Recommended Books
All of these books are currently in print. There have been dozens of books published about vision improvement over the last century, but there is little need to seek out hard-to-find ones that went out of print long ago. There's a lot of overlap between many of them, and the best older books have been reprinted.
I don't necessarily fully endorse the below books. But I selected them because they are at least decent and each author has a unique perspective, so it might be worth reading some of them. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong about some things and the only place to get the right answers is in one of these books. And this isn't a complete list. I've pretty much stopped reading any new books, and I have forgotten the content of some that I did read, and I sold or gave away almost all of them years ago.
Perfect Sight Without Glasses
W.H. Bates, M.D.The pioneer ophthalmologist's 1920 book. His findings after many years devoted to research and experimental work dealing with issues that orthodox ophthalmology could not explain or would not acknowledge.
Not to be confused with Better Eyesight Without Glasses (not listed here), which is a scaled-down edition published years after Dr. Bates's death and excluding several parts. Also not to be confused with Better Eyesight, a magazine Dr. Bates published from 1919 to 1931.
Better Eyesight Magazine - original scanned pages
W.H. Bates, M.D.Articles by Bates, his assistant, and contributors, and hundreds of case histories. This monthly magazine was published by Bates from 1919 to 1930. The compiled text is many times greater than the size of Bates's book. It's quite the resource. Warning: it will take you more than a few nights to get through.
These are scanned pages of the original magazines in unedited form. Instead of being converted to text, each page is preserved in image format for the purposes of this publication to ensure the integrity of the originals.
The links at left are volumes 1 and 2. Vol 1 is years 1919 to 1925. Vol 2 is 1925 to 1930.
Better Eyesight Magazine Illustrated with 500 Pictures
W.H. Bates, M.D. & Clark NightThis is the same as the above magazine collection but reformatted and with Clark Night's comments throughout, as well as 500 pictures/diagrams to support the text.
Do It Yourself - Natural Eyesight Improvement
Clark NightThe author did a huge amount of research into Dr. Bates's material and that of many other modern and past teachers of the Bates method and other methods of vision improvement and natural healing. This large book digs deeply into the Bates method, color therapy, posture, Emotional Freedom Techniques, brain hemispheres, the Monroe Institute, sun treatment... the number of topics easily outdoes that of any other past or present book on vision improvement that I know of.
Help Yourself to Better Sight
Margaret Darst CorbettThe author, who was trained by Dr. Bates as a teacher of his methods after she helped her husband apply it, was responsible for training dozens of additional teachers of the Bates method in southern California and doing much to revive the Bates method at a time when the knowledge about it had dwindled. She worked with some notable figures such as novelist Aldous Huxley, who also wrote a book on the subject. In 1941 she was brought to trial on the charge of practicing medicine and optometry without a license, but was acquitted of all charges after her convincing testimony of what she does for people via the simple means of relaxation, and her hundreds of clients lining up eager to testify on her behalf. She thereafter successfully fought a California state bill that would have required anyone advertising a method of exercising or relaxing the eyes to have an optometric or medical license.
In this book, she becomes one of the first to add many exercises that were not originally part of Dr. Bates's methods when he was alive. As such, this book is full of different exercises to try.
28 Days to Reading Without Glasses
Lisette SchollThe author is a practicing hypnotherapist, yoga instructor, and vision improvement teacher. The title is targeted towards persons with presbyopia, which is the lessened ability to focus up close in middle and old age, but the book is oriented around the Bates method and is still applicable to those with myopia and other issues as well. Each of the 28 days of practice described in this book include in detail a attitude, lifestyle, and visual adjustment for the day. The attitude and lifestyle adjustments are not really part of the classic Bates method, but these aspects of self-improvement have in modern times become more popular as a part of any self-improvement process to keep you on the right track and get more out of what you're doing.
Improve Your Eyesight
Jonathan BarnesA graduate in biological sciences who underwent Bates training to cure his myopia. This book covers the basic Bates drills, some of which are ones that have been added by teachers over the years. He also has his own unique theory of accommodation (the way he eye changes focus).
One tidbit - There are two ways for the brain to block the visual process. One is to interfere with the mechanics of vision, by altering the eye shape with the extrinsic muscles, preventing proper blinking and shifting, and encouraging disease that impairs vision. The other way is altering the consistency of the barrier between the subconscious and conscious mind. The first type of blocking (mechanical) tends to be more easily overcome than the second. The second is purely mental, when there is clear information that has made it through the visual system but it isn't recognized for what it is. So there are times when the eyes are working in an improved manner, but their signals are prevented from passing through the barrier (from the subconscious to conscious mind).
Better Vision Now
Clara HackettThe author, as of the original publication date (1955), had worked with over 2,800 people whose visual deficiencies ranged from nearsightedness and farsightedness to more serious problems such as glaucoma and cataracts. In the book she includes many modification to techniques that Dr. Bates established to produce better results and introducing variety to help eliminate boredom. She also utilizes the use of color in exercises, not just black-and-white eye charts.
Relearning to See
Thomas R. QuackenbushThis textbook-sized volume is one of the most popular and well-distributed books on the Bates method. The author has been teaching natural vision improvement since 1983 and was originally trained by Janet Goodrich, a renowned vision improvement teacher who taught in several countries. Some years later, he developed his own unique understanding of the Bates method as visual habits that need to be practiced all day long. In this book he establishes the three principles of natural vision - relaxation, movement, and central fixation; and the three habits of natural vision - shifting, breathing, and blinking. He covers a broad variety of related topics, such as computer and TV use, lighting, the anatomy of the eye, and more.
Restoring Your Eyesight: A Taoist Approach
Doug MarshThe author combines methods pioneered a century ago by Bates with the ancient Chinese wisdom of Taoism. Marsh describes how vision goes deeper than the eyes and optic nerves, extending well into the layers of the mind, emotions, and spirit. Eyesight difficulties are often connected to behavioral and stress-related syndromes, such as dyslexia, ADHD, stuttering, TMJ, and anxiety disorders. He draws upon the core values of the Bates method and those of Taoism - rhythm, softness, return, balance, and wholeness - to provide guidelines for a holistic healing of outer and inner vision. He has a solid understanding of the Bates method through applying it to reversing his own myopia and through extensive research on the many books written about the Bates method, as well as dozens of other sources cited in this book.
Take Off Your Glasses and See
Jacob Liberman, O.D., Ph.D.The author is an optometrist who realized that what he was taught in optometry school wasn't entirely correct, and consequently he changed his ways of thinking about vision and about the entire being. This book reveals that the prescription from your optometrist is not as accurate as you may think and that chronically blurry vision can and does spontaneously clear up in an instant, despite what optometrists have been taught.
Stories from the Clinic
Emily LiermanShe was Dr. Bates's assistant, working with him in experimental work and later with patients that Bates assigned to her at his office. They eventually married. This book is a collection of articles detailing the methods used with some of the patients that she had the oppourtunity to work with. Most of the content of this book is from issues of Better Eyesight magazine.
Movement for Self-Healing
Meir Schneider, Ph.DA very inspirational autobiography. You think you have problems? Meir was born blind, and a number of failed cataract operations on him as a child left him with only light perception. Since then, he has improved his vision to almost normal and as of writing has an unrestricted California driver's license. This is the story of how he applied the Bates Method along with a unique massage and movement therapy that he has spent his life learning and developing.
Use Your Own Eyes
W.B. MacCracken, M.D.Also includes Normal Sight Without Glasses, his later book. The author was a physician who practiced in Berkeley, CA, and was trained directly by Dr. Bates. With a medical doctor's viewpoint, he describes how conventional eyecare has systematically ignored the whole field of functional disturbances that other sciences take into account. Supplemented with many case histories, he goes over the nature of eyestrain and how the Bates Method addresses the underlying functional disorders that have been shown to always exist in cases of poor vision.