Page 168 - The Power of Light, Colour and Sound for Health and Wellness draft

LEAP INTO SHARPNESS
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Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West
Neurochemical imbalances, rather than neuroanatomical abnormalities, are believed to be the major cause (and basis of treatment) for almost every brain-related psychological disorder1, most scientists agree. Some of them (W.H. Bates, A.L. Huxley, J.I. Liberman, R.L. Gottlieb) argue that certain eye disorders also belong to the categor2. According to them, neurochemical imbalances which happen to recur on a regular basis with external appearance as mental strain or anxiety, could in the long run make permanent anatomical changes which reshape delicate parts of human body like the eyes, causing refractive errors.
Bates believed that giving up bad practices of squinting and, generally, mental strain in order to see better, accompanied by certain eye exercises (sketching, breathing, blinking, swinging, centralising...) could adequately challenge the problem. However, from my own experience and that of the people I have interviewed, it turned out that one mental strain was replaced by another one3 and, after the initial progress which usually manifested itself in temporary eyesight improvements, the whole process of vision improvement eventually stalled. An internal engine, enthusiasm or drive to continue the process ran out of steam due to lack of adequate feedback.
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1 Fred H. Previc, Dopaminergic Mind in Human Evolution and History, Cambridge University Press, 2011, p.16
2 The Psychological, Personality, Emotion Theory is one of the fve theories on the etiology of myopia, along with the Genetic theory, the Nutritional Metabolic Theory, the Conditions of Use Theory and the Normal Biological Variation Theory, according to C.R. Kelley’s unpublished doctoral dissertation “Psychological Factors in Myopia”, quoted in Raymond L. Gottlieb, O.D., The Psychophysiology of Nearsightedness, p.24
3 The central fxation exercises, one of the key pillars of the Bates method, are just another mental effort which actually contravenes the mental habit of open focus advocated by Jacob Liberman.