Saturday, 16 January 2010

Divergence & Transferring to Snellen Chart/Hand Chart

I haven't spent as much time at divergence the past few days as I would have liked to but I am still at least getting some practise in. Tonight I have continued practising divergence which seems to be going at a slow progress but I think I am getting somewhere. I seem to always come up with 4 cups instead of 3 and with a little effort can get it into 3. This is going away but sometimes I think when I have overworked these eyes it goes funny.

I also decided to try and transfer these skills onto the eye charts as this is the next phase: the In and Out Method where you converge on near letter, converge on far letter, diverge on near letter, diverge on far letter. I can't seem to diverge without having a distance object to help in the background, so a chart on the wall is out of the question at the moment. So tonight I took one of the three cups and then help a letter chart near my face. I converged onto the thre cups which I was holding out and then converged onto the letter on the chart near my face. I did this with divergence as well. Divergence came up much clearer for me than convergence and I felt like I was squinting on the letter when converging which was weird. I found it very easy to transfer the skills though without a wall being behind them. However as I got to the third letter divergence became a little tricky as the letters overlapped as I was doing it, like I was having a dizzy spell. I think my divergence strength is very weak as I believe this meshing of letters and overlaping is the same as when I see 4 cups. As a result I am going to spend a little more time focusing on strengthening divergence before I move on.

I must say that though this is challenging and I wonder how I am going to transfer it completely to looking at near letter and far letter. Also I wonder how I am going to edge my distances too. I can barely see as it is so things are going to be very close to begin with. I really hope though something gives me a sign when I start doing that.

We will see.

Thursday, 14 January 2010

Seeing Without Glasses - Relearning To See With The Bershak Method

I have decided to start this blog in order to track my progress and maintain my motivation and dedication to learning to see again without the aid of glasses.

I have tried relaxation techniques, the Bates method but they aren't for me. I can't relax. I have very tense neck and shoulder muscles that I have been working on for a long time but despite this my definition of relaxation doesn't seem to work with these methods.

I was however lucky enough to come across this webpage: http://www.i-see.org/bershak.html and I intend to use it to get back the vision I once had.

I started wearing glasses when I was 13/14 I believe due to eye strain. If I had known what I do now I would have never taken those glasses! Unfortunately that hasn'tr happened and I am now stuck with a prescription roughly equating to around -3.00 or possibly worse in both eyes. This is a rough estimation, but basically I can't see the top letter of the Snellen chart clearly. Maybe that will give you an indication of how blind I am. Generally though despite this I was quite good at getting around without them.

Anyway I want to do the Bershak method because it just fits my personality. I know I can persevere with the challenge it brings up.

There are 3 stages to the Bershak method: Reactivation, Strengthening and Reshaping.

So far over the past week I have successful reactivated convergence. Convergence was a lot easier than divergence and I am still very much working on this. Tonight I really gave my eyes a work out and was able to acquire the divergent image of the third cup. I was also able to hold it for a long while. Before this I kept seeing 4 cups but the more effort I put in the clearer it became. One thing I found was that by really looking at a distance object not only nearer, I was able to get the divergent picture a lot better.

I intend to work on divergence for the next few days and see if I can move onto strengthening.

With convergence I can circle my head, move it back and forth and hold it quit steadily.

My eyes are sore so I know I have given them a good working.

One last thing I wanted to include was that when I started this method I found for a few days my shoulders and neck were extremely sore. I am guessing because I reallyam beginning tro loosen up the muscles maybe :).

To be continued...