The Use of the Eyes: How Vision Organizes Movement and Awareness

By Jack Heggie

Editor’s Note: This article was originally written by Jack Heggie, whose work explored the relationship among vision, movement, and awareness. It has been updated by Al Wadleigh, GCFP, for clarity, readability, and contemporary readers while preserving Jack’s original insights and teaching approach.

Article Summary

Vision involves much more than reading an eye chart or seeing fine detail. The eyes also help organize movement, spatial orientation, balance, attention, and our responses to the surrounding environment. In this classic article, Jack Heggie explores the relationship between peripheral vision, sensory awareness, and movement through a practical exercise influenced by the Feldenkrais Method® and the Bates Method.

The complete exploration may take 45–60 minutes. You may do it in one session or work through one section at a time.

One of the visual system’s essential functions is helping organize the body for movement.

Vision Is More Than Visual Acuity

The eyes are among the most important—and perhaps the least fully understood—of our sensory organs.

Consider how we usually test vision: by reading an eye chart.

If you can recognize the letters on the chart from a certain distance, you are said to have good eyesight. If you cannot, you may be given corrective lenses. An eye-care professional will, of course, conduct a more complete examination, but visual acuity remains one of the primary measurements.

Yet is recognizing letters all there is to vision?

Reading familiar shapes is only one part of what the visual system does. From the standpoint of movement, orientation, and the coordinated use of the body, other visual functions may be equally important.

How the Eyes Help Organize Movement

For many actions, the eyes initiate and guide what the rest of the body does.

When catching or hitting a ball, walking through a room filled with furniture, driving a car, flying an airplane, skiing, dancing, or practicing a martial art, the body continually responds to visual information.

The eyes help us recognize where things are, how quickly they are moving, and how our bodies must organize in response.

Think about jogging toward a curb. Without calculating consciously, you may alter the length or timing of a step so that your foot lands in the right place. The eyes gather information about the distance to the curb, and the nervous system adjusts the movement of the legs.

A horse moving across uneven terrain may make a similar adjustment as it approaches an obstacle.

Or consider walking into a room filled with furniture. With a glance, you perceive the arrangement of the room and begin moving through it without consciously identifying every chair, table, or doorway.

This is a very different use of vision from reading.

Central Vision and Action-Oriented Vision

Focused or central vision helps us recognize detail. We use it to read, identify faces, examine objects, and perform close visual work.

Peripheral and action-oriented vision provide a broader field of information. They help us notice motion, orient ourselves, navigate space, maintain balance, and organize action.

Jack used the term instrumental vision to describe the use of visual information to guide movement and action.

These visual functions are not completely separate, but they place different demands on attention and the nervous system.

Neurological observations have shown that visual information can sometimes influence action even when a person does not consciously experience seeing in the usual way. Research into the phenomenon known as blindsight, for example, suggests that some people with damage to portions of the visual cortex may still respond to visual information they cannot consciously identify.

This supports the broader idea that visual information may guide action without always entering ordinary conscious awareness.

Focused Attention and the Wider Visual Field

Our culture places great value on reading and focused visual attention. This capacity is enormously useful.

However, sustained close work can encourage a habit of narrowing attention. When we concentrate intensely on a word, screen, tool, or object, we may become less aware of peripheral vision, surrounding sounds, bodily sensations, and the larger environment.

The difficulty is not that focused attention is bad. The difficulty arises when we lose the ability to widen attention again.

Focused attention is useful. The greater skill is being able to focus—and then open the field again.

Corrective lenses may also alter magnification, spatial perception, or the appearance of objects through different portions of the lens. Most people adapt effectively, although some become aware of these changes during movement.

The following exploration examines how focused vision, peripheral awareness, movement, and bodily sensation work together.

A Peripheral Vision and Movement Exploration

What You Will Need

• A clear wall
• A small visual target placed approximately at eye level
• An eye patch or a comfortable way to cover one eye
• Enough room to turn safely
• Approximately 45–60 minutes for the complete exploration

Safety Note

Move gently and remain within a comfortable range. Do not strain the eyes or force the movement.

Stop if you experience dizziness, nausea, headache, eye pain, unusual visual disturbance, or significant disorientation.

Anyone with a diagnosed eye, neurological, vestibular, or balance condition should consult an appropriate healthcare professional before attempting an extended visual exercise.

Keep any needed glasses nearby. Remove corrective lenses only when it is safe and comfortable to do so.

Determine Your Dominant Eye

Hold your right thumb at arm’s length and align it with an object at least ten feet away.

Without moving the thumb, alternately close one eye and then the other.

When looking through your dominant eye, the thumb will remain more closely aligned with the distant object. When looking through the other eye, the thumb will appear to shift sideways.

Many right-handed people are right-eye dominant, and many left-handed people are left-eye dominant, although this is not always the case.

When the dominant hand and dominant eye are on opposite sides, this is sometimes called cross-dominance.

Begin by Comparing the Eyes

Lie comfortably on your back with your knees bent and your feet standing on the floor.

Close your eyes and cover each eye gently with the palm of the corresponding hand, excluding as much light as possible without pressing against the eyes.

Adjust the hands until they rest comfortably. You may find that the little-finger side of each hand fits alongside the nose while the fingers overlap slightly on the forehead.

Take a few minutes to notice what you perceive with each eye.

Although no light is entering, compare the two visual fields.

Do they seem equally wide from side to side?

Do they extend equally upward and downward?

Does one visual field appear darker or more uniform than the other?

Do the two eyes feel different?

There is nothing to correct. Simply notice.

Let One Eye Lead the Movement

Stand facing a clear wall about ten feet away.

Cover your non-dominant eye or close it comfortably.

Begin to turn your entire body easily to the left and right.

As you turn left, imagine that there is something to the left you would like to see. Let the open eye initiate the movement and allow the head, shoulders, spine, pelvis, and legs to follow.

Then turn toward the right in the same way.

Continue moving gently.

While maintaining awareness of the visual field, scan the body from the feet upward.

Notice how pressure shifts across the soles of the feet.

What happens in the ankles, knees, and hips?

How does the spine participate?

What do you notice in the chest, shoulders, neck, head, and eye?

Does the breath continue easily?

What can you see near the edges of your visual field?

Continue for three or four minutes.

Explore Different Weight Shifts

Shift most of your weight onto the right foot and continue turning left and right, allowing the eye to lead.

Notice how the movement changes.

Then shift the weight onto the left foot and repeat.

Next, allow the weight to move toward the left foot as you turn left and toward the right foot as you turn right.

After exploring that pattern, reverse it. Shift the weight toward the right foot as you turn left and toward the left foot as you turn right.

Move slowly enough to sense how the eyes, head, spine, pelvis, and feet coordinate.

Rest briefly.

Keep the Eye Fixed While the Body Turns

Choose a small target directly in front of you at approximately eye level and about ten feet away. A small mark, piece of tape, or colored pushpin can work well.

Keep the open eye focused on the target while turning the body gently from side to side.

Because the eye remains directed toward the target, the amount of turning will initially be smaller.

Notice the unusual relationship: rather than the eye leading the head, the eye remains relatively stable while the head and body move around it.

Continue turning gently.

Without shifting your gaze away from the target, begin noticing objects near the edges of your visual field.

What can you see toward the far left and right?

What can you perceive above and below?

Can you see part of your nose?

You do not need to identify details. Simply allow the wider field to become available.

Continue scanning the body from the feet to the head while remaining aware of the target and the surrounding visual field.

At first, it may be difficult to sense the body and receive visual information at the same time. Continue without strain and allow the task to become easier.

Repeat the Weight-Shifting Variations

While keeping the eye on the target, shift most of your weight onto the right foot and continue turning.

Then shift the weight onto the left foot.

Next, move the weight toward the right as you turn right and toward the left as you turn left.

Finally, reverse the pattern: move the weight toward the left as you turn right and toward the right as you turn left.

Throughout the exploration, keep the gaze gently directed toward the target while noticing peripheral vision, breathing, and bodily sensation.

This allows the muscles of the eyes and body to adapt while the visual target remains relatively constant.

Release the Eye

Allow the eye to move freely again.

Turn easily to the left and right as you did at the beginning.

Has the range of turning changed?

Does the movement feel smoother or easier?

Can you sense what changed in the organization of the feet, pelvis, spine, shoulders, neck, or eyes?

Rest briefly.

Fix Both the Head and the Eye

Resume turning left and right, but now keep both the head and the open eye directed toward the target.

Allow the shoulders, chest, spine, pelvis, and legs to turn beneath the relatively stable head.

Remain aware of the entire visual field.

Notice objects near the outer edges without moving the eye toward them.

Scan your body slowly.

Explore the same weight-shifting variations:

• Weight primarily on the right foot
• Weight primarily on the left foot
• Weight shifting in the same direction as the turn
• Weight shifting opposite the direction of the turn

Notice whether awareness of peripheral vision changes anything in the quality of movement.

What happens when you forget the wider visual field?

What happens when you remember it again?

Do you notice any change in hearing, breathing, muscular effort, or emotional state?

Release the Head and Eyes

Allow the head, eyes, and body to turn together freely.

Compare the movement with the beginning.

Has the range increased?

Does the body turn with less effort?

Does the environment seem more stable or more spacious?

Compare the Two Eyes Again

Lie on your back.

Close your eyes and cover them gently with your palms.

Compare the visual field associated with the eye that was open with the visual field associated with the eye that was covered.

Does one field seem wider, darker, brighter, or more spacious?

Does one eye feel larger, softer, or more comfortable?

Move the closed eyes gently from side to side.

Does one eye seem to move more freely?

Open both eyes and look around.

Notice colors, distances, edges, light, and space.

Do not search for a particular result. Observe what is present.

Repeat With the Other Eye

Stand again and cover the dominant eye, leaving the non-dominant eye open.

Repeat the exploration from the beginning.

You may notice that the two eyes learn differently or organize the body in different ways.

Move slowly and allow the second side to have its own experience rather than trying to reproduce the first.

When you have finished, uncover both eyes and look around.

If you use glasses or contact lenses, put them on when it is safe to do so.

Notice the sensations around the eyes and face.

How does the environment appear now?

Peripheral Vision and the Other Senses

Focused attention is an essential skill. It allows us to read, write, perform detailed work, and solve complex problems.

Yet attention can become so narrowly focused that peripheral vision, sound, bodily sensation, and awareness of the surrounding environment fade into the background.

Learning to read requires sustained visual attention. For some people, this habit of narrowing attention may become so familiar that it continues in situations where a broader field would be more useful.

As peripheral visual awareness returns, hearing may also seem to become more available. Bodily sensations may feel clearer. The environment may appear more spacious.

This does not mean that peripheral vision directly controls every other sense. Rather, widening visual attention may be part of a broader shift from narrowly concentrated attention toward a more inclusive mode of awareness.

Applying the Exploration to Daily Life

Once you begin to recognize the difference between narrow and open visual attention, experiment with it in ordinary situations.

Try widening your awareness while:

• Walking
• Writing or signing your name
• Sitting in a restaurant
• Watching a movie
• Talking with another person
• Driving, when it is safe and your attention remains fully on the road
• Practicing yoga or martial arts
• Playing a sport
• Moving through a crowded room

In sports, people are often told to concentrate. Yet concentration is sometimes interpreted as narrowing the visual field and excluding sensory information.

The harder a person tries to focus, the more rigidly the eyes, neck, breathing, and body may become organized.

This can reduce awareness of movement occurring at the edges of the visual field—the very information needed to respond to changing conditions.

The goal is not to avoid focus.

The goal is to remain capable of shifting between detailed focus and broad awareness according to the demands of the moment.

Opening the Field of Attention

Vision is not limited to identifying letters or focusing on a single object.

It also helps organize posture, movement, balance, spatial orientation, and our responses to the world around us.

Focused attention is valuable, but so is the ability to widen attention again—to include peripheral vision, sound, bodily sensation, and the larger environment.

As this broader field becomes available, movement may feel easier, perception may become richer, and action may become more responsive.

Improving the use of the eyes is therefore not simply a matter of seeing more clearly.

It is a way of becoming more fully available to ourselves and to the world.

Frequently Asked Questions