Imagination and Vision

[...Imagination and Vision

by W.H. Bates, M.D.
New York City


At this time I have to announce what I consider to be the most
remarkable, the most valuable, and the most practical discovery that I
have ever made. I have delayed this announcement for five years or
longer, because I wished to be absolutely sure of the truth of my
observations, which at first seemed incredible. With the passage of
time, however, evidence has accumulated which seems to me to leave no
more room for doubt.

I have already published the fact that under favorable conditions, as
when the subject looks at a blank surface without trying to see, all
errors of refraction no matter how great their degree or how long
their duration, disappear for an appreciable length of time, as
demonstrated by simultaneous retinoscopy although the patient is not
conscious of the improved vision. I now know that all persons, whether
they have what is considered to be normal sight, or whether they are
suffering from errors of refraction, have flashes of telescopic or
microscopic vision, and that even persons with organic disease, such
as cataract, glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa and atrophy of the optic
nerve, may have such flashes. Everyone here is able to look up at the
sky and see the moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, or the double
stars. But these flashes of supernormal vision are so short that they
are not realized. Some persons, however, are able to prolong them and
may even make them permanent. I have a number of patients who have
obtained telescopic and microscopic vision permanently. Two have told
me that they can see the moons of Jupiter with the naked eye. A third
was able to read ordinary newspaper type at a distance of twenty feet.
A fourth read a photographic type reduction held close to her
eyelashes, the letters being so small that I myself was unable to see
them without a strong magnifying glass.

Not only is it possible in some cases, to make this supernormal vision
permanent, but it is also possible for the conscious mind to realize
the impressions made on the subconscious mind by a flash of improved
vision. In other words, you can imagine letters you have not
consciously seen. The reason for this is that it is impossible to
imagine anything which one has seen, either consciously or
unconsciously, to be other than it is without strain. When one looks
at a letter on the Snellen test card which can be seen distinctly, and
tries to imagine the top straight or open when it is curved, or curved
when it is straight or open, it will be found impossible to do so, and
the vision will be lowered by the effort, to a greater or less degree.
In one case the mere suggestion to a patient that he should imagine
the top of the 200 letter, a C, to be straight, caused the whole card
to become blank. When one looks at a letter seen indistinctly, without
knowing what it is, and tries to imagine it to be other than it is,
one is usually able to do so, but not without strain. By making a
series of guesses, therefore, and watching their effect upon one's
relaxation, one can find out what a letter is without consciously
seeing it.

The relaxation may be most conveniently measured by the ability to
imagine that the unknown letter is moving with a short, slow,
rhythmical motion. Every object seen with normal vision has such a
motion, because of the constant shifting of the eye. When this motion
can be imagined it is an indication of relaxation. When it is lost it
is a sign of strain. To ascertain whether an unknown letter is
straight, curved or open at the top, therefore, it is only necessary
to imagine each one of these conditions in turn, and watch the effect
upon the imagined swing of the letter. If the top is straight, for
instance, and one imagines it to be straight, the swing will be
unchanged; but if one imagines it to be curved, the swing will be
lengthened or lost, or will become less even and easy. If one is
unable to tell the difference between two guesses, it is because the
swing is too long, and by palming and remembering a letter of diamond
type, with a short, slow swing, one may become able to shorten the
swing of the letter on the test card. Having imagined each of the four
sides of a letter correctly, one becomes able to imagine the whole
letter, first with the eyes closed and covered, and then with the eyes
open.

When one knows what the four sides of a letter are, its
identification, in some cases, is a simple process of reasoning. A
letter which is straight on top and on the left side, and open on the
two other sides, cannot be anything but an F. If, on the contrary, it
is straight on the bottom and on the left side, and open on the other
two, it must be an L. Such letters can be imagined with a lower degree
of relaxation than the less simple ones, like a V, Y, or K. If the
letter is not imagined correctly, the swing will be altered, and in
that case the process should be repeated from the beginning.

Having imagined the letter correctly, the patient is told to imagine
it with the eyes closed and covered alternately, until he is able to
imagine it as well when the looking at the card as when palming. In
this way it finally becomes possible for him to imagine it so vividly
when looking at the card that he actually sees it.

This process sounds complicated, but is less so in reality. Some
patients become able to recognize the letters by means of their
imagination with incredible rapidity, even when they are so small that
they could not be seen without telescopic vision. A little girl of
ten, who could see nothing on the test card at ten feet except the 200
letter, was told how to make out the letters by the aid of her
imagination and then left alone for half an hour. At the end of this
time she had identified all the letters on the bottom line and had
also become able to see the whole card consciously. A patient with six
diopters of myopia was able to imagine correctly letters of diamond
type at fifteen feet, although consciously he could not see even the
separate lines. That is, when asked to identify a particular letter of
a particular word on a certain line he was able to do so. A patient
with twelve diopters of hypermetropia (due to the removal of his
lenses for cataract) imagined correctly letters on the bottom line of
the test card when indicated with a pointer, although consciously he
could not even see the pointer. Patients have also been able to
imagine letters correctly when the card on which they were printed was
seen the day before, or even several weeks previously. This is a
striking confirmation of my previous observation that when the vision
is perfect the memory is perfect. Although the flashes of vision in
these cases were so short that they were not realized, the letters
seen were indelibly imprinted upon the memory.

These facts are not only very interesting scientifically, but, as I
said in the beginning, are of great practical importance, for the
realization, by the aid of the imagination, of things seen
subconsciously is, in most cases, the quickest method of improving the
sight that I know of. Occasionally, for some unknown reason, it does
not succeed.

A case in which it has produced remarkable results is that of a
patient with retinitis pigmentosa, complicated by a high degree of
myopia. She had been seen by many specialists both in this country and
in Europe, and all had told her that her sight could not be improved,
and that if she lived long enough she must inevitably become blind.
When I first saw her, on February 9th, 1921, her distant vision with
glasses (concave 6.00 D.S., both eyes) was 20/40 in the right eye and
20/50 in the left, and her field had been reduced to ten degrees, so
that she could see nothing above, below, or to one side of her line of
vision. She has now become temporarily able, by the methods described,
to consciously see the bottom line of the test card at ten feet. Her
field is at times normal and has permanently enlarged so that, while
formerly unable to see more than the face of the person to whom she
was speaking, she can now see the hands and the chair in which such a
person may be sitting at six feet. When going down the stairs of the
subway, she is able to see the steps. Formerly she had to guide
herself in such a case by feeling alone. Night blindness and color
blindness have also been relieved. When she first came to the office
she was unable to distinguish between the red floor and the tan rug.
Now she can not only distinguish these colors, but she can tell the
difference between the spots of black and navy blue in the rug. This
patient became able almost at the beginning of the treatment to
identify all the letters on the test card at ten feet by the aid of
her imagination, although she could not consciously see anything below
the large letter at the top. As her imagination improved she became
conscious of seeing the letters on the lower lines, at first in
flashes and then more continuously.

Such cases might be multiplied almost indefinitely, and go to show
that we all possess visual powers of which we are not conscious and
which might be developed to a high degree by practice...]

- Originally published in the Journal of the Allied Medical
Associations of America, Oct 1921; Read at 10th Annual Meeting, Allied
Medical Associations of America, held in Atlantic City, June, 1921.