Author: Aldous Huxley
Category: Literature
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The sun produces harmful effects upon the eyes only when people stare fixedly at it. For example, after following the phases of an eclipse, many persons report a temporary impairment of vision, mounting sometimes to partial or even complete blindness. In almost all cases, the condition disappears after a short time, leaving the sufferer none the worse. Among the many thousands who have used the technique developed by Dr. Bates and his followers, a very few have had a similar experience. Neglecting their teachers’ advice to keep the head continuously swinging from side to side, they have stared fixedly at the sun. If the results are bad, they have only themselves to blame.
The truth of the matter is that, like everything else in the world, sunlight is good for us in reasonable quantities, bad when taken to excess or in the wrong way. If people are foolish enough to eat ten pounds of strawberries at a sitting, or swallow a quart of castor oil, or take a hundred aspirin tablets, they will have to suffer for their folly. Nevertheless, strawberries, castor oil and aspirin are freely sold. The fools must take their chance. It is the same with sunlight. Every summer a great many silly people sun-bathe to the point of burning their skin, running a high fever and even enlarging their spleens. Nevertheless, sun-bathing is permitted and encouraged, because it is pleasant and beneficial for people who do it reasonably. So too with the eyes. In spite of all the good advice that may be given, some imbeciles will stare fixedly at the sun and so temporarily impair their vision. This is no reason for discouraging those who have the sense to sun their eyes wisely from undertaking a practice which will certainly do them good.
Those who have learnt to take the sun on the closed and open eyes, will note a progressive diminution of their susceptibility to glare and bright illuminations. The fear of light and the discomfort caused by light will vanish, and along with them will go the tinted goggles, the frowns and grimaces, and the strain that is always associated with fear and discomfort.
To maintain normal reactions to light, one should carry over into active life a modified version of the sunning technique, which is practised during periods specially set aside for the purpose. If the light seems unpleasantly bright when one goes out of doors, one should close the eyes for a moment, ‘let go and think looseness,’ then re-open as gently and relaxedly as possible. After this the eyes should be raised to the sun, which may be taken for a few seconds on the closed lids and afterwards (always with a swing of the head) on the open eyes. When one looks down again, the brightness of the world around will seem very tolerable, and there will be no sense of strain or tension. These procedures should be repeated at frequent intervals when one is out of doors on a bright day. They will help to keep the eyes in a state of dynamic relaxation and to improve the vision.
At night one may use a bright source of artificial light in lieu of the sun. For this purpose, as well as for reading, I have found a 150-watt spot-or flood-light very useful. These bulbs, which are like self-contained head-lamps, with a curved and silvered back and a circular transparent front, through which the concentrated beam of light is projected, will give a thousand foot-candles at three or four feet. Using the same procedure as with the sun, one may take this light on the closed and open eyes. Improved relaxation, circulation and vision follow exactly as with the sun. Those who wish to increase the illumination may do so by reflecting the light from a spot-lamp into their eyes by means of a convex shaving mirror. At the focus of the mirror there will be warmth and illumination not greatly inferior to that of the sun itself, when looked at on a bright summer’s day.
CHAPTER IX
Central Fixation
IN THE PRESENT chapter and the two which follow I shall give an account of certain procedures designed to encourage mobility in the defective organs of vision. For more than half a century, as we have seen, experimental psychologists have proclaimed that adequate cognition of the external world depends upon movement. This fact is, obviously and on the face of it, enormously significant for vision. And yet, for some inexplicable reason, orthodox ophthalmologists have never paid the smallest attention to it. As a class, they have been, and still are, content to prescribe crutches for the mechanical palliation of symptoms, and to leave the matter at that. The first person to devote any serious thought to this manifestly important problem was Dr. W. H. Bates — and all he got for his pains was the professional cold shoulder and the reputation of being a crank, or even a quack.
Before describing any of the procedures designed to encourage habits of mobility, I shall give a brief account of the mental and physiological conditions which make such procedures necessary. As explained in the first section of this book, attention is naturally mobile, and shifts continually from one part of the apprehended physical object to another part, one aspect of the thought under consideration to another aspect. Where seeing is concerned, this continuous shifting of the mind is normally accompanied by continuous shifting of the sensing-apparatus. The reason for this must be sought in the structure of the eye, which records perfectly clear images only at the central portion of the retina known as the macula lutea, with its point of sharpest precision, the fovea centralis.
This rule, that we see best only that small area at which we are looking directly, out of the centre of sight, has one important exception. At night, when there is a minimum of light, we do our best and clearest sensing with the outer portions of the retina. This fact was discovered centuries ago by the astronomers, who found that, when looking directly at a constellation, they could see only the brighter stars, whereas, when they looked somewhat to one side of it, they could detect other stars of smaller magnitude. In the words of the eminent French physicist, François Arago, ‘in order to see a very dimly lighted object, it is necessary not to look at it.’ For this reason, when trying to find your way in the dark, you should not look straight ahead; for then you will not see the dimmer objects immediately in front of you. If, on the contrary, you turn your head, first to one side, then to the other, you will see what is directly in front of you ‘out of the corner of your eye.’
Exactly the opposite is the case where vision in the daytime, or under bright artificial illumination, is concerned. In these circumstances (and all that follows applies to vision under good illumination), one senses and sees best only that portion of the visible environment which throws its image upon the macula and fovea: images recorded by the outer portions of the retina are less distinct as to form, and less accurate as to colour, than those recorded by the minute central area.
At average reading distance from the eyes — say fourteen inches — one can easily see the whole page of a book. But the area seen with greatest clarity will be a circle of about half an inch in diameter, while the maximum degree of precision will be confined to a single letter at the centre of that circle. This single letter represents that part of the total visible environment whose image falls, at a given moment, upon the fovea centralis; the halfinch circle, that part whose image falls upon the macula surrounding the fovea centralis. All the rest of the printed page gets recorded by the outer portions of the retina, and is consequently, sensed less clearly.
Because of the existence of this central area of clearer sensing, the mobility of attention necessarily entails a corresponding mobility of the eyes. For, as the mind shifts its attention to a given part of the regarded object, the eyes are moved automatically and unconsciously, so that the part being attended to shall be the part most clearly sensed — or, to put the matter in physiological terms, so that the light rays reflected from the part that is being attended to shall fall directly upon the macula and fovea centralis. When this happens we are said to be sensing with central fixation. In order to sense every part of an object with central fixation, or in other words, with maximum clarity, the eye must make an enormous number of minute and rapid shifts from point to point. When it fails to shift, it fails to see all parts of the object with central fixation and therefore with maximum clarity.
Mobility, then, is the normal and natural condition of the selecting and
perceiving mind; and, because of the need for central fixation, mobility is also the normal and natural condition of the sensing eye. During infancy and childhood, most people learn unconsciously to keep their eyes and mind in this condition of mobility, and to do their sensing with central fixation. But unfortunately, for any one of a great variety of reasons, the habits of proper use may be lost. In one way or another, the conscious ‘I’ interferes with natural and normal functioning. The result is that attention comes to be directed fixedly, instead of with a continuous easy movement from point to point, while the eyes cease to shift, and develop a stare. Mal-functioning produces mental and physical strains, which, in their turn, produce more malfunctioning. Owing to strain and mal-functioning, the sensing-apparatus undergoes distortion, and errors of refraction and other undesirable physical conditions result. Vision deteriorates, and as the bad habits of use become ingrained with time, the eyes (above all, when fitted with spectacles) lose more and more of their power of self-regulation and resistance to disease.
That staring should always be accompanied by strain and an impairment of vision is not in the least surprising. For when people stare, they try to achieve the impossible; they try to see every part of a large area as clearly as every other part. But the structure of the eye is such that it cannot sense every part of the area as clearly as it senses that one small part which is being looked at with central fixation — in other words, that part whose image falls upon the macula and fovea centralis. And the nature of the mind is such that it cannot do a proper job of perceiving, unless its attention is continually shifting from point to point of the regarded object. To stare is to ignore these necessary conditions of normal sensing and normal seeing. In his greedy anxiety to achieve his end, which is to do the greatest possible amount of good seeing in the shortest possible time, the starer neglects the only means whereby this end can be achieved. Instead, he tries to do the impossible. The results are just as bad as one would expect them to be — strain, with consequent errors of refraction and poor vision.
Occasionally, the habit of central fixation is never acquired, most often owing to diseases of the eye during infancy. In the great majority of cases, however, it is acquired, along with the other habits of normal use, and only lost at a later date — owing, generally, to the interference of the conscious ‘I,’ whose fears and worries, whose cravings and griefs and ambitions are for ever interfering with the normal functioning of the physical organs, the nervous system and the mind. When the habit of central fixation has been lost for some time, the macula and fovea seem to lose some of their natural sensibility through disuse. At the same time the habit of trying to sense objects equally clearly with all parts of the retina leads to an over-stimulation of some or all of the eccentric areas, which do their best to increase their sensibility in order to respond to this stimulation. Sometimes this process goes so far that a person will, so to speak, manufacture for himself a false macula somewhere on the outer edges of his retina. When this happens, he gets his clearest vision, not when looking straight in front of him, but only when the object is regarded at an angle. This sideways vision can never be anything like so clear as normal vision in the central, macular area.
But owing to the maculas loss of sensibility through disuse, and to the strength of long-established bad habits, it is the best vision that such an eye and mind can have.
In the majority of cases, however, the loss of the good habits of mobility and central fixation, and the acquisition of the bad habit of staring, or trying to see every part of a large area equally well, do not result in this extreme degree of eccentric fixation. The starer still looks straight ahead. But because he tries to see everything equally well, he reduces the sensibility of his macula and fovea and builds up an undesirable and abnormal relationship between the perceiving mind and the peripheral areas of the retina, which are now used for sensing as much as, or more than, the central areas. Eccentric fixation is diffused over the whole retina, instead of being confined, as in the extreme cases, to a false macula at one particular point.
Without central fixation and mobility there cannot be normal vision. Hence the great importance of procedures which teach the normal-sighted person how to preserve the good habits, on which (though he generally does not know it) his good sight depends, and which help the person with defective vision to overcome the bad habits, responsible for his bad sight. For those who have never learnt central fixation, and for those whose eccentric fixation is extreme, the services of a skilled and experienced teacher will probably be indispensable. The rest, if they are shown how, can do much to help themselves. It is for them that I describe the simple, but effective, techniques which follow.
CHAPTER X
Methods of Teaching the Eyes and Mind to Move
CENTRAL FIXATION CAN be taught directly, by methods which permit the pupil to experience the fact that he cannot see every part of a large area with equal clarity. Or it may be taught indirectly, by methods which build up habits of mobility — methods which compel the mind to shift its attention and the eye to shift its area of greatest sensitivity from point to point of the regarded object.
Use of the direct method entails a certain danger of increasing the strains from which the pupil already suffers. It seems best, therefore, to approach the goal indirectly. Just as, in the case of palming, the best way to see black is not to try to see it, but to remember pleasant scenes and events out of the past, so the best way to achieve central fixation is not to try to see one small area better than all others, but to cultivate the mobility which is the necessary condition for seeing successive small areas of an object with maximum clarity. Accordingly, I shall begin by describing a number of procedures for increasing the mobility of the eyes and mind; and only when this has been done shall I give an account of methods aimed directly at making the pupil conscious of central fixation. Those whose sight is defective will be well advised to follow the same order in their educational practice. First learn to keep the eyes and the attention in constant easy movement; then, when movement has re-activated them, learn consciously to recognize the manifestations of central fixation and, by recognizing them, to increase their intensity.
SWINGING
Whenever we move, objects in the external world appear to move in the opposite direction. Those which are nearest to us seem to move most rapidly, and the rate of apparent movement diminishes with the increase of distance from the eyes, so that objects at a great distance seem to be almost stationary, even when viewed from an express train or a speeding car.
The various procedures, to which Dr. Bates gave the name of ‘swinging,’ are primarily designed to make the person who practises them aware of this apparent movement of external objects and, by this means, to encourage a condition of free mobility in the sensing-apparatus and the controlling mind. Where such mobility exists, psychological and ocular tensions are relaxed, staring is replaced by rapidly shifting central fixation, and there is a marked improvement in vision.
It is possible to invent and practise a great number of swings; but all of them are variations on one or other of a few fundamental types, which alone will be described.
The Short Swing should be performed while standing in front of a window, or in a doorway, or anywhere else where one can arrange to look past some near-by object at some more distant object. For example, the upright bar of a window frame may serve as the near-by object, while a tree or part of a house on the other side of the street will serve as the more distant object. Inside a room, the near-by object can be a tall standard lamp, or a piece of string hanging from the ceiling light, while a picture on the wall or an ornament on the mantelpiece will do for the more distant object. Standing with the feet about eighteen inches apart, one should swing the body, regularly, gently and not too rapidly, from side to side, throwing the weight on to each foot alternately. The swing should not be wide — less than a foot in all is quite sufficient — and the head should not be turned in relation to the shoulders, but should rema
in looking straight ahead, moving in unison with the trunk. As one swings to the right, the near-by object (say the window bar) will appear to move to the left across the more distant object. As one swings to the left, it will appear to move to the right. This apparent movement should be noted during a number of swings; then the eyes should be closed. Still swinging from side to side, visualize the apparent movement of the window bar across the tree at the end of the garden or the house across the street. Then open again and, during a few more swings, watch the real bar as it moves back and forth. Close again and visualize. And so on for a minute or two, or longer.
This procedure has several advantages. It makes the mind aware of movement and, so to say, friendly to it. It helps to break the defective eye’s bad habit of staring. It produces automatically a shifting of attention and of the fovea centralis. All these contribute directly to the dynamic relaxation of the organs of seeing. An indirect contribution to the same result comes from the rhythmic movement of swinging, which acts upon mind and body in the same soothing way as do the movements of the cradle and the rocking-chair.
To these soothing effects of the Short Swing, the Long Swing adds direct and beneficial action upon the spine by gentle and repeated twisting. When practising this swing, one stands with the feet apart, as before; but instead of confining the movement of the body to a pendulum-like short sway, one swings in a wider arc, turning the trunk upon the hips and the head upon the shoulders as one does so. As one swings to the left, the weight is thrown on to the left foot, while the heel of the right is lifted. Conversely, the left heel is lifted as one turns to the right. The eyes, as they travel from one side to the other, cover an arc of one hundred and eighty degrees, or even more, and the external world seems to oscillate back and forth in a wide sweep. No attempt should be made to pay attention to anything in the eyes’ moving sense-field. The attitude of mind, while one is practising this swing, should be one of complete passivity and indifference. One just ‘lets the world go by’ without caring, without even making any effort to perceive what it is that is going by. The selecting and perceiving mind is out of action, and one is down to pure sensing — a physiological organism taking a holiday from the conscious ‘I.’