Author: Aldous Huxley
Category: Literature
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Casual flashing should be supplemented by drills during periods specifically set aside for the purpose. The objects used in these drills should be fairly small, simple, clear-cut and familiar. Here, for example, are some effective procedures, in which use is made of a set of dominoes.
Relax the eyes by palming for a few moments; then pick up a domino at random, hold it out at arm’s length, pass the eyes across it in a quick glance and immediately close them. Even if the dots were not distinctly seen, it is probable that they were sensed, and that the sensing will have left a trace which can be revived as a memory-image. With the eyes still closed tell yourself what you remember to have made out of the upper half of the domino, then of the lower half. Open the eyes and, if necessary, bring the domino nearer for a verification of your guess. If the guess was right, well and good. If it was wrong, well and good. Take another domino and start again.
A more elaborate version of the same procedure is as follows. Take a dozen dominoes and stand them in a row along the edge of a table. Seat yourself in front of them at the limit of convenient seeing. Swing your eyes from left to right along the row, counting the dominoes as rapidly as you possibly can. (This sets the immobilized eyes and attention shifting at unaccustomed speed, and is a most salutary exercise in itself.) Then bring the eyes back to the first domino and, closing the lids, name the numbers in the upper and lower halves respectively. Open the eyes again and verify your guess. Then count the whole row once again and, glancing back to the second domino, flash, close, and name the numbers. Continue counting and flashing, until you reach the end of the line.
If your eyes are myopic, and it is hard to see at anything but short range, perform this drill for the first time within easy seeing distance; then move back and repeat. Familiarity with the dominoes will eliminate mental hazards and make the more distant seeing easier. It is possible in this way gradually to stretch the range of vision.
Where distant vision is easy, and difficulty is experienced only at the near point, this process should be reversed. Begin at some distance away; then move closer and go through the drill again.
CHAPTER XII
Shifting
PRIMARILY DESIGNED TO encourage mental and ocular mobility, the exercises described in the preceding chapters also serve, indirectly, to teach the art of central fixation. Having learnt, by means of them, to keep the eyes and attention in constant movement, and being therefore less subject than before to the vice of mental and physical staring, we may safely proceed to a somewhat more direct approach to central fixation. Even now, however, the approach will not be completely direct. Before attempting to become fully conscious of the fact that we always see one small area more distinctly than all the rest, we shall be well advised to take some simple lessons in the art of continuous and concentrated looking. Swinging encourages the eyes and mind to make movements of considerable amplitude, and flashing teaches rapidity of motion and interpretative reaction. It is now necessary to teach ourselves small-scale shifting; for it is upon this small-scale shifting of eyes and mind that continuous, concentrated and attentive seeing depends. As I have pointed out before, the structure of the eyes and the nature of the mind are such that normal vision simply cannot take place without incessant small-scale shifting.
When regarding any object continuously and attentively, people with normal vision keep their eyes and attention shifting unconsciously in a series of almost imperceptibly small movements from point to point. People with defective vision, on the contrary, greatly reduce the number of such movements and tend to stare. It is therefore necessary for them to build up consciously the habit of small-scale shifting which they acquired unconsciously during childhood and subsequently lost.
ANALYTICAL LOOKING
The best way to do this is to learn to ‘look analytically’ at any object you wish to consider with close attention. Do not stare; stop trying to see all parts of the object equally clearly at the same time. Instead, deliberately tell yourself to see it piece-meal, sensing and perceiving, one at a time, all the more significant parts of which it is composed.
For example, when looking at a house, note the number of windows, chimneys and doors. Follow with your eyes the outline of its silhouette against the sky. Let your glance run horizontally along the line of the eaves, and vertically up and down the wall spaces between the windows. And so on.
This kind of analytical looking is recommended in all systems designed to improve the powers of memory and concentration. It enables the looker to form clear mental concepts of what he has seen. Instead of staring and vaguely recording an image, to which he gives the name of ‘house,’ the person who does his looking analytically will be able to tell you a number of interesting and significant facts about that house — that it has, let us say, four windows and a front door on the ground floor and five windows above, one chimney at either end, and a tiled roof. This detailed knowledge of the house, which is the result of analytical looking, will tend to improve the vision of the same object when regarded on subsequent occasions. For we see most clearly things which are familiar; and an increase in our conceptual knowledge of an object always tends to facilitate the sensing of that object in the future. Thus we see that analytical looking not merely improves vision there and then, by compelling the eyes and mind to shift continuously from point to point; it also helps to improve vision at all later dates, by increasing our conceptual knowledge of the object regarded, and so making it seem more familiar and therefore easier to sense and perceive.
The process of analytical looking can be profitably applied even to such extremely familiar objects as letters, numerals, advertising slogans and the faces of one’s relatives and friends. However well we may think we know such things, we shall almost certainly find, if we take to looking at them analytically that we can get to know them a good deal better. When you look at letters or numerals, run the eyes over their outlines-observe the shapes of the pieces of background in contact with them, or included within them; count the number of corners on a block capital letter or large numeral. If you do this, the eyes and attention will be forced to do a great deal of small-scale shifting, which will improve the vision; and at the same time you will learn a great many hitherto unrecognized facts, the knowledge of which will help you to do a better and more rapid job of sensing on future occasions.
Persons with defective sight tend to do some of their intensest and most rigid staring when conversing with their fellow humans. Faces are very important to us, since it is by observing their changes of expression that we acquire much of our most valuable information about the thoughts, feelings and dispositions of those with whom we come in contact. To obtain this information, people with defective vision make the most strenuous efforts to see the faces of those who surround them. In other words, they stare harder than usual. The result is discomfort and embarrassment for the persons stared at, and poorer vision for the starer. The remedy is analytical looking. Do not stare at faces, in the vain hope of seeing every part of them as clearly as every other part. Instead, shift the regard rapidly over the face you are looking at — from eye to eye, from ear to ear, from mouth to forehead. You will see the details of the face and its expression more clearly; and at the same time, to the person you are looking at, you will not seem to be staring — merely looking in a relaxed and easy way, with eyes to which your rapid, small-scale shifting imparts the brilliancy and sparkle of mobility.
Habits of continuous and small-scale shifting should be deliberately cultivated on all occasions, during the day’s activities, when there is need for prolonged and concentrated seeing, either at the near or the far point. There are also-certain drills, which it is well to practise during periods specially set aside for the purpose.
Teachers of the art of seeing have devised a considerable number of shifting drills, all of them effective if properly practised. In this place I shall mention only one — a particularly good example of its kind — developed by Mrs. Margaret D. Corbett, and described in her
book, How to Improve Your Eyes.
The only piece of material needed for the practice of this drill is a sheet from one of those large, tear-off calendars, in which the current month is printed in large type across the upper part of the page, while the previous and succeeding months appear below in much smaller type. Inasmuch as it offers type of different sizes, such a sheet possesses most of the advantages of the graduated Snellen Chart, used by oculists for testing vision. Inasmuch as a row of consecutive numbers presents no mental hazards, it possesses none of the Snellen Chart’s disadvantages — unfamiliarity and the intent to confuse and deceive, almost always present in the minds of those who design such devices for testing vision. Since our aim is not to test, but to improve sight, we shall do well to make use of the most familiar, and therefore the most visible and confidence-creating objects upon which to exercise. A calendar fulfils these conditions perfectly, and possesses the further merit of not having the unpleasant associations of the Snellen Chart. Most children and many adults dislike having their eyes examined, and become so nervous, when tested, that they see much worse than at ordinary times. Consequently, the Snellen Chart is apt to be surrounded, for them, by a kind of aura of disagreeableness, which makes it one of the least visible of objects. That is why Snellen Charts should be used for visual self-education only by those to whom they are emotionally neutral, and only when the user is completely familiar with every line of graduated type, from the big two-hundred-foot letter at the top to the tiny ten-foot letters at the bottom of the card. If these conditions are not fulfilled, the Snellen Chart may easily prove a source of anxiety and strain. A good teacher will note his pupil’s tendency towards strain and take steps to prevent it from coming to a head. Consequently, it is always safe for a good teacher to make use of the Snellen Chart as an instrument of visual training. The self-instructed will do better to start, at any rate, with other training material.
THE CALENDAR DRILL
In working with the calendar, we begin by loosening up the staring mind and eyes by means of a procedure very similar to that employed in one of the domino drills. Hang the calendar on a wall, at a level with your eyes when you are seated. See that the sheet is well illuminated, either by direct or reflected sunlight, or (if the sun is not shining) by ordinary daylight or a strong lamp. Draw up a chair, and sit down in front of it, at a point from which the larger print can be seen without difficulty. Palm the eyes for a little, then set to work in the following way.
Turn the head to the left, as though you were glancing over your shoulder; then swing it back, gently and not too fast, until the eyes rest on the figure ‘one’ of the large-type calendar. Take note of the figure, then close the eyes and breathe deeply and easily, swinging your head a little as you do so, in order to keep the rhythm of your movement unbroken. After a few seconds turn to look over the right shoulder, re-open the eyes and swing them back until they rest on the figure ‘two.’ Close again as before, turn to the left and swing back to the ‘three.’ And so on.
When swinging down the line towards the selected figure, always let the regard travel in the white space immediately below the print. A blank surface, such as the background to printed words or numerals, presents no difficulties to the interpreting mind and cannot, therefore, be a source of strain. Consequently, when the regard is made to move along the white space immediately under the line of type, the mind reaches its objective in a state of relaxation — with the result that the attention and the eyes can do their work of rapid, small-scale shifting and central fixation under the best possible conditions.
After going through the whole month, or as much of it as you have time for, palm the eyes for a little, and proceed to the next phase of the drill. As this procedure demands a more attentive kind of looking than the preceding exercise, you will find yourself more than ordinarily tempted to hold the breath. Resist the temptation and, during all the time you are at practice, keep the breathing going consciously at a little more than its average amplitude.
Glance at the figure ‘one’ in the large-type calendar, then drop the eyes to the corresponding figure in the small-type calendar at the bottom of the sheet to the left. Look at it only for a moment, then close and relax for a few seconds. Open the eyes once more on the figure ‘one’ in the large-type calendar, and drop to the ‘one’ in the small-type calendar to the right. Close the eyes again in an easy, relaxed way, and keep the breathing going. Then re-open — this time on the large ‘two.’ Drop to the small ‘two’ on the left. Close, breathe, re-open on the large ‘two,’ and drop to the small ‘two’ on the right. Close again, breathe, and continue with the other numbers in the same way, either to the end of the month or, if the drill seems tiring, to the end of the first week or fortnight.
At first there may be difficulty in seeing the small-type numerals. If there is, do not linger over them, or make an effort to see them. Instead of that, adopt the technique described in the chapter on flashing. Glance easily and unconcernedly at the small number; then, in the brief period during which the eyes are closed, note whether there is any memory-image of it. You will be aided in this search for the indistinct image of the smaller numeral by your clearer memory of the larger but otherwise exactly similar numeral. Knowing just what it is you should have seen, you will soon find yourself seeing it — at first, perhaps, unconsciously, as the memory-image of something only dimly sensed; then consciously and with increasing clarity, at the moment of sensing.
After an interval of palming, proceed to the next phase of the drill. With eyes closed, think of any number between one and thirty-one. Let us assume that you begin by thinking of the number ‘seventeen.’ Open the eyes and, as quickly as you possibly can, locate ‘seventeen,’ first on the large-type calendar, then on the small calendar on the left. Close and breathe. Then re-open on the large ‘seventeen’ and drop to the corresponding small number on the right. Close once more, breathe, think of another number, and go through the same procedure. After ten or a dozen repetitions, you will be ready to go on to the next phase.
In this drill we return to the small-scale shift, which we learn to practise systematically, with a very short rhythmic swing, on such objects as letters and numerals. Look at the large ‘one.’ Pay attention first to the top of the numeral, then to the base; then shift the eyes and mind once more to the top and again to the base. Up and down, up and down, two or three times. When you have done this, close the eyes in a relaxed way and breathe deeply but gently. Then re-open the eyes and repeat the procedure on the large ‘two.’ After going through half the month in this way, drop to one of the small-type calendars and begin again, drawing your chair a little nearer, if necessary.
The procedure should be varied by sometimes making the shift horizontally, swinging from one side of the numeral to the other side, instead of up and down, in a vertical direction. Furthermore, do not confine yourself exclusively to the numerals. Work also on letters — the SUN., MON., TUE., and so on, of the abbreviated days of the week. Do the small-scale swinging shift from top to bottom of these letters, and from side to side, and, in the case of the broader and more angular ones, from corner to corner, diagonally. Letters and numerals are among the most familiar objects in our artificial world, and among the objects which it is most important for us to see clearly. It is therefore specially desirable that we should acquire the habit of small-scale shifting when we regard these objects. Conscious practice of the swinging shift, just described, will end by building up a beneficent automatism. Whenever we regard a letter or numeral, we shall tend, unconsciously and automatically, to practise the small-scale shift, which compels the eyes and mind to do their work by central fixation and, in this way, improves our sensing, our perceiving and that end-product of sensing and perceiving, our vision. In the chapters dealing with the mental side of seeing, I shall describe procedures in which this technique of the small-scale swinging shift is combined with techniques for the development of memory and imagination, and so rendered still more valuable.
But even in its simple form, as I have described it in the preceding paragraphs, the procedure is remarkably effective. While practising these calendar drills you will constantly be struck by the way in which vision improves when the small-scale swinging shift is made use of. The numeral or letter, which appeared so dim and hazy when you first looked at it, will come up into clear definition as you shift your attention a few times from top to base, or from side to side. The same technique should be carried over into the ordinary activities of life. When confronted by letters or numerals you cannot clearly distinguish, try the small-scale swinging shift on them, and they will tend to brighten and grow more definite.
This particular kind of shifting is simply analytical looking with a regular rhythm. Regular rhythmic movement is always relaxing, even when repeated only a few times, and this is why the small-scale swinging shift is so effective in promoting good vision. It is, unfortunately, impracticable to use this swinging shift on all classes of objects. On such small, clearly demarcated and thoroughly familiar objects as numerals and letters it is easy to perform the swinging shift. But where the object is large, relatively unfamiliar, indeterminate or in motion, it is not feasible, for the simple reason that either there are no known and definite land-marks, no clearly outlined boundaries, between which to do the repeated shift, or, if there are such land-marks and boundaries, the area covered by the eyes, as they shift back and forth from one to the other, will be so small in comparison with the total area of the object that an improved knowledge of that area will not necessarily give an improved knowledge of the whole. Consequently, in the case of large, indeterminate and unfamiliar objects, the best technique of looking remains the rapid analytical regard, without repetitive rhythm. The effectiveness of this analytical regard may be enhanced by counting the salient features of the object. If there are many such features, do not try to count them with pedantic accuracy. What is important is not to know the correct total, but to make the attention realize that large numbers of such features exist and must be noted. So count only the first three or four; then skim over the rest and make a guess at the total, not caring whether your guess is correct or not. Your goal is to see more clearly, and that goal will have been achieved, if the pretence at counting stimulates the eyes and attention to do their work of rapid, small-scale shifting, in act after act of central fixation.