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plainchant
41 Posts |
 Posted - 11/30/2004 : 14:48:08
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I am reading a facinating book called "Take Off Your Glasses and See" by Dr. Jacob Liberman.
http://www.positivehealth.com/Reviews/books/liberman78.htm
I'm only a third into it, but what it is suggesting is quite remarkable: that one's poor vision comes from one's mind and not from defects in one's eyes (sound familiar?) It is further suggests that that one can regain perfect vision without the use of glasses, contacts, surgery etc.
So far everything in the book rings through to me. I will finish it and then put its ideas into practice to see what happens. But I thought other TMSers who wear glasses and contacts might be interested in reading this book as well so I wanted to mention it right away. |
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menvert
Australia
133 Posts |
Posted - 12/02/2004 : 05:53:34
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| hmm interesting, it did happen to be my senior year of high school . when my eyes went from perfect to imperfect... it could never be described as a pressure free/stressfree time... so , sounds like it's worth a try treating it as TMS. I would be interested in, what procedure . he suggests, in order to get your eyesight back. |
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FarmerEd
USA
40 Posts |
Posted - 12/02/2004 : 06:15:50
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I've always wondered about this. Both my wife and I had pretty much the same experience. We were both diagnosed with near sigthedness when we were in grade school. Our vision got progressively worse and each time we went to the eye Doc a stronger pair of glasses was prescribed for a number of years till we both have pretty thick lenses.
Both my son and daughter (now 26 and 24) were homeschooled and we never had their eyes checked because they got along perfectly well. When they went to get their driving licenses they each were told they needed glasses, but just barely. They each went when they were 16 to get glasses. The difference is that they only wear them when they have to drive, in fact my son went back later to the DMV and passed the eye exam and he never wears his. Their eyes have never gotten worse and probably have gotten better. Could this be just another case of doctors causing something to get worse because it is expected?
Plainchant, Thanks for the post. I found the book on Amazon amd have ordered it. For the little money it costs it's worth a try. |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 12/02/2004 : 09:24:34
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Yes, vision has become a business too. I have read several books on "vision" and "VISION" by Dr. Robert-Michael Kaplan, many years ago: THE POWER BEHIND YOUR EYES" and "SEEING WITHOUT GLASSES".
I would characterize it as Yoga for your eyes. It's also a psychological approach to vision/VISION, that, I would think is in conformance with TMS theory. The goal is to wean you off of your glasses and to decrease your progressive prescriptions.
I have been fortunate with my vision, probably because my parents never took me to an eye doc to have regular eye tests--don't assk a barber if you need a haircut!. At 50 I noticed the normal drop-off and read Dr. Kaplan's books. I sought out a Behavioral Optometrist who I found in Novato, Ca. He did all the normal tests and I got an rx for some readers that are supposed to help the weak eye work and improve. I'm now 56 and have taken my vision for granted. It's stabilized and maybe even improved. I did some eye therapy sessions with an eye therapist at his office. It's like I said, like doing yoga for your eyes or going to the gym for your vision. It was a lot of fun stuff and they give you tools and exercises to do at home. I haven't needed to do them for years. Watching the tennis ball is my eye therapy exercise. I rarely put on glasses to read only the tiniest print when I am tired, or impatient. If I let my eye muscles warmup like any other part of my body they can read anything comfortably. I have really taken this for granted and have to occassionaly remind myself how fortuante I am to have excellent vision. |
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Kavita
USA
47 Posts |
Posted - 12/02/2004 : 09:57:20
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| Fred Amir discusses this in his book as well. He wore glasses for years, and after his recovery from back pain, he was told by his opthamologist that the glasses weren't necessary. A second opthamologist confirmed this. |
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Laura
USA
655 Posts |
Posted - 12/06/2004 : 20:21:28
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Isn't it interesting that they say "The eyes are the first to go," as if once we get into our 40's we are doomed to start losing our vision. It's as if we expect it to happen and, bingo, it does! I've never heard of a reasonable explaination as to why this happens. Last week I had an eye exam and was telling my friend that I didn't let them dilate my eyes cuz it freaks me out (it's a loss of control/panicky thing). She said "You better have it done next time because that's the only way they can tell if you have a detached retina or any type of problem with your retina." Then she proceeded to tell me how she used to work for an eye doctor and how fragile the retina is and how it can become detached just by moving your head! Oh, my Gosh! I thought, "After all these years I've never had my eyes dilated and I'm fine." Also, in 45 years my retina has never become detached what with all my bouncing around and running, etc. Why do some people like to scare you like that? I saw a very reputable opthalmologist who told me it wasn't necessary to dilate my eyes; he could see in them just fine without.
Sorry to ramble. Thanks for the post on the book. I'm going to get it tomorrow!
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Baseball65
USA
734 Posts |
Posted - 12/06/2004 : 21:13:13
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Hey Plainchant.
If that is true,than I spent 3600 bucks for nothing..LOL!
I had the laser surgery.
I could always hit fastballs up to the mid 80's...It was a kinesthetic feel kind of thing...make contact with the blurrrrrrrrr
Than I went to 28 and over ball and got nothing but curveball/slider/knuckleball/change...and my Batting avg. plummeted.
Ever since my surgery,I can read a breaking pitch waaaay sooner,BUT
I also read Dr. Waler Herbisons "Head Games"...he's the Sarno of Baseball...the problems aren't mechanical,there in your head.
He recommends these eye drills rather than thinking or guessing pitches....My avg. skyrocketed after I read his book....Now you're making me wonder if it was another head problem and I could have fixed it without surgery...
If that was a placebo though,it was a hell of a good one...the day I had it done I went from 20/45right 20/35 left to 20/20 right 20/15 left.....
let us know if it works..playing ball,I always am looking for ways to "see" better.
Baseball65 |
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plainchant
41 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2004 : 02:51:49
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Well Baseball65: you've pretty much proved what Dr. Liberman is saying to be correct. According to the traditional medical establishment, it is impossible to improve one's vision naturally. And you've done it, Fred Amir's done it, Tennis Tom's done it and so have many others. I've started to practice what I've learned in the book by wearing my glasses less and less.
Also, the doctor shows a correlation between the first time people got glasses and traumatic incidents in their lives (your vision started blurring the world because there were things in the world that were too painful to face). I asked a friend of mine when he started to wear glasses. He started at 11 - the same year his young sister died!. And my teenage years were not the best, and that's why I now know why I had that great TMS euivilent: acne, and poor vision. I always taught that it was the large number of books I read that caused my eyes to deteriorate. And I've avoided laser eye surgery for years, because I didn't want to be one of the small number whose vision got messed up. |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2004 : 18:57:43
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A couple of points I remember from Dr. Kaplan's books about vision/VISION, are that from an evolutionary standpoint, our eyes are not designed to do more than a couple of hours of close-up work a day. More than that invites eye-strain. Our evolutionary roots are as hunters and gatherers. We hunted things at distances. The printing press and the computer monitor are relatively recent inventions; seems plausible to me.
When I play tennis I am very aware that I must warm up my eyes along with all of my other body parts. The eyes are focused by small muscles, that age along with the rest of the body. I think we can continue to function at very high levels as we age, we just need a little more time to warm-up. Fortunately for me the tennis ball is a big optic yellow fuzzy thing that is best contacted out in front at arm's length. |
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Irish Jimmy
USA
52 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2004 : 20:36:50
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| Plainchant, I'm really interested in that book. Please keep us informed if you make progress with it. That would be very interesting, because although Amir mentions sight improvements related to TMS theory, both Sarno and Sopher do not. Good Luck. |
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plainchant
41 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2004 : 03:08:46
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| Irish Jimmy. I've read the book, and I plan to re-read it in order to understand the concept better. Bascially you can start wearing your glasses or contacts less and less (when you're a position to do so). If you feel trepidation at doing this, it is precisely because you're addicted to wearing them as your barrier against the horrors of the world. Eventually your prescription will be reduced. There are also some eye exercises and some breathing techniques mentioned in the book. I think Dr. Liberman suspects what Dr. Sarno realized years ago when he dispensed with physical therapy: the physical activity doesn't cure the condition. Curing yourself of TMS will aid in the process of improving your vision. TMS is a distraction from emotional conditions you don't won't to face, while poor vision is a blurring out of emotional conditions you don't want to face. He mentions confronting these traumas and well as journaling. |
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windy
USA
84 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2005 : 10:15:30
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Hi,
I haven't been on this board for probably a year or two after phenomonal results treating "fibromyalgia" with Sarno.
This topic really speaks to me right now. I get what manifests as severe eye strain from the computer and reading. It collects into severe headaches. My first eps of this were in 1991-92 and it was treated by an optometrist with "vision therapy."
For the past year I've been have sporadic episodes and done occasional vision therapy off and on, but by the end of 2004 was experiencing this pain/strain (called a "convergence oversufficiency") all the time but weekly vision therapy has not eradicated the problem which now seems to have a mind of its own. In otherwords, TMS. I am going thru major life changes very soon. I started laying the groundwork for these changes in early 2004 (in fact, it's as if my eyes are prescient and knew what I would do before I did).
I wrote to Sarno about this syndrome but he was hesitant to say it was TMS since he says he has not done any studies of the eyes.
My optometrist does concur that the eyes do strongly react to emotional state (I tend to be anxious to begin with and now I'm getting a lot of anxiety attacks as I phase out of work and will start school soon full time to train for a completely new career in my late 30's). So it has been hard for me to stick the pure TMS nametag on this problem. But it's painful and intimidating (knowing all the reading I will have to do for grad school + now I still work on a computer all day). My optometrist though only suggests more vision therapy (which is costly).
I'd love to hear about others' similar experiences. Also, doesn't it seem like computer eye strain may be the "carpal tunnel syndrome" of the eyeball?
Thanks for letting me ramble on. I hope to hear some feedback. |
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Laura
USA
655 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2005 : 11:44:57
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Dear Windy,
My Mother has an eye condition that happens when she is under too much stress. She has seen two opthalmologists for this and they can find nothing wrong. I thought it might be the beginning of macular degeneration but her eyes are just fine. What happens to her is that all of a sudden it's as if she is looking through a window with rain coming down the glass. Her vision remains like this for upwards of an hour or two and then it goes away. The first time it happened it really freaked her out good. Now, when it happens she realizes it's just her body's way of telling her she's on stress overload and needs to relax.
Laura
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marytabby
USA
545 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2005 : 13:44:21
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| Interesting how people's eyes start to go sometimes in high school. Mine did, right when I was getting my license. In fact that's when it was discovered that I needed glasses to see at night for driving. you know how stressful it is for a person when they are getting their license! Talk about anxiety! Well my eyes were fine until I was tested for my driver's license at age 18. Funny thing is I have had the same script for 20 years and last summer the optometrist said my eyes have improved some, and he said it may be due to the better computer monitors that are made now. Who knows? |
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verdammt
Canada
97 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2005 : 20:07:56
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Hey, this is a funny topic! While telling a colleague at work all about Sarno last year, I half-seriously suggested that even poor eyesight could be a form of TMS. Not to shut out the world, but to keep from getting beaten up in grade school (back when I was a kid, hitting someone who wore glasses was unthinkable. It just wasn't done, even by the most viscious brutes).
Or maybe it was an excuse for being so lousy at sports ("uh, sorry, guys, I couldn't see the ball...glasses, y'know...") |
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Scottydog
United Kingdom
330 Posts |
Posted - 05/10/2005 : 07:28:07
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My eyesight was becoming worse, due, I thought, to using this little old laptop for the internet. My optician said my eyesight wasn't too bad but I bought the specs anyway.
Then I read Dr Sarno and Louise Hay. She gives an example of someone who did some positive thinking and woke up one morning to find she no longer needed her contact lenses! Then spent the whole day saying "It can't be true, it can't be true" and sure enough by the end of the day needed her contacts again!
I have't used my specs since.
Scottydog |
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windy
USA
84 Posts |
Posted - 05/10/2005 : 09:30:00
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My biggest question is whether or not I should continue with vision therapy or is it exacerbating the problem. Like I said, it makes the pain abate a lot (placebo?) but never for good....
I had been in pain for years from "fibromyalgia" I had about a year free from pain of any kind then the eye strain. Substitute symptom? Or, like I said just TMS all over again as I take on a major life change.
so to vision therapy or not? |
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windy
USA
84 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2012 : 07:36:51
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I just started reading Take Off Your Glasses and See b/c I thought I was getting migraines from eye strain. I'm actually getting migraines and eye strain from an upcoming job/lifestyle change. The book is fascinating. In the morning I usually wake up with a headache which I mistook as accumulated eye strain from the prior day. I've been an all the time glassess wearer for 2 decades. Luckily, my rx does NOT get stronger every year. At a particularly tuned in time of my life, my rx actually got weaker and has stayed there.
Today I commuted to work without my glasses and my headache quieted. The first hour at work I did not wear glasses until I had to type some notes on a computer.
The funny thing was as I was leaving my apartment my neighbor asked me if I knew I'd forgotten my glasses  Heh. I told her they were in my bag and that is where they stayed for several hours.
Vive la revolucion! |
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ajm222
15 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2012 : 07:45:15
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| seems that if it was all in your head, laser surgery wouldn't work and wouldn't keep ones eyes perfect for very long. yet it's one surgery that almost every single person i have spoke with said they would do over again in an instant and that they immediately went back to 20/20 and stayed there and it was the best thing they'd ever done. no one seems to immediately start having vision problems again, and no one seems to have an unsuccesful eye surgery. that would suggest at least to me that there is some sort of problem and the surgery fixes it. just to play devil's advocate. |
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windy
USA
84 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2012 : 14:04:51
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My Dad had laser eye surgery, loved it at first, but is now back in glasses. A co-worker had it and it caused damage to one eye and now she has chronic eye pain as a result. No one's shooting a laser through my eye!
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Ace1
USA
1040 Posts |
Posted - 03/10/2012 : 06:59:30
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| Hi guys I'm correctIng my vision naturally and can attest that strain is the major cause of eye problems as it is with the rest of the body. Read dr bates' book and his magazine for free on central-fixation.com. Remember when reading this that a mental strain is the major cause. I was a negative 5 prescription and I haven't worn my glasses for 1 year except a weakened pair that I wore maybe less than 1% of the time in emergencies. I have improved a lot but you may ask what is my vision now? Well this is tough bc as you will see with correction your vision will fluctuate a lot with the ability to improve it at will. So it's hard to tell but Im not where I need to be yet but I plan on getting there what ever time it takes but I do see 20/20 at times now. |
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"Take Off Your Glasses and See"
