Whenever I feel a lack of motivation to practice, reading even one sentence or passage from Bates' writings always helps me very much and gets me back on track to perfect sight. So for that reason I've started this thread, where anyone can toss in their fav. quotes that they felt encouraged by or think will encourage others. Recommended sources to quote from are: PSWG, Better Eyesight Magazines, and Stories from the Clinic. But you can quote from any material you like.
I'll start by quoting Bates on a very important subject, which is the permanent discarding of glasses. Many people on this forum think they can use glasses 'only absolutely when necessary'. This is wrong and extremely detrimental to progress, as extensively explained by Dr. Bates on multiple occasions. There's no such thing as 'absolutely necessary' anyway, of course that is an arbitrary decision by the individual, something subjective, and from an imperfect sighted perspective, an illusion. If you are mentally strong and focused, you will see that glasses are not needed and have the ingenuity to not wear them. If you are weak, you will constantly make excuses to wear them. There is an abundancy of weakness in this forum and not enough strength of will. Remember, you are the person who creates the scenario that causes glasses to become 'absolutely necessary'. If you are clever enough to avoid these situations, glasses will be absolutely not necessary!
Time to Practice
Many busy people complain that they have not time to practice my methods. They say that wearing glasses is quicker and much easier. Persons with normal vision or perfect sight without glasses are practicing consciously or unconsciously all the time when they are awake. When one sees a letter or an object perfectly the eyes are at rest. Any effort to improve the sight always makes it worse. The only time the eyes are perfectly at rest is when the vision is perfect. Persons with imperfect sight have to strain in order to see imperfectly. Persons with headaches, pain and other symptoms of discomfort in the eyes or in other parts of the body are under a constant strain to see, which is usually unconscious.
When a patient says he has no time to practice he is mistaken. He has all the time there is to use his eyes in the right way, or he can use them in the wrong way. He has just as much time to use his eyes properly as he has to use them improperly. He has the choice and when patients learn the facts, to complain that they have no time to practice is an error.
Some patients object to removing their glasses on the ground that their vision is not sufficiently good for them to attend to their work, and feel that they have to put off the treatment until they have a vacation. Some of my patients have very poor vision and yet find time to practice without their glasses. Some school teachers with 15 diopters of myopia with a vision of less than 10/200 have found time to practice without interfering with their work. In fact practicing without their glasses soon enabled them to do their work much better than before.
- April 1924
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Question: I have had good results with Dr. Bates' book, but as yet cannot leave off my glasses. May I resume them when I do close work?
Answer: No medicine is easy. Put up with the discomfort. Learn how to diminish and abolish this day by day. Leave off your glasses.
wearing glasses when absolutely necessary must be only for driving, operating machinery and performing other tasks that can result in injury, accidents if the vision is not clear enough to perform these functions with safety.
Truck, train, plane, bus drivers, scientists measuring liquids, chemicals and others can lose their lisence and job if they are caught driving, working without their glasses.
For this reason some natural eyesight improvement teachers have the patient get reduced, weaker 20/40 eyeglass lenses to be worn only at these necessary times.
20/40 weaker lenses produce less tension, strain in the mind, eyes than 20/20 and stronger eyeglass lenses so they do not interefere with the vision improvement process as much as 20/20 and stronger lenses.
20/40 vision is allowed for driving in most states.
20/20 might be mandatory for other jobs.
Because all eyeglasses including weaker 20/40 lenses block vision improvement, all eyeglasses including weaker reduced 20/40 eyeglasses must be used as little as possible.
weaker and weaker eyeglass lenses are prescribed as the vision improves with application of Natural eyesight immprovement Bates method, then, wearing of eyeglasses is stopped, permantely.
See new diagrams showing use of 20/40 reduced lenses to be posted in two days at; cleareyesight.info
The things you speak of are completely contradictory to Bates.
Please don't use his name to describe your methods, because that would be a disgrace. Use the word 'NVI', if you want to talk about glasses and weaker prescription and that crap.
clark is right. You have to be able to see in order to drive, so wearing reduced prescription is a must. Or you can just walk or take the bus or have someone else drive for you. The same thing applies with operating machinery, because you don't want you or someone else to get hurt.
If driving means you have to wear glasses, then DON'T DRIVE!
If operating machinery means you have to wear glasses, then DON'T OPERATE MACHINERY!
Duh. ???
yes, some people need to stay at their jobs to support their family so reduced lenses can help people wean their way off glasses as vision is improving.
I do not want people to become injured or homeless do to accidents at work, driving... or loss of job.
Some people dont need reduced lenses;
My mom has cataracts and unclear vision.
Vision not too bad.
Cataracts, unclear vision and other health problems started after being on HRT then fosamax drug.
I had her doing Bates method and got her off eyeglasses and sunglasses.
vision started improving, cataracts reversing and eye doctor post poned cataract operation.
Will not stop taking fosamax even though many people report it causes cataracts, dry eye, other eye problems, bone impairment, heart attacks.
Step father and eye doctor frightened her back into wearing glasses and staying on the drug which has now caused her to need more drugs to treat the health problems, high blood pressure...fosamax is causing.
now wearing bificals which are one of the worst forms of eyeglasses, causes fast incrased vision impairment, extreme eye muscle tension, dysfunction and causes, increases the cataracts.
Eye doctor wants her cataracts to return, grow so he can make thousands of dollars on a operation.
i cant get mom to stop the drugs and glasses.
in her case, she can go without eyeglases.
she rarely drives, others can drive for her til vision improves.
so difficult to change a persons mind for the better when they are brainwashed by medical, optical industry, advertisments on tv, newspapers and family.
Drugs, prescription and non prescription are major cause of many eye problems!
I am deeply sorry for your mother...
If I were in your shoes, I might have given your step father a good old (well-meaning) slap around the cheek... same goes for the eye doctor! Knock their glasses off while I'm at it, too. Anyway this thread has gone off topic! I intended it as a place where people can chuck in their favorite quotes
There are natural alternatives to fosamax, and most docs don't tell their patients about them. I recommend you ask a naturopath for advice, and seek natural remedies to avoid the awful side effects. Osteoporosis can be corrected over time to a certain degree with proper supplementation and diet, but of course it's much easier for a doc to give a killer medication that resolves the problem in a matter of days, and maybe even hours.
I agree with kaze that glasses should not be worn if you seek great improvement. They are counterproductive with respect to the Bates method. Nonetheless, I think most people would choose their job over visual health....except elderly folks. If it is absolutely necessary, they may wear glasses, but they must also understand that doing so will greatly retard their progress. Besides, many people have gained considerably improvement wearing weakened glasses. I think it's best to give it a shot - even with periodically wearing glasses, as opposed to throwing out the Bates method completely and forgetting about it. Although, each person that does this should understand the harm glasses do, and how wearing them would hinder their improvement. Each person should also understand that the reason why Bates method doesn't seem to work is because we are addicted to wearing glasses.
Spot on, Paul. I don't like to give definite answers to things like the glasses issue. I'd rather give a vague answer and make someone think about why glasses are likely to hinder progress or prevent it altogether. The thing is that your need for glasses and blurry vision are the same issue. If you want to see, it's best to do something about your addiction to glasses to begin with, and not just count on your vision improving first and your need for glasses decreasing as a result of it. It's the same thing with drug addictions - you can't get very good rehab if you keep on taking the substances as much as you want.
Dave
Site Administrator
"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
At the moment my favourite is the quote which is along the lines of:
'If you are under treatment for imperfect sight be sure to keep in mind all day long from the time you wake up in the morning until you go to bed at night the feeling of comfort, of rest, of relaxation, incessantly.' (Bates).
When I first started Bates I began the exercises in an efforting way, but I was discontent with progress and this was just a strain. So now, I've changed my way of being and whenever I do anything(including seeing) I try to stay away from straining myself first and foremost, and then just take things easy. It's kind of a whole new approach to things.
Hey that's one of my favorite quotes too ;D the real genius about Bates that I think is awesome is that he leaves you with absolutely zero excuses to not practice. You can practice his methods anywhere, anytime. Those complaining 'I'm too busy' are already failing their understanding by thinking so. My other favorite quote (in the top ten chart, lol) is the one in your signiture. "We do not see, things are seen." Simply brilliant. Also: "The world moves. Let it move." I love that.
Great quotes can be found on page #2 of each BEM. These concise paragraphs are meant to be quotes, because so many sense was to be carried in so few words. They are like aphorisms.
E.g.
"You have just as much time to use your eyes right as you have to use them wrong."
Yeh I really like that one. I initially just thought about it meaning don't try too hard to see anything, and instead let the scenery come to you. BUT at the same time I think it touches on the issue of dissociation, I'm no expert on this, but maybe how we choose or don't choose to let things in(visually speaking) is important.
Knock their glasses off while I'm at it, too. Anyway this thread has gone off topic! I intended it as a place where people can chuck in their favorite quotes
