Take Off Your Glasses And See
As Spring is associated with the Liver in Chinese Medicine and the Liver is associated with the eyes, over the last month, I decided to read a book on sight that had been recommended to me by a patient.
“Take off your glasses and see” is written by Jacob Liberman, a classically trained eye doctor. However, the advice he gives is far from conventional. Liberman suggests that even if we can identify abnormalities in the lenses of our eyes, this is not necessarily the cause of our visual difficulties, as the brain, he says, is quite capable of compensating for these. The real reason, Liberman says, that we develop problems with our sight is that we are trying to ‘blur out’ something in our lives we don’t want to see…
Chinese Medicine
Interesting – this is starting to sound like Chinese Medicine, which links the eyes to internal as well as external vision…
Next he points out that wearing corrective lenses encourages our eyes to stay still. As the area of the corrective lens that is adjusted to our needs, is in the centre, if we move our eyes around with glasses on, we lose focus. This is not normal for our eyes. They are accustomed to scanning the environment, using peripheral vision and constantly moving. Liberman argues that corrective lenses confine our eyes and subsequently our minds to linear, detailed focus, restricting our ability for peripheral, big picture thinking.
Obviously, I was sceptical to begin with. After all this seems to fly in the face of logic – but then as a full-time glasses wearer – maybe I would say that…
Through the book, Liberman goes on to offer exercises, advice and case studies to help and inspire you to wean yourself off your glasses habit and does warn that once you begin, the old issues that started the problem, may well rear their head. He also explains how to use ‘open focus’ and ‘open thinking’ to expand your awareness beyond the norm.
If this has tweaked your interest I would recommend this book. It makes you think and ‘look’ at vision in a completely different way and I admit, I have begun taking my glasses off a lot more…
Take Off Your Glasses and See: How to Heal your Eyesight and Expand your Insight – Jacob Liberman
