I just discovered the Bates Method 3 days ago and have been reading up on it nonstop. It absolutely amazes me how so many people have improved their eyesight, and I'm ready to be 100% dedicated to try it out and ditch 9 years of "corrective lenses" that clearly have made my eyes progressively worse.
However, I'm wondering which books/sources you guys used to get started, or what my plan of attack should be? I ordered the book "Relearning To See" on Amazon, and borrowed "Improve Your Vision Without Glasses/Contacts" from the library. Will this be enough to get me started towards improvement? The latter is a little simple and I didn't find the "Shift" or "Swing" techniques you guys have been talking about. What else should I use? [I would go through the entire thread to look for info but that would probably strain my eyes more...]
I'm 19 and have -6.75 in one eye and -4.75 in the other, and getting worse each year, though it's slower now. I used to be terrified that I'll be essentially blind by the time I finish college due to the massive amounts of reading every night. Hearing about the Bates Method could be potentially the best thing that's ever happened to me, but I just need some guidance as to where/how to start learning it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Another question - should I try to NOT wear my contacts during the exercises? Or throughout the day? I'm literally blind and cannot see/do anything without them. I'm planning to get new glasses that are 20/40 and take it from there.
The Bates Methods are performed without lenses.
Apparently virtually all nearsighted people with both eyes myopic and significantly different prescriptions for each eye (such as yourself) who have worn their conventionally prescribed lenses constantly for years experience a reversal of normal eye dominance such that their worse eye becomes their dominant eye. Worse eye dominance is abnormal and probably contributes to the worsening of the eyesight. Is your worse eye your dominant eye?
If your worse eye is dominant, you should work to equalize the dominance while performing the Bates Methods.
Normal sighted people and nearsighted people who do not wear their glasses (or only wear them for safety or when absolutely necessary) usually have their better eye dominant.
Normal sighted people have one eye which sees a little bit better than the other, and that better eye is dominant. It's common sense.
My suspicion is that opticians unfortunately write prescriptions that bring both eyes to 20/20 (rather than say 20/20 R, 20/19.5 L), confusing the nearsighted mind, which causes a reversal of normal better eye dominance, which causes further myopia. Since you wear your glasses all or most of the time, I am curious - is your worse eye dominant, and is the same eye dominant with and without your lenses?
finixfrost: you're fortunate to be starting this work so young. See David's front pages here about how to use your eyes, and focus on this (no pun intended) at all times, glasses or contacts or not. Yes, do swings and palming and other Bates exercises without glasses or contacts, and in general use your lenses as little as possible -- you want to gradually break that addiction. You say you can't see a thing, but I'll bet you can see color, or maybe even depth, or dark and light. See if you can go for a short walk without glasses, or just walk across the room -- you will gradually find there are many things you can do fine without glasses. I started with a much stronger prescription than you have, which I'd worn for decades by the way so my lifelong bad frozen visual habits were pretty entrenched, and now I hardly wear glasses at all. You can do it. Read the Bates book and the magazines, and use the information here. Good luck!
JMartinC4 Wrote:The Bates Methods are performed without lenses. Apparently virtually all nearsighted people with both eyes myopic and significantly different prescriptions for each eye ... who have worn their conventionally prescribed lenses constantly for years experience a reversal of normal eye dominance such that their worse eye becomes their dominant eye. Worse eye dominance is abnormal and probably contributes to the worsening of the eyesight. ... If your worse eye is dominant, you should work to equalize the dominance while performing the Bates Methods. Normal sighted people and nearsighted people who do not wear their [lenses] (or only wear them for safety or when absolutely necessary) usually have their better eye dominant. Normal sighted people have one eye which sees a little bit better than the other, and that better eye is [slightly] dominant. It's common sense. My suspicion is that opticians unfortunately write prescriptions that bring both eyes to 20/20 (rather than say 20/20 R, 20/19.5 L), confusing the nearsighted mind, which causes a reversal of normal better eye dominance, which causes further myopia. ...
On the other hand, even if your better eye is dominant (as mine is), if it is TOO dominant you will still have to equalize the dominance (as I had to), and allow your submissive eye to begin sharing the lead or taking the lead when it would be normal to do so.
@JMartinC4: Just tried the dominant eye test and it appears that my stronger eye is dominant, so I'm assuming that should be normal, regardless of myopia?
@Nancy: Thanks for your encouragement! I've finished looking through this website and read both books, and now I think I understand most of the basic concepts. I've also been trying to stay off my glasses the past two days. Don't really feel any improvement because everything is still so blurry and it's hard to see a difference, but there is less strain on my eyes and I'm practicing central fixation.
A few more questions after working through all these books. As I understand it, the only actual ACTIVITIES the Bates Method proposes are palming, sunning, swinging, and central fixation, along with other things like staying relaxed/breathing, right? In the Improve Your Vision book, there are also many other exercises like rolling the eyes, or practicing looking at every hour of the clock and holding that directional gaze, as well as hydrotherapy (alternating hot/cold compresses over the eyes). Are these necessary? I don't think the Quackenbush book even mentioned them. I'm still incredulous: Can vision improve solely through these simple methods of palming/sunning/swinging/centralization? Just by staying away from glasses/lenses and performing these activities? I know it's way too early, but two days of doing this doesn't make me feel any differently, just less pressure on the eyes (probably because I'm staying away from normal daily activity). My vision just seems to stay in the same range of blurriness and I wouldn't be able to tell if it got any better.
Secondly, what are these clear flashes of vision everybody is talking about? Is it just a sudden span of time where you see markedly better? Like suddenly 20/50 vision when you're normally 20/600 or whatever? How can I make this happen?
Lastly, people talk about practicing with a Snellen chart. I printed one off but what do I do with it? Should I be recording my improvement? Do I just practice shifting and swaying in front of it, or am I missing something here?
Sorry for the long list of questions. No pressure to answer them all, any help would be great. Thanks!
My first suggestion to you is to gradually change your belief that you are blind without your glasses or contacts. I started with -8 in each eye, and I had felt the same way when I started. I changed this belief by spending some time each day without glasses. First in my room, then going to the bathroom, then cooking, etc. It was a major part of my vision improvement progress. Experiment for yourself and work within your comfort/safety zone and continually expand the activities and the time you spend without any vision correction. This gets easier, of course, as your vision improves. But you will be very surprised I think at how much you can see even now without correction, just they way your eyes are at this moment.
You are surpised that vision can improve solely with palming/sunning/swinging/centralization, etc. I was too! In fact, you will be even more surprised when you experience significant improvement from practicing and mastering JUST ONE of those techniques.
The method is simple, remember that above all. Avoid the tendency to constantly seek new techniques or new tricks to improve your vision faster. If you find a technique that improves your vision, practice it as often as possible in order to continuously improve your vision. You may have to do some creative tweaking to keep it interesting, but at the core, if palming helps, well, keep palming.
As far as beginning, really, just begin. Actually use and experiment with what you have read so far. That will take you some time to find some things that work for you. (then repeat!)
If you feel you need more direction for what to do each day, what I recommend to beginners is to demonstrate the easiest things (max one new thing per day). Dr. Bates wrote 10 years of magazines found here: http://www.central-fixation.com/better-e...-magazine/
The first article of each month is usually a short article with instructions to demonstrate one of his techniques. These are the best, shortest, most simple instructions you will find and I recommend reading and practicing with them first. You don't need to start at the first magazine. I just had a quick look through, try the first article of Dec. 1924, May 1925, Jan. 1922, Dec. 1922 all of them from 1926 and 1927 are really good as well. Remember, do one thing at a time, take your time. If it doesn't make sense, ask for help. If it doesn't work, ask yourself if you were paying attention to yourself while doing it (correct) or if you were just sitting there the whole time wondering if it's working (which is wrong by the way). Keep in mind that not all techniques will necessarily work for you. Just repeat the ones you find help you. Come back to the confusing/unhelpful ones at a later time.
That's a lot of info, I hope it doesn't overwhelm you. Above all, do something with what you have learned today and keep progress notes in a journal or blog.
The questions about the Snellen chart are pretty common, I've written a lot here:
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And there's more info for beginners in the following link, but I hesitate adding it, because it's more important that you try things, rather than just reading about them:
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Yes, normal vision has one eye with just slightly better eyesight and that eye is slightly dominant. You are already a step ahead of most myopes.
Print TWO Snellens and post them on the wall at the exact same position - measure it so they are perfectly aligned - separated by the width of another imaginary Snellen between them. You will use this setup to check and adjust your visual alignment and to stimulate binocular/stereoscopic vision.
Yes, flush your eyes with cold water as often as you can - cold water obviously will momentarily contract your corneas a bit as well as temporarily repair the tearfilm if damaged (actual spit is probably better for that). You might hear or read of naysayers calling this a 'temporary contact lens effect' or something - but what actually happens is you gradually train your eyes and visual system to contract/repair on their own with little or no effort.
Remember that the term 'myopia' ('closed eye') comes from the ancient Greeks - some of our first and greatest scientists - who recognized that nearsighted people seemed to be holding/squeezing their eyes slightly closed for some reason. Wake up! Open up! Yawn! Gradually train yourself to stop the bad habit of squeezing - and release the bulging corneas caused by the unconscious squeezing.
Great site! I have been reading a lot online about ways to restore my eyesight without surgery! Not that I don't have the money, but I've always been wary about the complications it brings with. I firmly believe that there *must* be a way of fixing this naturalily and that the human body is an amazing machine and we have yet to realize the full potential of it.
Now, back to the topic. As I said, there are so many techniques and books out there that I don't know where to start! Some say the Bates method is the best, others say it is good but that its now outdated and that I should do the Norbekov method instead.
