Hello again,

Few months ago, I came across a book known as "Improve your vision without glasses or contact lenses". I diligently followed the list of exercises for a few days and noticed that my eyes feel so strained during watching movies, I have to close my eyes and rest them for a few minutes before continue to watch the movie. Is this to be expected? Had stopped those exercises since it happened, but still wish to improve my sight through natural means.

Another question is regarding sunning. There are many books that states that the sun is the cause of many eye diseases and everyone should protect their eyes using sunglasses or transition lens. Yet Bates method mention sunning as a way to provide nutrition to the eyes and to improve sensitivity to light. I stay at an island located near the equator, where summer exist all year round, should I be concern with protecting my eyes with sunglasses rather than using sunning as eye therapy?

Lastly, regarding reduced prescriptions. I agree at near point, these glasses do reduce strain. But how about focusing a further distance? How does one not strained the eyes when trying to see the blur zone? And about doing away with glasses altogether, how does one relieve the strain and anxiety of not seeing clearly outdoors?

If the left and right eye have a different degree of astigmatism, as well as in a different meridian, should one try to work on one eye at a time or both eyes together? As far as I understand, the brain will try to reduce confusion by blocking off the double images when both eyes are used, that is, double images are less obvious. But when one eye is covered, the double images become more obvious. Is my understanding correct? If one eye made improvement, will it deprove again by the use of both eyes as the brain tries to synchronize the images?



Concern & curious,
Petal

I read in USA weekend a long time ago that the sun has near infrared light.  It also stated that it reversed blindness 50% in animals.  But I don't know if too much sunning is bad?

Bates said that one can never do too much sunning.  It's at the back of his book.

Pedal, why did you post in "critics and skeptics"?  This seems like a Bates question as opposed to criticism 


I haven't read the book.  What sort of exercises were you doing?
I would recommend you to read the book written by a man who cured hundreds of eyes, and the man who originally started the idea of Natural Vision Improvement: "Better Eyesight Without Glasses" by Dr. William Bates



That really depends on age.  It is known that dead corneal cells caused by extensive UV radiation exposure accumulate causing cataracts.  If you are in your younger ages then I wouldn't worry too much about it.  On the other hand if you are over 45 or so, I would take care.  It also depends on how much time you spend outdoors.  If you spend 9 hours each day outdoors, and your eyes feel pain then I would suggest wearing sunglasses for a few of those hours.  Some individuals that spend too much time indoors in low lighting conditions become photophobic, in which case the sunlight hurts their eyes too much.  They are forced to wear sunglasses.  Sunning is designed to reduce photophobia.  However, it also introduces a few other advantages.



The same way one relieves strain and anxiety of wearing glasses 24/7, and having them become part of you and having them follow you wherever you go and whatever you do.

Bates said no monkey business; throw our your glasses while improving eyesight.  This speeds up improvement considerably.  Your eye recognizes the blur and responds to it.  Most people improve their eyesight by as much as 1D simply by not wearing their glasses for a while...  The idea is to accept the fact that the image is blurry, and continue on with the techniques.  Soon enough you'll have to accept the fact that your image is clear. 
There is a reason why ODs tell you that not wearing your glasses or having a reduced Rx causes strain.  If you need to read a word very far, you will naturally squint and strain to see it as hard as you can, which most certainly brings about strain.  It is actually better to wear your glasses for that than strain to read the word.  However, if you're outside riding your bike or walking, you can learn to ignore the blur your eyes produce.  If you ignore the blur it will never cause strain, but rather prompt your eyes to improve.



I would suggest to throw out your glasses. If it's so much of a hardship for you to see a blurry image, then reduce your prescription.  The more reduced the prescription, the closer you are to having no glasses, and the better the improvement.  If you want to get a reduced Rx, then I would suggest to remove the astigmatism correction.  Your eyes recognize the fact that there are two images, and your mind knows the fact that there is only one.  This is the very reason it is usually easy to rid yourself of astigmatism.  (I never had astigmatism, so I'm quoting David on that .  I think I have the reason behind it right)


Hope this helped,
Paul

Paul, Thanks for the replies. Will avoid the sun for now, just til I am sure.

The exercises are from a book by The American Vision Institute. The exercises include 1)cold water toweling on the eyes, followed by warm water toweling(hydrotherapy), ( 2) clock rotation, 3) focusing exercises 4) palming, 5) acupressure etc.. List of about 10 sequences, each sequence to be perform to a certain minutes. Different sequence structured for different eyesight problems.  Seem easy to understand but takes 30mins to perform a day. Wondered if anyone read the book and tried the exercises.

Posted it under 'critics' because of my doubts on sunning method which could be harmful. Also on the practicality of throwing away the glasses for people who needs to see clearly for their day jobs.  It takes patience and time to explore what works , hence, guess many people just dismissed the method vs Lasik or glasses that has instant results. The methods also need careful self-monitoring, else instead of curing the eyes, more harm could be done(ie. straining, too much sun). I suppose it is the same problem for all self-healing treatments.

Will continue to explore his methods, after all, a really bad eyesight and patience is all I need to keep me going.

Sounds like the exercises from the see clearly method.  These aren't quite the techniques of the Bates method.  I briefly tried the see clearly method in the past, but it didn't work for me.  That organization was also shut down for fraud and false advertising.  I would look into the Bates method if I were you, and read the Bates book "better eyesight without glasses" available free on this website.


I pity the people who know about the Bates method, and choose LASIK over it due to laziness.  What a waste of visual health...


That's no excuse.  If it's too much hardship, then get a reduce prescription.  I know of many people who improved their eyesight while still spending 8 hours each day on the computer (me being one of them).


That is incorrect.  The likelihood that you do more harm than good for your eyes while practicing the Bates method is by far less than the likelihood of you poking yourself in the eye with glasses.   And the chances of laser eye surgery going wrong are pretty high as well.  (higher than you want them to be)

I won't persuade you, but decide what's right for you.

Paul

Hi,


Sunning is basically closing your eyes while facing the sun. I read a while ago on this forum that it is pretty hard to get eye diseases when doing sunning, because of the fact you are not looking at the sun, your eyes are closed. I've also heard many times that it is also best to do sunning during sunrise and sunset.

Make sure that you never look directly at the sun, rather get an idea of where the sun is and close your eyes and face that direction and you should be ok.

There's this guy called Rishi Giovanni Gatti who does open eyed sunning and says it is actually very beneficial.

But I'm not sure, that guy could be a nut...!

And have you heard of those people who don't eat, drink, or anything, and can just live on the sun!!

_________________
"...As Dr. Bates advised, I always carry with me the memory of a small, round, perfectly black, inky, greasy, wet, sexy black period." - Krupnov

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/sungazing/

The only sungazer I know of who claimed to live without food turned out to be a liar. People caught him and called him on it, and he eventually confessed.

Sungazing is more common than you may think. I met a girl from Peru who said they do it there to treat eye problems.

David

_________________
Webmaster of http://www.iblindness.org

"I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by false estimates they have made of the value of things." - Benjamin Franklin

I've sungazed before. One morning I actually sungazed for more than 30 minutes nonstop, starting from around 7:45 AM. The sun was pretty bright, but not quite as bright as the afternoon sun. The effects of looking straight at the sun (even for short periods of time) for me were nothing short of amazing, but I will not list them now because I'm not trying to encourage anyone to do it. But I will say that I suffered NO sunspots afterwards, and the very slight dimming that occurred in the center of my sight disappeared surprisingly quick, probably within a minute. I'm almost certain that the reason the sunspots disappeared so quickly is because I had previously practiced looking at the sun for shorter periods of time and letting the afterimages fade away. I'm planning on getting very serious about sungazing in the near future.

_________________
"If you are under treatment for imperfect sight be sure to keep in mind all day long from the time you wake up in the morning until you go to bed at night the feeling of comfort, of rest, of relaxation, incessantly." - W.H. Bates

After all, Dr. Bates did talk about sun gazing in his first book, but then Emily edited it out!



Lol, I knew it! The only way to live on the sun is if they have some weird modified cells that are able to photosynthesize 

_________________
"...As Dr. Bates advised, I always carry with me the memory of a small, round, perfectly black, inky, greasy, wet, sexy black period." - Krupnov

Ahaha, did she really? 



I learned that humans are capable of photosynthesis, too. I might have only heard that from HRM's website (that's the sungazer we're talking about), but I think it makes perfect sense. Just because we don't have chlorophyll in our cells doesn't mean we can't photosynthesize; that's how PLANTS photosynthesize. Everyone knows that the sun's rays are the best source of vitamin D! And when you eat food, you are indirectly getting the sun's energy, because everything grows and is nourished from the sun.

I was also able to live partially off the sun for a few days. I never planned on not eating, in fact I loved eating lots of food and wouldn't want to give it up. But after sungazing for just a few days my appetite dropped down reeeally low. I was surprised, as I wasn't even planning on that effect happening so soon. Once I stopped sungazing my appetite went back up again.

_________________
"If you are under treatment for imperfect sight be sure to keep in mind all day long from the time you wake up in the morning until you go to bed at night the feeling of comfort, of rest, of relaxation, incessantly." - W.H. Bates

Actually, vitamin D synthesis is triggered by UV rays from the sun.  It is our bodies that synthesize vitamin D; the sun merely provides energy to break one bond in the long synthesis pathway.


I think that's meant to be in a spiritual sense, not the physical. 

How do you sungaze so that you get energy from the sun?  Do you just look at the sun?

Yeah, that's all sungazing really is. Most people advise practicing it exclusively at sunrise or sunset.

I found that looking at the sun for just a few seconds here and there when I got the chance to, is just as beneficial, if not more beneficial than looking at it for a long time at once.

I hear a lot of people refer to it as "staring at the sun," which I disagree with because it implies that you should actually STARE at it, which of course is a bad thing. Looking at something continuously for a long time is not necessarily staring. So it's good to make sure to blink normally and shift from the center of the sun to the left side, right side, top, bottom, etc.

_________________
"If you are under treatment for imperfect sight be sure to keep in mind all day long from the time you wake up in the morning until you go to bed at night the feeling of comfort, of rest, of relaxation, incessantly." - W.H. Bates

If you look directly at the sun it will harm your eyes or make you go blind!  Thats why you do sunning instead and its safer.