Many people complain that the bright sunlight injures
their eyes. In this chapter I will convince you that the op-
posite is true. Sunlight is very important. There could be
no vision without it. Sunlight is ethereal vibrations created
by molecular motion, and by its aid objects are rendered
visible.
If we remain in the dark too long the pupil becomes
inactive because it has been deprived of its greatest stimula-
tion, sunlight. Very few people realize that the pupil of the
eye is of great importance. The normal pupil is circular
and regular in outline. In the young it is larger than in
advanced life. Both pupils should be alike and respond to
light equally. To illustrate the importance of the pupil, if
it ever closed completely and failed to open you would be
blind.
The pupil contracts upon exposure to light; also when
the eyes are converged and when reading at close distance.
I am telling you these things to help you to understand the
importance of the exercises which follow.
People who work in offices with artificial light usually
have some trouble with their eyes. This is because of un-
natural light stimulation and unnatural function of the eyes
at close range, both of which are factors in causing the
sphincter pupillae to become fatigued and exhausted.
On the other hand, it is even more destructive and
dangerous to work in rooms that are not properly lighted
or to wear glasses that have a slight color, even though it
may be invisible. Proof: Shipping clerks, warehouse em-
Ployees, and miners who work in poorly lighted places are
very sensitive to light. When these people walk or
the open on Sundays or holidays their eyes are go
to light that they can hardly stand it, their pupil
been in poorly illuminated places so long that they have
lost their power of contraction; consequently, they fail to
contract and regulate the quantity of rays from the sun,
and as the pupil regulates the amount of light that passes
directly to the retina, which is the opening to the brain
that makes it possible for us to see, therefore, the intense
bright light is almost unbearable.
When these people consult an eye specialist they usually
are told that they must have some special kind of tinted or
colored lenses to protect their eyes from the sunlight, This
sounds reasonable, they get the glasses, and after they
wear them for a while they find they are helpless without
them. Their condition has been only relieved, while their
eyes have continued to become more sensitive to light.
After many years these people usually go blind. It is a
long, drawn out process, but nevertheless it happens, which
accounts for many of our elderly people spending the last
few years of their lives in total darkness.
The fish and small animals found in the Mammoth
Caves of Kentucky where there is no sunlight have no eyes.
Even mules that work on the dump carts in the -mines
underneath the ground lose their sight if they are not
brought out in Nature’s own natural sunlight often enough
to give their eyes natural sunlight stimulation.
When the eyes are closed and the light excluded from
the eyes the pupils dilate. When the eyes are open and the
Pupils are exposed to light they contract. That is one of
the reasons why I have had you do the blinking, squeezing
and relaxing exercises,
Now I want you to go into the sunlight at least three
or four times a day, close your eyes and let the sun shine
on your closed eyelids, blink at the sun ten times, then close
your eyes and relax. If this is repeated three or four times a
day every day that the sun shines, in a very short time you
will find that you have a great tolerance to sunlight, be-
our pupils will become normally active.
One of the worst things that has ever happened to man
as far as his eyesight is concerned was when a very ener-
getic gentleman invented colored lenses and discovered
how restful they were to the eyes. For many years this has
been a great boom to the optical business. In the beginning,
plain amber, blue, and black glasses were used to filter out
the bright sunlight, but since people did not want to wear
these unsightly colored lenses, a very scientific but unwise
gentleman discovered thet he could color the lenses and
make the color invisible. This little discovery made him
lots of money and ruined many eyes.
After a person wears tinted or colored lenses for a
while his eyes become so sensitive to sunlight that he finds
it impossible to discard them, and the longer he wears
them the more helpless he becomes without them. The
average person is not capable of figuring from cause to
effect; consequently, he is very gullible. It is much easier
to make him understand something that is not practical
than something that is practical.
A physiology teacher who knew enough about physi-
ology to teach medical students all about the physiological
function of the different organs of the body, including the
eyes, came to me suffering from photophobia (abnormal
intolerance of light). In order to help her I knew that I
would have to break down some of the old theories of
Physiology,
I asked her to explain to me the physiological func-
tion of the sphincter pupillae. She said, “That is a band of
radiating fibers by which the pupil is dilated, and so works
in harmony with the retina that the dilator pupullae en-
larges the pupil in proportion to the intensity of light
But I do not see where this has anything to do with my
case.” She knew all about physiology yet did not know how
the physiological function of her eyes in their abnormal
reaction to sunlight had anything to do with the subject.
I could see that it was hopeless to explain it to her
from that angle, so I asked her if she did not believe that
people who lived in the extreme northern Part of the
country could endure more cold than people who lived in
the extreme south. She answered immediately, “Yes, they
can because they have a greater tolerance to cold. Their
bodies have a greater resistance because they are used to
cold weather, while the people who live in the south have a
greater tolerance to heat because they are used to very
warm weather.”
I asked her if she had ever heard of people moving
from the south to the north and in a few years increasing
their tolerance to cold until they could endure the cold
weather as well as anybody else. I asked if she had ever
heard of people moving from the north to the extreme south
and in time becoming go accustomed to the heat that they
could endure the heat.
She said, “Yes, but this has nothing to do with my
Case.”
I asked her if animals who searched for their food all
day with the bright light shining in their eyes found
necessary to wear colored lenses to keep the sun out of
their eyes, Then she suddenly realized that if she would
spend a little more time in the sunlight she would soon be
able to endure sunlight.
After a few days trial, she came back to the office
complaining that she knew it would not work in her case.
The sun was seemingly so irritating to her eyes that it
almost blinded her. I had a special light made for her which
gave off yellow, red and infra-red rays almost identical
with sunlight. I had her take a few eye exercises with this
special light shining in her eyes for about five minutes
every day at a distance of five feet away.
After a week had passed I had her take her exercises
four feet from the light. In two weeks I had her take her
exercises three feet from the light. In 80 days I had her
take her eye exercises in the sunlight. In the beginning she
closed her eyes and let the sun shine on her eyelids. Then
she blinked at the sun ten or twelve times, and repeated
this three or four times a day. In ninety days she could
look directly at the sun without any discomfort to her eyes.
This convinced her that the colored lenses she had
been wearing had made her eyes weaker by shutting out
the sunlight and causing the little muscles of the eye that
regulate the amount of sunlight that passes into the eyes to
lose their tone.
It seems that the more a person has been educated to
do things according to wrong theories, the more difficult
it is to get him to understand a new principle, because he
has to be convinced that what he has been studying to be
true is an absolute falsehood. Then to show him that the
new theory actually works is a bit difficult, because he is
skeptical, since the new theory has been accepted by a very
few and the old theory has been accepted by many.
At this point you might be interested to know that
this applies to many things besides the eyes and the general
physical body. If I were to tell you that most of our cities
are run by crooks and gangsters, you immediately would
resent this, because you would think of the mayor, the
prosecuting attorney, the city manager and others who
must be of the highest type because they were selected by
the great majority of people.
The fact is that the best people in any city aye the
busiest people, and they are so busy attending to their own
business that they do not have time to enter into any agree-
ment with crooks, gangsters and loafers who make up the
great majority of our voting public and permit the cities
to be run by the lower classes.
For instance, the large city of Chicago with its marvel-
ous manufacturing plants and its tremendous taxation.
Every business man in Chicago has to pay a tax whether
he is a merchant, a boot black, restaurant owner, manu-
facturer, or whatnot. Then he must pay property tax, dog
tax, personal tax, and many other forms of expense which
pour into the hands of the incompetent political bosses who
haven’t the intellect to manage the affairs of the city and
keep it out of debt. Their mentality is of such poor quality
that they cannot display intelligence enough to even copy
a system from some of the cities that are successful in
managing their affairs.
I mention these things merely to show you that you
should not be influenced so much by what the great mob
of people do as by what the intelligent few are doing. There
was only one Lindbergh, and there was only one Abraham
Lincoln and one George Washington. It looks like, with
125 million people from which to select, we would be able
to find a greater number of these outstanding characters,
but they are rare.
If your eyes are sensitive to sunlight and you go out
in the sun and start taking the exercises that I have de-
scribed in this chapter and find that the sun seems to ir-
ritate your eyes, and makes them feel worse, are you in-
telligent enough to withstand the criticism of the mob who
may tell you that it is injurious?
When a person is persistent and intelligent enough to
use a little judgment, and take these sun baths systematical-
ly and gradually until he can stand more and more sun-
light, good results are sure to follow. If you were going to
train for a 100 mile race you would run a few miles each
day and build up your body tissues and increase your
strength each day, preparing yourself for the race. You
certainly wouldn’t try to run the 100 miles without any
preparation. You wouldn’t try to pass a medical examina-
tion without some preparation.
Then why not prepare your eyes to endure more sun-
light until you reach the stage where you are accustomed
to lots of sunlight and it no longer bothers you? I have
had many patients who could not stand the sunlight for
more than a minute or two at a time without their colored
lenses, but in a few months these same patients were able
to look directly at the sun with no discomfort whatever.
In this chapter I have used every means within my
power to convince you that you must have confidence in
yourself, and that you must do some real serious thinking,
and not be influenced by what others say or think. You
may come in contact with a great lawyer, a great physician,
or a great professor of physiology, and they may, with all
their knowledge of these various things, try to convince you
that you are doing the wrong thing, but remember that
there are many educated people with one-track minds.
They are educated as far as one subject is concerned, but
they cannot see beyond the few things they have studied.
To find a person who is really capable of acting on his
own judgment, is a rare occurrence. Among my patients, I
have had my share of the mental defectives, as well as the
highly educated, and sometimes it is difficult to tell one
from the other. It is a case of one being a little “off” on
one subject, and another being “off” on another subject.
I am not far from the fifty year mark, and I can read
the finest print without glasses. I can look directly at the
sun without any discomfort whatever, and I can read for
hours and hours with comfort. This is something that I
could not do fifteen years ago.
I am only asking you to be fair with yourself ang take
enough time to follow my instructions to prove to yourself
that the system really works. Try letting the sun shine on
your eyes a few minutes at a time three or four times a
day. If you work in an office, stick your head out of the
open window and get a little sunshine and notice how much
easier it becomes for you to remain in the bright light.
Do not confuse sunlight with ordinary electric light,
and do not confuse ordinary electric light with carbon elec-
tric light or carbon filament light. The ordinary electric
light that is used for lighting offices if too bright acts as
an irritant to the eyes, instead of a stimulant, because some
of the yellow, red and infra-red rays and all of the ultra-
violet rays are missing. The ultra-violet, yellow, red and
infra-red rays are especially valuable. It is the yellow rays
which stimulate the motor nerves, and the red rays which
stimulate the sensory nerves. The infra-red rays are the
deep, penetrating rays which penetrate into the deeper tis-
sues and relieve the venous congestion and improve the
arterial circulation. Without these rays we could not have
animal life or plant life, except possibly in the lowest
forms.
Ultra-violet rays are certainly very important to the
eyes. These invisible rays of the spectrum are beyond the
violet ray spectrum and, while this is not a treatise on
helio-therapy, I at least want you to know enough about
the different rays of light to appreciate their importance.
I have already explained to you that fish and animals
found in the Mammoth Caves of Kentucky have no eyés
because they do not have Nature’s natural sunlight stimula-
tion. Shipping clerks, miners, bank clerks, office help, and
others who work in electrically lighted rooms have weak
eyes, especially if they work there very long.
Fig. No. 1.
It is not necessary to give up your position because
you work under an electric light, but it is necessary to have
some of the natural light, and to spend as much time in the
open as possible. Cataract, glaucoma and all conditions of
the eyes that result in blindness are traceable to something
Fig. No. 2,
the patient has been doing that originally produced the
condition, because these conditions are never found with
animals that live in the open. They are found with animals
that live in homes and zoos, stockyards and the like.
Thousands of people are using such lights as you see
illustrated in Fig. No. 1. I mention this light because there
are many families and a large number of doctors who are
using this kind of lamp. It is a wonderful piece of equip-
ment to look at, but has very little value in the treatment of
the eyes or any other part of the anatomy, because it is not
scientifically constructed. I have experimented with hun-
dreds of different lamps that were brought to me by manu-
facturers who made many claims for their lights which did
not work out in actual practice.
In Fig. No. 2 is another type of lamp that has some
real value, the only trouble being that the reflector is
made in such a manner that it does not distribute the light
rays evenly. But since I could not find anything to take its
place, I used this light with a piece of cardboard in front
of the patient with two holes cut through the cardboard
sufficiently large to admit light only to the eyes. In this
way I have successfully treated many cases that would
not respond to any other form of eye treatment. This again
convinced me of the importance of light for the treatment
of the eyes.
But after experimenting many years with all types of
lamps, I found a manufacturer who was capable of making
a light that would distribute the light rays evenly and was
perfectly safe for the patient to use at home. With this light
I have been able to restore vision, and improve the sight of
many so-called hopeless cases. Of course, it is not a cure-all.
But when the patient sits under this light and rolls his
dineeti one side to the other, up and down, looking in all
directions, the penetrating rays relieve the congestion and
improve the circulation so rapidly that patients have
noticed an improvement in their vision after the first treat.
ment. Since it is so simple and easy to use that any patient
can use it at home, it saves the expense of being treateq by
a physician.
I am not in the lamp manufacturing business, go treat
this as information rather than advertising. You will notice
Fig. No. 38.
that I have not used the names of any of these lamps, and
that I am not boosting any particular lamp manufacturer.
I am simply trying to help you to get a better understand-
ing of how to help yourself, because many lamps on on
market are positively dangerous to use on the eyes; wht .
there are some that have real value. The lamp business;
like every other business, always has someone in it who ne
make a lamp cheaper and sell it for less, and the gullible
public will buy any kind of a bargain without investigation
as to the true merits of the article. This always has been
true and apparently will never change. Look at the thou-
sands of people who have ruined their eyes by purchasing
eyeglasses at a dollar store, a department store, or drug
store.
We have read a good deal in the medical journals and
the optical literature about the people of Africa having so
much cataract and going blind because of the intense light
rays of the sun in the extreme south, but when I toured
Africa and other parts of the southern world searching for
facts you may be interested to know that I did not find
cataract among the herdsmen, the farmers, and others who
worked outdoors, except in rare cases. Most of the people
who had cataract were old people who worked inside and
ate bread and drank wine and chickory; people who lived
on demineralized, devitaiized food.
Since the erystalline lense of the eyes is 62 per cent
water and about 35 per cent soluble albuminous matter,
and the balance a little fat and cholesterin, we can see that
this lense will dry up if the above elements are lacking in
the diet, and when food is cooked too long these substances
are destroyed. That is why the dog and the cat, after living
on scraps from the table, go blind with cataract, the same
as their masters. The person who eats lots of lettuce, celery.
fresh fruit and green, leafy vegetables will never have
cataract, unless he gets hit in the eye and develops trau-
matic cataract.
It is my belief that cataract was never caused by sun-
light. If the sunlight caused cataract, all of the animals that
spend their time looking for food while the sunlight pours
into their eyes would soon go blind. We have so much
evidence to upset the old theories that it seems that some
time within the next 50 years we should be able to teach
at least a small percentage of the more intelligent People
that sunlight is absolutely necessary, not only to the health
of the eyes but the general physical well-being.
I would not have mentioned the various kinds of lights
referred to in these pages but we have so many people who
work inside all day and who have for many years been
working in close quarters who can use the lights in the
evening after work and in the morning before going to
work. A five-minute treatment with a light that will give
off the essential rays certainly is a big help and has en-
abled many people to hold their jobs and continue their
close work with eye comfort.
The same lamps that are used for eye treatments can
also be used for neuritis and other troubles.
There are some cases where the eyes have been de-
prived of sunlight so long that a little milder form of light
is necessary to increase their tolerance to light, so the
patient can get into the sunlight bathing gradually. All
of these things require a little judgment, and, knowing
people as I do, I have purposely repeated my warning
not to do anything radical or over-indulge in anything that
you are not accustomed to doing.
You will notice that in this book I do not mention the
name or the address of any lamp manufacturer, food
manufacturer, or toilet preparations. I have purposely
omitted everything that might be considered advertising.
There are many wonderful articles on the market which
have real value, but I have failed to mention them, because
I do not want to be accused of advertising or boosting any
manufacturer’s products. By following this policy I have
left myself free to discuss truthfully all matters pertaining
to health without boosting or condemning anyone’s product.