Most of the book is also available in the postings on this blog.

While you will probably notice relief almost immediately, it takes about six months to a year to get solid and long-lasting results. Use your glasses only when you need them, and take them off when you do not need them.

• Practice vision building and relaxation techniques for 1/2 hour every day.
• Set aside at least a 1/2 hour every day to practice daily integration.
• Do not make an effort with the techniques. Switch to another technique, and palm, shift, or swing frequently.
• Avoid the mental habits that caused your vision to initially go bad.
• Develop a curious interest in what you see by noticing motion, details, contrasts, color, and shapes and the near and far points.
• Ask yourself where you find it easy to keep an awareness of motion at home or work and where you find it difficult. During these times at home or at work, set aside extra time to practice swinging, shifting, and dodging and keep the memory of the motion going as you perform the activities that make it hard for you to keep an awareness of motion.
  • Apply the same approach to centralization.
  • Apply the same approach to relaxation.
• Do not test your vision by trying to see things more clearly. Instead, see how well you can maintain an easy manner, notice motion, see one part best, or try to keep the Universal swing going all day long. Testing your vision does not test the technique, it tests what happens when you test.
• Learn to meet life in a relaxed manner instead of taking a mental grip on life. Swing the black dot when you are in a stressful situation.
• Make a record of what causes your eyestrain and find ways to eliminate the problems by making unfavorable conditions more favorable.

Workplace, Computer, and Television Eyestrain

Working at a computer can be very absorbing and create a lot of eyestrain. You tend to concentrate on what is on the screen to the exclusion of all else, focus for long periods at the same distance, and try to take in the entire screen instead of shifting and seeing one part best. You might unconsciously try to make the characters on the screen solid when, in fact, they are flickering. All of these things result in eyestrain, and for many people, the eyestrain is severe.

Television screens can have similar effects to computer screens except you can sit further back, which relieves some of the tendency to become absorbed. Any detail-oriented or high-stress work can cause eyestrain in the ways described above whether or not you work at a computer.

Whenever you work, are at your computer, or watch television, keep the following points in mind:

• Be aware of objects around you while you work.
• Be aware of objects moving in your periphery.
• Take frequent breaks so that you focus your eyes at different distances.
• Practice central fixation on the computer or television screen, or on what you are working on at your desk.
• Remember to dodge and shift while you work.
• Scan the images on your desk or on your computer screen rather than staring into the middle.
• If your chair swivels, turn from side-to-side in your chair to create a short swing. Remember the short swing after you stop turning in your chair.
• Practice short swings when you are on the phone or driving in your car.
• Leave yourself notes to remind you to blink, sun, palm, shift, swing, dodge, see halos, or practice healthy reading habits.
• Decide to focus on one family of techniques for the week. Start with motion because developing a sense of motion is critical to improving your vision. You might as well focus on motion until it is a second nature.

The hairdresser started with the Long swing and responded well to it because she loved the feeling it gave her. Her teacher worked with her on motion telling her remember to perceive motion during the day.

Later on, the teacher worked with her on remembering the feeling of seeing print perfectly on a fine print card. They did no more memory work because this woman did not have a good visual memory. The memory of motion and the memory of the feeling of seeing fine print clearly were worked on simultaneously, and over a long period of time the woman’s vision improved when she practiced the techniques, but she was unable to apply the memory techniques in her daily life.

The woman did not have a good visual memory because she was not seeing much detail. The woman was more interested in feeling than visuals. To get the woman to start thinking and seeing details, the teacher started her noticing detail, color, and shapes in objects.

The teacher had the woman look at a tree and imagine a tiny leaf on the tree, and the woman suddenly saw the leaf on the tree. The teacher instructed the woman to use this imagination technique on everything including the hairs on her beauty parlor clients. This woman liked details so much she made a lot of progress with improving her vision and waking up her visual memory.

With things she could not see in the distance clearly, she would imagine or guess what these things could be, not trying to make them out clearly, but seeing what she could without straining and with interest and curiosity. She would move around the object visually, look for the shape, and make comparisons. She had to learn to be content to not see an equal amount of detail in the distance as she would see close up because this is the way of normal sight. People with normal sight do not see details in the distance the same way they see them up close, and do not try to see something, but imagine with interest what something might be in the distance.

After this, the teacher had the woman practice the Universal swing and keep the memory of the Universal swing going all day. The Universal swing widened the woman’s sense of space and got her thinking far away, and that in combination with thinking details swaying in the distance and close up stabilized her eyesight to normal.

Motion

People who like music like motion. If you have a good sense of motion and enjoy music, practice swings to music as follows. Baroque music is particularly good for achieving a relaxed state of mind, but of course, it is important that you like what you listen to, so, play what you like.

• Let small details swing with the whole to achieve a central fixation of motion.
• Practice edging and letting your gaze drift over pictures. As you do this, pay particular attention to detail and color because your ability to see detail and color will greatly improve when you refine your sense of motion.
• If your vision is not improving, it is probably because you are not present in your body while you practice the swings. You need to develop an interest in detail by practicing central fixation techniques.

Note: People who are interested in shapes usually work with motion last, and people who are interested in motion, usually work with shapes last.

Curious about Shapes

One woman with a keen interest in shapes improved her night vision by contrasting the lights and darks by looking for the darkest dark and lightest light. This way, he avoided the tendency to try to see the same level of detail at night that he would see in the day. When he became good at this, he looked for colors while contrasting lights and darks.

If you like to look at shapes, use interest to improve your vision as follows:

• Contrast shapes using central fixation and keeping an awareness of shapes in relationship to other shapes around them (peripheral vision). Try to not label the shapes, but see them in terms of color, texture, and relatedness.
• Be aware of color when you look at shapes or when your line of vision moves from one shape to another.
• Let your line of sight move across shapes and color. Never to try make out a shape.

Color

A young very artistic woman with a positive attitude began working with pictures. She started with bold contrasts of color in the picture. She could look at a picture up close for hours. When the picture was moved out 2 feet, she started to notice different colors. After a few seconds, the color suddenly became dull because she did not have central fixation at that distance.

After practicing central fixation with pictures, she could see much more subtlety in the colors and many more details in the pictures at greater and greater distances at home. She then needed to improve her vision at work.

People with a good color sense often also have a good sense of motion. So the woman started to practice keeping the Universal swing going at work where there is more opportunity for motion than for perceiving color. The final step was to keep the memory of colors she sees at home while she is at work. When she became proficient at these things, her vision improved dramatically.

If you have a keen interest in color, practice central fixation and edging on the outside environment or on photographs by focusing on the following:

• Contrast colors.
  • Look for large contrasts.
  • Look for subtle contrasts.
• Notice smaller details of color and the shapes formed when colors change within an object or when your line of vision moves from one object to another.
• Develop a sense of motion while you see color.

When you look at color, see bold contrasts and move into subtle contrasts. Do not put a label on anything you see. For example, do not think of a bird as a bird or a tree as a tree, but think of them as shapes composed of color. Look at two similar areas of a color and ask yourself if you see more yellow in one than the other. Use objects that are obvious and close together so you can see the picture without strain. Focus on smaller and smaller areas of the picture.

Work with a partner and have the partner see colors and direct your attention to them by asking you what colors you see and if one part of the picture has more of one color than another.

Visual Memory

If you have a good visual memory, use it to improve your vision by concentrating on the following things:

• Utilize central fixation when you remember an image.
• Develop associated pictures in your mind. An associated picture is a visual image of something in your mind with all of the senses involved. Associated memories enable you to remember an image clearly and for a long time. Here is an example. Have a partner help by talking you through the picture.
  • Imagine someone you know in their apartment.
  • Place yourself in the picture with them.
  • Add motion by walking around in the picture.
  • Add smell by imagining flowers in a vase.
  • Add taste by imagining something in their kitchen.
  • Add other senses.

A disassociated memory is a picture of something in your mind with only the visual sense involved. For example, the memory of a letter floating in space without the memory of the feeling of looking at the letter. You can use associated memory to enhance the memory of positive experiences, and disassociated memory to reduce the impact of the memory of negative experiences.

If you have a good associated memory, remember a letter such as an o on a blank surface. Keep the memory going all day. Add motion to the memory by making the o a small dot moving around in your mind all day long. Add the Universal swing by connecting the dot to the first object you swing and keeping the dot there as you expand the objects in the swing.

Sensory Awareness

Develop a feeling of the difference between close and far vision by practicing the following:

• Build your visual interest in objects near and far by noticing color, shapes, and motion.
• Do the Universal swing.
• If you are nearsighted, pretend you are looking close when looking far.
• If you are farsighted, pretend you are looking far when looking close.
• Notice how the face muscles feel different when looking different distances.
• Remember the feeling of what you are doing. For example, remember the feeling of a person talking to you or of climbing stairs. Remembering feelings uses sensory awareness to keep you present in your environment.
• Extend the sense of feeling into the world by creating an image of what it feels like to be in someone else’s shoes, to touch what they are touching, and to feel from where they are feeling.

A partner or teacher can direct your attention to things you may not be aware of. For example, if you do not have a good sense of motion, you are probably not noticing enough details. A partner or teacher can help you pick out details. If you have a good sense of motion, but your eyesight is not improving, a partner or teacher can tell you to concentrate on other vision building techniques such as central fixation or memory.

If you wear glasses, you will find the first part of correcting your eyesight is overcoming the strain caused by the glasses. After that, you should concentrate on the mental state that caused your eyesight to weaken in the first place. To change your mental state, you have to awaken your interest at the distance where your vision is not normal.

Foundation Techniques

The foundation techniques provide the groundwork for techniques to come. The goal is to get a conscious experience of a different level of relaxation when you see.

Sunning

Sun for 10 – 15 minutes with your eyes closed followed by 5 minutes of blinking into the light. The light relaxes your eyes and mind, and the heat soothes tight muscles.

• The light should be comfortable. Get the correct distance from the lamp.
• Sunning can be done several times a day.
• You can sun with your eyes closed until you are accustomed to the light.
• If your eyes are sticking on the light, follow along the shifter.
• If you start to stare at any time during the session, sun some more.
• Start keeping a record of things that affect your vision.

Palming

Palm for a few minutes. Visual purple is depleted by light and replenished by darkness. Light and dark contrasts stimulate the visual purple. Palming gives the mind a new opportunity to go into a relaxed state. It soothes and relaxes.

• Play music while you palm.
• Turn your head from side to side with your eyes closed while you palm. Imagine the sun moving from one ear to the other to get a short swing going. Sometimes moving your head up and down is better than turning it side to side.

Blinking

Practice blinking for a few minutes to help break up the mental stare. Transfer the feeling of relaxation you achieved through palming to blinking. A restful blink is when you close your eyes for a few seconds and remember the restful state of palming. After awhile the blinking obtains a restful state on its own.

The mind is straining when the eyes are held open. Once you get flashes of better vision, you might tend to stare and not blink and lose the restful state of mind. Blinking is essential at times like this. Blinking keeps the state of relaxation all day.

• Blink with one eye. Close your eyes for a moment and blink the other eye. In time, switch blinking from one eye to the other without closing the eyes.
• Use the air cushion technique to start a blink. Cover one eye and bring the other hand over the other eye pushing and suctioning the eyelid open and closed. Do for 5 minutes at a time 6 or 7 times a day.
• Start the morning with 3 – 5 minutes of blinking to get into the habit. When you notice yourself staring, blink for a minute or two to break up the stare.
  Shifting.
• Move your head from side to side or look from one point to another with a body sway.
• See with your nose as if there is a paint brush or a pointer on the end of the nose. Extend your nose out with a brush at the end that brushes over every point on the way. Be careful to not go out on the pointer to see, instead of letting the images come in. Brush with your eyes closed and opened.
• For close vision, close your eyes and use your finger to draw on a point between the eyes. The mind follows the movement of the fingers.

Motion Techniques

With enough practice, a sense of motion becomes natural because motion is integral to normal eyesight.

• 10 – 15 minutes of foundation techniques.

- Sunning
- Palming
- Blinking
- Pressure points and massage
- Shifting

Vision Building for Nearsight

Nearsighted persons need to gain a sense of things moving when they move.

• Finger swing.
• Short swings, especially the sway. Keep the memory of the motion when you hold your body still.
• Long swing to dynamic music for 15 to 20 minutes. Compare the long swing to the sway by going back to the sway. Notice the motion. Get a sense of the world moving by you rather than you moving through the world.
• Edging

Vision Building for Farsight

Farsighted persons need to develop an interest in details at the near point.

• Reading with memory of white between paragraphs
• Finger swing.
• Short swings, especially the sway.
• Memory swing. Start with a sway, then keep the memory of the motion when you hold your body still.
• Long swing with peaceful music for 15 to 20 minutes. Compare the long swing to the sway by going back to the sway. Notice the motion. Get a sense of the world moving by you rather than you moving through the world.

Nearsight and Farsight Techniques

The emphasis is on refining relaxation and vision building techniques.

• Foundation techniques
• Motion techniques

Vision Building for Nearsight

• Swinging and edging.
• Reading with very small print with an awareness of the thin white line. Move your head from side to side while you read to maintain involuntary shifting.

Vision Building for Farsight

Refine reading. Move the head from side to side while reading to get the involuntary shifting going. Direct attention towards the white and develop a sense of motion when you read.

Halos

A halo is a thin white line perceived around black when black is placed against white. People with clear vision perceive halos. If you learn to see halos, you can relieve eyestrain and clear your vision.

Goal – Learn to perceive halos.

Steps – Place a white card against a piece of black felt.

• Close your eyes, relax, take a deep breath, and open your eyes. Do you see a thin white line along the edge in the white area? Look along the top or bottom edge of a line of black type against a white background.
• Close your eyes, relax, take a deep breath, and open your eyes. Do you see a thin white line along the bottom or top of the black letters of the card?
• Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, relax, and open your eyes again. Do you see a thin white line around the black letters on the card?
• Read by looking at the halo at the bottom or top of the line of type, or the halo around the letters.
  Practice seeing halos with different sizes of type.

Explanation – Your eyes see size, shape, and color by contrast, and the contrast creates the illusion of a halo. When you consciously perceive halos, your mind unconsciously follows the halo around the letter in a relaxed state free of eyestrain.

Hints – Coax your mind to think white. Close your eyes and imagine something brilliant and white or scan across the black print and notice the white behind the letters. If you cannot see the halo, do not strain. Practice other relaxation techniques and try this later when you are more relaxed.

If seeing halos is too difficult, scan across the middle of the print noticing the white background. The goal is to not hold onto or grab at the letters and words when you read, but to shift across the line and let the letters and words flow into your mind. After awhile, you can shift your focus to the bottom of the print and notice the white at the bottom. The white becomes brighter and looks like a thin halo with practice.

Reading Comprehension

You achieve reading comprehension by letting the words flow through your eyes and the meaning flow into your mind without holding onto or grabbing at the meaning.

Goal – Practice reading comprehension.

Steps – Let your eyes follow the thin white line or shift back and forth over two or three words at a time while you read.

Explanation – Shifting back and forth helps to keep your mind and eyes coordinated. When you lose eye and mind coordination, eyestrain and blurry vision result.

Hints – It sometimes helps break the strain if you read out loud while practicing this technique or have a partner read out loud while you read the print to yourself (you will both need a copy of the same page).

Do not let your eyes move on when your mind is staying on an idea. Make up pictures when you read to help you become more interested in the subject matter and gain greater comprehension. You can catch a glint of light on the edge of a bent card and mentally place it next to the line of print to help see the thin white line.

Make Up Pictures

Goal – Create pictures when you read.

Steps – Read short passages of text or have a partner read short passages of text to you and make up pictures as you go. If you are working with a partner, describe the pictures to each other.

Explanation – Not everyone makes up pictures when they read, but if you learn to, it can help you achieve a relaxed state of mind because it increases your interest in the material.

Hints – If you have trouble making pictures, do the following:

• If you are right-handed, look to the left when you construct the picture and to the right when you retrieve it.
• If you are left-handed, look to the right when you construct the picture and to the left when you retrieve it.

Impulse Reading

Impulse reading teaches you to accept visual images of letters and words as they occur and to be immediately ready for the images that follow without grabbing at or holding onto any one letter or word or its meaning.

Goal – Immediately see images on cards as they flash in front of you.

Steps – This technique is more easily practiced with a partner handling the cards.

• Quickly place one card at a time face up in front of you.
• Say the names of the cards as you see them.
• Do not stop on a card you do not see, but go to the next card immediately.
• Vary the distance by moving closer to the cards (for farsight) or farther away (for nearsight ).

Explanation – Impulse reading teaches you to rely more on your visual sense because there is no time to employ other senses.

Reading at the Computer

Adjust your monitor so the print is black against a white background. This provides the most contrast for reading. If your monitor has a lot dots per inch (dpi), the black lettering will not be very black and the white might have a slight tint making is unlikely you will be able to see halos on your computer screen. However, the other principles of reading apply.

• Let your eyes travel along the bottom of the letters when you read.
• Think of bright white.
• Notice motion as your eye moves along the line.
• Give your eyes rest by taking breaks, palming and swinging.
• Make up pictures as you read.

Make sure your monitor has good resolution (dpi) and does not flicker. The flickering of a monitor can make your mind tired and create a tension in your eyes. Position the computer to minimize glare, and use full spectrum lighting in your work area if you do not sit near a window.

Do not practice reading until you are comfortable with the motion and central fixation techniques.

For reading practice, use black print against a bright white background (for maximum contrast) in the following sizes: Large (11 to 14 points, medium (9 to 11 points), small (7- 9 points), and very small (6 points and under). Once you learn the techniques in this section, practice them whenever you read. If you find you enjoy very small print, you might want to experience with points sizes even smaller than 6.

While the healthy reading habits described in this chapter relieve eyestrain and clear blurry vision for anyone who reads, farsighted persons respond very well and rather quickly to the reading techniques. This is because farsighted people have trouble reading small print up close while their vision in the distance is fairly clear. When farsighted persons learn and practice healthy reading habits, they not only become comfortable reading small print up close, but their distance vision becomes sharper too. When nearsighted persons learn and practice healthy reading habits, they can focus better in the distance because they do not acquire eyestrain and an inability to shift their focus to far points when they read.

One day at my day job in a software company, a coworker explained how he has trouble reading small print. I told him to remove his glasses, take a deep breath, and on the exhalation think of something bright and white. When he opened his eyes, he could easily read the print on a memorandum I had pinned to my bulletin board.

Looking at White Space

Because eyes are light reflectors, it is easy for eyes to see white reflected light. Because black absorbs light, fixing on black letters creates eyestrain.

Goal – Accustom your eyes to picking up the light reflected by the white space between black letters.

Steps – Use a white page or card with black print that you can see.

Here are ways to practice shifting when you look at black type and awaken your eyes’s natural tendency to seek out white.

1. Without reading the type, look at the margin of a white page with black print against white and shift along the top of the black print. Your mind does not strain to see small print if you do not try to read the print.
2. Turn the page upside down and shift below the bottom line. Notice the whiter white next to the black letters. Turning the card upside down prevents the distraction and resulting eyestrain of trying to read the print.
3. Turn the page right side up and still without reading the type, zig-zag shift down the page.
4. While you practice the three techniques above, pause and close your eyes at the end of each paragraph to relax your eyes and mind. Think of something very brilliant and white during the pause. Remember the brightness when you open your eyes and go on to the next paragraph.
   • Notice the whiter white next to the black letters.
   • Maintain a memory of the white with your eyes open.
   • If you have trouble remembering white, look at something white, close your eyes, remember it, and open your eyes again a few times. Alternately, swing the letters on the card by moving your head from side to side and remember the sense of motion with your eyes closed.
   • After you have made some progress, pause at the end of each page instead of each paragraph.
5. Do the same shifting with the card, but now read as you shift. Maintain a memory of white as you read. Let your eyes follow your nose and brush back and forth along the line. Do not think about reading the letters, just let the words and the meanings of the words flow into your mind.
6. Start with large print you can see easily and gradually move to smaller print. With print you do not see clearly, scan over the white space without paying too much attention to the print. Every now and then, you might catch a capital letter or notice where a paragraph begins or ends. These are flashes of telescopic vision. Everyone gets flashes of telescopic vision but most people are unaware of them. With practice, you can be more aware of telescopic flashes of vision. which produce greater centralization, motion, and relaxation.
7. As your vision clears, move the card closer if you are farsighted or farther away if you are nearsighted to accustom your mind and eyes to reading at different distances.

Explanation – Your eyes are light finders and seek out the tiny bits of light between and around the lines, letters, and paragraphs on the printed page in tiny, unconscious shifts. The shifting increases centralization, motion, and relaxation, and improves your vision in all activities at all distances. Your attention has to come away from the black print to read without eyestrain.

Hints – Remember to relax and breathe. Take a deep breath at the end of each line. Be sure to shift your eyes over the white line when you return to the beginning of a line instead of jumping over this space. Use blinking to relax your mind and eyes.

If you tend to strain and try to read the letters, bring the card close to your face, or use a card with very small print and skim the page for the white.

Do not test your vision while you read by noticing how clear or unclear the type is because this causes eyestrain and blurred vision. Instead, notice motion as your eyes shift across the line or remember something brilliant and white.

You can shift and scan small and very small print whenever you have spare time – talking on the phone, waiting on hold, waiting for a ride, waiting in line, or during commercial breaks.

Imagination techniques awaken your creative side. Often, creativity is channeled into one or two interests which can limit your creativity in other areas. Imagination and creativity are really unlimited in all areas of life for everyone. When your creative side is awakened, interest and flexibility are also awakened and you can use this awakening to improve your vision and build creativity in all areas of your life.

Imagination means creating images (pictures) in the mind. Everyone sees different pictures in different ways. One person’s shack can be another person’s mansion. The mind does not see; it imagines. Imagining images in the periphery causes the mind to pay more attention to image impulses in the periphery which awakens the peripheral vision without losing central fixation.

Wait until you are reasonably good with the memory techniques before you start the imagination techniques. You should practice the central fixation, motion, and memory techniques until your eyesight has improved a lot before you try imagination techniques.

Imagining Detail

Goal – Use imagination to see more details and clear your vision.

Steps – Practice imagination as often as you like to clear blurry vision.

• Look quickly at an object that does not appear clear.
• Close your eyes, and imagine how it really looks.
• Open your eyes and quickly dodge to avoid going into a stare.
• Repeat several times.

Explanation – If you imagine the leaves on a tree or the blades in the grass, you start to see them. People with normal sight unconsciously imagine what something is when they look at it, which enables them to see clearly what is really there. Curiosity allows you to imagine what might be there when you cannot see it by trying on shapes because the right shape brings up the image.

Hints – Remember to dodge and not stare at an out of focus object. If you have a tendency to be in your head, be with your imagined thoughts as they come to mind.

Imagining Letters

Goal – Use imagination to see letters.

Steps – Practice this technique whenever you read. If you are farsighted, this technique will help you see smaller print. If you are nearsighted, this technique will help you see print at the far point. Reading is covered in more detail in Chapter 7: Healthy Reading Habits.

• Look quickly at a letter at a distance where it does not appear clear.
• Close your eyes, and imagine the letter.
• Open your eyes and quickly dodge away to avoid a stare.
• Repeat several times.

Explanation – If you imagine the correct letter, you will see it. People with normal sight unconsciously imagine what something is when they look at it which enables them to see what is really there.

Hints – Remember to dodge and not stare at an out of focus letter. If you have a tendency to be in your head, be with your imagined thoughts as they come to mind.

Imagining the Seat of Sight

Since the seat of sight is in the medulla oblongata portion of the brain, sometimes if you direct your attention there, your vision clears.

Memory and imagination techniques are practiced after motion and centralization techniques have relieved enough eyestrain so the mind is in a relaxed state. Memory and imagination techniques take the mind to a much deeper state of relaxation to refine the vision into sharp focus.

One day I was riding in the car with one of my students. He was having trouble reading the freeway signs, and I pointed out that he should stop fixating on the fact that the signs appear a little blurry and look for letters that pop out and notice the length of the word instead. But I told him to make himself present first by feeling his feet on the floor and hands on the steering wheel. When he did what I asked, his imagination awakened and he and found he could guess at the words on the signs with amazing accuracy. His vision also cleared.

Memory

Memory is an important tool for refining vision. If something is round and you remember it round, you will see its roundness clearly when you look at it. If you stare at a memory, the memory disappears. Perfect memory brings about the state of mental ease, mental focus, and a feeling of being in the present moment.

The memory techniques increase shifting and relieve any eyestrain you might have when you focus your eyes. This leaves your mind and eyes free to focus on what you see. Memory techniques work well when you have a good visual memory, or if you have normal sight at some distance (it does not matter what distance). If you do not have a good visual memory, the techniques can help you improve your visual memory, which in turn, improves your vision.

Types of Memory

There are three major types of memory: visual, kinesthetic, and auditory. Most people predominately use one or two of the three types. If you know your type, you can gear the memory techniques to your best advantage. You can also develop other types of memory by practicing the techniques according to the types of memory you do not use often or at all.

Visual

People who are strongly visual are thinner, well put together, have a higher voice, and use a lot of visual words. If you predominately use visual memory, slow down and lower your voice as a precursor to relaxation.
Practice flashing (described below) to encourage your visual memory. This works because the visual memory is faster than the auditory or kinesthetic memories and flashing requires quick image recall. Also practice central fixation.

Kinesthetic Memory

People who are highly kinesthetic put comfort before looks. Some kinesthetic people respond to external sensations and are aware of their extremities.

Practice memory techniques by holding the object in your hand. Notice how it feels when your vision is clear as opposed to when your vision is not clear. Keep the memory of the feeling of clear vision.

Auditory Memory

People who are strongly auditory have a rhythm with their walk and ups and downs in their voices.

Practice the memory techniques by incorporating a short swing with the object. Also, keep a memory of the short swing at different distances at all times. Start the swing with your body moving, and then stop your body and keep the feeling of the movement.

Flashing

Begin by practicing memory techniques on what is in front of you at a comfortable distance to take advantage of the state of mental ease you already have at that distance.

Goal – Palm and accept images (flashing). The palming part can be done with eyes closed or eyes opened.

Steps – Take breaks during the day and practice flashing with items on your desk.

• Place an interesting object in front of you when you palm.
• Open your hands quickly to get a mental image.
• Close your hands again to cover your eyes, and remember the image.
• Palm like this for five minutes every hour.

Other Ideas –

• Palm and remember a pleasant experience.
• Flash with a deck of cards by pulling the cards up one by one, looking at them quickly, saying their names out loud (ace of spades), and going on to the next card. This technique builds the visual impulse because there is not enough time to strain to see.
• Look at one corner of a simple picture, close your eyes, and remember the corner.

Explanation – Flashing is a good way to build mental images, and strong mental images help you see clearly.

Hints – If the memory goes away, it is because you do not have shifting to shift over the points in the image to maintain the memory of the image. Practice shifting by sunning, palming, and swinging.

Shifting

Goal – Allow images to flow into your mind when you remember.

Steps – Practice this several times a day.

• Pick an object in your environment and let your eyes shift around it in a drifting swing.
• Close your eyes and shift around the object in your memory.
• Open your eyes and remember the feeling of the memory of the object with your eyes closed.

Hints – Relax when you open your eyes and do not try to see anything. Let the image flow into your mind. Elongate your head and neck to reduce the strain on your head, neck, and spine.

Explanation – Your eyes have to paint the picture in your mind by shifting. If you stare at the whole picture in your mind, you lose the memory. Keeping the memory with the eyes open prevents you from mentally projecting the picture out and causing eyestrain.

Memory of a Letter

Goal – Use memory to see print clearly.

Steps – Practice this technique whenever you read. If you are farsighted, this technique will help you see smaller print. If you are nearsighted, this technique will help you see print in the distance. Reading is covered in more detail in Chapter 7: Healthy Reading Habits.

• Find a letter such as the letter Z on a printed page (black print on white is best) and look at it at the distance where you see best.
• Remember it when you close your eyes and retain the same relaxed state with your eyes closed.
• Look at the floor and open your eyes maintaining the memory of the Z.
• Repeat, but this time when you open your eyes, look at a blank wall keeping the memory of the Z.
• Repeat, and this time let your eyes move up the wall keeping the memory of the Z. If the Z begins to fade, go back to the object and regain the memory.

Explanation – When you make an effort to remember, the memory fades.

Memory of an Object in its Environment

Goal – Have perfect memory at different distances and at a small point. Create a relaxed state where the mind does not go out to see, but light flows into the eyes and is registered by the mind. A simple memory of anything with detail can sharpen your vision.

Steps – Pick an object in your environment to remember. Shapes, letters with serifs, or any object near you will work. It should have enough detail to keep your interest, but not too much detail so it is difficult to remember.

• Recall the object with your eyes closed until the visual memory is equal to or close to equal to the real object. The size, color, and position relative to your periphery should be the same with your eyes closed and with your eyes open.
• Recall the object with opened eyes against a blank surface in the room (a wall or table top) at your best distance.
• Try other distances. If the memory starts to go away with opened eyes, recall the object with your eyes closed.
• Recall the object with opened eyes against detailed surfaces in the room (carpet or closed drapes) at your best distance.
• Try other distances.

Explanation – Memory works the same way as vision. The mind shifts over many points to get the image. You remember an object when you have an image of the object – its shape, color, position in relation to the periphery, and you maintain the same feeling with your eyes closed that you had with your eyes open. Do not make work out of the memory. Just think about it.

Hints – Do not project the memory out. Remember the object with your eyes open at the same distance and size as it is with your eyes closed. Ask yourself if the object is on the wall or in your mind. It should be in your mind. If it is on the wall, you are not being present when you see and present when you remember. Memories can help the vision if you bring yourself into the present.

If you get a negative after image, you are remembering with strain. If you tend to strain on a memory, move a part of your body to break the strain. If you have trouble getting a mental picture, you do not have central fixation developed enough. Go back and practice the central fixation techniques.

Apple

Practice the “Memory of an Object in its Environment” on 49, but use an apple or other fruit as the object. Include the crunch, taste, and smell of the apple as part of the memory.

One Eye at a Time

Practice the “Memory of an Object in its Environment” on 49, but work with one eye at a time by covering one eye. This will correct a distortion in the open eye.

Nearsight

Goal – Use memory to improve vision at the far point.

Steps – Close your eyes and pretend to draw pictures on your extended hand, or make a 1/4 inch circle on your forefinger with your thumb.

Explanation – These techniques bring the attention in and create an internal swing that moves with your mind and eyes.

Hints – Be aware of points in the circle by counting numbers. The thumb works best when you are aware of the connection between you and your thumb.

Farsight

Goal – Use memory to improve vision at the near point.

Steps – WIth your eyes closed, draw letters of the alphabet with your index finger on bridge of your nose between the eyes.

Explanation – This brings your attention in.

Hints – If you have a turned-in eyes, draw the letters on the side of your temple instead.

Dodging

If you can keep a memory when looking at the blank surface, but lose the memory when you look at objects with your eyes open, the best thing to do is dodge to a blank surface or to closed eyes. Dodging allows the memory to stay because it keeps the mind from fixing on what your eyes are seeing.

Memory Swing

Do a short swing on an object and remember it swinging with your eyes closed. Now remember it swinging with your eyes open. Practice the memory swing whenever social conditions prevent practicing short or long swings.

Cards

Hold two cards at different distances. Look from one card to the other and retain the memory of the last one while looking at the current one.

Palming

Palm and have someone read you a story. Create mental images as you listen to the story.

Black Dot

Find a small black dot such as a solid black period in text. Use memory and palming to remember the black dot. Get a short swing going with the dot in your mind.

Keeping a Memory when Seeing

Find an object you like and remember it all the time to maintain the state of clear vision. For example, think of an apple, and look in the distance and remember the apple.

Stimulating the memory stimulates the vision and vice versa. If you remember detail, you think details, and therefore, you see details. Keep a visual picture in your mind at all times.

Keep a a picture of yourself before you wore glasses near you to help you remember the state of mind of clear vision. Never remember blurred vision. Take yourself back to a time when you had clear vision by talking about it to a partner or friend.

An awareness of motion promotes flexibility because it causes your mind to stop trying to make things happen. If you are so flexible that you lack focus and direction, practice central fixation with an emphasis on awakening your interest in detail. This will make your sense of motion more precise.

If you try so hard to be focused that you lack flexibility and are unable to move on to new things, improve your central fixation by emphasizing the periphery, developing an interest in motion, and dodging.

Edging

Edging is brushing around the outline of shapes with your nose by letting your eyes follow the brush (your nose). The key to edging is to keep a relaxed sense of the points flowing into your mind while your attention moves around the outline noticing detail. Edging is a technique of motion and central fixation.

Goal – Incorporate central fixation and motion to see details along a line.

Steps – Practice edging to refine your sense of motion and centralize your mind.

• •Remove your glasses and relax.•Find a line in your environment at a comfortable distance so you do not strain to see it. It can be the line where a wall joins the ceiling or floor, the edge of a table, door, or other piece of furniture in the room.
• Feel your feet on the floor, close your eyes, and relax.
• Open your eyes and move your head and follow your nose along the line noticing every point as you go and that the point you are on is the point you see best.
• When you get good at this, add motion.
  - Notice each point as it comes into view, and notice the present point moving away as the next point comes into view.
  - Notice the point in view is the point you see best, and keep a feeling of the points moving into and out of view as you brush along with your nose.

Explanation – The eyes and mind must coordinate to take in small points of detail without skipping over any points in the line. You also have to be completely present in the room and interested in what you are looking at to not skip any points.

Hints – Maintain a smooth motion with your eyes and head. Do not jump over points in the line. If you find you jump over points, take a few deep breaths and palm. It might help to find a line at a more comfortable distance.

If you have worn or currently wear glasses, you probably have an unconscious mental habit of straining and you might strain when edging. If so, practice for short periods only, palm before and after edging, and keep an awareness of motion and see one part best while you practice.

Edging and Swinging

When you become proficient with edging, add swinging.

Goal – Use swings to widen your field of vision.

Steps – Your eyesight should be fairly good before you attempt this technique because if it is not, this technique will can create a strain.

• Remove your glasses and relax.
• Find a line in your environment at a comfortable distance so you do not strain to see it. It can be the line where a wall joins the ceiling or floor, the edge of a table, door, or other piece of furniture in the room.
• Get a short swing going across the joint using a head swing or body sway.
• Once you have the swing going, notice an object in your periphery and keep it swinging with you.
• With the object swinging in the periphery, find an area along on the joint and see one part best.
• Keeping the peripheral swing going, edge along the joint seeing the point you are on best, noticing the point move away and the next point moving into view.
• Edge along the joint in both directions several times.

Explanation – This technique lets you see points along the joint the way a person with normal vision would see them: with relaxation, motion, central fixation, and peripheral vision.

Hints – Make sure you keep breathing and do not strain. Keep the points along the joint moving and the object in your periphery moving.

Dim Light and Night Vision

When your eyesight improves, you can refine your vision for dim light and night vision. Contrast is more subtle in dim light. At a distance where your vision is clear, dim light does not affect your ability to see. It takes imagination to see in dim light or at night at a distance where your vision is not clear because your eyes are not shifting or centralizing. People who practice central fixation see more contrast and see better in dim light.

One man who had a keen interest in shapes used this interest to improve his night vision by contrasting the lights and darks by searching for the lightest light and the darkest dark. Once he became good at this, he started to look for colors while contrasting lights and darks. Over time as he became good at seeing details in dim light, his vision improved tremendously.

If you are having trouble seeing in dim light or at night, your peripheral vision is shutting down, you are not noticing details, or both.

• If you see in the periphery, but have trouble seeing one part best, you need detail work.
• If you see one part best, but are unaware of objects in relation to other objects, you need periphery work. See “Peripheral Vision” on 41

Accept What you See

Goal – See objects in dim light as they are.

Steps – Sit in a dimly lit room and let dark things be dark and light things be light.

Explanation – This reduces the strain of trying to see objects in dim light in a way other than how they really appear.

Hints – Do not strain. If you find yourself straining, palm or swing.

Awaken Interest in Details

Goal – Wake up an interest in detail, shapes, and color in dim light.

Steps – You can practice this technique alone or with a partner. If you have a partner talk to each other about the details you see in the dim light.

• Sit in a dimly lit room and start noticing dark, the light within the dark, and go on to contrasting light and dark.
• As you progress, find smaller and smaller areas of light and dark, and then start contrasting colors.
• Add motion as you move from light to dark, dark to light, and from color to color.
• Notice different bands and continuation of color.
• Compare hues and be aware of shapes.
• Drift over the memory of details.

Explanation – The peripheral vision shuts down in dim light due to strain. Noticing details alleviates this strain and opens the peripheral vision.

Hints – Start with details that interest you.

Peripheral vision practices help farsighted persons get interested in seeing one small detail in relation to the entire scene, and nearsighted persons open up to the world around them rather than closing peripheral details out of their field of vision

Opening Peripheral Vision

Goal – Keep the peripheral vision open when practicing central fixation.

Steps – Isolate an object in the picture or on your computer desktop and notice whether the object is more interesting by itself or in relation to other objects in the picture.

Explanation – This allows you to use your whole field of vision and see more details. For some people, the peripheral perception comes gradually after moving from point to point has been practiced for awhile.

Hints – If the point you are looking at is less clear than the point in the periphery, you are practicing eccentric fixation. Eccentric fixation is when the diameter of the center point is so wide is has blurred from the effort to concentrate at the center. Since central fixation is an involuntary technique, eccentric fixation diminishes and finally goes away if you allow interest to come up while you shift between points of interest. Be sure the picture you have is colorful with a lot of interesting details, or play with the background and colors on your monitor to make your computer desktop more interesting.

Seeing Points in the Periphery

Goal – Think of the points you are not looking at directly as less clear than the point you are currently looking at (the reverse of seeing the point you are looking at best).

Steps – Shift over a card, picture, or your computer desktop from point to point seeing the point not looked at as less distinct. Move the card or picture further away or move your chair back from your computer and repeat, but now be aware that the card, picture, or computer is in the room as part of the whole scene.

Hints – Ask yourself if you see a difference in clarity between the point looked at directly and the points not looked at. As your vision clears with practice, start comparing closer and closer points. Cultivate a sense of space around you to widen your field of vision when you notice points in the periphery. Do not move to close points if you feel a strain. Blink and palm to prevent or alleviate any strain.

Short Swing

Pick an object in your environment and be aware of it moving in your periphery all day.

Notice the obvious motion of close objects in your periphery as you look at more distant objects that do not appear to be moving. This will transfer the sense of motion to the distant objects.

Universal Swing

The Universal swing helps farsighted persons get interested in seeing one small detail in relation to the entire scene, and helps nearsighted persons open up to the world around them rather than closing peripheral details out of their field of vision. Practice the Universal swing with music for 10 to 15 minutes at the beginning of the day and carry the swing with you throughout the day.

Practice Hints

The following suggestions for practice involve noticing color, contrasts, and details in a picture at a comfortable distance. Practice these suggestions as described, then transfer them to your computer desktop.

• Notice detail in front of you. Take a picture and seek out the details. Take the picture away and describe the picture. To remember something, you have to scan around and see every point with one part best. Different details appeal to different people. Close the eyes and remember the details. Open the eyes and search out what you do not remember.
• Play music while looking at the picture. Incorporate the movement of the music with moving around in the picture and picking up detail. Let the music light up a point in the picture.
• Be aware the point left behind is less distinct. The awareness of less distinct can be an easy awareness of some detail that is missing.
• Alter the distance by moving it out a few inches.
• Practice central fixation on different objects and faces. This transfers the experience to something off the paper.
• Practice central fixation with letters.
• Widen out the sense of peripheral vision. Be aware of the whole scene at one point in time, but do not try to see it.
• Look at a picture and pick up the subtlety of the shades.
• Bring the attention to contrasting colors. It is necessary to remember to contrast and compare.
• Look at an object and get a sense of perspective by placing perspective lines going in toward the object. This makes the mind aware of things farther away appearing smaller than they appear up close. Check the appearance by measuring with your fingers.
• Mentally train your mind to see things larger and smaller. Put objects back and forth in front of your face and call out, Larger! or Smaller! If you have difficulty seeing the objects, contrast colors instead. This may help you to see the objects.
• Pick a color in the picture and be aware of it as you drift over the picture with open eyes and closed eyes.
• With closed eyes remember the points in the picture and the details.
• Be aware of contrasts between colors and textures in the picture.
• Notice shapes.

Explanation – Drifting over a picture and picking up details breaks the stare and tendency to try to take in the entire picture at once. It also gets the mind involved in seeing. The eyes do not see, they take in light. The mind sees.

Hints – The attention is what focuses the eyesight on objects. Central fixation is being attentive where you are looking.