Monkey See
A further exploration of accommodation and myopia was done by psychologist Francis Young, one of the leading proponents of the “nearwork theory” and director of the primate center at Washington State University.
Dr. Young has raised a colony of nearsighted monkeys, which he accomplished (a dubious “accomplishment”, I must say) by restricting their visual environments to between 14 and 20 inches, thereby forcing them to accommodate full-time. After just a year in this restricted visual environment, all these monkeys developed myopia, at about 5 times the rate of the other monkeys.
Prior to his experiments with monkeys, Dr. Young studied three generations of Inuit (in Alaska). The first generation were illiterate nomads, and were found to be extremely farsighted. The next generation, their children, had modern housing, electricity, and some education, were mildly farsighted. But the third generation, the grandchildren of the nomads, who had undergone compulsory education, and both read and watched TV, had the same percentage of nearsightedness as the rest of America.
According to Dr. Young, "You could look upon myopia as a sensory adjustment to a behavioral situation. The eye is an inherently farsighted organ; when we ask it to behave in a nearsighted way, it changes its shape to perform more efficiently. In an individual who is regularly doing a great deal of nearwork -- reading, sewing, playing Pac-Man -- the body reacts with changes that make it easier to maintain accommodation".
Myopia in Focus - The Washington Post
Vision and Survival
In the wild, where distance vision is a necessity for survival, there's no such thing as a nearsighted monkey. Or human, for that matter.
Those who follow the nearwork theory believe our continuous reduction in field of vision began with living in cities. There, instead of viewing vast and distant areas of land, sea and sky, we began narrowing our focus down to the city block ahead of us. Regularly reading further reduced our gaze; eventually TV watching added to this reductionist tendency, and now texting and smartphone obsession have made it so we hardly look up anymore.
Currently, the American Optometric Society recommends following the 20-20-20 rule, when working, or watching, on computers or smartphones: “take a 20-second break to view something 20 feet away every 20 minutes.”
Computer vision syndrome | AOA
I would suggest that viewing something only 20 feet away is not sufficient: gazing out the window to a further distance is preferable. We need to widen our vision (note how political vision has narrowed along with visual acuity) more than that. Both literally and figuratively.
Imagine Predators
A couple of years ago, in an attempt to improve my vision, I started playing vision games. The first one I called drones, snipers, and landmines. While walking around outside I would imagine how the eyes of a soldier would work in a war zone.
Look up for drones, or aircraft, in the sky, check for snipers in high buildings, check the ground for tripwires, or landmines. Eyes always moving, taking in everything.
Our ancestors lived like that, and viewed reality like that, on a daily basis.
Maybe no drones to be aware of, but it was a matter of life and death to know what the weather was bringing; predators or enemies could be hiding in the trees, snakes and other poisonous creatures lurked on the ground. Even indoors, our ancestors would have kept their eyes moving: imagine your house could contain poisonous spiders (up in the corners of the ceiling), snakes, and/or scorpions. Every day this would be a danger; all the time.
If we lived in a dangerous environment, if we had enemies and/or predators, inside or outside, our eyes would always be moving: up, down, near and far, peripheral vision active, eyes moving to the extremes of range. Always.
Eyework
Speaking of extremes of range, there is an old eye exercise called the Tibetan Eye Chart, in which the 6 pointed, star-like pattern is followed with the eyes, twice daily. This encourages the eyes to experience a full range of motion.
What I like to do is practice with an internalized version of this chart, whenever I am standing in line, or pumping gas. Take each of the imagined 6 points, and move the eyes as far as they will go in each of the directions. Both clockwise and counterclockwise.
When you look up as far as you can, do you feel a strain on the eyes? Now look to the extreme two points on the right (2 o’clock and 4 o’clock), then down (6 o’clock), and to the left (8 and 10 o’clock), then back up to the top again. This should not feel at all painful or difficult, and if it does, eventually, after repeating the exercise frequently, it will not. Also practice rolling the eyes fluidly, both clockwise and counterclockwise.
Our eyes are becoming stagnant, and atrophying, mostly because we no longer use them the way they were intended to be used: to keep us alive. We stop exercising and our muscles atrophy, we stop learning and our brains atrophy, so it is with the eyes.
Sometimes I think we need a few predators in our environment just to keep us on our toes. I imagine that anyone who lives in a dangerous part of a modern city, keeps their eyes moving, looking for any imminent danger. But I, like many of us, live in an environment that is, perhaps, too safe.
Imagine predators, and you will expand your range of vision.
Look at the night sky. Hell, look at the day sky. Have you noticed people don’t look up any more? In these days of smartphones, most in fact do the opposite, mainly only looking down, with the occasional glance upwards, to ensure they don’t walk into a lightpost.
Look up at the stars the way your ancestors did. Tilt your head back as far as possible. How long can you do that before it hurts?
Practice looking for danger outside; note your head moves to the extreme left and right, and moves up and down in each position, along with the eyes. That should not hurt either. If it does, the neck muscles need work too. Too much tightening and contracting of the neck, and shoulder muscles, will ultimately inhibit blood and oxygen flow to the eyes (and brain). So keeping this area limber, as well as alleviating pain in those areas, will also serve to help vision.
Looking vs Seeing
The word vision has many more connotations than just receiving visual information from the environment. A vision can be an imagined goal for the future, one that benefits all of humanity. You may envision a new idea or concept. A person of vision, is one with “unusual discernment or foresight”. A prophet or shaman can have a vision in a dream or a trance, one that may offer guidance for the future.
Seeing also means understanding.
When we reduce vision to only observing physical phenomena (looking) we are also philosophically reducing what makes us fully human. Our rapidly degenerating vision is correlated with our inability to see other viewpoints (e.g. the political extremes of left and right that seldom find any common ground), of being able to envision a healthy planet (endlessly distracted by blue screens), of being able to see the bigger picture.
Philosophical Interlude (Optional)
We worship at the altar of technology, asking it to solve the very problems it created. And every technology we give service to, takes away our inherent human version.
Calculators usurped our math abilities. GPS allows us to no longer need to know the cardinal directions. T.V. and radio means we no longer need to produce our own entertainment: we pay others to make music, and entertain us, when it used to be an ability most people hadMachines make our clothes, industry grows our food, cars negate the need to walk. Imagine what would happen to us if the fire went out. (Dies the Fire - Wikipedia) If we lost electricity, due to massive earth upheavals, or severe solar flares, and had to survive without technology. (Carrington Event - Wikipedia)
We long for the apocalypse (as evidenced by dystopian, apocalyptic, and zombie stories and games), because we want a reboot. We no longer have the vision that it is possible to turn things around, and yet when the apocalypse occurs we will be ill equipped to deal with it. We have traded our human survival skills for the ease of technology, but technology is a fickle friend. And, when we can no longer feed it (with electricity), it will desert us, and we will be faced with trying to survive in the absence of all the skills life gave us to get us this far.Could we survive without glasses? At this point, I doubt that I could. (Though should you find yourself in such an apocalyptic scenario, keep in mind that “pinhole glasses” work better than one would guess, irrespective of one’s prescription requirements, and can be roughly produced from common materials. Or buy a pair to keep on hand as part of your apocalypse survival kit.)
Further Research
A newsletter of mine on, “Protecting the Eyes from Macular Degeneration and Blue Screen Damage”.
Unconventional methods of visual improvement developed by Dr. William Bates. “Based on decades of experiments and research, these methods show how to naturally improve vision, which is so impaired in today’s computerized and technology-rich world.”