William H Bates The Cure Of Imperfect Sight by Treatment Without Glasses (1920)

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.As hismemory improved, it became more and more difficult for him to do this, and atthe end of the week it was impossible.When he looked at the bottom line at adistance of twenty feet he remembered the period perfectly, and when asked ifhe could see the letters, he replied:"I cannot help but see them."Some patients retard their recovery by decorating the scenery with periods asthey go about during the day,144 Memory as an Aid to Visioninstead of simply remembering a period in their minds.This does them no good,but is, on the contrary, a cause of strain.The period can be imagined perfectlyand with benefit as forming part of a black letter on the test card, because thismerely means imagining that one sees one part of the black letter best; but itcannot be imagined perfectly on any surface which is not black, and to attempt toimagine it on such surfaces defeats the end in view.The smaller the area of black which the patient is able to remember, thegreater is the degree of relaxation indicated; but some patients find it easier, atfirst, to remember a somewhat larger area, such as one of the letters on theSnellen test card with one part blacker than the rest.They may begin with the bigC, then proceed to the smaller letters, and finally get to a period.It is then foundthat this small area is remembered more easily than the larger ones, and that itsblack is more intense.Instead of a period, some patients find it easier toremember a colon, with one period blacker than the other, or a collection ofperiods, with one blacker than all the others, or the dot over an i or j.Others,again, prefer a comma to a period.In the beginning most patients find it helpfulto shift consciously from one of these black areas to another, or from one part ofsuch an area to another, and to realize the swing, or pulsation, produced by suchshifting (see Chapter XV); but when the memory becomes perfect, one objectmay be held continuously, without conscious shifting, while the swing is realizedonly when attention is directed to the matter.Although black is, as a rule, the best color to remember, some patients arebored or depressed by it, and prefer to remember white or some other color.AA Help to Other Mental Processes 145familiar object, or one with pleasant associations, is often easier to rememberthan one which has no particular interest.One patient was cured by the memoryof a yellow buttercup, and another was able to remember the opal of her ringwhen she could not remember a period.Whatever the patient finds easiest toremember is the best to remember, because the memory can never be perfectunless it is easy.When the memory of the period becomes habitual, it is not only not a burden,but is a great help to other mental processes.The mind, when it remembers onething better than all other things, possesses central fixation, and its efficiency isthereby increased, just as the efficiency of the eye is increased by centralfixation.In other words, the mind attains its greatest efficiency when it is at rest,and it is never at rest unless one thing is remembered better than all other things.When the mind is in such a condition that a period is remembered perfectly, thememory for other things is improved.A high-school girl reports that when she was unable to remember the answerto a question in an examination, she remembered the period, and the answercame to her.When I cannot remember the name of a patient, I remember aperiod and, behold, I have it! A musician who had perfect sight and couldremember a period perfectly, had a perfect memory for music; but a musicianwith imperfect sight who could not remember a period could play nothing withouthis notes, only gaining that power when his sight and visual memory had becomenormal.In some exceptional cases, the strain to see letters on the Snellen testcard has been so terrific that patients have said that they not only could notremem 146 Memory as an Aid to Visionber a period while they were looking at them, but could not remember even theirown names.Patients may measure the accuracy of their memory of the period, not only bycomparing it with the sight, but by the following tests:When the memory of the period is perfect it is instantaneous.If a few secondsor longer are necessary to obtain the memory, it is never perfect.A perfect memory is not only instantaneous, but continuous.When the period is remembered perfectly perfect sight comes instantaneously.If good vision is obtained only after a second or two, it can always bedemonstrated that the memory of the period is imperfect and the sight also.The memory of a period is a test of relaxation.It is the evidence by which thepatient knows that his eyes and mind are at rest.It may be compared to thesteam-gauge of an engine, which has nothing to do with the machinery, but is ofgreat importance in giving information as to the ability of the mechanism to do itswork.When the period is black one knows that the engine of the eye is in goodworking order.When the period fades, or is lost, one knows that it is out of order,until a cure is effected.Then one does not need a period, or any other aid tovision, just as the engineer does not need a steam-gauge when the engine isgoing properly.One patient who had gained telescopic and microscopic vision bythe methods presented in this book said, in answer to an inquiry from some oneinterested in investigating the treatment of errors of refraction without glasses,that he had not only done nothing to prevent a relapse, but had even forgottenhow he was cured. The Period no Longer Needed 147The reply was unsatisfactory to the inquirer, but is quoted to illustrate the fact thatwhen a patient is cured he does not need to do anything consciously in order tostay cured, although the treatment can always be continued with benefit, sinceeven supernormal vision can be improved. CHAPTER XIVIMAGINATION AS AN AID TO VISIONWE see very largely with the mind, and only partly with the eyes [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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