How The Bates Method for Better Eyesight Without Glasses Can Cure Your Eyes

"In his 1920 book Better Eyesight Without Glasses, Dr. Bates writes about his own eyesight improvement. He had been told by various eye specialists that his lens was "as hard as a stone" and that "no one can do anything for you." But through studying his own case intensively, and finding a way to not strain his eyes when wanting to read, he regained an accommodative range of 14 inches. That is the ability to focus on objects between 4 and 18 inches from the eyes, so he was no longer suffering with presbyopic blur.

Dr. Bates went on to formulate a new set of theories about eyesight and he developed what later became known as 'the Bates Method' to help people to improve their sight.

According to Dr. Bates, poor eyesight is caused primarily by three things:
1. Stress or mental strain, 2. Poor vision habits, and 3. Wearing glasses."

The above is quoted from this site.

lt goes without saying that for eyes to look good, they must also function well. Visual impairment can be treated with exercises. When you notice the first signs of eye weakness or imbalance (one eye stronger than the other), begin doing some of the following exercises and you will never need to wear glasses. lf you are already wearing glasses or contact lenses, wear them less frequently and try the exercises. You will soon find that your eyes will need a weaker correction lens. For the severely visually impaired, the exercises given here will be of great benefit. Even if the exercises may not cure the most severe visual handicaps, they will give improvement and help to retard or arrest further deterioration. For people who have no need for glasses, the exercises will ensure that it will stay that way.

Palming is excluding all light from your eyes to help them relax into a neutral, passive state. The idea is to cover your closed eyes with your hands without putting pressure on your eyeballs. Cross your fingers as shown on the picture and place them on your forehead leaving the palms of your hands over each eye. Make sure no light gets through. Always begin and finish an eye exercise session with Palming.

For how long?

A few seconds or minutes until, breathing quietly, you see pure black. You will know when to stop when a deep in-breath makes you feel exhilarated.

Sitting in a relaxed position, put your left hand on to your closed left eye and just carry on reading. Notice if there is any difference between reading with one eye, the other eye or both. Find out if one eye is weaker than the other and if this is so continue reading with your weak eye until it becomes uncomfortable. You may find that it will become easier after it gets worse, so persevere for a little while.

Most people have a weaker eye; it’s perfectly normal, as they say. Perfectly normal doesn’t mean it is all right. A weak eye is like a visual limp. lt means that your strong eye is overloaded with work, getting exhausted while your weak eye, relying on your strong eye, is getting lazier and weaker all the time. Eyes are living organisms that can change and improve. Improvement is often instant, as you will find out when you work through the focusing exercises. Are you still reading with your weak eye? lf not, go back a few lines.

There are two dots printed on the next line.

. _________________________________  .

Focus on the dot on the right while being aware that the other dot is there,
but appears blurred.

Now reverse: look at the left dot with the right one unsharp, out of focus. Repeat changing your focus from one dot to the other doing it faster and faster. The quicker the eyes are able to change focus, the sharper they will be. Now try the same thing with the dots closer
together:

.______________________.

and closer still:

. _____ .

This simple focusing exercise can be done anywhere, at any time with any
two or more focal spots. Experiment with spots on posters in the bus or the underground, or on two moving leaves on a tree. With a little imagination, any background can serve as a focal exercise field. You can play around by changing the distance between your focal spots.

Try reading the following sentences printed here in different point sizes.

Experiment with reading the above lines with both eyes together then with one eye at a time and find out at which point size, if any, your eyes become weak. Read the difficult line again with the strong eye. Memorize not the content of the sentence but the shapes of the letters as you are reading with the better eye. Now try again reading the same sentence with the bad eye. The memory obtained of the image with the strong eye will help the weak eye decipher the blur. You may not believe your own eye, but the weak eye learns to focus as sharply as the strong eye in this way.
When you get to a line that is not readable even with the strong eye, get a magnifying glass and look at the shape of the letters. Put the magnifying glass away and recall the meaning of the words to help you memorize and visualize the shapes of the letters. Now try reading the line again without the magnifying glass. The shapes of the letters in very small type will
emerge. Repeat this until you get results, but only to a level of acceptable tolerance. As soon as you feel your eyes getting tired, cover them with the palm of your hands and relax to complete the exercise.

Standing by the window chose a spot or mark on the window pane and focus upon it.

Now without moving the head find a focal point directly behind that mark, some object or point far away outside the window but aligned directly behind the spot on the window pane.

As in the previous exercises, the object here is to focus alternately between the two chosen spots: 1) the one close-up and 2) the distant one, while maintaining an awareness of the other spot as an unsharp object that is ready to be focused upon.

You can improve your sight with the Bates Method for Better Eyesight Without Glasses by learning the technique and doing the exercises in Bates' book. Once you have established which eye is weaker, you can work on that weak eye without spending any extra time.

Here is a tip: While you are at home alone or with your family cover up the strong eye with a pad and carry on with your normal, day to day activities. Covering up the strong eye will train the weaker eye to catch up a bit and give the overworked eye a good rest. Of course, when visitors arrive, make sure you take the pad off or they'll wonder what’s wrong with you.