make his brain cells really work -- unconsciously. He has not realized that he has been training and developing his mind to do so.

After completing this mental development course, we will no longer suffer the balm of a tired mind. Instead, we will be mentally alive and feel at ease with ourselves. Problems that plagued us before will become easy to solve and the correct decisions will always be readily available.

Follow the instructions conscientiously and you will be amazed at your own ability to perform mental feats that you previously had not thought possible of yourself. It is then that you will realize the unboundless potential of your own mind and what it can do for you. As you proceed through each lesson your brain power will be increasing in strength. Mentally you will be more equipped to handle everyday situations. No matter what your education or experience, for the first time in your life, you will truly be using your brain power storehouse.

Of course, mind training training can only benefit us in proportion to the time and effort with which we devote to it. Don't try to find easy methods of doing a certain exercise or lesson because you will only be cheating yourself out of the rewards of completing that lesson. When an exercise states that you do it from memory alone, then don't copy, but do it from memory alone!

Whatever your profession this course will help you perform better and more efficiently. You will find that the difficult and near impossible tasks will become easy and simple to do. Complete this course and success can be yours and your hidden dreams can be concrete realization.

How the Space Age Degenerates Intelligence

Dr. Alexis Carrel, surgeon, scientist, member of the Rockefeller Institute, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1912 for his success in suturing blood vessels and the transplanting of organs, co-discoverer of the famous Carrel-Dakin Solution which made gangrene virtually unknown in World War I and thus saved tens of thousands of lives, said in his book, "Man, The Unknown: Modern Civilization seems to be incapable of producing people endowed with imagination, intelligence, and courage. In practically every country there is a decrease in the intellectual and moral caliber of those who carry the responsibility of public affairs. The education dispensed by schools and universities consists chiefly in a training of the memory and of the muscles, in certain social manners, in a worship of athletics. Are such disciplines really suitable for modern men who need, above all other things, mental equilibrium, nervous stability, sound judgment, moral courage, and endurance!" Those statements are truer now than when Dr. Carrel wrote the book in the early 1930's. Now our brightest and best students have shown an average drop in SAT scores since the early, speculative arguments that blame television, permissiveness, and education teaching methods abound in this controversy.

But the cause of this mental weakness is not difficult to discern. The pioneers who settle our country were many-sided men. We are not. They were once hunters, trappers, explorers, fighters, teamsters, ship or canoe builders, horsemen, wheelwrights, carpenters, cabinetmakers, well drillers, masons, farmers, blacksmiths, traders, cooks. All these, and more, "specialized" trades and abilities combined in single individuals. No wonder they were possessed of "mental equilibrium, nervous stability", and the other attributes mention by Dr. Carrel! They were well balanced because their talents were well rounded. They had nervous stability because they had serene self-confidence based on a knowledge of their ability to cope with any problem that might arise in their world. They had sound judgment, for the most part, because their minds were expanded, embraced many branches of lore and learning, were capable of thinking on many varied planes.

With the early merchant, he was at once his own architect, store designer, buyer, stock keeper, advertising manager, salesman, bookkeeper, and financial wizard. The doctor of only a generation or two ago was an obstetrician, gynecologist, dentist, ophthalmologist, throat specialist, in short, a 'general practitioner' in all branches of surgery and medicine.

T oday, we have more intelligent exploration, more scientific farming, better architecture, advertising, accounting, obstetrics, dentistry, and surgery. But what Man as a Whole has gained, man as an INDIVIDUAL, we and our families and our employers and our employees has lost. We have lost the capacity for broad gauge reasoning. We are incapable, at present, of viewing many conflicting factors, simultaneously: Weighing them side by side at one and the same time; balancing them, one against another, concurrently; reaching almost instantaneously a decision which we know, in the depths of our being, is the correct decision; and acting upon it promptly with the courage that comes with such conviction.

By relieving Man of the necessity for thinking, except within the exceedingly narrow scope of whatever he has chosen as his life work, this Space Age has dulled and drugged the greater part of Man's Mind. How many men in this day of automobiles could even harness a horse, to say nothing of caring for it? Why, the majority of them do not understand even the automobiles that they drive! The workers themselves, who help build our cars by inserting and securing bolt number "146", do not understand carburetion, ignition, or the principles of the transmission and differential. We no longer train our minds to carry thoughts that we wish to impart to our friends when next we meet them. If the thoughts are important, we reach for the telephone or send a letter. If they are relatively unimportant, we forget them. Machines and computers have become Masters and Minds are deteriorating because of ever decreasing opportunities and need for their use!

That is why our minds need 'limbering up'. The very elementary mental 'gymnastics' at the start may seem useless, almost to the point of foolishness, but they are like the preliminary 'warming up' exercises with which athletes indulge before beginning a game. They are simple, easy to do, and apparently without meaning. However, they are only the start. As your mind gains flexibility, really 'warms' to its task. You shall go farther and farther until you are performing feats that will astound your friends -- which will reflect themselves in your increased business ability and earning power.

This Multiple Mentalism course is a revised version of the course originated by Harry Kahne in the early 1920's. At that time he was billed as 'The Incomparable Mentalist' and 'The Man with the Multiple Mind'.

He often demonstrated his ability on stage by doing six different mental operations simultaneously. His platform performance entailed standing in front of a large blackboard with a piece of chalk in each hand while conversing with the audience. There was a newspaper on a music rack in front of him. He began reading the headlines while writing upside down and backwards with one hand and mirror language with the other hand.

At his left was another small blackboard on which appeared numbers 28, 642, 981, 673 -- which was being divided into five unequal parts -- these figures he began computing at the bottom of the large blackboard. At his right was another small blackboard on which appeared seven columns of figures which ran into the millions. These were being added and notated as well at the bottom of the larger blackboard in front of him.

This was Harry Kahne's demonstration of doing six things at once (i.e. reading, transposing, writing backwards and upside down, holding a conversation, adding and dividing). These six separate processes actually involve fourteen distinct operations:

1)hearing questions
2)answering questions
3)reading newspaper
4)transposing what is read
5)transposing spelling
6)writing with right hand
7)writing with left hand
8)writing upside down
9)carrying six different thoughts in mind
10)retaining questions
11)retaining figures for addition
12)retaining figures for division
13)proving previous work and controlling all other body actions

At the conclusion of Harry Kahne's demonstrations, people often asked him, "Do you really believe that nearly everyone can learn to perform the amazing mental feats that you demonstrate? Is my brain capable of carrying on four to six independent functions at one and the same time as yours does? Isn't the ability to master your training confined to well educated people?" When answering Harry Kahne admitted he had only an average brain that he trained to do things no other man in history had done. Education had no bearing on it. (Education here refers to gaining knowledge of a subject as opposed to mind training which is learning how to learn and increasing mind capacity.)

Harry Kahne's brain was little different than ours. However, such as it was, he taught it to work for him. Really work! All its resources were instantly available when he wanted or needed them. It had been trained to do whathe wanted it to do, when he wanted it done. His was only an average brain made to perform certain tasks for him.

In this series of lessons or exercises are all the things we need to do to make your minds work for us. You will be surprised to find how simple they are and how much actual fun and satisfaction you will get from completing the course. It's like a game, but with afar more value than any game ever possessed!

Follow the instructions conscientiously and you will develop all the cells of your brain. You will train them to work in unison for you. And when they do that, YOU CAN MAKE YOUR MIND DO ANYTHING YOU WANT IT TO DO! You can carry on several lines of thought simultaneously . The most difficult problems will seem to solve themselves. The hardest questions, seen in their proper perspective and with all their factors viewed concurrently , become easy to answer promptly and correctly. you will not become perplexed about little things that now cause you setbacks of greater or lesser degrees, because your brain will automatically analyze and evaluate them accurately and give you the right answers at the right time. Such thinking brings SUCCESS!

The first lessons are almost childishly simple. But as you progress from one to another they become more difficult and involved. However, you mind will become correspondingly more able to grasp them and, in a surprisingly short time, you will actually be amazed by your own ability to perform mental feats you had not thought possible --- feats of incalculable value to you in the business and professional world. You will realize at last that there is literally NO LIMIT to the extent to which you will be able to make your mind work for you!