September/October 2008 Alternative Health
Seeing Clearly: Natural Vision Improvement

by Doug Marsh

Much of medical science deals strictly with the body, while denying our inner soul essence. This view is prevalent in vision science where eyesight is considered a biomechanical process.

This one-tiered approach results in a lopsided notion of what is normal. Eyeglasses are so commonplace in our culture, they are considered natural extensions of the human anatomy. People who see clearly with their own eyes are becoming a rare breed.

Terminal Glasses

William Bates, the ophthalmologist who pioneered natural vision improvement (NVI), discovered that mental strain is responsible for most visual blur that usually leads to prescription eyewear. He established several guiding principles for seeing clearly and noted that people with good eyesight follow them without awareness, while those who see with strain deviate from them. Dr. Bates developed dynamic relaxation techniques to help people release eye tension and become aware of proper vision principles.

Even the way that you sit in front of the computer and the glasses you wear can affect vision. The Association of Vision Educators (AVE) suggests using terminal glasses. Sound like something that might kill you? Just the opposite - these glasses reduce headaches, eyestrain and overall tension.

If you are nearsighted (your best vision is up close and things in the distance are blurry), your glasses or contacts correct for the distance. However, a computer screen is typically a foot or two away from your face, making your regular lenses too strong. Get a pair of glasses that are a weaker prescription (maybe your last pair before you got new ones). Many eye doctors are now prescribing an intermediate prescription just for computer work, sometimes called terminal glasses.

To find a NVI practitioner near you, visit the AVE at www.visioneducators.org. Before embarking on an NVI program, you may want to treat yourself to a few bodywork sessions. The strain isn't simply localized in the eyes - emotions and past traumatic events get blocked and manifest as broad physical armoring. - Doug Marsh

Recently refractive eye surgery, also known as laser eye surgery, has been the popular choice for many. In a way, this technology is coming full circle back to Mother Nature's design, touting 20/20 vision (or very close to it) with a natural appearance and no fuss. These purported outcomes come with minimal risk and high patient satisfaction rates, according to the eye care industry. However, more cases of patients with negative outcomes are coming to the forefront, prompting the U.S. Federal Drug Administration in early 2008 to conduct further long-term studies.

Lost amid the allure and debates over technological treatments is the obscure alternative approach of natural vision improvement. This nature-centered approach is a holistic mind-body method that reverses imbalances induced by stress. It introduces a psychological component, counter to most prevailing notions that the eyes somehow just "go bad" with no hope of self healing. For those attuned to spirituality, the "psyche" is simply a secular name for the soul. To understand how natural vision improvement succeeds on the personal soul level, the work of spiritual scientist Rudolf Steiner offers some insights.

Steiner describes the threefold nature of humans as body, soul and spirit. While embodied within a physical form, our soul is said to be a link between the "lower" physical world and the "higher" world of the spirit in which we simultaneously participate. Steiner further suggests that a portion called the sentient soul is responsible for our experience of sensation. When external light reaches the eyes, the sense organs initially register many neutral impressions from our environment. Then something lights up in the sentient soul when certain impressions are filtered, and sensations come alive with personal vividness and quality.

Because our sensations illuminate internally in a unique and private way, Steiner contended that this soul activity is not a mere brain process. Science can describe the various light, chemical and nerve stimuli along the chain from the eye's retina to the brain, but nowhere can our actual sensations be found. The sentient soul is said to also partake in the private activities of feelings, emotions, drives and instincts, as well as willing (where our soul flows outward through actions). Interestingly, neurophysiologist Wilder Penfield once stated that no amount of electronic probing in the various areas of the brain will elicit a person to believe or decide.

In our highly technological world, we are intently centered on the physical realm, bombarded with sensations from the external environment. Such sensory overload may induce responses in an individual's soul, such as fear and anxiety, while causing overconcentration and staring. The net result can lead to a habitual strain pattern that negatively impacts the healthy functioning of the eye-focusing muscles.

One of the most fascinating aspects of improving eyesight naturally is a "flash" of near perfect vision that spontaneously occurs from time to time. I experienced flashes several times prior to having any knowledge of the phenomenon. They appear very early in the vision improvement process for many people, even for those with a high degree of initial blur. I liken the experience to a flash of inspiration or intuition from the spiritual realm, a divine perfection pouring into the soul, reminding the eyes how to see clearly again without strain. It's also a reminder to step back from the stressful demands of a society fixated on material ends and become more in touch with our higher spiritual nature.

Quantum physicist Arthur Zajonc chronicled the scientific study of light and visual optics from the time of the early Greek philosophers to our current age and laments at the gradual demise of artistic and spiritual insights. Throughout the centuries, Plato's light of the soul in visual perception was eventually removed by science to the point we are today - a pure neurophysical model - even though the nature of light is as enigmatic as ever. We've become so steeped in material pursuits that we've "lost sight" of the spiritual side. If physical light is the counterpart of spiritual light, is perhaps the visual blur that's widespread in modern culture a manifestation of spiritual shortsightedness?

Observe the symmetry in the word "eye" itself. I view it as a symbol of our threefold nature. One "e" represents the exoteric or physical realm, while the other "e" represents the esoteric or spiritual realm. The "y" in between is the soul with three branches, two linking body and spirit, while the third points to the "I" (pronounced the same as "eye") that is the center of our soul. Window of the soul, indeed.

Doug Marsh is the author of Restoring Your Eyesight: A Taoist Approach, a natural vision improvement book published by Inner Traditions/Bear & Company. Visit www.taosight.com.