IF YOU WANT TO HEAL YOUR VISION, GIVE UP YOUR POINT OF VIEW
Any prescription is an adaptation to the present moment
Vision is an Inside Job
VISION = 1) eyes working together/in sync/binocularity, 2) peripheral, 3) depth.
For a great definition of the difference between vision and eyesight click here.
As a child, my intuition said one thing, but the people and community around me said something else, so I accommodated by building a defense (myopia) and twisting (astigmatism).
It’s kind of amazing that as a species we generally accept another person’s eye measurement at a fixed moment in time to create a crutch to maintain a fixed view over time. Why aren’t we trying to heal and less our dependence on the crutch? Why are optometry schools adamant about using the same measurement system and teaching optometrists to stick with testing for distance at 20 feet and reading at 16 inches only. What about peripheral vision? What about depth? What about convergence? Why don’t we ever hear anyone saying that their prescription was changed because their vision is getting better?
I want to share my notes, learning, and musings from my experience last week at the Eye Vision Master Class and Workshop with Dr. Sam Berne. I first met Sam at Esalen in 2010 when I was doing a Gestalt work scholar month, and Sam offered a free workshop to the community. Being at Esalen allowed me to be in the place where teachers and concepts flowed to me without me seeking or going anywhere. The universe of wisdom and experience came to me.
At that time I sat in on Sam’s workshop filled with curiosity, doubt, fear, anxiety and judgment. Now as I reflect on that experience I realize I had no expectations since I hadn’t paid money. If I didn’t have a wow moment, nothing lost. I didn’t speak up much at that time. When I saw the shifts that folks were experiencing I started to regret the Lasik surgery I had in 2007. I had glasses and contact lenses since I was a kid. I pushed for the surgery even when the surgeon told me he couldn’t get me to 20/20.
My 2007 pre-Lasik prescription was
Sphere Cylinder Axis
R: -6.75 -2.50 179
L: -4.75 -1.50 028
Nearsighted with astigmatism in both eyes. I wanted to wake up and be able to see. I signed the paperwork indicating my understanding that vision could change after surgery. I took the risk. Until then no one spoke to me about vision therapy. Ever. I had no idea such a thing was even possible.
Ten years later, the astigmatism is back, and I rely on prescription glasses to see in the distance, drive and connect with the world. With Sam's guidance, I believe I can heal my vision and kick my addiction to glasses.
“You do not need to live your doctor’s diagnosis.” - Sam Berne
By writing out my notes here I am taking in these lessons again, and by sharing them with you, I am aiming to project the concept of a wellness paradigm using community medicine that offers healing and vitality, versus disease-based medicine (dis-EASE, un-EASE). I feel like in writing this now, and you reading this now, perhaps you might choose vision therapy before filling that new prescription or agreeing to surgery. You might even do a search for a behavioral optometrist near you for yourself or someone you love. I will try to be brief and to the point. Sound bites. Vision bites.
In Chinese medicine —> EYE = LIVER = ANGER
EYES ARE PATTERN ADDICTS
Engage in spiritual activity to become aware of habits and conditions.
BLUR IS ABOUT RELAXATION
CATARACT—-> rigid/hard—-> not changing point of view —-> afraid to dissolve
(medicine = give up the rigidity/dissolve/exhale)
MYOPIA/nearsightedness/can’t see far away —> is about defense —> trying to pull the world in to protect
- Looking through a negative sense makes consciousness more negative. We take on the characteristics we see. Need to do active things to change the adaptation.
- Important to have symmetrical lenses so eyes don’t lock into an imbalanced pattern.
- Neuroplasticity of vision. Engage in diverse visual experiences, less repetition.
- Change patterns and long held beliefs.
- Let the world see you.
- Invite the world to see you.
FAR-SIGHTED/can’t see close up —> pushing the world out
- Relaxes focus muscles too much, sight becomes floppy.
- Creates addiction/deterioration
Technique - a few minutes a few times a day
- Reduce accumulated stress and tension by doing vision exercises
- Wear less that your habit.
- The bigger the window, the more peripheral vision is possible.
- Convergence exercises for integrating brain hemispheres.
- Walk through an obstacle course alternating homo-lateral with bilateral motion. Revisit primitive reflexes.
- Get the two eyes working together in a relaxed way and you won’t need glasses.
PAIN LIKES TO BE WHERE THERE'S NO ENERGY FLOW
Feeling the body takes pressure off the macula having to do it all.
OCCUPY YOUR EYES
RECLAIM YOUR OWN INNER AUTHORITY
OFFER YOUR OWN INNER AUTHORITY TO YOURSELF
Honor your rhythm, not the rhythm of these devices that are training us to go at their speed, like the phone and television.
Progressive lenses do not benefit your visual health, they will age your eyes.
When you correct for ASTIGMATISM you create a twist and stiffness. If you don’t “correct” astigmatism, it will go away.
IF YOU WANT TO HEAL YOUR VISION, GIVE UP YOUR POINT OF VIEW
- The analytical mind is so overdeveloped.
- Expand your orientation. You are not just past pain diagnosis.
- Take more time to rest and settle. When you relax and slow down you are more in the flow to receive healing and the medicine that is already there.
PAIN LIKE TO BE WHERE THERE’S NO ENERGY FLOW
SHIFT OUT OF THE VICTIM PERSPECTIVE —> Everything happens for me (not to me). It happened to bring out what was hidden in you in order to heal you.
WIDER MODULATION —> Go at all speeds. Require skill and balance.
- Going slower takes more skill and balance and stimulates fine motor skill more than going fast.
ANY PRESCRIPTION IS IN YOUR BODY
Internalization of family patterns
- Whatever you’re discovering in the moment of dialog, is exactly what you’re overlaying on the world.
- Get free of projections and be in choice
Eye doctors are validating your/their programming
Musings about my Dad’s work as a dentist and the detailed focus work he needed to do when looking into mouths. How tightly he needed to pull his vision to a single small complex world. How difficult it must have been for him to step away and see the larger world around him, or to just read words in rows on paper bound in books. How his directions to me as his child were informed by his world view, which was focused on such a small space for 40 hours a week. I recall my Dad often being disconnected from his body in his later years. I imagine this was his way of coping with pain. Pain in the back, neck, legs, eyes, eventually dissociating from body entirely just cope.
As a child, my intuition said one thing, but the people and community around me said something else, so I accommodated by building a defense (myopia) and twisting (astigmatism).
Tune yourself to “be” and you won’t need.
MEET YOU WHERE YOU ARE
- If I can do that well, I can do what I do really well.
YOUR EYES ARE YOUR GPS SYSTEM - IF THEY AREN’T CONNECTED, YOU ARE IN DANGER
Daily Dialogue Exercise
Cover your left eye.
- How old does your right eye feel?
- Right eye, do you know you’re married to left eye? How’s the marriage going? Who does the work of the relationship?
- Right eye, do you know you’re married to your body?
- Right eye, what do you need?
Take cover away. Notice how things look. Switch eyes.
Cover your right eye.
- How old does your left eye feel?
- Left eye, do you know you’re married to right eye? How’s the marriage going? Who does the work of the relationship?
- Left eye, do you know you’re married to your body?
- Left eye, what do you need?
“If we can feel EASE, magic can happen.” Sam Berne
There was also discussion about reflexes, essential oils, nutrition, and water, which I have chosen to note rather than detail for now.