Today, let’s wrap up my thoughts on The Art of Seeing by examining some of Aldous Huxley’s general principles for maintaining good vision.
First, as I’ve noted previously Huxley attributes many vision problems to poor usage that causes strain and tension in the eyes. One common culprit in this regard is staring. A person accustomed to staring slowly reduces the eye’s natural mobility and increasingly finds it harder to adjust focus when looking at new objects. A key step here is to simply acknowledge that staring is an unnatural function for the eyes because an abnormal habit is impossible to correct until it is acknowledged that the habit is abnormal.
Another contributing factor to poor usage is an inability to leverage the memory as part of seeing. People routinely make errors and believe they’ve seen what isn’t there – this phenomenon strongly implies that memory plays a much larger role in vision than is commonly recognized. The techniques I mentioned in my last post are not just helpful for reinforcing the mechanical function of vision but also for training short-term memory to work closely with the eyes and help bring greater precision to what is in sight.
Finally, the importance of proper lighting cannot be overstated. I really liked Huxley’s definition for the right amount of lighting – it should be like reading a book on a sunny day. The risk of harm to our vision increases anytime we try to see in dimmer (or brighter) environments.
