The Bates Method Overview

OK, it’s time to finally divulge what this Bates method is all about. There is lots of misinformation on the internet about this method, some people claim to be Bates teacher who did not grasped the concept.

In fact Bates method is very simple but also very complicated. I mean it’s easy to understand but not easy to actually master it, to really apply it.

Why is that? Because the main concept behind the Bates method is relaxation. As long as our extraocular muscles (the ones that surround the eyeball) are relaxed, we’ll have perfect vision. Well, maybe not perfect but pretty good anyway.

So what happens? In case of myopia certain extraocular muscles get tensed and change the shape of the eyeball to an elongated one. In case of hypermetropia another set of muscles tense and the eyeball becomes squeezed. Little strain leads to greater strain. When we start wearing glasses that state eventually becomes fixed and the dreadful condition of myopia or other ones appear.

Here’s a quote from Perfect Sight Without Glasses that sums up the point:

It has also been demonstrated that for every error of refraction there is a different kind of strain. The study of images reflected from various parts of the eyeball confirmed what had previously been observed, namely, that myopia (or a lessening of hypermetropia) is always associated with a strain to see at the distance, while hypermetropia (or/ a lessening of myopia) is always associated with a strain to see at the nearpoint; and the fact can be verified in a: few minutes by anyone who knows how to use a retinoscope, provided only that the instrument is not brought nearer to the subject than six feet.

So myopia is produced not by excessive near work like we’ve been led to believe but by an effort to see distant objects!