CATARACT

Cataract is not, as many people seem to believe, a growth that forms on the eye. It is a kind of eye diseases in which the crystalline lens itself becomes opaque so that no light can pass through it and reach the retina.

The crystalline lens is made up of many concentric layers. Between them are small lymph channels through which a secretion passes into the substance of the lens. When this secretion is not able to flow freely, because of a compression caused by tension, the lens becomes dry and, in time, opaque.

The orthodox method of treating such kind of eye diseases as cataract, is by an operation. The visual education method is that described in earlier pages of the book: sunning, palming, the Long Swing, the Short Swing, and the Lexicon Card Drill. In the case of people suffering from cataract, there should be a ten-minute period devoted to palming every hour.

Why is the same method of treatment used for cataract, you may ask, when it is a different condition? The reason is that cataract, too, is the result of a tension, and like other eye diseases it can be improved by relieving the tension. With cataract, the strain is a long, severe one, frequently brought on by the use of strong glasses, especially bifocals.

One afternoon, about four o'clock, an attractive woman from Virginia came to see me to tell about her eye diseases. She was extremely unhappy, almost in despair. Three years before she had lost entirely the vision in one eye because of cataract, and now cataract was forming on the good eye and her sight was beginning to fail.

We set to work at once and she was so eager to stop the progress of the blindness that she decided to come every day.

There was a temporary difficulty in getting her to visualize until, in talking with her, I learned that her most absorbing hobby was an iris garden. From that time on I had something to work with and every afternoon as she did her palming she visualized her iris garden; first the garden as a whole, then one bed, and finally one iris, clear and vivid. It was remarkable to see how rapidly the vision cleared in the better eye, so our fight with her eye diseases was pretty successful.

On the eleventh day vision started back in the eye in which sight had been lost, but the lady's jubilation was tempered by the fact that she had been called home unexpectedly, and she had to leave at once without continuing her lessons to prevent eye diseases.

I was greatly disappointed because I had hoped to get sight back into the blind eye as well. It is always a mistake to arouse too much hope—an unjustifiable and a cruel mistake—because no one can tell what the eye will do. However, without explaining my reasons, I put a patch over the better eye, asked her to close her eyes and visualize her iris garden for several minutes, then to hold up one hand and open her eye. When she saw the contour of her hand for the first time in three years the tears rolled down her cheeks.

This coming out of darkness into the light is an exhilarating experience not only for the pupil to whom it happens but to the instructor as well.

An older man appeared at my door, wearing dark glasses, and groped his way into my office. He had cataracts in both eyes. I took away his glasses and began to teach him the various techniques of this method. In time he not only could read easily but his eyes were so improved that he began once more to drive his car.

GLAUCOMA

One of the grimmest of all eye diseases is glaucoma in which the pressure of the eye fluids causes hardening of the eyeball, interferes with accommodation and normal circulation of blood, increases size of lens and degeneration. If nothing is done about it, permanent blindness results.

A famous musical comedy star was told by three different doctors in California and New York that she had glaucoma, for which there was no treatment but an operation. Unless her eyes were operated on within a very short time she would go completely blind.

Because she dreaded the operation, she came to me and began to devote herself conscientiously to the drills and exercises already described. Within two months she had marked results and was able to read without glasses. She could read advertising signs several blocks away from her.

DETACHED   RETINA

One day a woman came to see me, wearing a black disc with a tiny pinhole in the center over one eye. This was an indication that she had another kind of eye diseases - a detached retina.

She told me her story. She had been operated on for the detached retina, and after the operation spent a month in the hospital lying on her back with sandbags at either side of her head to keep her from making any movement. The result of all that discomfort was that the retina was still detached and she was still blind in that eye. The doctors had told her there was nothing to be done but to have another operation.

Because of the failure of the first operation, she felt that she could not undergo such a futile experience a second time and she came to me to see what could be done with her eye diseases by less orthodox means.

In due time her retina was in place and when she returned to her own physician he verified the fact that it was re-attached and that her field of vision now measured a hundred per cent.

The difference in the method here emphasizes the importance, which I have been stressing, of the mental side of seeing. In the hospital this woman had lain on her back for the period of a month. My suggestion, too, was that she lie quietly on her back—for the retina has an inclination to fall back into place if it is encouraged to do so.

Why was it successful in one case and not in the other? Because I had her spend the time palming, completely relaxed mentally, while someone read aloud to her of pleasant scenes which she visualized, and thus released the tension which had caused the detachment. In the hospital, on the other hand, where she had been under a nervous strain, there was no improvement in her condition.

RETINITIS   PIGMENTOSIS

Another serious type of eye diseases is retinitis pigmen-tosis, a disease for which the doctors say there is no cure. In this condition the blood supply is cut off from the choroid coat which nourishes the retina. The retina is a delicate film containing millions of nerve receptors. The free circulation of blood through the head and eyes is absolutely essential to eye health. When the circulation is impaired, vision is impaired and serious eye trouble follows. That again is why we continually stress the importance of posture, the fact that your head must be up, the muscles of the neck free and relaxed so that circulation to the head and eyes should not be restricted.

A Belgian concert pianist, with retinitis pigmentosis, was brought to me. She had consulted specialists both in Europe and in New York, all of whom had agreed that there was nothing to be done. She could see only the dim shadows of furniture. Her occupation was gone. She had to abandon her piano because she could not see the keys, let alone the score.

In the course of time she learned the principles of relaxation to such good purpose that her physical health, which had been in bad condition, was immensely improved. Remember that this woman was almost blind. One afternoon she succeeded in relaxing so completely that she got a flash of clear vision and saw me.

The hope that came with that flash—with the knowledge that the sight was actually there—served as a spur in a way that no argument or persuasion could have done. From that moment on her vision began to improve, and her eye diseases have gone.

Today she goes to the movies, to theaters, to concerts. Not long ago she sat in the fourteenth row at Carnegie Hall and watched the pianist's hands.

And a few evenings ago I had the unutterable satisfaction of listening an entire evening while she played Chopin, Schumann and others. Although she had not seen the music for years her remarkable memory, which was responsible for the regaining of her vision, made it possible to remember every note without hesitation.

A young woman was brought to me a few months ago by her husband. According to the diagnosis of a leading New York ophthalmologist, she had neuro-retinitis.

Ten years before, she said, she had taken a job and passed the medical examination, together with the eye test, with flying colors. Her eyesight was perfect. Within five months, because of the nerve strain in learning her new job, she had lost most of the sight in her left eye.

Then began a dreary search for treatment. One eye diseases specialist wanted to operate. A second made the diagnosis mentioned above. A third gave her tuberculosis injections, two a week for a year. No results.

Eight years later the right eye became affected and she lost the vision to the point where she had almost no vision in daylight although she could still see at night. (The center of the retina functions only in the light while night seeing is done with the peripheral nerves.) She had lost all color sense. Everything was a soft diffused gray. Once more she began to go to eye diseases specialists. Her family physician made a complete physical check-up and found nothing wrong. An ophthalmologist diagnosed the right eye as a case of retro-bulbar neuritis and said it was hereditary, although there was no history of such a condition in her family as far back as she had any knowledge.

In cases where the difficulty lies with the retina, optic nerve, and so forth, and there is no question of accommodation, there does not seem to be any trouble with visualization. Why people with faulty accommodation find it more difficult to visualize than others I cannot say, but I have repeatedly found it to be the case, more apparent with myopes than with any other eye diseases.

This patient, however, was quick in visualizing and We began to make progress. It was our job to release the tension that was causing the eye diseases and to restore circulation of the blood to the eye and the choroid coat which nourishes the retina. She was unusually intelligent and eager to co-operate to the best of her ability.

We worked together for some weeks before she discovered one day that a large chair in my office was upholstered in red, and a sofa in colored chintz. Now her sense of color is returning rapidly and she has 20/30 vision in the right eye, while the left eye can distinguish letters clearly at ten feet.

Not long ago, as we were working with the poor eye, on a dark, sunless day, we started on the Lexicon Card Drill after finishing the relaxing exercises. The conditions were not ideal because there is always a great advantage in doing the drills in a bright light.

At first she was unable even to distinguish the distant letter, which was a white E on a black cardboard.

"Don't try to see it," I told her. "Close your eyes and visualize not the whole letter but the bottom bar of the E. Paint it in your mind until it is a snowy white, much whiter than the rest of the letter."

In a few moments she opened her eyes and gave a triumphant exclamation. She had seen it in a flash. It vanished and she began again to visualize with closed eyes that small stroke of white which constituted the bottom bar of the capital E. Finally, when she had a clear mental picture of the letter, she opened her eyes and looked around.

"What's happened?" she demanded. "Everything is so bright. Has the sun come out?"

And that was the eye with which she had seen practically nothing for ten years because of her eye diseases. The point, of course, is that by thinking of one thing best she had achieved complete mental control and consequently complete relaxation of strain.

It is small wonder that these people who suffer from the more serious eye diseases apply themselves to the exercises and drills with an earnestness and perseverance that is rare in those whose trouble is accommodation. For the former, in the terror of having their sight fade away, there is a powerful incentive which keeps them constantly and faithfully at it.

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here