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.The rapid motion compelled rapid shifting.A TEACHER S EXPERIENCESIt has frequently been pointed out in this book that imperfect vision is alwaysassociated with an abnormal state of the mind, and that when the visionimproves the mental faculties improve also, to a greater or less degree.Thefollowing letter is a striking illustration of this fact.The writer, a teacher forty yearsof age, was first treated on March 28, 1919.She was wearing the followingglasses: right eye, convex 0.75D.S.with convex 4.00D.C., 105 deg.; left eye,convex 0.75D.S.with convex 3.50D.C., 105 deg.On June 9, 1919, she wrote:"I will tell you about my eyes, but first let me tell you other things.You were thefirst to unfold your theories to me, and I found them good immediately that is, Iwas favorably impressed from the start.I did not take up the cure because otherpeople recommended it, but because I was convinced: first, that you believed inyour discovery yourself; second, that your theory of the cause of eye trouble wastrue.I don't know how I knew these two things, but I did.After a little conversationwith you, you and your discovery both seemed to me to bearEnjoys Her Sight 293the ear-marks of the genuine article.As to the success of the method with myselfI had a little doubt.You might cure others, but you might not be able to cure me.However, I took the plunge, and it has made a great change in me and my life."To begin with, I enjoy my sight.I love to look at things, to examine them in aleisurely, thorough way, much as a child examines things.I never realized it atthe time, but it was irksome for me to look at things when I was wearing glasses,and I did as little of it as possible.The other day, going down on the Sandy Hookboat, I enjoyed a most wonderful sky without that hateful barrier of mistedglasses, - and I am positive I distinguished delicate shades of color that I neverwould have been able to see, even with clear glasses.Things seem to me now tohave more form, more reality, than when I wore glasses.Looking into the mirroryou see a solid representation on a flat surface, and the flat glass can't show youanything really solid.My eyeglasses, of course, never gave me this impression,but one curiously like it.I can see so clearly without them that it is like lookingaround corners without changing the position.I feel that I can almost do it."I very seldom have occasion to palm.Once in a great while I feel thenecessity of it.The same with remembering a period.Nothing else is evernecessary.I seldom think of my eyes, but at times it is borne in upon me howmuch I do use and enjoy using them."My nerves are much better.I am more equable, have more poise, I am lessshy.I never used to show that I was shy, or lacked confidence.I used to goahead and what was required, if not without hesitation; but it was hard.Now I findit easy.Glasses, or poor sight294 Letters From Patientsrather, made me self-conscious.It certainly is a great defect, and one people aresensitive to without realizing it.I mean the poor sight and the necessity forwearing glasses.I put on a pair of glasses the other day just for an experiment,and I found that they magnified things.My skin looked as if under a magnifyingglass.Things seemed too near.The articles on my chiffonier looked so close Ifelt like pushing them away from me.The glasses I especially wanted to pushaway.They brought irritation at once.I took them off and felt peaceful.Thingslooked normal."From the beginning of the treatment I could use my eyes pretty well, but theyused to tire.I remember making a large Liberty Loan poster two weeks after Itook off my glasses, and I was amazed to find I could make the whole layoutalmost perfectly without a ruler just as well as with my glasses.When I came totrue it up with the ruler I found only the last row of letters a bit out of line at thevery end.I couldn't have done better with glasses.However this wasn't fine work.About the same time I sewed a hem at night in a black dress, using a fine needle.I suffered a little for this but not much.I used to practice my exercises at thattime, and palm faithfully.Now I don't have to practice, or palm; I feel nodiscomfort, and I am absolutely unsparing in my use of my eyes.I do everything Iwant to with them.I shirk nothing, pass up no opportunity of using them.Fromthe first I did all my school work, read every notice, wrote all that was necessary,neglected nothing."Now to sum up the school end of it: I used to get headaches at the end of themonth from adding columns of figures necessary to reports, etc.Now I do not getthem.I used to get flustered when people came intoCentral Fixation Of The Mind 295my room.Now I do not; I welcome them.It is a pleasant change to feel this way.And I suppose this is most important really, though I think of it last I teachbetter.I know how to get at the mind and how to make the children see things inperspective.I gave a lesson on the horizontal cylinder recently, which, you know,is not a thrillingly interesting subject, and it was a remarkable lesson in its resultsand in the grip it got on every girl in the room, stupid or bright.What you havetaught me makes me use the memory and imagination more, especially thelatter, in teaching."To sum up the effect of being cured upon my own mind: I am more direct,more definite, less diffused, less vague.In short, I am conscious of being bettercentered.It is central fixation of the mind.I saw this in your latest paper, but Irealized it long ago and knew what to call it."A MENTAL TRANSITIONA man of forty-four who had worn glasses since the age of twenty was firstseen on October 8, 1917, when he was suffering, not only from very imperfectsight, but from headache and discomfort.He was wearing for the right eyeconcave 5.00D.S.with concave 0.50D.C., 180 degrees, and for the left concave2.50D.S.with concave 1.50D.C., 180 degrees.As his visits were not veryfrequent and he often went back to his glasses, his progress was slow [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]