Jim,
Great questions. I'll try to answer them. Tom may have different thoughts to add.
THE BIG QUESTIONS
What does really work?
1. How do you define active/voluntary focus?
- Is it a latent ability, an "extra" resolving capacity?
- Is it in the ciliary? Is it in the brain? Is it in both?
- How is it different from automatic proximity-based focusing (i.e. day-to-day looking)?
- What is NOT active/voluntary focus?
Active focus is nothing more than selective attention -- paying attention to one specific element of the visual field and making an intentional effort to bring it into focus. It necessarily implies ignoring other elements of the visual field -- you can't pay equal attention to everything. It is different than blankly staring with total relaxation and "taking it all in". If you see two elements at different distances, or a double or multiple image, active focusing directs your attention to the element you choose to prioritize.
2. How do you gauge the just right amount of stimulus? How deep into the blur is enough?
This is the classic "Goldilocks principle", central to Hormetism. It applies not just to eyesight improvement, but to virtually any type of fitness improvement or learning process. How much weight should you lift? How far and fast should you run on a given day? How long should you practice the piano? The answer is always the same: apply sufficient stress to push yourself beyond your comfort zone, but not to the point of extreme fatigue, pain, or injury. Athletes and other learners learn to understand there is an optimum amount of stimulus, beyond which lies the realm of overtraining. Overtraining is not always easy to detect when it happens, but the consequences usually show up soon enough. Performance suffers.
If you find your eyes getting tired, with redness or pain, you are pushing too hard. I think it is best to start out slowly with print pushing. At first, just go for the slightest blur. Take frequent breaks, and limit practice to a few hours a day. If you find you can handle it without adverse consequences, push harder. Another useful rule is: push into the blur a little and then keep that distance until the print clears and stabilizes. If the blur diminishes, push a little further. But periodically, relax the tension and relieve the blur. I find that taking breaks and getting good sleep is important. Reading with good lighting is also helpful.
3. What triggers/engages voluntary focus?
- what are the critical steps required to access voluntary focus (e.g. staring, relaxation, double vision recognition/concentration)?
- do you use a crutch (e.g. eye rotations, hard/soft blinking, eyelid adjustments)?
- what are the concrete positive signals of success (e.g. Tom's Ways to Gauge Improvements) ?
- what are the definite signs of failure (e.g. quick fatigue, dryness)?
I think my answer to Question 1 addresses these points. Contrary to Bates, my view is that the critical element is selective attention. I'm not convinced that "relaxation" by itself is that useful; the method of print pushing inherently involves the stimulus or stress of mild defocus. Relaxation comes into play only as periodic rest intervals between periods of active focusing.
I have found that occasional blinking can be helpful, especially when pushing the distance a notch farther. But I don't routinely blink, or do the rotations you mention.
I do think it is important to vary the focal distance. Don't spend hours just print pushing at the computer or a book. Break it up. Move back and forth. Every 5 or 10 minutes look at other things in the room. Every 20 or 30 minutes get up and stretch, walk around, look at other things. Avoid the typical myope behavior of "locking in".
4. What should an absolute beginner expect during
- initial sessions vs later sessions
- a single session vs multiple sessions?
Keep your expectations modest. Initial progress is typically more rapid, then it slows to a snail's pace. Plateaus are very common, interspersed with occasional rapid progress or even sudden and discontinuous improvement -- but also expect backsliding and regression. It's 2 steps forward, 1 step back. Read my post on "
How to break through a plateau".
What do you think comes first? Is active focus the product of resolving double/multiple vision or does the brain "catch up" to optical improvement later on?
Active focus is the process you use to resolve either mild blur or double/multiple images. The brain (more accurately the mind) leads; remodeling of the eye, lens and neural circuitry follow.
How do you define "resolving" within the context of a single training session? Some of your previous articles point out that resolving may not be possible within a single session/day, and that it takes concentration over the course of multiple days for the double/multiple vision to resolve.
Resolving a blur, also know as clearing, is an automatic physiological response to the effort to focus. The degree to which you succeed in clearing print is at least initially beyond your control, but with continued effort you get better at it. But is really the way all learning happens -- whether it is learning to throw a baseball, learning a new language, lifting weights etc. All you can control is the discipline of regular effort and practice. In all learning you have to trust that your brain, musculature and organs have the capacity to adapt in response to applied stimulus.
Why do people assume the eye is somehow either static or programmed to deteriorate slowly; that it is resistant to positive change -- when most other parts of their body can improve in strength or function through deliberate, guided practice?
Todd
