The Focal Plane Leap
There will come a time in your vision improvement progress, where the centimeter measurement will deceive you. If you were in the office, I could easily determine when that is – but since this is the Web program, we will have to make a whole laundry list of assumptions.
I will lay out the most common scenario here, and add a few variations in subsequent installments. Feel free to post in the forum with questions (or remind me via e-mail, if you are doing one-on-one).
Here are the assumptions:
That is a long list, I realize. It will apply to many participants, though of course not all. Another stipulation is that in the office, I like to wait at least six months, often even a year, before attempting this session. There is no benefit to rushing things.
Here is what you will want to consider: This installment is not worth doing prematurely, or without being fully prepared. It will make later attempts more challenging, and less likely to give you the full effect. In essence, what I am giving you here can easily be wasted, if you rush it, or don’t take it fully seriously.
If you are higher than -2.25, I will make some alternate suggestions, that may prove effective, in follow-up sessions.
In case this is not the right time, drop me an e-mail for a PDF of this session. It is amazing in its effectiveness, if you are prepared for it. It will completely change your relationship to distance vision, in a matter of a single day. No more small progress, tiny changes, keeping a log. This installment, when applied properly, can take you from 20/100 to (imperfect) 20/20 in a single day (if you have prepared!).
If all of the above meets your criteria, especially after you have found double vision in #61 and significantly increased your centimeter distance (even if just for a few minutes), then let’s look at the fascinating potential of Installment #64:
First, you will need a whole day for this. Follow the instructions, however odd or trivial they may seem, to every detail.
1. Start the day with focus challenge.
Spend an hour doing some close up, starting with 15 minutes of the blur distance. Once you have it, just get to however far you can, and do your work, or leisure reading. Do not exceed an hour of this.
Somewhere in this time, enjoy a light breakfast. Keep away from sugar, and not too much coffee.
2. Get outside.
Spend at least 3 hours outdoors. Take only your peak prescription. Ideally this one is still giving you only 20/50, maybe 20/40 vision in most conditions. Wear it during the three hours, but begin to take it off for 10-15 minute periods after the first two hours.
3. Spend some more close-up time.
Watch a movie. Something relaxing to the eye, no blur work, no pushing focus. Just a movie, with no differential prescription (remember above conditions – if you are past -2.25 normalized, this does need to be adjusted). On the computer is ideal, so you can keep it at your comfortable distance, without the need for prescriptions.
Lunch, food, just keep it light. No big pasta or pizza dishes today.
4. Get back outside.
Also, squeeze some orange juice from fresh oranges, if at all possible. At least two to three small drinking cups worth, spread out throughout the afternoon. Boxed juice is no effective substitute.
A long walk here, would be ideal. Again in the three hour range, peak prescription only. You want to see clearly, but just so. Normalized prescription would be too much, no prescription too little.
If you need to go back and get a peak prescription and spend a few weeks with it, do so before attempting this. It will be worth the extra time. If you have made progress so far into the program, trust me on this one. It would be a mistake to do this installment, without really following the instructions.
Towards the end of the walk, again, stop using the glasses for 10-15 minutes at a time. Make sure it is still bright daylight, well before sunset.
5. Relax with some more close-up.
Movies again, are ideal. Two hours is a good amount of time, no pushing focus, no blur work, just some relaxed time is good here.
6. The Transition
You want to get back outside about half an hour before sunset. Ideally this is a location where you can walk after dark, with a good amount of lit signage available. I realize that this may be a stretch, you may need to improvise here. If you live in a European city, it should be easy to get downtown, where all the shops will have lit signs in the evening. In the U.S. and other locales, this could be more of a challenge.
You will be using no prescription, for this one.
If need be, have somebody else drive you. You want to focal plane change, no prescription, for any part of this. If you need to drive, get a ride. From the moment you stop relaxing with close-up, you must wear no lenses of any sort. Be sure to be safe, and remember, if you are more than -2.25 normalized, this is not the way you want to proceed.
Now, enjoy the sunset. Close your eyes, feel the last bit of sun on your eyelids for five minutes. Don’t wait for the sun to fully set, to start your walk. You want to dusk to set in, as you get to walking. Lit signs here, are key, absolutely important. Look for them, and now do not try to squint. Instead, remember the blur vs. double vision close-up exercise. Remember how you found double vision, in #61. Realize this:
The signs you see are double vision, not blur.
See this. You won’t immediately, but (all conditions above being met), there will be a flash of it. Remember how you did it up-close (for a at least a week, successfully, before attempting this). Just like with the close-up version, you can not force it. It is simply there to be discovered. There is no pulling or pushing involved. Remember how the headline of the image in #61 just cleared. This is the same. It will take some time. As you are reducing the distance to the sign, keep looking.
Blinking less, rather than more, can be effective here. If you find a clear spot, don’t blink. Just keep it there, give your brain a moment to realize that you have double vision, instead of blur. This might make your eyes tear up. It doesn’t matter. All you want now, is for your visual cortex to recognize double vision, just once.
Later on the blinking will not be relevant. Now though, the minute change in refraction that comes from the change of tear fluid distribution after you blink, will make you loose the double vision and revert to blur. So you blink a few times, catch one where you see double vision, then stop blinking. Keep focused on the double vision as long as you comfortably can, before you blink again (don’t go overboard here, just whatever you can do without too much discomfort). This is just for the next hour, until your visual cortex has learned to see double vision, rather than blur. Tomorrow, this will not be necessary.
Once you find double vision rather than blur, keep walking for somewhere around an hour. Look for lit signs, try it again. A lot of time the backlit variety, where the light is behind a translucent board, lighting up the signage from the inside, is easiest.
When you get it once, use this to look around. Recognize as much double vision as you can find. This is a massive breakthrough, realize this. Once you see double vision images, rather than blur, you’ve got it.
The rest of the walk will challenge your eyes, but you will enjoy it quite a bit. Whatever you can see double vision, see how much you can get it to clear, using the same principle as #61. No need to push or pull, just read the sign. Let it clear up, to some degree. Feel free to walk into shops, get some different distances, read advertisements, price tags, anything you can.
If you are having the experience I am describing, you should be wanting to do this anyway. Realize, that you are seeing clearly, at this point. It may be double vision, but those are two clear images, that just have not perfectly aligned. Two. clear. images.
Once you had enough of this, and I realize it may take a while, go home and enjoy some relaxed time. Close-up if you like, no pushing focus. Just relax.
If above experience does happen to you, you no longer need glasses for all distance vision (except for driving, or activities where you need to be safe, or work related, and just to take a break from challenging yourself). Spend the next morning on a long walk, repeating the same experience. In daylight the effect should be even more noticeable. Don’t take any close-up time before getting outside for an hour. Look for signs to read, even at great distances. Again, no pulling focus at all. This is about recognizing double vision, just like what happened last night. It should be quite a bit easier now, with the lighting not decreasing, having good sunlight, and lots of signage at various distances.
Once you get the above experience, again: You no longer need glasses for a lot of your daytime walks and pulling focus. It’s a big step!
***
You will still need your differential prescription for close-up, most likely. You will want to continue with #61, and repeat the experiences from this installment, with daily extended outdoor walks. If you can limit close-up time to less than 3 hours at a time, your progress will be helped quite a bit.
I will offer some additional advice in subsequent installments. They are not crucial, partake if you feel so inclined.
Also, do post your findings in the forum. These sessions break the mold as we no longer use pushing / pulling focus as our primary tool, and we no longer rely on centimeter to tell us what we can see at a distance. We needed all the preceding work to get here, but once you have this experience, it is an entirely different ballgame.
You will want to continue doing close-up work as we have so far. You are not done getting to a clear 20/20, but you have cracked every layer to where you can now function without distance glasses (be safe, though!).
Cheers,
-Jake
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