I'm wiliansp87, a Brazilian engineer, 27 years old. I've been wearing glasses since when I was 3, because I had strabism in the left eye. This eye is the weakest; my visual accuity is 20/40 in this eye - which also has hypermetropia and astigmatism - , and the right eye is normal, 20/20.
As you can see, my vision problem is not so serious, but the fact is that even though I had pretty much normal vision, I was told my parents, convinced by the doctors, that I'd have to wear glasses "for the whole life", this when I was 3 years old and after I went to surgery to correct the squinting eye. I never understood why, but since then, I had to get used to them. It was painful, not only because I didn't like them, but also because wearing glasses as a child led me to endure a lot of bullying for looking as a nerd and being squint, as the doctors didn't correct all the deviation of the left eye. I grew more and more introverted and withdrawn because of that, and in my teen ages, my only source of joy in intervals of classes in high school was Reading books and browsing the internet alone. It was such a trauma that I only started to recover from that isolation nearing graduation from college, 4 years ago, and I'm still recovering from it.
I discovered William Bates only 3 weeks ago by accident. I was searching for more information about strabism after I went to an ophtalmologist who, as usual, said I couldn't stop wearing glasses because the strabism, she said, would grow more - and that's the excuse she gave to not submit me to a laser surgery to correct the refraction of my left eye, which was a thing I wanted to do.
In Brazil, we have a saying that is like, "some misfortunes come for good". Discovering Bates' work, "Perfect Sight Without Glasses", was a real good thing that came as a consequence of such a misfortune. His findings about accomodation, the relationship of vision with a healthy mind and the innumerous cases of cure by his method presented in the book flooded me with hopes that one day I can cure my left eye and even boost the improving of my social skills by having more mind control to weed out my neurotic thoughts.
I've been practicing it for 2 weeks and wearing glasses as minimal as possible - I have to wear them to drive - and I've found out that my left eye is already improving! The vision in this eye has gotten much less blurry and I can make out small letters that I couldn't see until recently; the residual strabism seems to have gone, and I perceived a slight change in my mood for better! Every time I practice with the Snellen test card, I think about the day I will be able to see with the left eye every detail I can see with the right eye - that will be the happiest day in my life for sure! But while this day don't come, I help other people to get perfect sight without glasses - I started to help 2 of my friends on it, and have talked about Bates to a lot of people - and share my progress with you guys.
I love your story -- you are a success already! I look forward to hearing about further improvements. Congratulations on taking charge of your eyesight and not listening to all the negative messages.
It's been almost 1 month since I stopped wearing glasses, and it's amazing what it's like to see without them. I see more clearly than ever, and I don't need to remind myself to clear the lens anymore. And after practicing so much with the left eye, my poorer one, I don't feel so that huge strain that I used to feel in that eye, which would make it difficult to even keep it open with the right eye closed. And the sight is now much less blurry now.
I think my appearance improved a lot without them, because the glasses would make my face very awkward, with an eye bigger than the other, and it would make my face even more asymmetric than it really is, which were things that pissed me off. I even noticed a slight change in the appearance of the left eye, which used to have a staring appearance all the time and now its appearance is much more natural, like my right eye is.
The only problem is my mother. I told my family that I had abandoned the glasses for the Bates' techniques, but she's still the one who doesn't believe it Works and actively tries to bully me into wearing my glasses again. For example, she says I'm prettier with them (while everybody says otherwise), and when she gets me Reading or concentrating on something, she says my eyes aren't straight. The last one concerns me most, because although I go to a mirror and find my eyes straight when looking in it, it's difficult to know whether my eyes are straight or not and it's hard to perceive the strain when they aren't straight. But I keep going.
06-23-2014, 03:37 PM (This post was last modified: 06-24-2014, 10:09 AM by Nancy.)
Again, congratulations! Your own feelings and your visual performance are the best indicators of whether you're improving. If you're feeling less strain and can see clearly without headaches, of course that's good! Your mother may have an agenda for you to keep wearing glasses, especially if she wears them herself, since that's all she knows. Trust yourself. She wants to help you the best way she knows, but it's YOUR visual system, and your responsibility. I think you're doing great!
05-16-2015, 08:29 AM (This post was last modified: 05-16-2015, 08:30 AM by wiliansp87.)
To answer you, cathy, I used a lot of palminng, sun gazing and the shifting/swinging, training with a Snellen test card, standing 20 feet away from it.
It's been a lot of time since I last posted. I trained really well until the mid of June last year, when I got conjunctivitis and that broke the training routine for almost one month. After I got cured, I didn't do the exercises as consistently as before . Now I feel that the improvement stopped and the right eye, the good one, gets tired easily when I'm working on the computer.
And now that's been one year without glasses, I find that the left eye is way much better because of the time without them. I feel it much lighter now, and even the lens prescription dropped from -3.25 to - 2.5, as measured by the optometrist in the end of last year. The axis of 47 degrees of the previous prescription disappeared!. Time to get on the training again to achieve perfect vision!
05-20-2015, 07:03 PM (This post was last modified: 05-20-2015, 07:07 PM by wiliansp87.)
Thanks for the links, Clark! I downloaded a new Snellen test card and specific exercises for strabismus.
I took the last two days to check the real condition of my eyes. I found out that I have 20/20 vision in my right eye and 20/40 vision in my left eye (which used to be 20/60 before I stopped wearing glasses). I have latent strabismus and some astigmatism in the left eye, and they don't work together properly, as I failed at doing the switching exercises. I can barely see far objects double when I'm focusing on a near object with both eyes open. I'm not sure if I'll recover 100% of the vision of the left eye, as I was subjected for eye muscle surgery when I was 4, I don't know if they cut some muscle in the surgery, but I think that's what is making the recovery harder.
(05-20-2015, 07:03 PM)wiliansp87 Wrote: Thanks for the links, Clark! I downloaded a new Snellen test card and specific exercises for strabismus.
I took the last two days to check the real condition of my eyes. I found out that I have 20/20 vision in my right eye and 20/40 vision in my left eye (which used to be 20/60 before I stopped wearing glasses). I have latent strabismus and some astigmatism in the left eye, and they don't work together properly, as I failed at doing the switching exercises. I can barely see far objects double when I'm focusing on a near object with both eyes open. I'm not sure if I'll recover 100% of the vision of the left eye, as I was subjected for eye muscle surgery when I was 4, I don't know if they cut some muscle in the surgery, but I think that's what is making the recovery harder.
Lot improvement!
(I dislike these surgeons! Its all about making $.)
I have met people (Kids and adults) that had eye muscle surgery and recovered after staying away from glasses, avoiding more surgery. Maybe the muscle can regrow; when the glasses are not compensating, the muscle is forced to continue full restoration, movement, relaxation, perfect contraction.
My x-boyfriend was in a car accident and lost a lot of muscle in his arm when he was young. He is perfectly fine now, good movement... Still a dent in the muscle but no problems.
Use a mirror to check alignment of the close object between the eyes if you need to. I've met students that have strabismus from wearing glasses many years. They unconsciously move the close object 'pen' to the side, in front of one eye or near it when using a certain eye. Keep it between the eyes for the plain switching. Don't worry about seeing the double images of the pen when looking far; (that is just to help alignment and check for improvement in both eyes). For now; just switch, shift on the close and far objects. That will restore central vision in your macula. Then the vision improves more and the eye turns correct. Then complete improvement occurs.
06-08-2015, 06:49 PM (This post was last modified: 06-08-2015, 06:53 PM by wiliansp87.)
I found the switching exercises and the central fixation bridge really great for me to feel how it's like to use both eyes to form images! It was really hard to do the switching exercises in the beginning because of my tendency to move the pencil towards my best eye. I noticed it clearly when I trained looking in the mirror, and the mirror has been helpful for me to practice it the right way, especially when looking at the pencil with both eyes. Now, I can perceive distant objects double when I focus on the close pencil, but the double images are still uneven.
I keep palming everyday, many times a day for about 2-3 minutes, which is enough to relieve my eyes from uncomfortable strain in certain moments. I feel that my left eye has improved a little bit, as now I can distinguish some letters in the 30 line and the letters on the 40 line look clearer - it gets even better at the end of the practice on the chart! I also cover my right eye every other night when I'm at home, just to help the left eye to strenghten.
(06-08-2015, 06:49 PM)wiliansp87 Wrote: I found the switching exercises and the central fixation bridge really great for me to feel how it's like to use both eyes to form images! It was really hard to do the switching exercises in the beginning because of my tendency to move the pencil towards my best eye. I noticed it clearly when I trained looking in the mirror, and the mirror has been helpful for me to practice it the right way, especially when looking at the pencil with both eyes. Now, I can perceive distant objects double when I focus on the close pencil, but the double images are still uneven.
I keep palming everyday, many times a day for about 2-3 minutes, which is enough to relieve my eyes from uncomfortable strain in certain moments. I feel that my left eye has improved a little bit, as now I can distinguish some letters in the 30 line and the letters on the 40 line look clearer - it gets even better at the end of the practice on the chart! I also cover my right eye every other night when I'm at home, just to help the left eye to strenghten.
Hey wiliansp87,
Also place the pen farther away; 5, 7, 10 feet. Often eye movement is 'off' most at one specific distance. Work that distance more. Work into it gently varying distances.
Even though divergence is complete around 20 feet; switching with all objects past that is beneficial.
I don't know what you mean about a central fixation bridge.
Your having a lot of improvement. Definitely will get to 20/20 and better.
Switching is done only 1-2 times day for about 5-10 min. You can do quick ones too; 2-5 seconds few times day in the park, walking outside.
This is my last post here. I will be off most forums for a long time as I finish new books, videos and a couple inventions! I was teaching on a few forums but many of the owners have snuck back into selling ads for dangerous experimental eye surgery, lasik, drugs... and I don't want to be posting on their forums because it will support that corrupt activity. People are being harmed by those surgeries. Recently a father in Michigan had to drag his 18 yr old son out of a eye surgeons office; the surgeon had talked the boy who had perfect vision, healthy eyes into allowing the surgeon to cut his retina as a experiment. The father stopped this just in time. The boy found the eye doctor though a Google ad offering money to people that are used for experiments. It is on the news.
I also notice that the forum owners rarely help out by posting answers, training people. Only members and strangers are posting.
You can call me if you like for free lessons. I am very careful on Skype due to competing high priced teachers in Kiev, Ukraine-Poland and Italy who tried to hack me for the zillionth time, and recently 3x in one month by getting others to pose for them on Skype...
I had to place 3 newbie honest students on phone training for now til set up new accounts. I do phone... first to get to know the student, then onto Secret Skype account.
I also cover my right eye every other night when I'm at home, just to help the left eye to strenghten.
