I first noticed a deterioration in my eyesight about twenty five years ago, when I was thirty. My eyes weren’t bad by any means, I simply noticed that when I was tired the subtitles on the television were blurred – in fact I remember thinking it was the tv at fault until I was informed otherwise!
Eye care was not something I had ever previously considered, so I ignored the problem for quite a long time hoping it would go away. Eventually, however, when it became apparent that road signs had to come a bit closer to be read, I decided I’d better get my eyes tested – especially as my father suffered from glaucoma.
I was coming to realise that eye health really was important to me, and duly made my appointment. I was given the all-clear from glaucoma, but was told I was slightly short-sighted, and handed a prescription for my first glasses.
I already knew my mother had been prescribed glasses at quite a young age, and had refused to wear them whereas my father wore his most of the time. I learned that my mothers eyesight had then stopped deteriorating for many years, and she only started needing them again as she entered “old age”. My father on the other hand needed a new, stronger prescription almost every time he visited the optician.
I did some research, and quickly came to agree with the widely held opinion that the more one wore ones glasses the worse ones eyes got. I determined I would wear mine as little as possible – basically only when safety demanded, i.e. when driving.
As an avid reader (something which tended to get a lot of the blame) I was grateful that I didn’t need glasses for reading and close up jobs. I would spend hours browsing in bookshops, and many more reading a vast array of “reference books” on subjects ranging from “Practical Electronics” to “Persian Carpets” and “Home Brewing” to “Coin Collecting”, with just the occasional novel or biography.
Hypnosis had long been a pet interest of mine, and I discovered that some people could see perfectly without their glasses whilst under hypnosis. It could not, though, be deemed a “cure”, since most people needed their glasses as soon as they “woke up” from the hypnotic state or trance.
However this posed a big question… how come they could see OK without glasses even if it was only temporary? And what could be done to prolong the effect? The extreme degree of relaxation whilst under hypnosis was thought to hold the key to the improvement. This theory was reinforced by the fact that, for most people, vision is better in the morning than it is later in the day, as tiredness and stress set in.
Whatever the reason, I was convinced that the usual steady decline which most people experience (including me at the time) was not a foregone conclusion, and that there had to be something one could do to halt that gradual deterioration, if not actually reverse the process.
By this time I was already a keen yoga practitioner. Meditation, asanas (postures) and pranayama (breathing exercises) were having a hugely beneficial effect on my overall health (mental and physical) – and at some point I noticed that my eyesight also seemed to be somewhat improved. I was convinced that the relaxation and meditations such as “candle gazing” must hold the key to this, and set out on my quest to achieve better eyesight without glasses!
Ever since, in my twenties, I first picked up a book suggesting that most aspects of our physical health were mentally propagated and controlled I have been seeking to fill in the pieces of the puzzle. Throughout the intervening years I have, on occasions, been sorely tested, and have often wanted to simply pin the blame on ill fortune or a malevolent supreme being…. but I cannot. As I enter fully into middle age (and start to peek out the other side) I realized better than ever that such matters are my responsibility, and mine alone.