Thomas Quackenbush

Thomas Quackenbush is another famous Bates teacher. He wrote a book with somewhat presumptuous title “Relearning to See”. If you haven’t read it yet it’s available on Amazon.

Well, while the book is solid and well-written and presents Bates method fairly well I have some problems with it. First, the book is far too long and wordy. He quotes Bates and then repeats the same stuff over and over in his own words. Too much fluff.

Second, I hate the way he changed Bates term central fixation into centralization. I don’t like it. He also changed shifting into sketching: the idea is that instead of the pendulum-like swings that your eyes do automatically he suggests that you follow the outlines of the object with you glance. You can do it by imagining your nose as a feather or pen. I heard it worked for some people but be aware that it is not shifting: you might actually lock your eyes by trying to sketch! Third, he tends to go into psychological nonsense like “you are myopic because you are afraid to look at the word”. While I agree that there is a mental aspect to vision (more about it in later posts) I don’t buy this simplified explanation.

Anyway, since the Bates book is much shorter I don’t see the point in getting Quackenbush’s book unless you like the stuff really chewed up for you.

The verdict: not recommended. I ended up donating it to the library.