It seemed like a bright and clear October morning along New Hampshire’s Merrimack River, but Mike Craumer couldn’t be sure. As usual, he was not wearing his contact lenses, so the world beyond his arm’s length was a blur. Craumer was hoping that would not be the case for too much longer.
For several weeks leading up to that autumn day in 2020, the 35-year-old software engineer had been attempting to reverse his short-sightedness. He was one of a growing number of people subscribing to the notion that it is possible to correct even very poor vision (Craumer’s had been measured by an optometrist at -6 in the left eye and -6.25 in the right) with “biohacking” techniques, including tensing and relaxing the eyes, focusing on distant objects or simply imagining seeing the world in full clarity.
Until now, he had been struggling. Standing on the river bank, he could just about make out the shape of his black Labrador roaming through the woods and the trees dissolving into autumn colours. The river itself, perhaps glistening in the sunlight, was just a blue haze. Craumer waded in. “There’s something about coming out of the water that just seems to generate clarity,” he told me later. As he ducked his head into the river, the water felt soothing on his eyes. But then, as he straightened back up, he noticed something remarkable. The scene around him was definitely becoming sharper.