PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Bates Method
Thread: Bates Method
View Single Post
Old 17th Apr 2006, 23:49
  #3 (permalink)  
Loose rivets
Psychophysiological entity
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Tweet Rob_Benham Famous author. Well, slightly famous.
Age: 84
Posts: 3,272
Received 39 Likes on 19 Posts
That's interesting. I hadn't realised that the extra-ocular muscles were the focus (groan) of the Bates method.

I'll make a comment/recap, getting to the point at the end.

I am satisfied that I can use these muscles to effect a fine-tuning of my disappointing replacement lense... (+1.5 cyl.)...but realise that it is little more than a party trick.

I have written quite a bit about the pain that I suffered when these muscles went into spasm over a period of weeks. I hypothesized that it was because my brain was trying to process round a new huge floater. (post PVD) and mentioned that as a child I had, quite unconsciously, used this method to overcome a slight error in focus. Presumably this old tactic was stored away somewhere in my subconscious and came out to cause havoc over 50 years later.

In desperation, I went to see 3 different top surgeons while all this was going on. Never was the concept of these muscles causing the pain suggested.

Despite being passionately against the use of Valium, I used it as a diagnostic tool, and found that a minute amount switched off the spasm, stopping the pain and letting my eyes focus perfectly. I cannot imagine what would have happened if I had not thought of this.

The point being. Although I'm sure not many people are likely to react in this way, just perhaps, a few others will. Training these relatively large muscles into extracurricular activities, just may have hazardous side effects.
Loose rivets is offline