"Gazing"

Next was a fascinating class called "Gazing", taught by Peter. The gist of the class was to teach your eyes to be more alert and to process information faster. He told us that 2% of vision is "center focus" and the other 98% is peripheral vision. Here's Peter explaining that:
In low light, like after dark when you're walking back to your tent and you've forgotten your flashlight, use your peripheral vision rather than straining to focus your center vision. It'll give your brain enough information to help you get to where you're going.

The information from the left part of both eyes goes to the right part of the brain, and vice-versa. A different part of the brain registers motion. There are 6 muscles that control the eyes.

He had us take a pen (or a finger if we didn't have a pen) and hold it out in front of our face. Then we slowly moved it toward our nose. When we started seeing two pens instead of one, we were to stop and back it off a bit until we only saw one again. Then move it closer until it doubles again, then back off. Each time we did that we were able to get the pen closer to our nose without getting double-vision. He said if we keep doing that exercise we'll improve our close-up vision, and those who use reading glasses might eliminate the need for them eventually.

He passed out papers with two vertical columns of letters, and working with a partner, we had to run our eyes back and forth between the columns. First the top letter on the left, over to the top letter on the right, then to the second letter on the left, to the second letter on the right, and so forth. He timed us 20 seconds, and the more times your eyes moved back and forth, the faster your eye focused and your brain processed information.

Playing "chase" with laser lights can improve hand-eye coordination. You and a friend each get a little laser flashlight. One person "leads" and runs the light around on a ceiling or other surface, and the other person "chases" the light with theirs.

We went outside and broke into groups of 6. He passed out tennis balls with number written all around them with a marker. We tossed the ball to each other in our groups, and the object was to call out what number or numbers we saw on the ball as it came toward us. After a while he told us to give the ball a spin when we tossed it to make it more challenging. He told us we could do this by ourselves, too, by tossing the ball into the air and seeing how many numbers we could identify before we caught it.
He recommended a book called "Sports Vision" but I found two different books by that title on amazon.com, so I'm not sure which one he meant. (Insert Edit: Peter contacted me with the link to the book he recommended: http://www.amazon.com/Sportsvision-Training-Performance-Thomas-Wilson/dp/0736045694/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277517838&sr=8-3. Thanks, Peter!)

Lunch was after that, and it was your choice of 3 soups: bean with bacon, cream of potato with broccoli, and beef with vegetables. They were mostly made with leftovers, and it was hard to pick which one to have. They all looked and smelled so good! (I had the bean soup!)