TRUST YOURSELF AND IMPROVE YOUR VISION
by Meir Schneider, PhD LMT
Born Blind, Meir Schneider taught himself to see, and over forty years has developed a pioneering program of healing and recovery for the sighted and the blind. Despite many obstacles, he has pushed his work worldwide and is now acknowledged and recognized by most natural vision improvement practitioners in the world.
Meir’s work has also expanded to work with people with physical problems, such as paralysis, polio, muscular dystrophy, and multiple sclerosis. Meir has written five books – Self-Healing: My Life In Vision, Movement for Self-Healing, The Handbook of Self-Healing, Awakening Your Power of Self-Healing, and Vision for Life. His books have been translated into 15 different languages.
Meir has made numerous DVDs, including Yoga for Your Eyes and Vision for Life, five audio CDs including Relaxation for the Eyes, Sensing Your Spine, and Strengthening the Central Nervous System. So far, he has had 90,000 clinical hours and has taught many workshops worldwide in eighteen different countries, thirty-one US states, and four provinces in Canada. He’s regularly invited to all conferences of natural vision improvement in Europe, the US, and South America to lecture and to hold workshops. He trains others in his very special and unique work that helps people to reach their full potential.
Meir formed the School for Self-Healing in San Francisco, where, unusually the whole board of supervisors in the city considered his school a monument, and allowed him to locate it in a beautiful residential neighborhood by the beach, as he uses the beach often for his visual clients, for clients with gate problems, and mainly for all of his classes.
Meir Schneider has been using these vision exercises since age 17. He has introduced his method of Natural Vision Improvement worldwide and teaches thousands of people to remarkably improve their vision.
Sitting in the nice warm sun in San Francisco (now that we’re being told to be distant from other people, thanks or no thanks to the coronavirus), it was wonderful to feel the warmth of the sun on my face and to relax. While so many doctors are telling us to “escape the sun”, I believe it’s the best thing for our immune system, and definitely the best for the eyes.
Yesterday, I went with my partner to a wonderful beach. These days they don’t even allow us to do that, but we decided to do it anyway. It was a very deserted place, and we looked at the strong waves and also saw a beautiful coyote resting in the sun. Then we stood in front of the world-famous Golden Gate Bridge.
As all those cars passed overhead, I reflected back in time, back to when I was 16. I was reading Braille and using a great magnifier from a short distance to see any printed letter. I was trying to see the Braille that I was reading. I remember that my teacher admonished me when I put my nose on the page trying to see the protruding dots. She said, “Feel the Braille you are reading and don’t distract yourself by looking at it. You can’t see it well anyway. Looking will only confuse you.”
My vision then was 1% with no corrections and 4.5% with corrections. Who knew what would happen afterward? My parents were deaf, and I felt a great need to move out of the world of handicap. I was told what my limitations were. My grandfather told me that I would have to learn to play the accordion as a blind person who entertained other people at a party. And why was that? The family could not buy me a piano. So, an accordion would do.
That is when I met Jacob. He was 16 and a half years old. After five cataract surgeries that left me with broken and scarred lenses – without having the original concept of sight that develops between the age of eight weeks and two and a half years – I was told by everyone that anyone who told me my eyes would improve was nothing but a charlatan. But I trusted Jacob, and against my family’s wishes I started to do eye exercises.
PALMING – The Exercise of Relaxing The Eyes
First of all, you must loosen up the shoulders. Interlace the fingers with the palms touching each other, and move the arms in a wide circular motion a few times in each direction. Then do the same with the palms open up (pointing to the wall and the ceiling). Then rub your hands together for about a minute until they become warm. Sit down, put your elbows comfortably on a table with a pillow, and cover your eyes with your palms. Nurture and rest your eyes in this way for 6 minutes. Listen to the silence, or if your mind is busy, listen to music or meditation tapes. I produced special meditation tapes for palming in great peace and great depth. It’s a fantastic meditation.
Palming helped me greatly. I used to sit down and listen to music. In a way, I was lucky that my parents were deaf because I was listening to Joe Cocker and a lot of rock and roll from the 60s. Palming relaxed my eyes. I especially needed that because I had nystagmus, the same thing that Stevie Wonder has, where the eyes move involuntarily. I succeeded to slow down my eyes within two and a half months of palming. I’ve learned that anyone who palms their eyes for at least 18 minutes a day – six minutes times three – benefits greatly to the extent that they can reduce the use of glasses. So, I continued.
The other thing I did was look at details. So I looked at big buildings, big windows; sometimes I could even notice air conditioners. I moved from one detail to another until my mind started to absorb the fact that I was looking. I started to look at details, and I began to reject my teacher’s command to not look.
These days, my girlfriend reveals for me details I can potentially see, but I don’t notice them, and my vision becomes clearer. In fact, until now, I dialed the phone without looking at it. Once I even went down a mountain in the dark without watching my step and fell down. So I’ve learned more and more to really look. Now my vision has improved – from 1% to 70% of normal vision – but to the point that I can read, write, and drive. It took a lot of convincing of the Department of Motor Vehicles to allow me to drive, but they gave permission. I have been driving since age 28. Soon, for my 66th birthday, I really hope to have my license renewed. But even if I don’t, I have driven for so many years – 38 years without an accident or ticket. How wonderful!
Now you know why I developed my Natural Vision Improvement method. I was given a permanent certificate of blindness by the State of Israel, told by physicians that I would not see – and now I drive. I was told that just as my parents were deaf, I would remain blind. In the deaf community, I was known as the blind kid of Eda and Abraham. But now I drive safely. Now I read. Now I write.
What then is available for you? Many people in their 40s start to develop farsightedness. Immediately, physicians offer them glasses. And through those glasses they see well. But I say: “Slow down, slow down, put more light on the page, and you’ll see it better.” Even shine light on a menu in a restaurant (when we will be allowed to sit in them), and you’ll see it better. And what are the ways to help your vision? There are several effective exercises.
PALMING – I have already mentioned palming – rubbing the hands and placing the palms gently around the eye orbits, breathing deeply. My suggestion is to count to four when you inhale and seven when you exhale, which means the exhalation is slower than the inhalation. Then, do the opposite.
SUNNING – Face the sun with your eyes closed, with the sun shining on the bridge of your nose. Then move your head all the way side to side, 180 degrees, away from the sun. If one side of your neck is too stiff, move the opposite shoulder forward. When you are facing the sun, the pupils constrict. As you move the head to the side, they expand, and the expansion and the constriction of the pupils lead to great strengthening of the visual system. The pupils become stronger and you feel better. After doing this for five minutes, when you read a page the page will be much clearer in the sun. So we start with light.
DISTANCE VIEWING – Because the lens becomes rigid at around age 40, the muscles around the lens become weak and the lens capsule stiff. As you look in the distance, wave your hands to the side to better sense your periphery. Scan ten different points on the horizon. It could be the beautiful sky and clouds I’m looking at now, or anywhere that you want to look at. Then look progressively closer until 40 yards away from you. Then look further, again progressively. This will relax your eyes from the intensity of close viewing of computer screens, smart-phones, etc.
READING UP CLOSE – Put the page very close, right at your nose and look at the letters become fuzzy and hard to read. Then put it in the sun at a normal distance and you’ll be reading better. Some people don’t respond well to this exercise, as their muscles have deteriorated greatly. However, those who have only a little bit of deterioration do respond well.
READING WITH THE WEAKER EYE – Identify first if one eye sees better than the other one. Obstruct your stronger eye with a small piece of construction paper (two inches by one and half). Use masking tape on the side of the paper to fix it to the bridge of the nose, and wave your hand to the side of the paper to increase the periphery of the stronger eye. Then look at a text in the sun, with your weaker eye. Look at the letters, close your eyes, and visualize that the letters are black and the page is white. Open your eyes and see if the contrast is better. After a minute, take the paper off and see how better both eyes could read the page. Do this several times a day, and soon you will be able to read well in the sun.
More exercises are available, but this is only the beginning. This will prove that what you were told by doctors as impossible is possible. Remember, rest your eyes with your hands touching softly around your cheekbones. Adapt to the strong sunlight. Read in the sun or in strong light indoors, using the construction paper and hand-waving mentioned above. Some of you may be able to place the print at your nose. Look at it (even if you can’t read it), then put it at a normal distance, and see how better both eyes could read the page.
There are many more exercises outlined in my book and DVD, Vision for Life. These drills are also explained in Yoga for Your Eyes. You may contact our Center For Self-Healing for online classes and recorded webinars at www.self-healing.org.
