William Horatio Bates

“ With a lesser degree of relaxation much of it is lost when the eyes are opened, and what is retained is not held permanently. In other words, the greater the degree of the relaxation produced by palming the more of it is retained when the eyes are opened and the longer it lasts. If you palm perfectly, you retain, when you open your eyes, all of the relaxation that you gain, and you do not lose it again. If you palm imperfectly, you retain only part of what you gain and retain it only temporarily - it may be only for a few moments. ”

“ Although the majority of patients are helped by palming, a minority are unable to see black, and only increase their strain by trying to get relaxation in this way. In most cases it is possible, by using some or all of the various methods outlined in this chapter, to enable the patient to palm successfully; but if much difficulty is experienced, it is usually better and more expeditious to drop the method until the sight has been improved by other means. The patient may then become able to see black when he palms, but some never succeed in doing it until they are cured. ”

“ They are directed to look at such an object at the distance at which the color can be seen best, close the eyes and remember the color, and repeat until the memory appears to be equal to the sight. Then they are instructed, while still holding the memory of the black, to cover the closed eyes with the palms of the hands in the manner just described. If the memory of the black is perfect, the whole background will be black. If it is not, or if it does not become so in the course of a few seconds, the eyes are opened and the black object regarded again. ”

“ The worse the condition of the eyesight, as a rule, the more numerous, vivid and persistent these appearances are. Yet some persons with very imperfect sight are able to palm almost perfectly from the beginning, and are, therefore, very quickly cured. Any disturbance of mind or body, such as fatigue, hunger, anger, worry or depression, also makes it difficult for patients to see black when they palm, persons who can see it perfectly under ordinary conditions being often unable to do so without assistance when they are ill or in pain. ”

“ Persons with high degrees of myopia, however, often find palming very difficult, since they not only see black very imperfectly, but, because of the effort they are making to see, cannot remember it more than one or two seconds. ”

“ All persons, without exception, who can see or read diamond type at the near-point, no matter how great their myopia may be, or how much the interior of the eye may be diseased, become able, as a rule, to see black with their eyes closed and covered more readily than patients with hypermetropia or astigmatism ”

“ Some patients have been so impressed with the vividness of the colors which they imagined they saw that no amount of argument could, or did, convince them that they did not actually see them with their eyes. If other people saw bright lights or colors, with their eyes closed and covered, they admitted that these things would be illusions ”

“ Fig. 43 Patient with atrophy of the optic nerve gets flashes of improved vision after palming. In some cases the following method has proved successful: When the patient sees what he thinks is a perfect black, let him remember a piece of starch on this background, and on the starch the letter F as black as the background. Then let him let go of the starch and remember only the F, one part best, on the black background. In a short time the whole field may become as black as the blacker part of the F. The process can be repeated many times with a constant increase of blackness in the field. ”

“ Many patients become able by this method to see black almost perfectly for a short time; but most of them, even those whose eyes are not very bad, have great difficulty in seeing it continuously. Being unable to remember black for more than from three to five seconds, they cannot see black for a longer time than this. ”

“ A still deeper black can then be imagined, and this deeper black can, in turn, be transferred to the letter on the test card. By continuing this process a perfect perception of black, and hence perfect sight, are sometimes very quickly obtained. ”