Dr. Yosef Nachum (Joseph) Trachtman, a Lubavitcher optometrist from Seattle, developed a revolutionary method for treating vision deficits without surgery or any procedures whatsoever. He has treated American fighter pilots and Olympic athletes. * Beis Moshiach spoke with Dr. Trachtman about how he became a Lubavitcher Chassid, about the vision training method he developed, and about his vision for medicine in Yemos HaMoshiach.
On Chanuka 5752, in a sicha the Rebbe said to senior citizens who attended Tiferes Z’keinim and Chochmas Nashim, he spoke about perfect vision in the times of Moshiach. “Even those who need glasses now, Hashem will release them from this limitation too and they will suddenly receive healthy eyes, utterly perfect, so there won’t even be any need for a magnifying glass in order to read small print.”
When I first heard of Dr. Trachtman and his method to improve vision, I thought this must be a preview of coming attractions and part of the world’s advancing toward the Geula. But in a conversation I had with him I realized it’s not merely a taste of the promises of the Geula but it also helps us understand the Rebbe’s horaa of opening our eyes to see the Geula. Even when the eyes do not see well, the brain can be trained to get us to see. Sounds like “the mind controls the heart?” That sums up Dr. Trachtman’s approach.
MY FIRST ENCOUNTER
Over half a year ago I heard about Dr. Trachtman and his method from a good friend of mine, Ovadia Menasheh Antian. He excitedly told me how after only two visits, the strength of his glasses was reduced. When I recently heard that Dr. Trachtman was coming on a work related visit to Crown Heights, I decided to go and see him for a series of treatments and since he is a Chabad Chassid, I was interested in knowing whether there is a connection between his method and the Rebbe’s demand that we open our eyes. In our conversation, which took place in a temporary clinic on Lefferts, I wasn’t disappointed, not spiritually and not medically.
Our first appointment was for a Friday at 11:30 in the morning. Dr. Trachtman opened the door and led me into the basement where he began a routine eye exam. At a certain point he brought out the special machine that he uses for his treatment, the Zone-Trac®. Later on he explained that the person using it locates the best zone in his brain which has the ability to control his vision.
When he took the machine out of its case, I thought I was in a science fiction film. It’s sort of like big glasses that you put on which is supported by a strap on your neck and is connected with wires to a machine which beeps.
Dr. Trachtman explained to me that the beep is a response to how I use my eye muscles. After properly placing the special glasses, Dr. Trachtman said, “Now listen to the beep, do nothing else, just listen to the beep. Make the beep go higher.”
I had no idea how I was supposed to do that and he gave me just one instruction, “Tracht gut!” Without really knowing what I was doing, I managed to make the beep higher as though with the power of my will and I heard him say, “You’re doing it! Very good! Continue making the beep louder.”
The treatment continued with my exercising each eye a few times and then, when I took off the instrument and looked around the room, I noticed that it had changed a bit. I was seeing better. Just like that!
GROWING UP IRRELIGIOUS IN CROWN HEIGHTS
Dr. Trachtman was born on 25 Adar 5706/1946 in Crown Heights where he lived until he was three and a half years old. His father’s family came from Russia from the area near Odessa. His grandfather was a cantonist who fled Russia in 1905. His mother’s family came from Poland, descendants of Litvishe rabbanim. Dr. Trachtman’s family moved to Staten Island for health reasons.
He grew up with a limited Jewish upbringing. Because he was inclined toward the sciences, he spent sixteen years pursuing these studies in which he gained expertise. In 1977, after completing two doctorates in addition to three other degrees (two Masters and one Bachelors), he decided to pursue a specialized course in a new field developing at the time which was entitled Computers in Medicine.
“The course was given in New York at Mt. Sinai Medical School. There were only six people in this program and top computer and medical professors from all over the Northeast taught us. When I entered the program I already had two doctorates, one in optometry and another in experimental psychology. It was when I was part of this program that I began taking an interest in Judaism. It is also when I first had the idea of developing an unconventional method to improve vision.”
“The cold, scientific approach of the professors made me uncomfortable and I stumped them with challenging questions about the basic principles of science. I knew that all of science is built on basic principles that can change tomorrow. Judaism, on the other hand, has one fundamental premise, expounded upon by the Rambam in the first Halacha in his Yad HaChazaka, namely, the truism that there is a G-d.
“After sixteen years of secular study I realized that science is not a basis for truth. Science is full of excuses, distortions and simply, mistaken information. At that sensitive time full of dilemmas about the meaning of life, I read books about Judaism, and the Rebbe appeared to me in dreams until I found myself returning to Crown Heights.”
I asked him how he had heard about the Rebbe and he explained, “Everyone then knew who the Lubavitcher Rebbe was, it was no secret. We often heard farbrengens of the Rebbe on the radio.
“The turning point came in 5742 when a friend gave me a copy of Tanya. He wasn’t a Lubavitcher; he had gotten the Tanya from a Lubavitcher and he didn’t want it. I began reading it and was captivated; I was reading a book that surpassed all the psychology books I had ever read. I learned Tanya in depth and became a ‘hidden Chassid,’” said Dr. Trachtman with a smile.
“This went on until 5751-2 when I served as president of the Rotary Club of Brooklyn. A member of the club lost a relative and I went to complete the minyan. I assumed I would manage with the t’filla since I had studied Hebrew at an early stage in life, for my bar mitzva.
“I began davening regularly in the Chabad house where the minyan for the mourners was, in Brooklyn Heights, which was called the B’nei Avrohom shul. I eventually let my beard grow and began wearing a yarmulke and tzitzis and learned more and more Chassidus and Nigleh. I had a strong, deep connection to the Rebbe which pulled me to be his Chassid and do everything he said.
“In 5753 I was in Crown Heights and there was a ‘Rebbe alert’ which indicated that the Rebbe was about to enter 770. Everyone started running to 770 and I did too. That was the first time that I saw the Rebbe and it made an enormous impression on me.
“In 5754 I married and three years later our daughter was born.
“Although I am a doctor, I knew that medicine comes from G-d and I am just a channel for the healing. I have come in contact with various people, Jewish and non-Jewish, some of them famous. Every time people see a person knowledgeable in a secular field while being a religious Jew, it makes a big Kiddush Hashem. The impact becomes even greater when they see that the method I have developed helped them improve significantly.”
R’ Yosef told me how much he loves to learn Torah and that he is about to make a siyum on Shas to mark his father’s yahrtzait, after twenty years of learning. He explained that it took so long because he went through all kinds of periods and situations in life. “I am sure that without the kochos the Rebbe gave each and everyone of us, we would not be where we are today, materially and spiritually.”
REVEALING THE POWER OF THE EYE
While going for additional treatment to exercise my eyes, R’ Yosef explained to me a bit about the concept and how it began:
“During that program I mentioned earlier, we learned, based on research done at NASA, that it is possible to control the focusing function of the eye. I understood from this that it is possible to control the ciliary muscle which is located behind the portion of the eye where the eye color is. The muscle expands and contracts depending on the distance we need to focus on. Someone who is shortsighted suffers from a deformation of this muscle. My method focuses on using the muscle in a controlled way by using the brain and helped by biofeedback, which is what the beeping is about.
“It’s like meditating on a maamer Chassidus until it expands your ability to comprehend. Chassidus explains that the intellectual soul ‘absorbs’ G-dly things and applies them to the animal soul. So too with physical healing, in principle it works the same way – we broadcast to the brain the ideal, good vision, and model for the brain the ability it has until it actually learns how to get the eyes to see properly.
“The first experiment I did in this method was in a graduation project that I had to do in the course of my studies. I developed a sort of primitive machine that I constructed based on NASA’s research. My first patient, who wanted to be a fireman, did not see well and was having a hard time getting a job. Within fifteen visits I was able to lower his eyeglass prescription significantly to the point that he was able to get the job. Shortly thereafter some of my patients invested and we formed a company through which we continued in research and development until we produced machines that can be used by eye doctors and individuals.
“The technique of controlling the eye through the brain was something I developed in other ways. For example, I was asked to treat pilots in the American navy. They would become temporarily blinded after a flight because of the lack of color contrast in the skies. My job was to restore their focus and vision. Another thing was the difficulty in landing a plane on aircraft carriers at sea because of the mass of detail that a pilot needs to see and digest in a short amount of time. With my technique I taught them to see in ‘slow motion.’ This is a means of heightening perception by increasing the amount of information that the average person can absorb in a given period of time, which solved the problem.
“In general, I have many opportunities to work with official organizations or important and famous people and of course, I do not hide my identity as a religious Jew which is apparent from the way I look. Many of the non-Jews who come to me and see my Jewish appearance feel that they will get added value from a religious person.”
Are there skeptical reactions to the method you developed?
“Anything new and different that promises something positive is usually regarded as suspicious and odd. It’s not really a comparison, but still, when the Chassidic movement first began there were many who did not believe that such a wondrous thing existed. People sometimes are fearful of being freed from their limitations or have a hard time believing that it’s really happening to them, even in an area of life where they were lacking. But we know that Chassidic teachings are what will bring the true and complete Geula.
“The same sometimes happens with my invention. People find it hard to believe that it’s possible to get rid of your glasses without surgery or laser, but with frequent exercises (and at a later stage, less frequent exercises and even without the machine), the number usually goes down until glasses are no longer needed.”
Tell us some more about the connection between your treatment and Chassidus.
“Every day in davening we say the Rebbe’s pasuk, ‘The light of the eyes gladdens the heart, and good news fattens the bone.’ There is a close connection between light in the eyes and joy in the heart. My job as a doctor is to fix the light in the eyes, thus increasing simcha too.
“With my method, there is the ‘do good’ before the ‘stay away from evil,’ as the Alter Rebbe brings in Tanya. The training first gives the eye a positive feeling and ‘taste’ of the desired state and enables it to channel the necessary energies and thus free itself from an undesirable state. While most medical treatment methods deal with the symptoms and external functions, here it’s an inner process learned through biofeedback. When you are aware of what is happening, your power of will kicks in in a way of tracht gut vet zain gut, i.e. you will want to improve and concentrate on the process.”
THE DOCTOR’S VISION FOR YEMOS HAMOSHIACH
“I’ve thought a lot about what the Rebbe said, that the time has come to open our eyes and to see the reality of Geula already existing in the world. I understand this, first of all, in the physical sphere, that we need to use all opportunities to see well and to see right. In Yemos HaMoshiach glasses will no longer be needed and if so, when you get a taste of the Geula now, it’s the time to see this promise implemented already.
“But when you look at it deeper, during the process we expand or reveal our hidden abilities to improve our vision. We still need to reveal, with Hashem’s help, many other hidden abilities that we have, both materially and spiritually, abilities that Hashem implanted in us which will enable us to open our eyes and bring the Geula the Rebbe spoke about.
“The Rebbe said that the role of doctors in Yemos HaMoshiach will be just to tell people they are healthy since no one will be sick. I can’t wait for that time! When a person sees better, his heart is happier, and the consciousness expands, and then it’s possible to grasp more than what we see in our limited reality. We need to start seeing that we already have so many signs of the Geula in our world and open our eyes to see in the way the Rebbe shows us to look. We need to discover our ability to live and see Moshiach and Geula in actual reality.
“A person can see and be aware of his surroundings, or the opposite, be present but not see at all. It’s a matter of choice and awareness. It works both ways, in the negative too - there are many symptoms of problematic health situations which people don’t pay attention to due to lack of awareness. If it’s that way in the negative, all the more so in the positive!”
After personally experiencing this extraordinary methodology, which enabled me to dare go around a few times without glasses, I commented to Dr. Trachtman how surprising it is that this technique is not used by every eye doctor in the world. For this too he had a Chassidic vort:
“As the Rebbe says, Moshiach is already here but not everyone is ready to see that this is the reality. However, the truth is that the reality is not what we see around us but what we choose to take in. We just need to develop our ability to see reality correctly.
“The same is so with this unique method for improving vision. The world still sometimes finds it hard to accept or understand, like any new method that appears, and this is despite there being many American doctors who use it. We are presently working on raising capital to be able to streamline the production process and to reduce the cost of the machine so we can reach every corner of the world and bring the ‘The light of the eyes gladdens the heart,’ especially the heart and center of the world, Eretz Yisroel. Very soon, when Moshiach appears, we will learn Torah in a way of seeing and without glasses, as the Rebbe said.”
Dr. Trachtman’s website is: www.accommotrac.com