After Thirty Years
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After Thirty Years
By William Murphy
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This very interesting article furnishes a striking illustration of
the fundamental principle of the cure of imperfect sight by treatment
without glasses. All the methods used for this purpose are simply
different ways of obtaining rest, and although most persons cannot
obtain sufficient rest to effect a cure merely by closing their eyes,
there is a minority of patients who require nothing more. The writer
is mistaken in thinking that his imperfect sight was caused by
excessive reading in youth. He could not have done all this reading
unless he had done it without strain. And even reading under a strain
could not have made him myopic. It is more likely that his trouble
started with straining to see the blackboard or other distant objects
in school, for it is straining to see distant objects that causes
myopia.
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I was born in Ireland forty years ago, and my eyes began to fail
when I was about nine or ten years old. I never knew why, but since
reading "Better Eyesight" and "The Cure of Imperfect Sight by
Treatment Without Glasses" I think I have found the reason.
I was very far from being a sissy when I was a boy. If you had
asked any of the gang, they would have told you that I was a "regular
feller"; and if they had told you anything else they would have heard
about it, because I was the leader of the gang. Nevertheless I was an
inveterate reader. I would eagerly devour every scrap of reading
matter that came into my hands, and many a night I have curled up in
bed all night long, reading about the hair-breadth escapes and other
thrilling adventures of Buffalo Bill and Nick Carter and all the other
wonderful heroes so dear to the heart of a red-blooded boy. On such
nights I might get one, or, maybe, two hours sleep. I would then get
up and go to school. I now believe that all that reading was a very
great strain on my eyes, and, not having learned how to rest them,
they remained under this strain for more than thirty years.
My vision grew steadily worse, but I never could bring myself to
wear glasses. Several times I have been tempted to do so, but always
when it came to the point I balked. One day when I was about fourteen
years old, in my search for something to read, I happened upon a
publication entitled "Physical Culture Magazine." Of course I read it.
It was only a pamphlet of ten or twelve pages, but it made a very
strong impression on me. Ever since then I have been a firm believer
in natural methods of curing disease, and I fully expected that some
day I would find a natural method that would cure my eyes. Wearing
glasses was not curing them, and I simply could not get myself to put
them on. Perhaps I missed something by this stubborn attitude. Perhaps
there was something on the other side of the street that I did not
see, but now I am sure that I gained more than I lost. If I had added
the strain of glasses to my other strains, there is no knowing how
much worse my eyes would have become.
Now, after waiting nearly thirty years, my long cherished hopes
have been realized. I have found a way to cure my eyes by natural
methods. On November 28 of last year I began the practice of Central
Fixation, and the results have been wonderful. On that date I could
read, with my left eye, only the fifty line at six feet. With my right
eye, at three feet, I could barely see the great big letter at the top
of the card. Eight days later my left eye had improved to 6/10 and my
right eye to 6/50, and with the right eye alone, the eye that was
almost blind, I read newspaper type at twelve inches.
All this I accomplished simply by closing my eyes and resting them
for fifteen minutes at a time, and then looking at the card. I didn't
imagine dots or swings or anything else. I just rested my eyes and
looked at the card, keeping it up for about two hours.
Now I am trying something else. I noticed that whenever I
attended a movie show my eyes felt fine afterward. So I decided to go
to a movie every day, and this is how I work it: The first day I sat
up in the very first seat, close to the screen; now I am moving back a
seat each day (I always go to the same playhouse). I am very careful
not to strain and always close my eyes and rest them when they feel
the least bit tired. In fact, this resting of my eyes is becoming
quite a habit with me. The results so far have been splendid.
My greatest trouble is double vision. I have it in both eyes; but
it is going away gradually, and doesn't bother me except when I look
at the test card.
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Questions and Answers
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All readers of this magazine are invited to send in questions
regarding any difficulties they may experience in using the various
methods of treatment which it recommends. These will be answered as
promptly as possible, in the magazine, if space permits, otherwise by
mail. Kindly enclose a stamped, addressed envelope.
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Q. (1) Should a house be brightly lighted by a direct electric
light or a reflected white light? (2) In many homes colored shades are
used on the lights. Does that impair the sight? C. I. I.
A. (1) The more brightly the house is lighted the better for the
sight. (2) Yes.
Q. (1) Is it advisable to use specimens of diamond type other than
the "Seven Truths of Normal Sight"? Would it be well to get a "New
Testament" in diamond type? (2) I have thus far found the flashing
method the most helpful. However, after closing the eyes, I have
difficulty in opening them. The lids seem to stick together, as it
were. What is the cause of such stickiness and the remedy? (3) I was
trying to read the "Seven Truths" lately by the flashing method, and
for about twenty minutes obtained very little results. Then, of a
sudden, upon closing my eyes, I saw the blackest object I have ever
seen with closed eyes. I was startled, it seemed so real, and on
opening my eyes I was surprised to find that I could read practically
all of the "Seven Truths" clearly, at thirteen inches, without closing
my eyes. I think the black object was probably the black rubber key of
the electric socket in the fixture which I had unconsciously looked at
from time to time during the exercise. I have not been able to do just
this since. What is the probable reason for my failure? (4) I find I
see any reading matter more clearly in a bright light—sunlight or
electric light—than in a dim or less bright light. Why is this? (5)
Today in trying to read the "Seven Truths" I found that I could do it
at six or seven inches with a few alternate closings of the eyes and
flashes; but I found in accomplishing this I was partially closing my
eyelids, so that I must have looked much like the Patagonians in Fig.
I in Dr. Bates' book, said to be probably myopic when the picture was
taken. I found that I could not keep my eyes thus partly closed
without some strain, but I could not see the print clearly when they
were wide open. Often the print would look quite blurred when I first
looked at it, but it cleared perceptibly and became quite black as I
continued to look. I also found myself reading today twenty pages of
fairly small print about eight or nine inches in much the same way. W.
C. C.
A. (1) Yes, if you wish to. The "Testament" would be a good thing
to have. (2) Difficulty in closing or opening the eyes is a common
symptom of strain, and may be relieved by any method that relieves
strain. (3) Such intervals of relaxation are a very common phenomenon.
They will come more frequently and last longer if you continue to
practice. (4) In a bright light the contrast between black letters and
their white background is more marked than in a dim light. Persons
differ greatly, however, in the amount of light they require for
maximum vision. Some people see better in a dim light, because they
think that condition a favorable one. (5) It is a bad one.
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Snellen Test Cards
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There should be a Snellen test card in every family and in every
school classroom. When properly used it always improves the sight even
when it is already normal. Children or adults with errors of
refraction, if they have never worn glasses, are cured simply by
reading every day the smallest letters they can see at a distance of
ten, fifteen, or twenty feet.
For Sale By
The Central Fixation Publishing Company
Paper—50 Cents
Cardboard (folding)—75 Cents
Delivered
Back numbers "Better Eyesight"—$ .30
Bound vols., 1st and 2nd years, each—$4.25
Photographic reductions of the Bible—$4.00
Bibles in diamond and brilliant type—$4.00
Ophthalmoscopes (best quality)—$20.00
Retinoscopes—$4.00
Burning Glasses—$4.00
Reprints of articles by Dr. Bates in other medical journals, a
limited number for sale. Send for list.
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Better Eyesight
A monthly magazine devoted to the prevention and cure of imperfect
sight without glasses
Vol. VI - January, 1922 - No. 1
Editor—W. H. Bates, M.D.
Publisher—Central Fixation Publishing Company
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