NEWS photo Mike Wakefield PSYCHOLOGIST JANET Goodrich believes it is possible for those of us with blurred eyesight to improve failing vision and learn to see naturally and clearly without glasses by releasing stress and changing visual habits. Goodrich is in town this week to present her method to the public in a series of workshops. 29 - Wednesday, May 31, 1989 - North Shore News "Bake a lemon pie PAGE 31 CONTROVERSIAL METHOD DISCUSSED Author to speak locally on correcting vision naturally NATURAL VISIONARY Janet Goodrich and some ophthalmologists and medi- cal doctors don’t see eye to eye. By MICHAEL BECKER News Reporter The psychologist believes it is possible for those of us with blur- ted eyesight to improve failing vi- sion and learn to see naturally and cleasly without glasses by releasing emotional stress and by changing visual habits. The standard remedy for myopia (shortsightedness), hyperopia ong-sightedness) and presbyopia (old-age sight) has been corrective lenses, or in some cases, opera- tions. Goodrich’s claim is significant when set in the context of a 1987 Optometric Association study which shows that 1.5 million Americans can’t see well enough to read. Out of a total 240 million population, 126 million wear eye- glasses. Said Goodrich of the eye-open- ing statistics: ‘‘There’s been a change and the shift is towards more and more people having eye blur, and the orthodox treatment is mechanical — robot eyes —- in- stead of getting to the cause and CM ARK PRODUCE 985-1388 Field TOMATOES Red Delicious APPLES CANTALOUP educating people to do something for themselves.’” The self-help method is based on the Bates Method, a way of relax- ing and using the whole visual system, as devised by American ophthalmologist William H. Bates earlier this century. Goodrich also draws on princi- ples of Reichian therapy, kinesiology and_ right-brain/left- brain theory for her approach. Said Goodrich: ‘Everybody with visual blur is staring. So we get into these habits of locking the neck and the shoulders. We have to teach people to let go of the stare and to move with the eyes. Children do this when they are looking at things — active, alive, interchanging energy with the en- ’ vironment. “But people have psychological blocks about movement — the whole thing about having to sit stili, having to be perfect, having to perform intellectually, which is where the whole left brain thing comes into it. Glasses lock that in.” Her book, which has sold 30,000 copies in Australia since its release three years ago, is full of physical and mental exercises designed to release stress and foster imagina- _ Our New ~ : Location tive visualization. Goodrich doesn’t claim that all eyeglass wearers can restore evesight. ‘‘A lot of people don’t want to for one thing. It depends on the person’s motivation. Out of several thousand people I've worked with in Australia, there’ve been only two people who said they’ve done everything and nothing happened. The other peo- ple report better eye vision, they've dropped diopters out of their glasses. ‘‘My vision was like minus 7 and minus 5, which is medium. I wore those glasses for 20 years and | haven’t worn them now for 18. It took me about two years to get out of them,”’ she said. Goodrich, sponsored by West Vancouver-based Kinetic Educa- tion Network, is in town to present a series of workshops based on her book, Natural Vision Improve- ment. She will be appearing at the Robson Media Centre tomorrow, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. A_ weekend workshop is scheduled for Satur- day and Sunday, June 3 and June 4, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Lons- dale Quay Hotel. For information about the upcom- ing workshops call 684-2541 or 922-8811. :” Call for.your free. in home.e: