Hello,
This week in the chat room meeting, we discussed various eyesight improvement programs that we tried. We realized that when one hears of "natural vision improvement", instinctively one's will and excitement is most often misdirected into commercial programs to improve vision. I found that many of us have tried one or two programs before encountering the Bates method. Personally, I searched the internet for customers' unbiased feedback on the programs, and haven't been able to find any, which resulted me wasting some money. The very purpose of this thread is to provide unbiased feedback on the programs. "Caveat emptor"-sort of thing -->Let the buyer beware! ;D
Note: there are legal issues associated with this, so don't copy/paste copyrighted material in here. Just provide your feedback, that's it.
I tried the Program for Better Vision, which cost ~$40.
I chose it because it was cheap, and associated with a research project in the Cambridge institute for better vision, which assured me it wasn't a scam.
The program consisted of various boring and tedious eye exercises (string beads, relieving tension in the neck muscles, visualization, far-near shifting), which had to be performed 20 minutes each day. There were also audio tapes that guided you through the process. The program contained a routine that covered 8 weeks.
I found the exercises to be interesting the first time i performed a few of them, but they got boring and I completely lost the will to do them. Each of them ended up being an annoyance, which most likely hindered my process. However, i kept going because I had every intention to finish the program.
After 8 weeks I saw absolutely no improvement, but I did feel my eyes were a little more relaxed.
I asked for a refund, which they kindly gave me.
In conclusion: good program, however, it misses a lot of Bates points, but on the right track (better than other programs that I've read about).
Paul, the "Cambridge Institute for Better Vision" is just the name of the company that sells PBV. I think you got scammed into thinking it was a research facility, or somehow related to either Cambridge University, Harvard, or MIT (both located in Cambridge, MA).
Subject: Paying money for a "package" with a promise.
I think the best book on the subject is by Jacob Liberman,
who has good ideas on vision CLEARING.
The major one is too look at your Snellen, establish
what line you can read, and then work to clear
additional lines, like starting at 20/70, and
reaching a reasonable 20/40 or better (pass
all DMV requirements).
In fact Dave has stated that he cleared his vision
from -2 diopters to 20/50 (I believe).
So the real issue is to work with Dave on these
various issues, and pay attention to your Snellen,
and confirm it clears as you do palming, swinging,
and other methods.
The nice thing is that it is all free. But it
does take fortitude to do it. But you do not
rely on an OD telling you you "improved" your vision.
No, you just read your Snellen and confim it youself,
thus avoiding his degenerative opinion.
I have just had an appointment with an optometrist who has gotten rid of her minus glasses by slowly reducing the prescription over time and doing eye exercises. She did all sorts of tests on my eyes that took 1.5 hours (much longer than any other eye doctor I've ever been to). She said I have been overprescribed and gave me new prescriptions that are 1D less in each eye (went from L-6.25/R-5.50 to L-5.25/R-4.50). She also gave me a prescription for reading glasses (L-4.75/R-4.00) to use at the computer. I also have to attend vision therapy classes once a week for 6 months, although she made it clear that it's optional and only necessary if I want to continue reducing the strength of my glasses. I will keep you posted on my progress.
Just a quick post to let you know my progress. My original contacts prescription was -5.75 on the left and -5.0 on the right. I'm currently wearing -4.50 on both eyes. I can see 20/30 on the snellen chart. The left eye is still weaker and with only that eye I can see 20/50. I attend weekly VT classes and I do daily eye exercises at home. The main recurring theme through it all is that I need to "keep aware of the periphery". Whatever exercise I'm doing, I'm supposed to be keeping aware of objects that I'm not directly looking at (their color, their 3-D-ness, their distance from one another, their shape, etc). I at first thought this was odd, but I realized that as soon as I start noticing the periphery, my eyes immediately relax. Even as I'm on my computer, I'm supposed to be aware of the objects around the monitor. Also, I was told to use +0.5D glasses over the contacts for when I'm doing computer work or reading or any near work. And because of my weaker left eye, I was told to use a patch over the right eye when I'm at home.
So that's the state of things so far and I will keep you posted on progress. I will be giving this 6 months' trial and see if there is any further improvement.
I just wanted to mention that what you said has been rattling around in my head and it makes sense to me. I've ordered glasses that are 1.5D lower than my distance glasses, to be used on the computer. I will let you know how it goes. Thanks.
I need to get this straight - if I have contacts that are -7.00 in each eye, can I achieve the same relaxed effect (for reading on the computer) by wearing EITHER
1. a -5.00 prescription
2. wearing -7.00 contacts with +2.00 reading glasses over them.
That's what I am understanding from this discussion, but do you know that this is true?
That would make my life so much easier! I work on and off between my lab and my computer, and for safety I really need to have perfect vision in the lab. Further, it's noisy so I need to wear contacts so that my headset covers my ears all the way without glasses in the way.
Subject: Basic optics. You can "add" the external lens to you contact.
Quote:I need to get this straight - if I have contacts that are -7.00 in each eye, can I achieve the same relaxed effect (for reading on the computer) by wearing EITHER
1. a -5.00 prescription
2. wearing -7.00 contacts with +2.00 reading glasses over them.
That's what I am understanding from this discussion, but do you know that this is true?
Yes, it is true.
The -7.00 diopter contact will give you 20/20.
Wearing the +2 over contacts will enable clear vision up
to about 20 - 25 inches. (But beyond that, your vision
will be slightly blurred. Therefore just look over the
plus for distant objects.)
If you get a -5 diopter contact, the same thing will be true.
