LOOKOUT GAMES AND EXPERIMENTS

This page continues from Going On The Lookout and Warm Up Exercises and Doing It.

Feb. 2023. - I'm presently trying to find the easiest and quiclest method to develop panoramic vision. In the meantime this page has become a rather disorganised library of less important ideas,

Please experiment and give me feedback.

Even a century ago, we had panoramic countrysides to stimulate our panoramic awareness naturally, while walking to work. The modern city dweller is overwhelmed by either boring walls or colourful focal points: lights, signs, adverts, shops, and other people.

At present, i suggest a variety of short exercises. Do each of these exercises once repeat whichever is fun; and in between times, try the 'pure school' method again.

1. Stretch out your arms to the sides, turn your hands inwards, and wiggle your fingers, then slowly move them upward, then down – trace out and recognise the shape of your field of vision, the whole oval shape.

2. Locate 4, 5, or even 6 focal points around the periphery. Look straight ahead and go round the peripheral points one after the other, build them up until you can be conscious of them all at the same time.

Lamps and candles and their reflections in windows are optimal peripheral focal points, find two or three sources of light and then add two or three more pin-point objects.

If you want to do a meditation with candles – instead of staring at one candle, experiment with two on both sides, or four on the diagonals.

3. Put your hands together, as in prayer, and hold them up in front of your eyes; you will get a feeling of how it is to see without any central focus point... (seeing like an insect).

4. If you are indoors, or there's no wind outside.
Find a blank sheet of A4, fold it in half (for some stability), and hold it 4'' or 10cms. away from your eyes. Focus your eyes on it, but concentrate on and look at the interesting things happening all around it.

Move it farther away, step by step, until it's a relaxed arm's length away. Keep focusing on it, but concentrating on everything happening all around it.

Trains are more relaxing than busses, but both have boring focal points somewhere up on the roof. As passanger in a car there's still a windscreen and it's natural to look infront where you're going.

Sitting facing the direction of travel, the peripheries always diverge, they encourage an expansion of the sidewards vision; if you sit going backwards, the visual field converges.

'Gong like' Exercises
There are a number of 'Gong like' exercises which i find stimulate panoramic seeing. The main problem is that almost all teachers do these exercises with their eyes shut!

To look as far as you can see, you must look, as the name of the exercise implies, like an owl does – with the eyes wide open! – the only YouTube videos which i can find showing this even vaguely are
Qigong Ba Duan Jin - 8 Brokate 0.50 to 2.00 and Wise Owl Looks Behind

In the context of actually focusing on the peripheries: i found Paul McCartney's Yoga Exercises for Your Eyes (2.36 mins) interesting.

Exercise Three
These two movements are the basis of Exercise Three. I think the one using opposite hand movements is better.

Exercise Two is also good, but very similar to my Exercise 1. above.

Last time i looked online for the very good, practical, and clear videos, which i learnt with, they were no longer there. They were replaced with a poetical mystical nonsense text which i could not understand... If you are interested and find any good Falun Dafa videos online, please tell me.

The reason i found it good and remembered it, was because when walking in nature, to adapt to the uneven ground, i involuntarily and immediately started bending the knees and walking with a 'bounce'.

Looking above the horizon as Carlos Castañeda describes, is also fun to do when walking through crowds of people, it gives you a good overview of the next obstacles and ways to weave through them.

All humans have some subliminal panoramic awareness. Relaxed walking in nature can often bring us to the edge of this way of sensing. Most people are vaguely aware of about 60°-90° of the panoramic horizontal centre field. Making this conscious is a good idea.

Other Ideas
It's the opposite of screwing up the eyes and staring. Maybe it's good to just physically open your eyes as wide as they will go. But then start noticing all the things you can see round the periphery in order to keep your eyes wide open.

Disrupt and confuse your habitual focusing. Wave your hands around chaotically infront of your eyes for a few seconds, then look at the peripheries.

Humans are familiar with the passive use of panoramic seeing when we gaze vacantly into space. This is only a limited central area of the field, but if you find yourself gazing into space, vacantly, try and hold on to the feeling (maybe by listening) and "wake-up".

I have heard of people using panoramic vision in a limited central area when relaxed cycling. This seems semi-subliminal, almost like when daydreaming, and it seems to happen with some people naturally and it all helps, so i've no objection to doing it, when there are no obstacles or people to have accidents with. It would be irresponsible to practice using it intensely when cycling. It would be dangerous to practice when driving.

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