The Bates Method of Natural Vision Improvement

Reading without Glasses

2012-01-23T21:09:00.000-08:00

Sometime ago I read the advise to read without glasses. I started doing it and I found out that it was actually easier on the eyes to read without glasses or lenses. The disadvantage of course is that you have to keep the book very close to your eyes. In my case it means very close.

Unfortunately I can't do it with the computer because to look at computer screen without glasses is tremendous nuisance and the strain on my eyes is immense. Though I did try it for a week once.

I also read somewhere that if you never start wearing glasses for distant vision and keep reading without glasses, you vision will be good enough for you to be able to read without glasses, approximately -3 diopters. I wonder if that statement is true. If it is, we might be here on something and it would prevent a lot of grief. This mild myopia would be relatively easy to correct.

But I am also aware that you can't believe everything you read. Like the other day I read a book where the author claimed that wearing glasses does not make your vision worse. He sounded very sure of himself too but I am the living proof that it is a lie!

Anyway, reading without glasses or, if your vision is not too bad, doing all the close work without glasses might be a good idea.

The funny thing is, when I read with lenses in sometimes I have hard time focusing but with the naked eye I could see the page without trouble.

Blinking

2011-11-16T17:44:00.000-08:00

Is it easy to blink?

You probably don't even think of it. Blinking is what we do automatically without even thinking. It's like breathing, you just do it.

And yet, there is a right and a wrong way to breathe and to blink. If you have any anomaly of reflection, chances are, your blinking is wrong.

When I started practicing blinking, I was amazed to find out how "difficult" it was to do. The irony is, of course, that blinking should be effortless, it should be light, like a butterfly waving its wings. It was difficult to maintain this kind of blinking and you have to be aware of it all this time. And this quickly becomes boring...

People with nearsightedness blink hard in order to squeeze their eyes and get a little flash. Some develop a permanent squint. Worst of all, when they stare at something in order to see it better, they stop blinking altogether.

So, it's one thing to be aware of. When you catch yourself straining or staring, relax and adjust your blinking. Just practice light effortless blinking when you can. Blinking is a habit so I don't think it makes sense to put 10 minutes a day to practice "good" blinking when the rest of the day you blink hard.

So what's the connection between blinking and breathing? When people strain, they not only stop blinking but also breathing. They hold their breath and it can develop into a harmful habit. There are other aspects to breathing as well, though not necessarily related to vision. Essentially, the correct breathing habit involves diaphragmatic (abdominal) breathing. Yet lots of people develop a habit of chest or even throat breathing that can lead to all kinds of problems, both mental and physical. Get any book on yoga if you want to know more about breathing.

Breath well. And remember to blink like a butterfly.

Paul's Pathway to Normal Vision

2011-11-12T00:37:00.000-08:00

Hello!

Well, it's been a while. Some time ago I heard of a book titles Paul's Pathway to Normal Vision by Paul Anderson so and I searched for it on internet. Well, it's not so much a book as a collection of articles but that is not important. This document explains very well how to apply the Bates method. Finally there is someone who "got" it: that the method is mainly about mental relaxation that is followed by physical relaxation.

Paul elaborates relaxation techniques that Dr. Bates did not go into very deep detail. His favourite methods are palming and sunning and he is really big on central fixation. He also emphasizes that good vision is mainly about good visual habits. He is one of the very few that does not make you roll your eyes up and down and sideways. He claims that he cured his eyesight completely though unfortunately he does not go into any details about the degree of improvement. It would be interesting to know these details.

The main idea of course is that good vision is effortless. I think for some people (myself included) is a huge conundrum. Logically I understand what it means but to actually apply it is a different matter.

So I was really excited when I found it. Unfortunately my enthusiasm did not last long but it is my problem. Specifically the problem is that this type of books tell you something around the lines "relax or else". Well, what if I am not able to relax? I was thinking and came to the conclusion that I could not remember any time when I was truly relaxed. But, like I said this is my problem and I deal with it.

So, I highly recommend this ebook. Search Google and you should be able to find it for free.

The amusing part was that I downloaded the document and found out it was printed in very pale gray font. Very hard to read. So I edited my copy in Word and converted it back to pdf. So don't be spooked by the appearance, the book is very well worth reading. In fact it is good enough to be a companion book for the original classic by Bates himself as it truly compliments his method.

New Site

2011-01-08T22:38:00.000-08:00

A while ago I found an interesting site dedicated to vision improvement, specifically myopia. The author claims to be an ophthalmologist but presents no proof. However he writes very well and is obviously an educated man. He's got some interesting ideas. He digs into subjects like anatomy of the eyes, eye muscles, etc.

For Best Vision

Of course I was immediately interested in what one can do in order to improve vision. Looks like this doctor likes the idea of converging pictures, the "magic eye" principle. Strangely enough it can be done with computers and not only with books. I don't know how long one should do this kind of stuff, I usually can merge too pictures quite successfully and I know some people with good vision who cannot. He also likes eye rotation exercises that Bates scoffed but he actually provides good argument for them.

Anyway, it's worth a look.

Chinese Acupressure

2009-06-18T19:19:00.000-07:00

I found another article on internet that I might though would be interesting:

Natural Vision Improvement: An Alternative to Lasik Surgery

The site describes acupressure points that might release tension in 3 major muscles: superior oblique, inferior oblique and ciliary muscles. There is a point for recti muscles as well. You will find a chart with all the corresponding points.

Check it out.

Vision Fluctuates

2009-06-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

My eyes feel strained again. It might be a good thing though, before they were straining and I could not even tell. Now I actually feel the strain. Not that it does me any good. I have to wear my contacts most of the day now so that could be a contributing factor too.

Anyway, try to relax if you can.

Henry Rawlinson

2009-05-14T19:45:00.001-07:00

The picture above is of Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, famous for deciphering Persian cuneiform. What does it have to do with eyesight, you might ask? Actually, I want you to notice his eyes. It’s not a photograph but his eyes look so vivid and definitely not myopic in spite of hours that he (supposedly) spent working on unknown script. He was also a British military officer so my guess is he spent lots of time outside looking at the distance. Anyway, I think this portrait is exceptional. Here’s the man with perfect vision in spite of hours of doing close work. Somehow he avoided near-point stress. He should be an inspiration to all of us.

I think it's a good idea to put a portrait of somebody with a perfect vision where you can look at it often. Dr. Bates noticed that people's sight is affected by surroundings that included other people. That's why children of myopic parents are often grow up to be myopic. They pick up a staring habit from their parent. It does not happen every time but unfortunately often enough to give a rise to the false idea that myopia is genetic.

The way I see it myopic people developed a habit of staring/straining when looking at the distance and "relaxing" the muscle when doing close work when it should be the other way around. Even Bates himself admitted that the eye in the relaxed state is designed for looking at the distance: the ciliary muscle is relaxed and the lens inside the eye is flat. Dr. Bates in his book has some interesting photographs of people who stare and who don’t, sometimes even the same person (see online version of the book).

How to Work with an Eyechart

2009-04-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

First of all, let me tell you that I don’t like eyecharts. I think they are boring. I much prefer to look at the trees. But they certainly have their use.

I noticed that whenever I look at an eyechart as a chart trying to see how many letters I can make out I can almost never can make any. On the other hand if I just glance at it like an object (just something to look at) without trying to make letters I have some glimpses of improved vision. Sometimes if I just look at the eyechart for a few seconds the letters would come into focus but that does not usually last. The psychological switch is very subtle though and I cannot always get into the required state.

Another point is that eyecharts are different. Different eyecharts have different impacts. I like the one I made myself (just printed some letters on a sheet). I made several others too but they did not seem to be as good.

Actually the worse thing about the eyechart is its falsehood. People usually treat eyechart like a way to test their vision. Virtually every advice on the eyechart includes something along the lines to look at it until you can see a letter (or a line) clear (or clearer). Well, in my experience, if you can see one line or letter clearly, all of them become clear (except the very small ones, and sometimes even they are clear).

So I recommend you print your own eyechart. Don’t even bother with small letters, you can always print another chart with smaller letters when your vision becomes better.

For those of you who just want to print eyecharts and don't want to make your own, here's an excellent resource.

The main point to keep in mind is that you should be able to relax while you look at it. And if you remember the letters and are able to imagine them, it’s even better, I think that is what Bates called memory and imagination as an aid to vision.

By the way I am not good at memory/imagination thing myself but Bates reports some amazing stories. There is a case of a doctor who was cured when he was able to imagine that the printed letters were perfectly black.

Glasses and Anomaly of Refraction

2009-04-23T23:28:00.000-07:00

I read something in Dr. R. S. Agarwal’s book that I want to share with you. It is the fact that correlation between the degree of abnormality (dioptria) and your glasses (contact) prescription is not linear. Or rather the distance at which you are able to see a certain line on the eyechart is not directly related to your prescription. Two people might have the same anomaly of refraction, e. g. 10/200 and one is corrected by -3 D glasses while another need -5 D. This is certainly very interesting. I can tell from my experience of clear flashes that sometimes they get almost clear. I had a perfect flash once about 5 years ago but it only lasted for a split of a second. Of course if the flash is that short it is possible that we might never become aware of it.

The point is that vision improvement is not necessarily a gradual process but rather comes in jumps. It depends how well you are able to relax your muscles.

I think this is the reason why glasses/contacts should be discarded if you are serious about eyesight improvement. It is not always possible but it would be the best way. You might be able to recover very quickly but every time you wear glasses you lock into you bad vision again.

On the other hand I know how frustrating it is to move around without the vision aid. I still think one should remove glasses whenever possible, for example moving around house, going for a walk, etc. And it is a good idea to read without glasses.

Caution on Sun Treatment

2009-04-16T17:15:00.000-07:00

Sun treatment or sunning as it is popularly known is a famous technique advocated by Bates. I read that some people promoted sunning with open eyes. Not only that but they also recommend using magnifying glass. I do not recommend it. It’s very easy to burn your retina and the consequences will be tragic. It also takes precise distance from the eye to magnifying glass that is hard to calculate. The afterimage of the sun may be long lasting too and might be a contributing factor to floaters.

I heard that members of an Indian sect that look directly at the sun eventually go blind. In India it’s considered a sign of spiritual devotion or something like that. But the fact is that they lose their sight.

Bates himself claimed that some people can look directly at the sun without any harm. There is even a picture in the original book (see online version) that shows a woman and a child supposedly looking at the sun. And they are not even squinting! I find it hard to believe that people with normal sight would look at the sun and not squint. For this very reason the passage was removed in later edition.

Come to think of it, there are probably people who can look directly at the sun. But my guess is they are in minority and as rare as people with, say, 80/20 vision. Bates, like others in the similar circumstances, picked up cases that illustrated his point without indicating how common they were. All the “instant cure’ cases belong to this category too.

The people promoting open eyes sunning technique report no ill effect. Well, some people can swallow nails without any harm too. It does not mean that we should follow them.

Here’s another good one. On one of the eyesight forum somebody recommended eyewash that contained cayenne pepper as one of the ingredients. Hmm… I don’t think I am going to try this one.

So take any advice with a grain of salt and exercise caution. Not everybody out there is an expert. And what works for one will not necessarily work for another.

Research Proposal

2009-04-09T21:00:00.000-07:00

I’d like to find a method that would help everyone to cure any degree of myopia. For that I propose that a group of volunteers will be sent to some island in the tropical climate (warm weather is good for sunning) and perform distant viewing. They will practice traditional Bates techniques. In addition to that they will have to spend 2 or 3 hours on top of the hill gazing at the distance. Reading will be allowed but all computer work will be eliminated. Needless to say, they will all have to discard glasses but other than that they can do pretty much what they want: swimming, laying on the beach, bicycling, yoga. The stress environment should be eliminates so they should not worry about the money.

And this is what I think will happen. My idea is that looking at the distance for hours will eventually eliminate the myopia. So there are 3 phases to that.

Phase 1. A person just looks at the distance consciously trying to relax while doing so. According to Bates myopia is caused by straining to look far so the point here is start looking at the distance without straining. In order to relax while looking at the distance one has to blink frequently and shift constantly.

Phase 2. After the habit of staring is broken, a person should start noticing considerable improvement in his/her vision. At first the flashes will be very brief and rare but eventually they will become prolonged flashed and their quality will be improved.

Phase 3. Once these flashes become normal, one can produce prolonged flashes of clear vision at will. When one flash ends just start another. Eventually your body will get what it is you want and your vision will become perfect or almost perfect. The improvement will be permanent. But just to keep it safe be aware of Bates techniques and keep practicing them. And don’t forget to keep your eyes relaxed.

Update. Perhaps one should also add pranic healing to the activities in this imaginary (as for now) retreat. Heck, why not, we should use any method that can help.

Eyesight and Glare

2009-03-30T22:13:00.001-07:00

Recently I noticed that it’s hard for me to look at the distance. The problem is not just straining but because of the awful glare. It is probably caused by smog though the town is fairly small and the place is far from the freeway.

Thomas (my follower) who has good eyesight reported the same effect so I know it’s not just my eyesight but something in the air. The glare is so bad that sometimes I want to put on dark shades (and I don’t even have a pair).

The situation is so bad that sometimes it is almost painful to look out of the window. However, if I look from the inside, it’s all right. It’s not really painful but sometimes my eyes would tear and I actually feel tremendous strain. I wonder if it is the consequences of the “ozone hole”.

Bates Method Are Not Exercises

2009-03-23T17:55:00.000-07:00

If there is one thing I want to impress on you about the Bares method is that this method is not about physical exercises. Quite the opposite, in fact. It is about maintaining and developing correct visual habits, the right way to use your eyes. Lots of people read his book and think all they have to do is perform certain exercises, and then they wonder why they don’t see any results. Well, Bates method is more like yoga in that respect. If you decide to master, say, Raja yoga, you don’t practice a certain set of exercises and expect to become an adept after a while. It’s more about developing your mind, mind control, things that can’t be developed mechanically. Things that can’t be taught in a book. It is the same with the Bates method.

Palming and sun treatment can hardly be called exercises, techniques maybe, that allow one to relax. Shifting and central fixation are actions that are performed all the time even by people with imperfect vision. They should become more aware of them.

Bates advocated the use of an eye chart but this chart is used more for a feedback rather than an actual tool. You don’t have to use a eyechart, you can use trees, pictures on the wall or whatever object you want. He encouraged practicing shifting with an eyechart because it’s quite easy to do. He never advocated exercises like “roll your eyes all the way to the left, then all the way to the right”, that are so popular. Admittedly, they won’t do any harm. But no benefits either.

Just look at all the misconceptions that are around and used by people “promoting” Bates method

They would talk about “weak” muscles that need strengthening, “just like any other part of the body”. Yeah, right. Eye muscles are not like any other muscle. They are certainly not weak, in fact they are in a permanent spasm. To relax this spasm is what Bates method is all about.

They would talk about eyechart that if you use the same eyechart, you memorize it and it won’t be effective. That is precisely the idea! The eye chart in Bates method is not used to test your vision, it is used to practice shifting, or, if your vision is good, to maintain it just by looking at it as a familiar object. I actually saw someone on internet selling one of the numerous Bates rip-off products the random eyechart generator. These people just don’t get it.

On a side note: the more I look on internet, the more I think that any info product that is sold there is an overpriced scam. Vision improvement products are just part of it. You certainly don't need to buy anything. The Bates book is actually cheaper than books of his followers.

The Complete book of Eye Care

2009-03-19T23:26:00.000-07:00

Dr. M. S. Agarwal is the son of Dr. R. S. Agarwal and was also an ophthalmologist wrote a book The Complete Book of Eye Care that is available on this site.

The Complete Book of Eye Care

It’s a quick read. Here is my review of it.

Well, it is a very basic book. It starts with the invective against television and enlists the very simple Bates techniques. The part that I like is a chapter on yoga exercises that include postures (asanas) and breathing (pranayama). Yes, they are very basic but most people probably never heard of them. There is a chapter on mechanical contraptions as well that supposes to improve vision (like myopeter in Donald Rehm’s book, see my previous post). Another part that I like is a chapter on diet: though not really practical for American residents as it mentions Indian fruit and vegetables, it at least makes you aware of the importance of diet for the overall health.

Speaking about diet I can’t help recommending you an excellent book by Dr. Weston Price, who was in dentistry the same figure as Dr. Bates was in ophthalmology. Read that to find out the truth about why people’s teeth are bad. And as you have probably guessed by now it’s not lack of brushing. Here is a quick synopsis of the book as it is rather long and tedious. You can also read my article on diet.

So as it is a very quick read it’s worth the time. The book is not very well written (compared to Bates or even Dr. R. S. Agarwal) but if you are just looking for information, it fits the bill. There are tons of pictures too to show you how to perform asanas and also there are charts to practice central fixation.

The part that intrigued me most was about the Swami Arjundev who was using - 20.0 glasses and was completely cured by these methods (in the Opinions chapter). I could not find more info on this though I’ll definitely continue searching.

Perfect Eyesight by Robert Zuraw

2009-03-16T18:14:00.000-07:00

Here’s another one of these New Age sites with alternative cures for the eyes. I’ve tried that a while ago so can’t give you fresh impressions. But here goes.

For some reason the info is found on the site of Mantak Chia, though the original author is Robert Zuraw. Exactly the same info. The old site evidently does not exist anymore. Where is Zuraw, you might ask? Good question. If you scroll to the very bottom of that article you will find his name. Well, I guess that's better than nothing.

Anyway, the information is pretty good, I was really into it for a while. Unfortunately I never got any kind of results from practicing the exercises. No wonder, now that I got deeper into Bates, I see that it’s basically stretching muscle exercises that do not involve muscles that are really responsible for focusing. It never ceases to amaze me why they keep comparing eye muscles to the muscles of your body in an athletic sense. I think muscles responsible for focusing are more like our inner muscles. You can’t control your stomach muscles unless you are an advanced yogi adept. But it does make more sense to me that the eye muscles are too tensed instead of being atrophied “for the lack of use”.

So we have all this “ancient” wisdom and a wide variety of exercises with mysterious names like “Egyptian Eye Dot” technique, “Sun Gazing”, etc. Acupuncture and massage are also thrown in.

Well, like I said I have not noticed any benefits. It does give good advice on performing close work. Some techniques are fun to perform and the article make you more aware of your eyes in general. And that is a good thing.

Back to Bates

2009-03-12T19:42:00.000-07:00

So I’m afraid it’s back to Bates. The good thing about these Shaolin techniques is that whoever invented them came up with an ingenious method of shifting: counting leaves. I think it’s better than so-called sketching: normal eye shift, you can feel vibrations or shifting inside.

Tracking is also good: follow the bird in its flight or cars driving by.

Interestingly, near-far swing is not from Bates but everybody recommends it and in this case I agree that this one is beneficial. Definitely unsurpassed in eliminating near-point stress. But remember to keep your eyes relaxed while looking at the distance.

Update. I noticed recently that for myopia it’s the “far” part that really matters. The first phase is just to look at the distant object without straining. How do you eliminate staring? One good method is to start blinking often while still looking at the distance. Another one is while you are looking at something, keep shifting, for example if you look at the tree shift from one branch (a peak in the outline) to another all the way to the top.

Bates methods are not exactly exercises but rather correct visual habits. Some of them can be regarded as exercises but the thing about them is that they can be practiced anytime and anywhere. You don’t need an eye chart, you don’t need glasses, you don’t need anything. You can practice shifting, for example on any small object. You don’t need to set up special time to perform them. The idea is to develop good visual habits, like shifting, blinking and central fixation.

Shaolin Eye Techniques

2009-03-09T20:32:00.000-07:00

This one is interesting. On one site I found some exercises that are called Shaolin Eye Techniques. They are not Bates techniques but Chinese Chi Kung.

View the Shaolin Eight Eye Techniques here (scroll down to answer 4).

Well, I looked around and the reviews of these techniques are surprisingly good. So let's have a closer look, shall we?

I still don't quite know what to make of them. I've been practicing them for a while now but since my vision is pretty bad to start with I don't expect quick results.

Since I wrote this post I also began to study Qigong in more depth. The main idea behind Qigong is that physical movement is just an outside form. The real thing is the mind control: mind directs energy (qi or chi) to whatever part of the body you want it to direct. This simple concept is easy to understand but is difficult to realize and actually implement so the movements would become effective.

So the techniques are these:

Counting leaves (just like it sounds: count leaves on a distant tree) encourages shifting. Be sure to stand close enough that you can actually see the leaves. The green color of the trees also seems to be soothing for the eyes. I have a nice fan palm growing right under my window. I don't see the leaves very well but I can clearly distinguish the ends or middle parts.

Rolling stars: roll the eyes in big circles, this one is similar to the muscle stretching exercise that are promoted in virtually all over the internet sites that have anything to do with vision improvement.

“Angry” eyes (not an apt description): close eyes tight and then open them as wide as possible. It would seem like a good way to cause strain in the eyes according to Bates. I tried it and actually it seems to alleviate tension.

Near-far swing (look at the close object, than at a distant object). I like this one a lot. This and the next one are the only focusing exercises and they are good.

The most debated: the stare (focusing one): you are supposed to “gently stare” (another inept choice of words) at some object. It goes rather against the Bates' idea of relaxation. The argument runs like this: staring is what caused your bad eyesight in the first place. Breaking the habit of staring is the first habit to develop. The opposite of staring is shifting and blinking.

Well, it got me thinking and now I think what they call stare is the same one that I call long distance viewing, because that is what it is. This is the only technique with which I noticed any improvement and temporary (so far) flashes of improved (not perfect) vision. I do recommend that you relax you eyes and blink naturally while doing this as it seems to work towards improvement.

I think it's because the ciliary muscle that controls the lens gets relaxed when eyes are focused on a distant object. I know that Bates said that lens has nothing to do with accommodation. But I think it does and this experience confirms it.

I am convinced that long distance viewing is great for myopia. I wrote another post about it.

By the way, that’s how you can easily tell if a person has bad eyesight, even if they wear contacts or had Lasik: they still stare. And that’s the main reason that Lasik is temporary, these people will have their sight worse in a few years provided they’ve got no other nasty side effect from this terrible operation.

The next technique sounds very similar to pranic healing: imagine energy flowing into your eyes. Not as complicated as Leo Angart describes it: just imagine energy flowing into your eyes. It sounds like it might help. I also like to imagine flowing energy that squeezes your eyeballs and brings them back to round shape.

You might also want to employ Daoist or reversed abdominal breathing while performing this technique as it helps to direct the energy to the eyes.

Point massage (acupressure). Leo Angart also recommends it. This is considered traditional Chinese method. I had to read a few books on Qigong in order to discover proper points. I don't thing the acupressure alone will improve your vision but it might help in combination with other techniques.

Heavenly Drum: that’s when you cover your ears with your palms and drum with your fingers on the back of your head. This Heavenly Drum is mentioned in Tai-Chi books as well.

These Shaolin Eye techniques have outrageous claims that they will restore your eyesight. Hype aside, I read several very good reviews about them. They are not exactly Bates but in a way the approach is more systematized, more technical (you are actually doing something rather than "imagining" which in my experience is not easy) and they are easy to perform.

Methods to Improve Vision. Part 3

2009-03-05T23:46:00.000-08:00

Ok, now let’s have a look at psychological and mental approaches to improve vision

Bates method is the king here. It can yield amazing results, it’s easy to practice (if you know how), it’s harmless even if it does you no good.

Pranic healing. That’s Leo Angart’s favourite. It’s easy to perform but it requires mental focus that he might be naturally good at. I did not notice any results with this method. But give it a try, it won’t hurt.

Hypnosis. Leo mentioned that one too. The story goes that a man was progressed back into his childhood before he started wearing glasses and then brought back to present with his ‘early’ vision. The part that they usually don’t tell you is that the results didn’t last.

Let’s skip chanting mantras and affirmations as I think they are just stupid. Sorry, but I don’t think they work.

EFT. Emotional Freedom Technique. That’s a good one. The idea behind the method is that all the diseases (including impaired vision) are caused by some emotional trauma that usually happened in the distant past. The method consists of in tapping yourself on certain parts of the body thus releasing… well, something. Yes, sounds ludicrous but some people reported success with this method. I tried it for a while but can’t say I noticed any improvement. You can find basic information free on the FFT site and I consider that a sign of quality: at least they want to help people and are not just after their money. Anyway, it’s quick and easy to perform and it won’t hurt.

There are also rumours on internet that you can become rich by doing EFT. The unscrupulous people will try to sell you this information that is available for free on this site.

Convex lenses. That’s the one where you wear reading glasses if you are nearsighted. The reason I put it here is because you wear them for certain period of time until your vision becomes perfect. I haven’t tried them as I am not convinced by the theory behind the method and I haven’t found any positive reviews about this method. And of course I don’t want to aggravate my myopia even more.

Tratak (and similar) method. This one is from yoga. This is really strange. The method consists of gazing or rather staring at the flame of a candle. Without blinking. Like, for 5 minutes or as long as you can stand. Sounds the opposite of everything that Bates said and it’s clear just from description that it will cause tremendous strain on the eyes. Do not confuse it with reading fine print in the candlelight, that one is good. Thomas Quackenbush shares the same opinion with me about tratak (it’s just to show that I am not the only one who is puzzled by this yogic method for eyesight improvement.

I was surprised to read about methods similar to tratak used in visualization techniques, in a way that they involve hard staring. They are probably supposed to make your mind more focused, who knows. They seem to do the opposite of what they claim.

Methods to improve vision. Part 2

2009-03-02T15:03:00.000-08:00

Ortho-K-lenses. These are hard contacts that you wear while you sleep. They reshape your cornea but the effect lasts for only a day. So it’s basically night contacts. I have not tried them myself but the idea seems sound and they don’t cause permanent damage to the eye. I’ve read in Leo Angart’s book that hard contacts are worse than day (soft) contacts because they rub off layers from your cornea. Also the risk of infection is greater and they are not as comfortable. I bet they are expensive too.

Ortho-C-lences (orthoculogy). The idea behind them, well, I don’t know exactly as I never got the book promised by the author, John Yee. The claim is that they help you reshape the eye by causing certain muscles to relax (???). How or why these muscles get relaxed is not satisfactorily explained. From description it seems that they are basically hard contact lenses that you wear only for 10 minutes a day. It sounds like a rip-off scam to me. Notice the total absence of any reviews about this method. I would stay away from these. The price is too high to give them a try.

Pinhole glasses. They work on mechanical principle of eliminating most slanted rays so that just direct light rays from the object reach your eye. They improve your vision… but not very well, not enough to move around comfortably. The only use for them I can think about is watching movies. Reading in them is absolute nuisance. Also, wearing them encourages staring which is a habit that should be broken. Not recommended.

These are mechanical contraptions I could think of. In the really old days they used to wear a monocle: it's like glasses, only you pop it in one eye (one-eyed glasses). It looked cool! Below you can see an example of somebody wearing a monocle (ripped-off from Wikipedia!)

Methods to improve vision

2009-02-26T22:58:00.000-08:00

Let’s have a look at different methods that are used to improve vision, what are advantages and disadvantages.

Glasses. The king of all methods. They’ve been used for quite a long time and are still about the only method that immediately corrects your vision. They are relatively safe (compared to horrible Lasik surgery) but in the long run they worsen the vision, in the majority of cases. They also distort vision, especially if you vision is really bad. They are, however, the best tool to use during natural vision improvement. Remember that glasses are basically crutches, they do not address the root of the problem but just alleviate the symptom. Their great advantage is that they can be put on and off in seconds.

Contact lenses. The second best. They eliminate some problems associated with glasses like the limit of the field of vision and vision distortion. They look much better on a person. However, they decrease eye sensitivity and increase the risk of eye infection. They also cannot be removed immediately like glasses. I don’t know if wearing contacts causes progressive myopia like in case with glasses. I myself prefer contacts to glasses for the above reasons.

Lasik surgery. The worse method you can choose. Instant gratification but the risk associated with the operation is great. Often doctors don’t inform you of all the consequences of this dangerous operation. The surgery does not remove the underlying cause of bad vision but just the symptoms. The damage made to your cornea cannot be undone and your vision will deteriorate again in the future. I recommend you stay away from it.

To be continued.

I am back.

2009-02-25T20:09:00.000-08:00

Buenos Dias!

It's been a while. I have moved to a town in Southern California. Now I am quite settled but still looking for a job. But you probably don't want to read about my adventures...

Ok. How about this view from my window?

Personal Message

2009-01-29T18:37:00.000-08:00

Personal message to my readers: I will be moving in the next week to a new location so this blog won't be updated for about a week.

I also want to tell you that I am practicing distant vision and I am glad to report that I see some results. I will be working on refining this technique and will let you know how it goes.

What is Far and Close?

2009-01-26T19:31:00.000-08:00

Another important point to remember is to realize that far and close are subjective and not absolutes. They are different for people with impaired vision. 10 inches is considered close distance for normal or presbyopic person. If I can’t see clearly at 10 inches, is 10 inches far? In order for me to strain to see close the book should be very, very close to my eyes, uncomfortably close. I don’t want to do it because I am convinced that there is something going for near-point stress theory and I don’t want to make my lens thicker than it is. I want to make it flatter and the only way to do it is to look at the distance.

So What Is It: Fine Print or Horizon?

2009-01-22T17:29:00.000-08:00

Dr. Bates says that straining to read fine print alleviates myopia and causes or worsens hyperopia. Accordingly, straining to see distant objects causes or aggravates myopia and alleviates hypemetropia. But then he mentions that reading fine print in dim light is especially beneficial for presbiopia, which is a form of hyperopia. So it naturally follows that looking at the distance should be beneficial for myopia. And in my experience it is. Curiously enough, Bates himself never mentions it as a possible cure. Could it be because he himself suffered from presbiopia?

It's curious that it's the opposite of the theory but I think I know the reason. Here it is. People with myopia don’t strain to see close. They automatically relax. Besides, they became nearsighted by looking at the close object for hours on end. Remember that vision is mostly mental. The opposite is true for people with hypemetropia: they strain to see close and automatically relax when looking at the distance. So myopic people can’t strain when looking at the close but they can relax when they look at the distance.

What Can You Do if You Have High Myopia

2009-01-19T18:40:00.000-08:00

Ah, my favourite subject. You’ve practiced Bates, you’ve tried just about everything you could find out about it but still see no progress. So what can be done for high degrees of nearsightedness?

I found out that 3 things work really well for me. Mind you, none of them gives me perfect vision but I can feel some degree of improvement and even control. The thing to do is to develop the abilities to control flashes of good vision. If you can do that, the rest is easy.

So, the first thing is swinging. I like to swing as I noticed it let go of tension immediately. It does not improve vision but I can often get rid of eye ache if I happen to have one.

The second thing is sun treatment. I noticed that my vision is always better in bright sunlight. I can even read at distances longer than usual.

The third one is my own discovery. It is the opposite of what Dr. Bates recommends but I can’t help it. It is the only technique that when I perform it I notice some improvement of vision.

It is looking at the distant object. Yes, just looking in the distance, preferably while your eyes are relaxed. I am somehow convinced that if we could spend a few hours a day looking at the distance, out vision would improve dramatically. Pity no one has tried it. Notice I say hours. Measly 10 or 30 minutes are not going to do it.

Just imagine… instead of spending your time in front of computer monitor you consciously spend your time looking at the distant objects. Vast landscapes with distant mountain would be the best. Sailors are famous for having good vision.

What to Do if You Have Headaches

2009-01-15T16:50:00.000-08:00

Do you have a headache when you read or perform some other close work? I mean headaches caused by incorrect visual habits only, not pathological or psychological headaches. But suppose you’ve noticed that every time you do the homework at your house using a lamp, you quite often have a headache. Here’s what you can do to eliminate it.

Check you light first. Sometimes the reason for you head and eye ache is that the light is too bright and the glare from the white pages cause great strain for the eyes. Get yourself a dimmer light. (I won’t even talk about fluorescent light, I assume you are using incandescent light bulbs)

Adjust the distance. Maintain good posture, do not bend forward. Do not try to read at a maximum possible distance if you have good eyesight, just be sure to glance from the window or around the room now and then.

Read fine print. One of the amazing discoveries of Dr. Bates is that fine print is actually beneficial for the eyes while large print is a menace. The reason is that it’s easier for normal eye to shift around small objects (like small letters) than it is around big letters. Remember that what seems to us as the smooth process of vision is actually part shifting from point to point of the object and partly interpretation by the brain.

Read fine print at candlelight for 10 minutes in a darkened room. My guess is that if you have headaches doing close work you are somewhat hyperopic. Reading at candlelight with relaxed eyes helps to alleviate mental tension and visual problems, especially hyperopia

When you write, don’t look at the stuff that you’ve already written. Instead, follow the tip of your pen.

How to Use Computer

2009-01-12T18:09:00.000-08:00

If you spend lots of time on computer you might have noticed that you vision has deteriorated. Though my guess is that you spend too much time at the computer because your vision has deteriorated. Anyway, it’s beyond the point. Most people lose their eyesight when they go to school and that is because they spend hours doing the work at the close distance. So near-point stress undoubtedly plays part here.

So what can be done to prevent it? There are some simple things you can do to alleviate near-point stress. It goes not just for computer work but also for reading, writing and other close range activity.

First, if at all possible, choose your place near the window. Make sure that you are positioned in a way that lets you look through it. When you read a book glance through this window for a few seconds. Do it at least once per every page or for every paragraph. It is very good for the eyes. I noticed that my eyes do not get tired when I practice this kind of reading. For computer work you would probably have to use an alarm clock or some pop-up reminder. Do what it takes, it’s very well worth it.

Take a break every hour or half an hour. Even 3-5 minutes of conscious relaxing will do a lot for your eyes. People waste so much time on their computers anyway that this break should be taken seriously as it will benefit your eyes as well as the rest of the body. You can do some simple physical exercises during it too.

Every 10 minutes glance through the window or around the room. Develop this habit.

Techniques for Improving Your Eyesight

2009-01-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

So let’s get to the actual techniques of natural vision improvement. By now if you read my previous post you understand that there is no “mechanical” technique or exercise that will help you to restore vision if you do it regularly. If there is one, we are not aware of it. What we can do though, is practice certain techniques that were reported to alleviate tension and thus improve vision. It follows that other techniques of vision improvement can be developed, some of them might work specifically for you and no one else.

Here are the basic principles of treatment presented by Dr. Bates:

Palming. Palming is covering your eyes with your palms in a way that excludes all the light. Palming is very tricky as it is useless if you don’t have the right mental approach to it. First it calms down the nerves but on the other hand you might start thinking unpleasant thought while palming. You might want to try a combination of palming and yogic breathing (pranayama).

Swinging. Swinging is very useful as it is close to a regular physical exercise, it is excellent for the flexibility of spine as well as your eyes. The idea is to “let your eyes go”, do not try to see anything, in fact, you should strive to achieve illusion that everything is completely blurred due to the movement. And your swing does not have to be fast, go with your intuition. I found out that the best speed is medium.

Sun treatment. Sunning, as it popularly became known, is exposing your closed eyelids to the direct rays of sun. It is very relaxing but again, try to relax your mind. The good thing about sunning that unlike palming it almost forces you to relax mentally as well as physically.

Shifting. Shifting is the closest thing that comes to physical exercises for the eyes. It is also the main habit of good vision. Shifting can be practiced on the eye chart or on any other object. You look at one side of the letter than to the other and notice that the letter moved to the direction opposite of you glance. So you shift your glance to the left of the letter than to the right and so forth, from top to bottom and so on. The quicker you can do it and the smaller the letter you can do it on, the better the vision. People with good vision shift all the time unconsciously.

Central fixation. That is when the part of the object regarded directly is seen best. It is so because the retina has macula lutea or the area of the highest sensitivity. By shifting the eye with high speed we get the perception of the whole object. In fact shifting is so fast that people with good vision think they regard the whole object all at once when in fact the eye shifts from one part of the object to the other and it does that quicker than the brain has time to record the impression and make a perception of the object as a whole.

People with bad vision, on the other hand, do try to see the whole object all at once. It is, of course, impossible, but their retina loses sensitivity and their shifting becomes slow. The thing to do, then, is practice the correct visual habits of shifting and central fixation.

Blinking vs. Winking

2009-01-05T22:02:00.000-08:00

Dr. Agarwal put a big stress on correct blinking, more so than Bates. In fact he used to demonstrate to his patients the difference between the two. Myopic people tend to wink, they do it unconsciously because the act of winking flattens the eyeball or the cornea and they seem to experience a slightly better vision. But winking also strains the muscles. Develop the habit of blinking instead.

Blinking should be very light and effortless. Think of a butterfly waving its wings. This image should cause you to blink correctly at least for a few moments.

Illusions of Normal Sight

2009-01-01T17:36:00.001-08:00

Here is the excerpt from Yoga of Perfect Sight by Dr. R. S. Agarwal:

1. When the sight shifts from side to side of a letter, the letter appears to move in the opposite direction. This is Swinging.

2. The letter regarded appears clearest. This is central Fixation.

3. The white center of a letter appears whiter. This is Imagination.

These three characteristics are called normal illusions of the normal eye which are reduced or absent in the defective eye. So to improve the vision it is necessary to develop the normal illusions.

Shifting and swinging are one of the basic principles of treatment. You can perform long swing with your whole body or short swing: the shorter the swing, the better the vision. Remember, the normal eye shifts unconsciously so people with defective vision have to consciously develop this habit.

Central fixation is also something that normal eye does unconsciously. I also noticed that you can’t really practice central fixation, it is a symptom rather than a cause of good vision. But what one can practice is looking at the objects and regard part looking directly at best. For example when looking at a portrait, look at one eye first, then shift to the other eye, than nose and mouth. Than sweep your eye over hair. Do not try to see the whole picture at once. Central fixation always goes hand in hand with shifting.

Imagination is the ability to see a part of the letter regarded directly at the blackest. It is very useful for developing good vision. In fact, one of the most remarkable, one can say miraculous cures in Dr. Bates’ practice is about a doctor who became cured in a very short time just by imagining that the letters on a chart were as black as ink. He was able to do it and his vision became perfect. It remained so years later.

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T00:02:00.000-08:00

I decided to put a little personal note to my readers and wish to everyone who stopped by a wonderful New Year 2009. I wish you all the best, especially success with your vision improvement project.

Dr. R. S. Agarwal

2008-12-29T17:37:00.000-08:00

I previously mentioned that Bates teachers are usually just fans of the method who more often than not do not quite understand the concept of the Bates method themselves and talk about “exercises” and what not. But there is one exception. There was a doctor who not only fully understood the principles of Dr. Bates but also integrated them into his practice. Like Bates himself and unlike Bates teachers he happened to be a Doctor of Ophthalmology. He also happened to be a follower of a famous yogi Sri Aurobindo. The name of this remarkable man was Dr. R. S. Agarwal.

Dr. Agarwal founded The School of Perfect Eyesight as part of Pondicherry Ashram in India and he had a phenomenal rate of success. He cured many seemingly hopeless cases that traditional doctors gave up on. Oh yes, and he did not charge for the treatment.

I did some research on Dr. Agarwal on internet and was surprised to find out that there was no information about him. You’ll find a few of his book for sale and that’s about it. Not even an entrance in Wikipedia.

I read Yoga of Perfect Sight and I think this book comes pretty close to Bates. It is actually a collection of essays on vision, kind of like the book of Dr. Bates is a collection of essays from Better Eyesight Magazine, that are put together in a book. Even the style is somewhat similar: lots of case histories and cases of remarkable cure. As a bonus there are also letters of Sri Aurobindo (nothing really to do with vision improvement, but a curious read anyway). This book is very different from "traditional" Bates teachers.

Vision and Swimming

2008-12-25T16:48:00.000-08:00

Can you swim? If so, do you remember the process how exactly did you learn to swim? Has it ever occurred to you that the ability to swim is mental? Think about it. What is the difference between a person who would sink if thrown in a deep waters and the one who would float? The difference is mental control. People who can swim realized that they can float on water without sinking. It is the same with vision. If we could realize that we can see perfectly or we can relax our extraocular muscles we would have good vision. Notice that the ability to swim does not go away even after years of inactivity, so it’s enough to realize it once that you can have good vision and then you will have it.

This swimming metaphor might not be the best but it is the closest one that describes what I have in mind since most people know how to swim. It is sudden realization that you can control your body in a certain situation. In a way that was a science of yoga is all about.

Vision is Mental

2008-12-22T23:33:00.000-08:00

Vision is not only the physical ability to perceive external objects, something like registering a picture on a camera, vision is also the process of interpreting these sensory impressions by the brain. The process of interpretation is cultural in a way how we interpret the image on retina.

There are cases of split personality when people picked up different pair of glasses or took them off altogether depending on which personality “rules” at the moment. Evidently there can be two personalities and one might be nearsighted while another might have perfect vision.

It is a vast field for study. Bates realized that mental interpretation is important but his accent was on mental relaxation and mental control of the muscles. Indeed, if we knew how to control these extraocular muscles we would be able to relax them and thus would acquire good vision.

Mission accomplished

2008-12-18T15:18:00.000-08:00

Hello!

A personal message to the readers of my blog. I had a personal mission to write 10 articles on the Bates method and publish them in EzineArticles directory. Well, I am happy to report that

Mission accomplished.

And, as an additional bonus my account is upgraded to the Platinum status. That means more quality articles are coming in the future from your truly.

Time for champagne. Cheers!

Vision Changes All the Time

2008-12-15T23:09:00.000-08:00

One of the main concepts of the Bates theory is that he discovered that vision changes all the time. Nobody has perfect eyesight all the time. There are periods when our vision gets better and other periods when it gets worse. This applies to everyone with no exception. Periods of improved vision are usually experienced when a person is happy, relaxed and in familiar environment. If the person is tired, fatigues, stressed, in unfamiliar environment his eyesight is often worse than usual.

The difference is usually not extreme for people with normal vision but it may be drastic for people with bad eyesight. Probably all of us noticed a tremendous improvement during days of bright sunshine.

This, according to Dr. Bates, proves that vision is not static but dynamic. Muscles contract and relax all the time. If it is possible to relax the muscles surrounding the eyeball for a second, it should be possible to relax them for longer periods of time as well, until the eyesight becomes perfect…

Bates was a Yogi

2008-12-11T17:44:00.000-08:00

That was an idea that suddenly stroke me one day. If his main principle is relaxation of the mind and variability of refraction, why that is exactly what is yoga philosophy is all about: control your mind by calming it first. According to some yogi tales you can do amazing things if you just learnt to control your mind. Unfortunately most of us has not the slightest idea what is controlling the mind is all about, we are so conditioned to have this inner monologue goinf on that we have not idea that other states of mind are even possible.

What really amazing to me was that Bates started out as typical American doctor with standard medical education. he became interested in finding out why things were the way they were. He stumbled upon one of the most powerful concept of yoga philosophy. he arrived to it independently. I think it’s very impressive. Bear in mind it was long before Eastern philosophy, Hindu teachers, Zen, Buddhism and similar stuff got into the West, certainly long before it became mass production.

Why Doesn’t Bates Method Work?

2008-12-09T23:06:00.000-08:00

Strange title? What I mean is that not everyone who has tried Bates method succeeded in restoring their eyesight back to normal. In this post I’d like to explore some possible reasons.

If you have read the Bates book you were probably surprised at the high success rate that this doctor had. And they were all achieved by the masterful suggestion to a patient. No doubt Dr. Bates had a powerful though probably not an overwhelming personality. And he knew exactly what suggestion a particular patient would be most responsive to. In a way, that is the ideal doctor: he realizes that the patient cures himself and his role is just to help them, to nudge them in the right direction.

The problem with modern people is simply an information overload. We hear so much stuff and try to learn so many different things at once. Most of these things are useless and have mo particular value but sometimes we have to sift though junk in order to find gold.

Another reason is that there are too many scams. I can’t even tell you how many rip-off of Bates method are out there on internet with their fake testimonials and etc. People become skeptical.

And another reason connected to the first one is the wrong mental attitude. We “try” so many things. Well, people who try lots of thing usually end up mastering nothing.

When Bates were doing his work the only alternative to correct vision were glasses. Even contact lenses were not around. Now we have laser correction that is so appealing (instant fix, never mind the terrible risk factor associated with it), all this new-age stuff (chanting mantra, affirmation like “my vision is getting better and better”, visualizing yourself seeing everything clearly), pinhole glasses (they don’t work by the way), contacts that you wear while you sleep (it reshapes the cornea of your eyeball but it only lasts a day), convex (“plus”) glasses method (some people reported success with this method), pranic healing. These are just from the top of my head, there are probably more techniques out there.

None of them is perfect.

Bates method was a true revelation to his patients. His book might be a revelation to a few other people though like I said due to information overload I don’t think so. But some success stories are due to Bates method.

Unfortunately due to official medicine rejection of this method it’s hard to track a progress of real people who reported success. I personally know one person to whom, I am happy to say, I introduced Bates method and he removed his restriction on his driver’s license. Granted, his prescription was low, but I still consider it a great success. He never realized that it could be done.

A Curious Site (R.I.P)

2008-12-04T23:24:00.000-08:00

A while ago when I was searching for any kind of information to improve myopia I came across a site that became recently defunct (no longer exists). It advertized the new method of curing the eye defects, especially myopia and astigmatism. The improvement would be quite noticeable. The effect is supposed to be cumulative. The author who called his outfit King Kelly Publishing never came to actually putting his book for sale but in his Frequently Asked Questions he put this curious information:

I believe that Bates was right in his conclusions, but his Method to achieve good eyesight is not, as far as my experience goes, the most effective. The system I developed appears to be much more powerful. It consists mainly of a pattern that you run and after running the pattern for a little bit of time, you look around and notice that your vision has improved. This happens each and every time and the improvements add up quickly. Without effort, the pattern causes the eyes to see better.

So quick sun-up: we have this mysterious “pattern”. His method also involves some object “that can be found in any house” but it is not really necessary and you don’t have to have it. His method involves no effort: that is good and in accordance with Bates. It takes only two minutes to perform, you notice the improvement immediately and the effect is cumulative. The more you do it, the quicker is the improvement. If you already have good vision, according to his claims you can develop super vision (how about seeing the moons of Jupiter?)

I was thinking that it might have been near-far swing: you need a pen or pencil but you can just use your finger. It is the only method I am aware of that produces some noticeable improvement immediately but unfortunately the effect is not cumulative. So it must not be it.

Well, it would be great to find out what it is but I suppose he took his secret to his grave, I mean disappeared from the face of the internet. As far as everything goes it might have been a scam but he was fairly modest and said things like “it seems to work for everyone”, etc, he never said that his method guaranteed a perfect vision. His so-called pattern takes two minutes to perform. His ambition was to put doctors and glasses salesmen out of business. A worthy endeavour, no doubt, but a little overambitious. It takes more than one person to shatter this kind of bureaucracy.

On the other hand… he has disappeared. And now his site has disappeared too. Hmm…

Donald S. Rehm The Myopia Myth

2008-12-01T18:01:00.000-08:00

Here is a totally different method claiming to prevent and reverse mild myopia. It’s none other than the (in)famous “plus” glasses method. Why “infamous”? Well, first of all, these people think that they got the answer. According to them we are back to Leibniz theory of nearsightedness, according to which visual defects like myopia are caused by the changing in the shape of the lens.

I wonder how they explain the reason for hyperopia? The lens can become too round during accommodation but what makes it flatter than it is? Explain that!

Back to the review. I read Rehm’s book. The idea is that you should wear plus glasses (with convex lenses) for close work in order to prevent lens accommodation. But here’s right from the horse’s mouth:

He actually admitted that his vision went slightly worse even when he wore “plus” glasses working at some tense job. While he was on vacation his vision improved. He thought it was due to his glasses but we can see that he was just relaxed and that was the real reason.

He flatly denies that Bates method has any foundation behind it though he does admit that lots of people were helped. He can’t come up with better explanation than they hypnotized themselves into that or something like that.

He came up with some apparatus that he called myopter. Same thing: it supposed to eliminate near-point accommodation and help with fusion.

I wonder if the proponents of this theory see that you basically just exchange “minus” glasses for “plus”? Somehow, I don’t think so.

In my opinion he just missed the whole point. He would be far better off developing good visual habits than coming up with a weird mechanical contraption. But when he admitted that his vision became worse that for me personally, has clinched his case. So I do not recommend his book. It’s far better to apply the Bates method straight from the master himself.

If you want to try the convex lenses method to improve myopia, check out books The Secret of Perfect Vision and How I Cured My Myopia by David de Angelis. He claims that he discovered some kind of ocular gymnastic and his system helps to reverse myopia. I personally have not read any of his books, his site does not give any information what his system is all about so I can’t say anything about it or really recommend it. If you tried it, your feedback is surely welcome! Total absence of any reviews about his system looks suspicious.

What Are Correct Visual Habits?

2008-11-28T22:01:00.000-08:00

The Bates method is about relaxation, mental and physical. It is all about how to use your eyes the way nature intended them for us to use. Seeing is like hearing or smelling. You do not try to taste something, right? And also unless you are going deaf, you are not trying to hear something that is said to you. At least you should not. By the way it seems that widespread deafness and loss of hearing that we see around nowadays has exactly the same causes as the bad eyesight. People lose the ability to use their sense organs effortlessly, the way they were designed to be used.

Saying that the Bates method does not involve any exercises. No doubt you know the type I mean. Look all the way up, then down, right and left. While they probably won’t do any harm, you won’t get any benefits from them either. It seems like a different groups of muscles are involved in accommodation.

In any case, if there were any mechanistic approach that worked for sure, we don’t know about it yet. No method has 100% success rate.

Bates method is mental. His idea is you have to relax mind first and that will automatically relax your tight muscles. It’s all in the mind. Yet he also came up with very definite techniques how to achieve mental relaxation. Will they work for everyone? No such luck. But they are beneficial and will cause no harm.

Meir Schneider

2008-11-24T19:54:00.000-08:00

No list of Bates teachers would be complete (not that mine is) without mentioning the name of Meir Schneider. He was born with cataracts and other serious vision problems, had operation on one eye that left him almost blind. He became desperate and started looking for measures to restore his eyesight. He found about Bates method and started practicing with utmost diligence. In about 2 year he was able to read fine print. After a while he could drive without glasses. His vision is not perfect due to scars but around 20/80 which is still fairly decent.

On a site about him there are two great pictures:

Meir Schneider was issued a blindness certificate in 1970 in Tel Aviv which is marked “Valid Permanently”. Right next to it is his current California driver’s license which has “No Restriction”. He admits though that he has been palming for hours right before he went to pass his visual test. How about that for proof that Bates method can work?

After that he founded School for Self-Healing in San Francisco, read numerous lectures and seminars, wrote a few books. His approach helps to implement Bates method as he offers a guided relaxation scripts along with actual techniques. That makes it easier for some people.

Mirzakarim Norbekov

2008-11-20T17:05:00.000-08:00

A very interesting character. Norbekov is a Russian who specializes in alternative medicine and “mind-stuff”. He believes that a patient cures himself. He wrote a book in Russian that can be translated like One Fool’s Experience or the Way to Vision. It’s a curious read, lots of motivationl talk. He is a big believer in visualization, affirmations and other so-called new age techniques. He is also adamant that an empty form like a physical exercise is useless without a mental focus. Which is all true and good. But here’s the rub:

He likes eye exercises of roll up and down type, left and right. While there might be something to them, usually the response is negative: they are useless as far as vision improvement goes.

Norbekov also came up with his own version of palming and sunning but he never credits Bates. Not even once. I would be cautious in accepting his word. Everyone even superficially acquainted with Bates method knows that he is the one who came up with palming and sunning and invented the terms. No doubt techniques existed before but Bates introduced them to the general public. I don’t think it’s wise for Norbekov to take credit for that.

One more thing. His approach “mental attitude is the primary factor” implies that you can bully your eyes into good vision. I am sorry to say that it’s not so. If it were that easy we would all have excellent eyesight. He is a charismatic person and he probably helped lots of people who conversed with him personally. His method of improving eyesight is very similar to Bates’. While Bates’ focus was on complete relaxation, Norbekov’s is on positive mental attitude.

His book is worth reading though, there are some good ideas there. He does go over the top sometimes with this positive attitude but he also tells amusing stories.

Leo Angart

2008-11-17T17:51:00.001-08:00

In my opinion, Leo Angart is one of the best modern Bates teachers. I read his book and I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of information presented. He explains the usual techniques for Bates method but he also introduced something completely different. I’m sure it’ll be new to most readers.

It is pranic healing. The idea is that our bodies are comprised of energy and every part of the body that suffers from some kind of disease or anomaly has some kind of energy misbalance, most commonly the lack of prana or energy in that particular organ.

The idea of pranic healing was introduced by Choa Kok Sui. He wrote several books on the subject and he gives a good intro into pranic healing.

So the thing to do is to perform special exercises with your hands in order to fill your eyes with energy. I know, we are getting here into advanced mind stuff but Leo Angart reports that one of his pupils was able to improve her myopia by 3 diopters in 3 days only by doing these exercises. They are easy to perform but they do require mental focus or concentration. You also have to visualize certain coloured flows of energy.

What's more, Leo himself credits his restored vision to these energy "exercises" (let's call them that for the lack of better word). While he likes Bates and his method he considers that pranic healing is one of the primary factors in restoring good eyesight.

Leo wrote a book Improve Your Eyesight Naturally that you can check out on Amazon.

He is not big on motivational staff, which is a good thing, too much of that already. His book is packed with techniques that you can start applying right away. There are also funny cartoons on every page. In a way, he is the man to go to for Bates method simplified concept.

Watch this video (it’s 2 hours long but is well worth it) of one of Leo Angart’s seminars.

Watch the video!

Janet Goodrich

2008-11-13T18:24:00.000-08:00

While we are on the subject of Bates teachers I’d like to introduce to you one more Bates teacher: Janet Goodrich. her book is called Natural Vision Improvement. It is much shorter and her style is lighter and easier to read than Quackenbush’s but her work suffers from the same two flaws mentioned above: she likes sketching (again, nothing wrong with it but remember that it is not Bates) and too much psychological mish-mash. However, her book is full of cartoons, tips and techniques, especially for vision defects other than myopia.

On the side: Myopia, in my opinion, is the most difficult anomaly of refraction to get rid of, if you can do that… well, you are the one.

There is no ground breaking information there. But overall, it is a good book and I recommend it.

Thomas Quackenbush

2008-11-10T21:35:00.000-08:00

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.

Margaret D. Corbett

2008-11-06T16:52:00.000-08:00

The first book I read on Bates method was a double book which included “Perfect Sight Without Glasses” by W. H. Bates and “Help Yourself to Better Sight” by Margaret Darst Corbett. While the style of writing is totally different they both deserve a read.

The Bates book is all about theory and concepts behind the vision. The book by M. Corbett is more focused on practical approaches to help you develop correct visual habits. Margaret Corbett became interested in the Bates method when her husband lost his eyesight, found out about Bates and decided to practice his principles. That started her off to helping people. She ran “School of Eye Education” in Los Angeles teaching the Bates method. Of course the grand medical establishment could not allow it: how come? You got real results? Close them down. They filed a complaint against her for practicing without a license. She won because she had many witnesses who testified on her behalf and also for the fact that she did not represent herself as a doctor but rather as an instructor in good eye habits.

Among her pupils was the famous Aldous Huxley who wrote “The Art of Seeing”, another book that gives lots of tips on developing good visual habits and also touches on mental side of vision.

Bates Teachers

2008-11-03T21:57:00.000-08:00

Let me say a brief word about so-called Bates teachers.

First of all, the disclaimer is in order. I am NOT a Bates teacher. I am not a vision improvement teacher. This just happens to be a topic of extreme interest to me. Yet, I see so many attempts on internet to scam unsuspecting customers to part with their money—it just gets to me. My advice is not to buy any of the vision improvement programs, especially the ones that “guarantee the results”. Nothing in this life is guaranteed.

Saying that I can promise that if you are unfamiliar with the Bates method you will learn more from this blog for free than from these overhyped and overpriced products. I might even design an email course but only if the need arises. I will not try to sell you any vision improvement products. I might recommend some books and provide links to Amazon.com but that’s all.

Saying that, the only book you need to find about the Bates method is the book by Dr. Bates himself. In lots of cases it can be checked out from your local library and thus won’t cost you a penny. Yes, there are some good authors like Margaret D. Corbett, mostly direct disciples of Dr. Bates, whose books are worth reading but all the modern stuff is just a half-digested rehash of Bates and other half-baked ideas. What Bates offers is a very clear system. The modern books just don’t cut through. They will tell you the usual BS like if you are myopic it is because you do not want to see the world around you. Total baloney. Stay away from those.

Some people do learn better under the guidance of the competent teacher but it’s up to you to find one if you decide to go this way. I personally think you do not need any teacher, what you need is the right knowledge and how to apply it.

Near-point Stress

2008-10-30T21:44:00.000-07:00

To be fair, the theory of near-point stress seems to have some valid points too. This theory explains that myopia develops due to the constant stress on ciliary muscle. Using the eyes for close work for prolonged period of time makes the lens in the eye to accommodate, forcing it to change the shape. Wearing glasses not only locks this tensed muscle condition but actually becomes worse and worse as no doubt everyone with myopia experienced. After a while the change becomes permanent. The proponents of these theory claim that if you never wear glasses and keep good posture while doing close work your eyesight should never become worse than -3D which is bearable.

Either way we have locking of the muscle due to stress and glasses. Only in the Bates theory the strain is produced by straining to see in the distance while in near-point stress theory the main culprit is doing the close work.

Who is right? To be honest, I don’t know. According to Bates, it follows logically that reading the small print decreases myopia. According to the other theory just looking in the distance decreases myopia.

So here’s the tip for you to implement in your daily work: whenever you perform any close work every 15 minutes or so glance in the distance, preferably through the window, if that is not possible, around the room. Close your eyes and imagine yourself looking at some scenery with distant objects like trees.

The Bates Method Overview

2008-10-27T20:51:00.000-07:00

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!

Retinoscope

2008-10-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

Retinoscope was Dr. Bates favourite tool that he used to measure the anomaly of refraction. he used it not only on humans but also on animals. He used it under various conditions on different subjects and documented all the results. Then he formed the theory of the anomalies of refraction based on these accumulated data. His idea was that if the theory was right every single fact should fit it! No exception. It seems that he came up with the beautiful theory but the mainstream medicine never accepted it. It also gave no convincing evidence against it, just plain rejection.

So what about the schoolchildren?

2008-10-25T17:38:00.000-07:00

In my post yesterday I mentioned the method that Bates used in some schools to maintain and improve children's eyesight. The method is so simple and genuine that it’s wonder it’s not used anymore. It costs almost nothing to implement yet the results were beyond belief. Do you want to know what it was?

Well, it’s very simple. He suggested that every teacher put up a Snellen chart on the wall and instruct children to read it daily. The idea behind the method is that the human eye relaxes when it views familiar objects. In this case the chart was not used to test their eyesight but to look at the familiar object. Some children are reported to have had a significant improvement.

By the way the method won’t work if your eyesight is already wrecked (from my personal experience). Hence the idea: if you or somebody in your house has vision that just started deteriorating or still is good just put the eyechart on the wall and look at it daily. That’ it. Don’t try to see how many lines you can distinguish as this involves strain (more about this later). Just look at it and read a few lines.

Who on a heck is Dr. Bates?

2008-10-24T19:49:00.000-07:00

According to Wikipedia, here’s a few biographical facts:

Bates graduated A.B. from Cornell University in 1881 and received his medical degree at the college of physicians and surgeons in 1885. He formulated a theory about vision health, and published the book Perfect Sight Without Glasses in 1920. Parts of Bates' approach to correcting vision disorders were based on psychological principles, which was contrary to many of the medical theories of the time and remain so. The Bates Method still enjoys some limited acceptance as a modality of alternative medicine.
Bates treated many patients, who claimed to have been cured of vision defects, especially myopia. This brought him into conflict with his peers. He defended himself by claiming that other physicians were in thrall to the establishment.

Not much of a biography there. But it does not really matter. As you can see Wikipedia and medical establishment in general do not like Bates much. His main work “The Cure of Imperfect Sight by Treatment Without Glasses” (later edited into “Perfect Sight Without Glasses”) is a result of years of research and study of the human eyes in various conditions. He and his clinical staff also published “Better Eyesight” magazine (from 1919-1930) of which his book is condensed version. It has a nice section of theory on common eyes disorders which he called anomalies of reflection and those include conditions like myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness) and astigmatism. He also touches on problems of squint and cataract. The book is full of case histories. And the main part is devoted to techniques of relaxation.

Bates (1860-1931) has never been popular with a medical establishment even during his own lifetime though he is the one that got positive and definite results. Just to give you an idea he found the way to keep schoolchildren’s eyesight in good condition, his method was used with tremendous success. Then for some reason it’s been dropped. Well, I think we all can guess the real reason behind it.

Bates was a pioneer in the science of ophthalmology and hit upon a wonderful way to preserve the eyesight. If the eye doctors gave their patients a copy of the Bates’ book instead of the first pair of glasses we would not have this pandemics of eye anomalies.

Welcome!

2008-10-23T17:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog on the Bates method of natural vision improvement. This method is based on relaxation, both physical and mental. My aim in creating this blog is, first, to introduce people to the Bates method as I have not seen similar material on the net, second, to promote methods of natural vision improvement.

In this blog I am going to introduce to you tips and techniques that allow your eyes to relax and see better, sometimes in minutes.

I have been studying the Bates method for years and I have not seen anything similar to the concept that I have in mind and I am going to introduce on this blog. I am going to publish articles on the Bates method, recommend certain books and give you my own ideas about the methods and techniques involved.

Of course the techniques will not be limited exclusevely to Bates but he is the founder of the feast. We'll deal with anything that relates to natural vision improvement.

So if you came to this blog looking for the ways to improve your vision and are not familiar with the Bates method, than welcome aboard. I am going to take you for the ride that will leave a lasting impression.