For Alternative Health Services Magazine Published 1994

GLASSES, THE "GRACE PERIOD":

YES, YOU CAN LEARN TO SEE AGAIN, WITH YOUR OWN EYES

by Jeanne Fitzsimmons, CNVI

"All truth passes through three phases"

First, it is simply ridiculed.

Second, it is violently opposed.

Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."

"Because my colleagues will not accept the facts that I have proven about eyesight being able to be corrected naturally, without glasses, there will be incalculable amount of human misery in this century."

Dr. William Bates, Ophthalmologist, New York Cornell University 1860-1931

I am a Certified Dr. Bates Method eyesight instructor. After wearing glasses for almost 9 years, and having my vision continuing to decline with stronger and stronger lenses, I allowed my own eyesight to correct back to 20/15. I had worn both glasses or contacts on my eyes. But only after at least 3 years of denying I needed them in the first place, and then pedaling as fast as I could to "hold back the hand's of time", did I give in to the seeming inevitable.

That 'giving in' began a long, sad, and frustrating 10 years with my eyesight. I was told I was farsighted, unable to see up close clearly. Of course, eventually I also needed them to see distance objects, and eventually for driving. I had to wear this "machine" on my face in order to see and I wanted to find out why. I had become a programmed slave to an optical device. What could I do about improving my own eyesight? After all, I'd had perfect sight most of my life!

I call the time I wore glasses my "grace period". It was the period of time for researching, questioning, seeking out answers, and hopefully finding the solutions I was looking for. It worked. I will be grateful for the rest of my life to Dr. William Bates, M.D., and to his 35 years of research. It is also a "grace period", because I experienced my visual blur as a 'red flag', a warning that I was doing something wrong, from the inside, to obscure my vision. And again, "grace", because the stress underlying my blur and eyestrain was halted before a more serious eye disease developed.

The research, case histories, and studies of those learning these proper skills, even those with severe visual distress, have not only benefited, but Clara Hackett, a long revered Bates instructor, no longer living, found such eye conditions as glaucoma, cataracts, conical cornea, macular degeneration, and retinitis pigmentosa along with atropy of the optic nerve, successfully responding to the Bates Method of eye training. When scoffed at by eye doctors,, she replied, " I don't care what you call me, as long as my people see".

pg.2

I attended a vision training class at a School for Better Eyesight and learned what Dr. Bates had proven to be true. Vision can be corrected naturally. This became a 'fact' in my life as it has for hundreds of thousands of people around the world since his profound, and natural discoveries. In the early part of this century. The beauty of this work is that YOU prove it. I did, and now I can see again, without glasses, contacts, or any kind of surgery! Someone once told me, " If you want to un-learn something, go to someone who's been there, got out, and can show you how!"

I learned that if I had good vision habits, didn't strain, re-learned what to do, or what not to do, to use my eyes properly and relaxed, my eyes would see for me again. Being raised by very practical, Midwestern and slightly skeptical parents, I had to prove this for myself. It somehow made sense to me, at a subtle inner level. Six years ago this happened for me and after being able to see again, I changed careers, studied, apprenticed, and became certified in the Dr. Bates Method, in order to teach these vision skill to others. It is only natural to relax and let our eyes see for us, They know how, if only we will get out of the way and stop interfering with what they know how to do, they will serve us the way they were designed to do. See for us.

PERFECT SIGHT; The Natural Vision Improvement Center of Austin, opened almost 2 years ago after my relocating from Arizona, and California. My introduction to Austin from others already here included this phrase, "an open-minded, holistically oriented, fitness and wellness-minded community, becoming more and more alternatively receptive.' The 'jewel of Texas' ahead of other areas, eclectic, vibrant, health-oriented. I am finding this to be more and more true.

The center, devoted solely to natural vision improvement, focuses specifically on the classic teachings, the essence of the Dr. Bates Method. This is not a program of eye exercises. It is relearning proper habits of seeing, good vision habits to be re integrated back into your life, much like walking, or talking, at the unconscious level. Currently if there is difficulty in seeing, we have unconscious poor vision habits.

After traveling to several cities and teaching for 4 years prior to arriving in Austin. I realized as I was teaching from city to city, that there were very few Bates Method instructors in this country. Having had a background in communication, training, and television advertising, I knew the power of getting the word out through various forms of media. It was time to educate, because I wanted others to know they, too, could be free from being a slave to glasses.

Free from glasses, headaches, eye strain, loss of spatial perception (3-D), shut down of eyes while reading, poor comprehension, slow reading speed, that ever-present neck and shoulder tightness or pain, sensitivity to light during the day, or while driving at night, etc. The ongoing expense of optical devices, more stylish, and more expensive, as well as more kinds and reasons or multiple pairs, is only one factor. Deterioration of eyesight is the greatest catastrophe. Our sight is a precious gift, and most of us don't realize it but over 80% of the information we receive from the world comes to us through our eyes. If you can relate to any of these topics, read on, I think you will find not only hope, and relief, but become excited about what I will share with you.

Dr. Bates states that, "over 90% of vision problems are caused by mental eye strain". "Almost all vision problems can be corrected by relearning proper habits. Relaxation is the key to good vision". We, as a culture have never been taught what it is we are doing every day that is stressing our mental/emotional visual system. We simply are not properly educated, in the past 50 years especially. Bates's work was at one time introduced in the grammar schools, children were taught, encouraged and educated about their eyesight, and how to keep it alert, moving, playful, and resilient. Natural things, that were in harmony with how our physical body functions.

I call this simple and yet profound work 'the joy of seeing". Over the past 6 years I have worked with all kinds of visual problems. Near and farsighted, astigmatism, lazy eye, crossed eyes, and all of these "errors of accommodation" (inability for the eyes to properly and easily focus near and far) are most often able to be corrected with the Bates Method. As a researcher and ophthalmologist, performing surgeries, and treating diseases of the eye, and well as preventing children, or adults from ever needing glasses, Dr. Bates proved the true facts about eyesight. Mental eyestrain=tight muscles and infleximility=visual blur.

Dr. Bates was a well-known and respected Ophthalmologist in New York City. Previously a medical doctor, he went back to school to become and eye doctor. He wanted to find out why his patients were getting stuck with spectacles. His interest was sensory perception. His 1920 book, "Perfect Sight Without Glasses", caused a great uproar in his medical community.

I happen to have a copy of the out of print original, and in the preface of the book, he states, "This book aims to be a collection of facts and not of theories, and insofar as it is, I do not fear successful contradiction. I have never been able to formulate a theory that would withstand the test of the facts either in my possession at the time, or accumulated later".

I also happen to have his "hard to find" monthly journals, describing his work with patients and students over the years. It is fascinating--nothing was out of his reach in helping people see better.

TRUTH, OR FACTS, IF CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEFS CAUSE FEAR AND REJECTION: Bates' discoveries caused both.

After presenting his findings, he was promptly ousted out of Cornell University, where he taught in the School of Ophthalmology, and booted out of the medical profession. After all, he was a medical doctor, and he'd proven that eyesight could be corrected NON-medically, even writing a book about it so the public could understand it, Through his research and integrity, he basically exposed his own profession as one of resisting both facts, and change. This was not welcome news. After all, optometry was just positioning for its meteor rise.

So, spectacles were in, Bates was out, as well as any other professionals who followed in his footsteps and helped people correct their own sight with the facts he had proven. Blacklisting followed and heads rolled everywhere.

Undaunted, he and his wife opened their School for Better Eyesight in New York, Until his death in 1931, he continued to research, have students of ALL ages out of glasses. People were able to see naturally again for the rest of their lives, as long as good vision habits, "natural seeing" was lived. The quote at the beginning the article was made after proving the good vision habits and relaxation were the key to normal sight.

Vision training is the science of teaching people how to see with greater comfort, with less strain. It teaches people proper seeing skills. When those skills are fully integrated, (what we used to do naturally before we needed glasses in the first place), our eyes normalize, we stop needing glasses, and as our vision heals from all the stress and strain, our RX gets weaker as our eyes begin to see for themselves again--without the need for glasses, contacts, or surgery.

pg. 5

Although vision therapy has proved successful in thousands of documented cases, until recently it was supported primarily by anecdotal evidence. There was very little hard scientific data, and, as a result, vision therapy became the step-child of eye care. But vision therapy is gaining prominence and scientific credibility. Researchers can now measure the results of vision therapy with clinical accuracy.

Vision therapy, is different from vision training. Therapy often includes exercises developed to put individuals through a weekly, often year-long meeting with a vision therapist, Behavioral Optometrist. This often includes daily exercises, and eventually results in tremendous benefits. However if individuals do not incorporate the proper vision habits, even after their therapy, vision can often reverse. The reason for this is that Bates proved that underlying all vision improvement and normalization of eyesight, is relaxation. The Bates Method is primarily re-learning and re integrating these proper relaxed habits so they become natural again, like they used to be, 24 hours a day. Yes, we have mental eyestrain even while we sleep-just because we close our eyes at night, doesn't mean we are relaxing our mental eyestrain. So, what we learn consciously during vision training, eventually becomes so natural (like learning to ride a bike or drive a standard transmission car), that it then is experienced and lived from our unconscious mind having learned. It is like being put on automatic pilot. The difference is that the habits are now, and once again, good ones for the system. Relaxation more deeply impressed.

Dr. Mitchell Scheiman, chief of the Pediatric/Binocular Vision Service at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, calls the conflict between medicine and behavioral optometry typical--and troubling. "Opthamologists and optometrists receive completely different education. Opthamologists have no training in vision therapy and know nothing about how it works. The medical world has a bias against anything nonmedical. They refuse to recognize the great body of optometric literature that proves the validity of vision therapy as a successful mode of correction, and do not inform their patients of this option. As a result, many people are not getting the help they need, the help that is available". Excerpts from Natural Health May/June 1992

Today's vision therapy techniques, (different somewhat from Bates' natural vision improvement), are about 60 years old and are based on the work of A.M. Skeffington, O.D.. He believed that good vision was the result of the relationship between the eyes, the brain, and the rest of the body. This is not a view held by the medical community, where the eyes are considered independent of the body as a whole and often separate from one another

pg. 6

Even after Dr Bates' findings were buried to the public, and his peers refused to accept what he had proven, Bates Method instructors continued to work quietly, and successfully all over the world. The US is one of the last advanced countries to fully embrace natural vision improvement. Since approximately 70% of the population needs some kind of optical device in order to see, we can conclude it is a combination of ignorance, quick fix demand, and greed. After all, it is the American economic way, create something that causes the public to be dependent upon your product, even if it is temporarily beneficial, and you've got them for life.

Optical shops are more plentiful than golden arches. Every strip center has its optical shop and smaller, independent optometrists are fighting to stay alive as they now have to compete with the corporate optical producers. In many states, Arizona to be one of them, laws are now being passed to give optometrists the added ability to administer drugs for the eyes. Even though they are not medical doctors, the medical model continues to eclipse anything natural, non-medical, or sadly, anything putting the power back into the hands of the individual through education.

I once asked an associate vision improvement teacher, why there weren't more articles, books, and information made available to the public about this work. Dr. Brooks, O.D., replied, "well, the monies for research and product development primarily come from the pharmaceutical companies, and when there are billions of dollars for researching and testing of optical devices, etc. the research simply goes to the medical model." That makes sense.

Big business, captured audience, and a culture that is led like sheep to believe there is nothing that can be done. A lethal combination for those of us that want to be informed of options other than glasses, contacts, surgical techniques that are all primarily still investigational in nature and costly on may levels.

I have spoken with vision therapists who are slowly being pressured into more of the medical model, and forced to sell glasses to stay in business, knowing full-well there are options. It is sad to see those who graduated from the University of Houston 25 years ago when the cirriculum included natural techniques upwards of 80% of their schooling, feel they go home a failure at night after a day at the "glasses salon" in their optometric office. Forced to push 30-40 people through the office each day to survive, and compete.

One doctor said, "when I have parents bring in their children to go the direction of vision training, those preventatively-minded, I go home a happy man at night. There just isn't time to educate people and run my business effectively--giving the patients 20/20 sight on demand."

pg. 7

The public is not currently educated, however in the last 10 years, but with the advent of alternative health services and more resources for education being made available, people are finding out one of the "best kept secret" in town. Yes, you can improve your eyesight, naturally, simply and easily.

I was in Houston last year teaching a vision class there, and the previous week, a natural vision therapist Ophthalmologist had spoken on natural healing of the eyes, through natural techniques, good nutrition, reducing stress, and herbal remedies. I was impressed, and delighted. I also have spoken with a natural vision optometrist in Houston who is experiencing the 'pinch' of medically directed business in the optometric profession. He's not as free as he used to be, to treat the whole human being. This is simply the reality now.

When an optometrist corrects his or her own eyesight naturally, their practice is never quite the same. During an early part of my training to teach natural vision, I met an optometrist in Northern Arizona. We eventually co-facilitated trainings in Phoenix, and he is constantly offering those he gives eye exams to the "natural option." Dr. Robert Brooks, O.D. says, "I corrected my sight from 20/300, back to 20/60, in a year an a half. It would have taken less time, but my peers were giving me such a hard time that I was choosing this natural direction. I was seeing better all the time, and to deter their ridicule, I practiced my vision games, and natural techniques when away from them.

He continues, "I heard about Dr. Janet Goodrich and found out about her instructor courses and attended a 10-week course from her in Queensland, Austrailia. Goodrich is considered one of the leaders in natural vision improvement and conducts courses both for instructors and people wishing to improve their own eyesight. Brooks says natural vision proponents focus on three areas to improve vision: Relaxation techniques; vision games, (not exercises) proper vision habits, instead; and visualization of attaining clear vision. What it all comes down to is a healing of the whole person, and along with that, the person's vision.

"Embracing the blur" rather that straining to see clearly if important for class participants. What we fight we hold. What we embrace, we relax. Goodrich suggests a series of transition glasses which correct vision to about 20/40, allowing the eyes to grow into better vision while still being able to see and legal to drive. In my own classes I have had students go back to a former RX the very first day, some back-step 2 prescriptions within a week or so, depending upon their speed of integrating the good vision habits. So keep your former prescriptions if you think this may be an option you would like to explore for your own visual healing.

My training has included this profoundly effective Goodrich approach. It is the playful, vision game part of the training. Our eyesight is a very playful thing until we shut it down from straining, and staring, being off in our mind, spacing out, not being present. She has created a powerful program based upon the Bates Method and teaches instructors all over the world. As she says, "Bates Method teachers used to be as scarce as hen's teeth, but not with people wanting to take responsibility for their eyes, rather than giving it all over to medical doctor's, the Bates Method has once again come into demand."

In an article, "THE VISION OF THE FUTURE', from Rainbow Network Magazine, she states, "farsighted people have the big picture, the large overview. But they can have trouble with close personal relationships, while nearsighted people have a comfort level very close to themselves, introverted and often closed, and are afraid that world 'out there', fearful of their future."

"Each vision problem has its underlying emotional, physical and mental root resulting in different kinds, and ranges of blur. The physical aspects are covered with vision activities-palming, near-far focussing, etc, to enhance the flexibility of the eye and facial muscles. Re-educating our postural habits supports the eyesight greatly. The Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais, yoga, breathwork, chiropractic, massage therapy, and many other modalities of mind/body healing, or bodywork, supports good vision habits. It can be very effective, at many health levels.

She continues, "Bringing all areas into balance is the key to perfecting the vision and has a lot to do with countering stress. There are many little ways stress creeps into seeing. The shortsighted person, for instance, is likely to emphasize effort, trying to get the information in instead of just letting the eyes receive the message. The left hemisphere is overstimulated. This is the analytic area, the organizing ability, details, and short-term memory. We don't want to see the bigger picture, the longer term. We want to be in control of what is near at hand. The hyperope (needing reading glasses) with his larger view is often more creative and experiences more of the depth and colour of things, but misses much of what is happening close at hand."

Even though these statements may sound like generalizations to us at first glance, there is much deeper truth in the recognition of how each student sees, as they go through the training. Nothing is forced, they see it on their own through the process of self-discovery.

pg. 8

Glaucoma is pressure oriented and can be related to the pressures of life, Even teenagers can suffer from it. "What often helps here is a level of acceptance and surrender. We must be prepared to look homestly and to accept who we really are. There is a lot to be learned from 'non-trying'.

Cataract is physically to do with light, and this is a symbol in other areas of life. Common attitudes associated with cataracts are "I don't want to see the light", or "Sunlight hurts me". This mirrors our reluctance to see the inner light, hence restricting the flow of light in and out.

"All vision problems relate to an aspect of our life, our own uniques perspective. Astigmatism, Retinal Detachment, Macular Degeneration, along with every other form of visual dis-tress, regardless of what the label is, eventually is addressed during natural vision training," educated Goodrich.

Brooks says "an important part of the whole process is lessening stress, allowing emotional healing to take place to unblock the person's freedom to see clearly, and making aerobic exercise, and healthy eating a part of the daily lifestyle." Brooks admits that many optometrists and ophthalmologists ridicule the natural vision techniques, and approach of whole-person, body/mind approach, however since he can now see again, he doesn't care what colleagues ignorant of the process, and unwilling to investigate it for themselves say about this work

In my own work over the years with a stress-elimination technique, I saw hundreds of people improve their lives, health, and understanding and a profound level. Mental, emotional, physical, as well as spiritual levels are effected by inner stress, dis-ease, and we are all these levels at once, all the time. Letting go of the stresses of thinking, emotional and mental imaginings, inner pressure, and fears about our survival effect every moment. Coping is not the answer, letting go of the root cause of the stress is where true healing comes from, allowing the chemistry of the body to balance. It is called surrender, allowing, profound relaxation into our very Being.

We are subjected to a bombardment of negativity, violence, programming, belief systems, survival threats, and wars, Our lives are more temporary, fragile, and our stability, whether financial, atmospheric, governmental, or healthcare, is a constant stress on our psyche.

PG. 10

Goodrich states, "In this increasingly technological age more and more communication is visual. There is TV news with its graphic footage, where before we had only newspapers, and radio. There's education, with its increasing use of visual aids, videos and computers encroaching on "teacher talking time, and books. Advertising especially relies on visual impact-attention grabbing scenes and images that have an emotional message. And much of our leisure time is spent in front of a screen-TV, film, or computer.

"In addition, more of us are spending longer hours in enclosed spaces-offices with dead air, (and no sunlight), homes, or cars, where our eyes have limited and repetitive vision. (Note: Corporations are seeing that intense computer use is a health hazard for employees.) All this means that our eyes have extra demanding work to do and it's not surprising that eye problems are more common than ever before.

"The appeal of natural vision improvement is its emphasis on re-educating the vision instead of relying on glasses to take over the responsibility and "correct" the fault. It also includes the interesting aspect of emotional and mental factors behind faulty vision. All stress-related, either mentally, emotionally, or physically."

Goodrich states, "I teach natural sight, not artificial sight. Any form of optical device, or surgery is an artificial means to try to correct something from the outside. Vision is an inner experience. It is organic, capable of being restored."

In February issue of Consumer Report, 1994, an article entitled, "Can Surgery Free You From Glasses?" states, "Not exactly. Radial Keratotomy is not always effective. The largest study of the procedure to date showed that the operation gave many people virtually perfect vision--but it also showed that the correction was less than perfect for more than a third of the people who had the operation.

"Most of those people still needed glasses or contact lenses after surgery. For about 3 percent, their best vision--corrected with glasses--was worse after surgery than their vision with glasses was before surgery. The operation also can't forestall the eye's aging process, which makes almost everyone need reading glasses eventually. (Jeannie's note: This last statements does not reflect the facts proven in vision training, that it is not necessary for people to need reading glasses--it is from an accumulation of visual eye strain, and can be normalized with proper seeing skills, re-education).

pg. 11

"And radial keratotomy is not completely safe. Many people have minor, but potentially troubling, side effects--and a few people have serious, even devastating complications. Less serious but troublesome side effects are much more common. About one-tenth of radial keratotomy patients have fluctuating vision--eyesight that gets worse as the day wears on. A patient with good daytime vision may need glasses by nightfall for watching TV. And many patients experience visual aberrations such as glare or starburst effects, which can be serious enough to interfere with night driving.

"More subtly, radial keratotomy can leave patients with diminished contrast sensitivity, and ability to distinguish fine shadings in dim light. (Jeannie's note: I asked my optometrist, who is also a vision therapist, if he would have RK, and his answer was revealing. He stated, "I wouldn't have it done personally. I have seen patients come into my office wearing four pair of glasses on their chest after RK. Their eyes would not focus in any visual field properly."

Most people considering RK surgery are not my students. They already have a quick-fix mind set, and are often too impatient to allow their vision to heal naturally, or don't believe it is possible. Anyone having had RK must sign an additional agreement. We don't know, after someone has surgically 'invaded' their system, what the true potential of correction can be. It is possible to become more blurry once the muscles around the eyes relax, trying to go back to normal. I do know, however, the underlying cause of the nearsightedness itself is not corrected, or alleviated with surgery. Again it is an 'inside job', and "no trick of optics", or surgery. Can cause normal sight to return. At best, it is an optical illusion, and eventually the brain, the muscles know it. Surgery and glasses only exacerbate the problem. More strain., We must learn to relax and see.

If you are considering RK, know that it is a permanent decision and it is still only investigational surgery. Ask your own doctor if he has had the surgery himself, and if he has glasses, if not, why not. Statistics show that doctors often do not have the surgery performed on themselves, knowing the profundity of risk, with no way to control outcomes. They don't want to cut into their own healthy eye.

pg. 12

Dr. Marc Grossman, O.D. New York, stated in a comprehensive article for FAR WEST JOURNAL, April, 1990, says: "Vision does not just happen in the eyes: it involves our entire self. Our sense of touch, and our awareness of our body in space also participate in developing our visual sense. How we listen, speak, and think determines what we see in front of us. And our emotional hopes and fears commit us to seeing what we want to see....and not seeing what we fear to see. Vision develops in concert with all our faculties, so vision training

Enlists the participation of the senses, the mind, and the emotions."

According to behavioral optometrists, visual fitness is the ability accurately to perceive the world around us, in all its three-dimentionalality and with all its texture of meaning, while focusing on a single part of that world. Developing heightened perception is not like learning new information. It proceeds through insight. Each insight can reveal a subconscious and dysfunctional habit with regards to how we see, or how we interpret what we see. Excerpts from FarWest Journal April 1990 "Total Vision"

How many times have you heard or been told by someone that becoming farsighted is simply part of growing older...and is inevitable. Bates stated, "While it's true that most people in this country lose their close vision when they reach the age of 40 or 50, in most cases it is not due to the aging of the body--but is due instead to an unconscious mental strain to see. All you have to do is relieve this strain, and the vision returns to normal--without exception." I have always been impressed with how often his writings use the phrase 'without exception'. His own certainty after personal research is unbending.

QUESTION:

Have you worn glasses since being a child, and assume you are just "stuck with them forever"? Well, that, too, is reversible through vision training. Once visual skills are relearned, and put into practice unconsciously 24-hours a day (we have eyestrain during sleep) our visual system can relax and we can see better and better until corrected.

pg. 13

I offer a comprehensive educational program. Certified from the Natural Vision Center of San Francisco, in both Bates Method instruction, as well as Light and Color Balancing, my classes are to teach the classic Bates Method, which is without eye exercises--instead, relearning good vision habits. It is a 20-24 hour course with unlimited follow-up/ review privileges for any student. This ongoing support if ever needed is available along with private session for a fee. The training is experiential, fun, insightful, relaxing, and beneficial beyond our visual acuity (clarity). All aspects of visual development are activated and enhanced through relaxation and proper vision habits.

Call for information, to attend a introductory lecture, have questions answered, or to receive a brochure packet by mail with current class schedule and information. In Austin, call 327-5683. My mailing address is 3300 Bee Caves Rd. #650. Austin, Texas 78746. Location and directions for introductory lectures or classes vary and are given at the time of registration confirmation. Class size is limited so registration is on a first come, first served basis. To hold your space in a class a deposit is required.

I look forward to helping you see again with your own eyes! With the Bates Method of Natural Vision Improvement.

All rights reserved. September 1994

"It's just a matter of time before the world will accept the fact that improving and correcting eyesight is just as natural as improving and rebuilding any other part of the body."