Vision for Life

by Meir Schneider

  If you wear contact lenses, your body wants to reject them at first because they are foreign objects. This means you must weaken the immune system in your eyes in order to accept the contacts. This weakens the entire eye over time. Also, the contacts prevent enough oxygen from coming to the eyes, because the contact lenses block it. Even permeable contact lenses are not permeable enough for oxygen.

  And whether you wear glasses or contacts, the biggest danger is simply the sense of dependency you create. The more you wear them, the more you need them. You never give your eyes the chance to work out and to regain their sense of strength and natural ability.

  At the age of forty-five, seven out of eight people wear corrective lenses. I don’t think we were born to have all this correction. The reason that we have all this correction is that we are creatures of imitation.

  There are many millions of brain cells that work only to imitate each other. Monkeys imitate each other, and humans imitate other humans. By practicing vision improvement and being adamant about it, you will be able to affect your vision and the world for the better. This book will change the world completely because many boundaries will break in what we believe our real capacity is. Just imagine how many diseases will be prevented as a result of people working on their eyes.

  Now you know how to improve your own vision. You have an eye chart on the wall. Let’s assume that you read the fourth line with great ease, and then you read the fifth, sixth, and seventh with more difficulty. By the eighth, you can’t read anymore. If this is true, you’re standing exactly in the right place. It could be three, five, ten, or twenty feet. As your vision improves, you’ll be able to stand farther away.

  Now also determine five or six different objects in your environment that you like to look at. These objects could be flowers from three yards away, or a fence from a yard or two. Changeable items like the clouds in the sky cannot measure your improvement, but steady objects, with steady light at the same time of the day, can. As you improve your vision, you will be able to see more details in these objects.

  When you reduce your prescription and first see with a weaker prescription, just be aware of the fact that you will not see as well initially. Normally, you will improve within three weeks. Keep the glasses in your pocket all the time, but try to see well without them as long as it feels effortless. Don’t squint or strain. Just look softly through the fog or fuzziness you have and work on your mind to reduce your frustration.

  The most important thing to remember is that how we train ourselves to look is more important, for the time being, than what we see. With time, what we see will be more important. You’re returning to the process of looking. When you were an infant, you didn’t see things well, and you didn’t care, because you did not know that things could be seen any better than how you saw them. As you looked at details, from one to the other, your vision got better. Your macula, the fovea centralis inside it, and even the foveola (which is a smaller spot within the fovea that sees details), started to act well because your mind was interested in what you were looking at. As a result, the connection between the brain and eye became stronger. Slowly, as you started to crawl and walk, the brain developed, and the eyes became stronger, seeing better and better. Normally, childhood vision is much better than adult vision. Many people measure childhood vision as 20/15, which is better than 20/20.

  We want to return to that phase. We want to look with great curiosity at all the details the world gives us. Some are nice, and some are ugly, but we always want to look.

  A woman who started to lose her vision stated in one of my classes, “I stopped having any interest in looking at things because, in my opinion, the city I live in is ugly.” I could understand why she stopped looking at details, but the more we look consciously at details, the better we see them. There are many people who live in a beautiful city like San Francisco, and still do not look at details. Remember: all details, whether beautiful or not, could be interesting. Remember that when you were an infant, all details were interesting to you.

  Looking through your fog could be interesting as well. For example, you can look at the different details in flowers from a distance where you can see the flowers relatively well; then look away, either at a fence, a bush, the sky, or buildings that are farther away, but on which you still see some details. Close your eyes and visualize the contrast between details at a far distance. You can visualize the leaf of a bush and the sky, the fence and the earth, or whatever could have different contrasts. Then look at the objects again, and return to the flowers. Many people will see the flowers better.

  Straining your eyes to look far makes you see worse; looking far without strain, with the help of your imagination, and with the help of seeing more and more details, allows you to see better nearby. Nearsighted people need to work on slowly making the point of focus farther away. This means that a nearsighted person who sees really well from 20 centimeters should hope that, after beginning this practice, he or she will see really well from 25 and then 30 centimeters. It is the ability to see farther and farther at a distance, even if it is from a relatively close range, that is going to heal your myopia.

  So, the number one thing to remember is, when you put your glasses in your pocket, don’t worry about identifying people’s faces. Announce to all your friends, relatives, and family that you have decided to spend the next four to six months using your glasses as little as possible in order to improve your vision problems. The main thing is to make sure that when you look at the world, you look at it from the eyes with which you were born. Make sure that you blink. Adjust to the world as it is. Enjoy it.

  Keep in mind that if your tendency is to wear glasses, you can improve your vision enough that glasses won’t be necessary. In fact, you may end up seeing better without them than you had originally been seeing with them. If you have recovered from a major eye surgery with rehabilitation, instead of just seeing the top of the chart with your glasses, you may see the bottom of the chart with your glasses. If you cannot recover your vision, you may learn how to use the little vision that you have to function as fully as you can with your eyes and body. There is a possibility for rehabilitation in every situation, and we need to believe in our eyes to create such a revolution. This revolution will come from the simple truth that we have inner powers and that this book has helped you to reach them. With diligence, faith, love, and work, we will be able to change ourselves and all who are around us, until this world is a better place.

  Conclusion

  The Real Cost of Vision Problems

  As I have pointed out, the medical establishment has few answers for most of our common eye disorders. Even so, it is important to ask: even if reliable and safe treatments did exist, who would pay for them?

  It is my opinion that the time has come for all of us to ask what the real cost of vision problems is—not just in terms of money, but also in terms of productivity, quality of life, and morale. When someone loses his eyesight, his entire life is affected, along with the lives of everyone he knows. It isn’t just one person’s problem; it is society’s problem. The reality is that by neglecting each other, we neglect ourselves; and, in the end, we all pay dearly.

  I hope we all realize that the trend in developed and developing nations is not toward bigger budgets for vision care. On the contrary, very little money is currently spent by cities, states, and nations on the vision care of their citizenry, and even less will likely be spent in the future.

  Sadly, there is no help coming from the medical profession to reinforce strength in the eyes. And most people harbor the false belief that their eyes cannot get better. Therefore, we need to start with new seeds of hope until most people in the world are willing to work on their eyes. In fact, we need a silent but continuous revolution. This goes beyond countries or flags. To believe in ourselves and in our eyes is to open a window to our heart. With continuous work on the eyes, we can make a huge difference in our self-image and in resolving many other problems—p
ersonal, national, and international.

  The positive reinforcement comes with positive results. Think about it. We relinquished our power to acute care, which is a false promise for the health of our eyes. When you do so for one problem, the next one often appears rather quickly. The truth is that if we ourselves took good care of our eyes, the few times that we would need acute care, it would work just fine, and we would also rehabilitate quicker.

  Because physicians think that nothing can be fixed in the eye except by the mechanical acute care of which they’re capable, they are not researching the vital forces of the eyes. But we have several vital forces. We have the macula, which will start to be more active when linked with the mind. We have our minds, which can reinforce much better vision through imagery and memory. We have our lenses, which become much more flexible when we balance their use. We have our pupils, which become stronger if they contract much in the sun or daylight and expand much at nighttime. We can also have good circulation, with which we could improve and refresh the eyes and prevent most aging problems related to vision.

  The truth of the matter is that it’s very important to create great internal changes. Sometimes this requires that you change or widen your whole being. You can acquire new skills that you didn’t have before, ones that are exciting and useful to you. These may be skills of any kind. There are more than 87,000 professions on earth. Even if you don’t change your profession, you could learn new ways of operating and functioning. If you change your profession, do it with grace and ease. Another important thing is that many people are already at the end of their careers. They have accomplished their goals at work by the age of forty-five or fifty. It is wonderful to see, especially in the United States, so many people in their forties, fifties, and sixties returning to school to acquire new knowledge and skills.

  It is important on an emotional level that you have something to look forward to in life, that you feel your life is meaningful, and that every moment of your life is creative. This emotional advancement is the background of healing. It’s hard to heal if you resent your own life. It is easier to heal if you feel that you have something to look forward to. This way you can help the world and yourself at the same time. It motivates you to invest in the time that it takes to improve your vision. It gives you the vigilance to maintain your improvement as time goes on. It gives you the impetus to feel well enough within yourself to change for the better.

  Your happiness is precious. It comes with self-acceptance, and there is no better time than in your forties, fifties, and sixties to work on self-acceptance. When we have self-acceptance, we place less importance on adding extra weight or on the wrinkles that come with age. This is a time when we like all we’ve done, all we are currently doing, and all we will be doing. Believe me, our beauty will reflect itself. A straight face with no wrinkles does not match a wrinkled face with great happiness. A thin and fit Hollywood body is not nearly as attractive as an energetic body, even if the latter appears to be imperfect. At this particular time in life, working on a sense of inner happiness and working on a particular part of our body are parallel goals. Working on our flexibility and devoting ourselves to expanding our thoughts are comparable to each other. Slowly but surely, your vision will get better and better. If you keep shifting and looking at details, you will maintain the vigilance of thought and the emotional openness required. This kind of maturity is our next step in life.

  So, what we need is to inform ourselves, to work with ourselves, to convince others, to suggest support groups, and to suggest change in the world, bringing it to the consciousness of everyone we meet. Explain to them that it’s time for us to be aware of our powers. Who knows, maybe as a result of what you do, new research will spring up in your hometown, and it will make this a much better world than the one we live in. Unlike what most people believe, our world is not as developed as it could be. Our eyes, which are so precious to us, could see so much better along with those of every human being on earth. I’m the one to tell you that. I could have been blind right now, but I can read this book. And why? Simply because I worked on myself.

  This is why it is more important than ever to spread the word that it is possible for us to take care of our own vision. It can be done in such a way that we never develop devastating eye problems in the first place, so that we never have to rely on the inadequate and antiquated approaches of our governments or of the corporate medical establishment.

  The way to solve the crisis of low-or-no-budget vision care is to heal our eyes ourselves. Learn the basic exercises in Vision for Life. Become aware of the erosive habits you may be developing from staring at a computer screen all day and a television screen all night. Learn to blink. Learn to breathe correctly. Learn to relax. Learn to give massages so you and your loved ones can help each other maintain good blood flow along with a relaxed, confident, and radiant state of being.

  This is the path to a sustainable future for our eyes. This is my vision for life.

  Acknowledgments

  I began this book by speaking into a cassette recorder, and what I said was transcribed word for word onto paper. To translate from the spoken word into written material is not easy and, in fact, my dictation was not something one could easily convey in words, something pictorial and easily described; it was more like lyrical prose, and needed a lot of work in order to become a comprehensive tool for the reader. Yet, when I considered all the wonderful people my method had enabled me to help and the exciting new discoveries they had experienced, and when I thought about the hope I wanted to give to billions of people in the world along with my own patients, with the help of many, I began the real work of putting a book together.

  Therefore, I thank Phillip Barcio for helping to compile the materials and making my ideas more comprehensible. Next, I would very much like to thank my friend Richard Mandrachio, whose talents as an editor helped enormously in presenting the book in a straightforward manner that all readers can understand and practice with. I also wish to give many thanks to photographer Richard Miller, who himself benefited tremendously from this work; he improved his vision in spite of a birth defect and a condition that caused a major loss of his optic nerve. He regained much of his vision and, through black and white pictures, was able to bring to life many of the exercises that will help you, the reader. The person to whom I extend my heartfelt gratitude more than anyone else is my good friend Jan Albin, who worked tirelessly for countless hours on all the forms the manuscript has taken. Jan offered an incredible amount of aid in editing this book and was instrumental in getting it published. Finally, my sincere thanks go to the editors and good people at North Atlantic Books who accepted my manuscript for publication.

  About the Author

  MEIR SCHNEIDER had the unusual misfortune to be born with cataracts and many other conditions that affected his vision; after five unsuccessful surgeries, he expected to be blind for life. Though he read only Braille, at age seventeen he began a regimen of eye exercises and healed himself of congenital blindness. Today he holds an unrestricted California driver’s license.

  Schneider went on to help many people improve their vision from situations that had previously been considered hopeless. He affirms his viewpoint that nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, and computer-use problems can all be prevented or overcome through his method. Schneider’s innovative work in the holistic health field, especially concerning the empowerment of the individual, is an inspiring message as well as a practical guide. Many of Schneider’s past students are currently practicing his method in Brazil and have become well known for their impressive work, frequently appearing on television and in popular lectures. Moreover, conventional specialists have praised Schneider’s method because they saw results that exceeded their expectations. And no resistance or opposition of any kind has ever stopped Schneider from bringing his work to more and more people.

  In his quest for self-improvement, Schneider discovered that the same principles by which he gained
functional vision could also be applied to the entire body. This became the basis for the Meir Schneider Method of Self-Healing through Bodywork and Movement—a nonmedical, holistic health rehabilitation and prevention system. It teaches us how to use muscles and joints in a balanced way, thus preventing common degenerative conditions that arise from lifestyle, employment, injury, and health problems. This is achieved by isolating muscle groups, relaxing chronically overused muscles, stimulating brain-body neural connections, and, most importantly, enhancing circulation.

  A globally respected pioneer, therapist, and educator, Meir Schneider is also the best-selling author of The Natural Vision Improvement Kit, Yoga for the Eyes, Meir Schneider’s Miracle Eyesight Method, A Lesson for Life (also known as Self-Healing: My Life and Vision), Movement for Self-Healing, and The Handbook for Self-Healing. Schneider was also awarded a PhD in the Healing Arts for his work with muscular dystrophy.

  In 1980 Schneider founded the School for Self-Healing, a nonprofit center in San Francisco, California, that offers educational programs through which people can improve their vision as well as other physical handicaps. Meanwhile, Schneider has trained thousands worldwide, receiving international attention for his work in the healing arts. During more than 120,000 clinical hours over the last forty-two years, he has helped people to prevent blindness and conditions like glaucoma and cataracts. Through lectures, Schneider has taught many people the principles described in detail in this book: how to activate the powerful forces of nature within the body and how to improve vision by connecting to those forces through light, movement, and relaxation. This same connection encompasses the circulation, the nervous system, the visual apparatus, and the link between the eyes and the brain.

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