How and Why It Works

HOW AND WHY EYE-ROBICS® WORKS!

HOW THE NORMAL EYE FOCUSES
Dr. Bates laboratory experiments included the discovery of the function of the six extrinsic (outer) muscles. Four of these are called recti muscles; one being on top of the eye, one on the bottom of the eye, and one on each side of the eye. The other two muscles go around the middle of the eye and are called oblique muscles.

TYPES OF MUSCLES
In the human body there are two types of muscles, striated (striped) and smooth. The striated muscles are conscious command or voluntary muscles. You decide to take action and do, such as move your head, move your hand, or walk. The smooth muscles constitute such muscles as the heart, lungs, stomach, and digestive organs. These are involuntary muscles and function unconsciously. You don't tell your stomach to digest your food, it just occurs upon ingestion.

STRIATED MUSCLES
Dr. Bates discovered that the extrinsic muscles (four recti muscles and two oblique muscles) are striated voluntary muscles except where they are attached to the sclera or white part of the eye. Here they become smooth. The striated portion of the recti muscles are voluntary and move the eye up and down and side to side. The striated portion of the oblique muscles help to rotate the eye.

SMOOTH MUSCLES
The smooth portion is responsible for accommodation (focus). The recti muscles flatten the eye, shortening focal length from front to back for distant seeing. The oblique muscles squeeze the eye long, lengthening the focal length for near seeing. All this occurs because muscles only pull (or contract) and relax. When the recti muscles pull to flatten the eye for distant seeing, the oblique muscles have to relax, allowing this to occur. The reverse is true when a person wants to focus on something at the near point. The recti muscles have to relax, allowing the obliques to squeeze the eye long from front to back. The lens of the eye works in conjunction with the extrinsic muscles.

THE EYES' LENS
The lens is attached by the ciliary muscles and is thinner when the eye is flattened and contracts (gets thicker) when the eye is elongated or lengthened. In other words, correct focus depends on proper elongation! The eye works exactly like a camera, it has to change in focal length in order to achieve accommodation or focus. All these muscles have to work in perfect harmony in order to have normal vision. As previously stated, Dr. Bates believed that mental tension and strain were the cause of imperfect sight. Tension occurs in the mind first and then manifests in the body, not the other way around. Vision is nine tenths mental and one tenth physical. If the oblique muscles are tense and won't let go, the eye cannot accommodate for distant seeing. If the recti muscles are tight and won't let go, the eye cannot accommodate for near seeing. The degree of tension in either muscle group determines the resulting error of refraction (or how much the eye is out of focus).

LEARNING TO RELAX
The EYE-ROBICS® PROGRAM teaches relaxation and helps the participant to reeducate mind and body in good visual habits again. You cannot exercise an involuntary muscle, it first has to be relaxed and through relaxation it is allowed to function better. It is only through function that the eye can become stronger and, in turn, can only function well through relaxation. Therefore EYE-ROBICS® is based upon the principle of relaxation of mind and body. To accomplish this, there are techniques to loosen the physical body as well as techniques to release mental strain. MEMORY, IMAGINATION, and VISUALIZATION play an important part in reestablishing eye mind coordination and normal vision.

HOW LIGHT EFFECTS SIGHT
Eyes are the only organs in the body constituted to receive light. The Fovea Centralize calls for stimulation by light. This impulse must be responded to or it will perish. Eyes that have plenty of light are strong those starved for light are weak. Eyes dwelling in darkness where the need for light is prohibited go blind. It is found throughout all nature that the birds, beasts, and fish who live in environments where light is strongest have the most excellent vision. Moles, earthworms, and fish in the ocean depths, where no light penetrates, are blind. They are blind because vision for them was an unused, unnecessary thing. Burros that were made to work in coal mines soon lost their vision, which was regained after they were returned to work in sunlit fields. When sunglasses are worn, man is going against nature and the normal function of his own light receiving organs. Sunglasses weaken the eyes instead of helping them and start them down the road to poorer vision. The EYE-ROBICS® PROGRAM teaches how to accept and receive light safely and easily so one can reverse this process of light sensitivity. Even if a person has normal vision and is sensitive to light, it would be wise to learn these simple techniques to prevent vision problems. Light sensitivity is the first sign of tension in the eyes and mind.

REBUILDING GOOD VISION
Action of the eye in relaxation is the secret of all normal vision. When people with imperfect sight acquire the art of seeing, the organs of vision will tend to rid themselves of their physical defects. Relaxed organs enjoy better circulation than organs wrongly used and under strain. Improved circulation gives an organ the chance to build up resistance, heal its disease and correct its defects. This accounts for some of the spectacular results this method has had with people whose eyes had been given up as hopeless, such as Aldous Huxley, a well known writer, who wrote a book about his experiences with the Bates Method titled, THE ART OF SEEING. EYE-ROBICS® techniques are wonderful to know as a preventive for those with normal vision to insure against eye strain and tension. College students, pilots, policemen, firemen, persons who work with computers and those who use their eyes a lot could benefit greatly. If a person experiencing eyestrain would practice EYE-ROBICS® TECHNIQUES on the very onset of a vision problem, he/she could prevent the use of glasses entirely.

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