These pages are written with myopia (nearsightedness) in mind for simplicity’s sake. However, the method applies equally to all refractive errors (myopia, hyperopia, presbyopia and astigmatism) and also to some other visual disorders. The principles of how to see do not change depending on what condition you have, because the condition represents a symptom of one way to see wrongly. Refractive errors are functional disorders, and these pages describe the way to use your eyes that will reverse and prevent them.
It’s well established in scientific literature that there is a strong relationship between refractive errors and disorders such as glaucoma, cataract, retinal detachment, strabismus and many other less common disorders [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Some disorders are sometimes so closely associated with myopia that they are named that way, as in myopic macular degeneration and myopic retinopathy. The fact that refractive errors are so closely associated with so many other eye disorders suggests that either refractive errors lead to other disorders or they share a common cause. Dr. Bates found that his methods were effective at reversing many cases of such disorders.
So what you’ll notice in the following pages is I don’t make a distinction between different vision problems as I describe the right way to use your eyes. Part of the reason for that is frankly I’m relatively ignorant about the experience of conditions that I haven’t dealt with myself. The other – and perhaps greater – reason is the right way to see doesn’t change depending on how you’re doing it wrong. It’s the same for everyone. The main difference is just in what concepts you have the most trouble with as you pick up the pieces of your vision to sort things out. I have tried to explain the concepts as clearly and completely as possible so that the procedure can apply to everyone. The differences will be mostly in what happens as people recover from different conditions. The experience of recovering from myopia won’t be quite the same as recovering from hyperopia, for example, even if the procedure is similar on the surface.
References
1. Mitchell, P, et al. “The relationship between glaucoma and myopia: the Blue Mountains Eye Study.”(1999) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10519600
2. Hasemi, Hassan, et al. “The association between refractive errors and cataract: The Tehran eye study.” (2011) http://www.meajo.org/article.asp?issn=0974-9233;year=2011;volume=18;issue=2;spage=154;epage=158;aulast=Hashemi
3. “Degenerative myopia.” (2007) http://www.mdsupport.org/library/myopic.html
4. Lai, Timothy YY. “Retinal complications of high myopia.” (2007) “http://www.fmshk.org/database/articles/07mb05.pdf
5. Wong, Tien Yin, et al. “Refractive errors and incident cataracts: The Beaver Dam eye study.” (2001) http://www.iovs.org/content/42/7/1449.long
6. Tanaka, Akiko. “Prevalence of strabismus in patients with pathological myopia.” (2010) http://www.researchgate.net/publication/44568763_Prevalence_of_strabismus_in_patients_with_pathologic_myopia