The Bates System of Better Eyesight Without Glasses

I've decided to add this suggestion after reading the article Neuropsychology of Myopia by Dr. Raymond L. Gottlieb. I've included some excerpts from Dr. Gottlieb's article on the Research Topics page under the heading 'Neuropsychology of Myopia'.

Maximize the Effect of the Bates Method

Tips

"It is important for you to become self-aware of the ways in which you overtense your eyes in order to try to see.

It is important that you free your body -- your potential mechanism."

Neuropsychology of Myopia, by Ray Gottlieb, OD, PhD: Appendices

· Vision: 3D Stereo Images: Instructions (parallel viewing)

Muscle Tension

"The places to look for tension mostly include:

· The back of the upper neck;

· The upper back;

· Between the shoulders;

· The hands and feet;

· The shoulders;

· The pelvis [the hips];

· The chest; and

· The stomach."

Neuropsychology of Myopia, by Ray Gottlieb, OD, PhD: Appendices

· Muscle Tension: Take a Shower in the Morning or Before You Go to Work

Adjuncts to Bates' System

· "Yoga,

· Meditation,

· Massage,

· Feldenkrais,

· Alexander,

· Rolfing,

· Polarity,

· Dancing,

· Running,

· Breathing,

· Swimming, etc.

are all excellent adjuncts to Bates' system."

Neuropsychology of Myopia, by Ray Gottlieb, OD, PhD: Appendices

Glasses

"It is important to learn to take your glasses off, especially in non-demanding, non-threatening situations. You are not blind, and though you can't see what you think you are supposed to see, you can see what you can see, so pay attention to that which is there for you. Everyone experiences emotional factors when they change to no glasses."

Neuropsychology of Myopia, by Ray Gottlieb, OD, PhD: Appendices

Strain

"…A problem with identifying strain immediately is those of us who strain most are often suffering the least discomfort from it. It may become so habitual, so ingrained in our normal way of doing things, that we don't perceive it as necessarily uncomfortable."

Strain and Relaxation

Reading

“All reading and close work generally should be done under strong illumination. Not only will a strong light improve the contrast between the print and the blank paper, but it will also encourage foveal vision and stop down the iris to increase the depth of focus. Using a slot [a piece of black card about the size of a book page with a horizontal slot cut in the middle] and under a bright lamp, you may find it possible to read print which formerly was beyond you.

Take frequent breaks during your reading to make use of the other techniques [reading is excellent for encouraging mobility] of the [Bates] method. Palming, visualization, and sunning are especially helpful in preventing or alleviating the eyestrain and headaches that often accompany or follow reading. (Page 71)”

Book: Barnes, Jonathan. Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight without Glasses. Souvenir Press, 1999.

· Vision: Bates Method: Palming

· Vision: Bates Method: Palming: Palming and Visualization

· Vision: Bates Method: Sunning

· Vision: Binocular Functions: Convergence Insufficiency

The Four Basic Exercises

"To be done when they feel good -- ten minutes or thirty seconds -- the more often and the longer, the better."

Neuropsychology of Myopia

Palming

· Vision: The Bates Method: Palming

Swinging

Long Swinging: Instructions

· "Rotate your body from left to right and back.

· Eyes, torso and head move together. Turning mostly around your waist.

· Don't look at anything as you swing; be aware of movement mainly. Let your eyes go, let your consciousness stay in front of you while you turn.

· Make sure to keep breathing."

Neuropsychology of Myopia

"There is another type of mobility swinging in the Bates method, sometimes called ‘long swinging’, which has a rather different purpose [from regular swinging]. It is simple to do, and consists essentially of turning from side to side.

· Stand with the feet about 30 centimetres (12 inches) apart,

· The arms hanging loosely, and,

· Lifting the right heel as you do so, turn to the left.

· When you have reached the limit of comfortable travel, turn to the right, letting the left heel rise and the right one return to the floor.

· Go on like this until you have performed 20 complete swings.

· The turning should involve your hips as well as your waist.

· Keep your arms relaxed so that they rise slightly as you swing.

· Do not go too fast; try to make the swings smooth, level, and rhythmical. Keep your eyes open and allow the image of your surroundings to rush past without trying to focus on anything in particular. Nearby objects will naturally seem to move faster than distant ones, and will probably be no more than a blur. Make no attempt to hold on to or fix any part of the image; notice only that everything seems to be moving in the direction opposite to that of your swing.(Pages 63-64)"

Book: Barnes, Jonathan. Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight without Glasses. Souvenir Press, 1999.

Long Swinging: Benefits

· "Long swinging is very effective in breaking the habit of staring.

· It also promotes looseness and relaxation in the upper part of the body.

· According to Dr. Bates, 50 swings performed at bedtime and again on rising will help to prevent or alleviate eyestrain during sleep.(P. 64)"

Book: Barnes, Jonathan. Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight without Glasses. Souvenir Press, 1999.

Long Swinging: Dizziness

"Should you find yourself becoming dizzy, begin with just a few swings and each day add one or two to the total. Eventually any feeling of nausea should disappear and you will be able to do as many swings as you please. (P. 64)"

Book: Barnes, Jonathan. Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight without Glasses. Souvenir Press, 1999.

Sunning

· Vision: The Bates Method: Sunning

Blinking and Breathing

· "Practise giving half a dozen rapid and very light blinks [light, so the eyes don't become tired],

· Shut the eyes lightly for the space of two whole breaths [slow, deep breaths], and

· repeat four times. (P. 60)"

Book: Barnes, Jonathan. Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight without Glasses. Souvenir Press, 1999.

“This little routine, practised regularly, twice or more a day, will, especially if followed by a brief spell of palming,

· Help to establish the correct tone in the muscles of the eyelids and

· Develop better habits of blinking. (P. 60)"

Book: Barnes, Jonathan. Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight without Glasses. Souvenir Press, 1999.

“No more than a few seconds should pass between one blink and the next. As a very rough guide, between two and four blinks in each period of ten seconds is about right. (P. 60)"

Book: Barnes, Jonathan. Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight without Glasses. Souvenir Press, 1999.

"Beware of the stare. We lock ourselves into a stare, eyes immobile and breath stopped. Spaced. Blink your eyes rapidly as you take two big breaths whenever you become aware of your eyes or breath."

Neuropsychology of Myopia

Fusion

"We now come to the part of the Bates method aimed at improving the use of the extrinsic muscles. Tracking, searching, and scanning are helped by the techniques covered in the chapters on mobility; fusion techniques, given here, will improve control of the visual axis.

Together with the accommodation drills to be described later, fusion techniques come as close as anything else in the Bates method to what is normally understood by the term "eye exercises". In one sense they are indeed eye exercises, because the extrinsic muscles and the mechanism of accommodation are strengthened by them, but to say that they are nothing more is to simplify what the achieve. They make use of conscious control in order to improve control on an unconscious plane. This principle is basic to the whole of the Bates method, and runs through nearly every one of its techniques.

Fusion drills are simple. The first [pencil fusion] may be used as a test to determine whether your fusion (control of the visual axes) is faulty and needs further work.(Page 53)"

Book: Barnes, Jonathan. Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight without Glasses. Souvenir Press, 1999.

Pencil Fusion

"Take a pencil and hold it straight up in front of you and about 45 centimetres (18 inches) from your face. Look at the pencil, and then allow your eyes to refocus in the distance beyond it (on the far wall if you are indoors). You should now be able to see two blurred pencils, like gateposts one on either side of the point you are looking at. The two pencils should be equally plain. If they are not, if you can only see one, or if the point in the distance also appears double, then your fusion is certainly faulty.

If you can only see one pencil, shut either eye alternately to find out which is the weaker. Now cover the stronger eye and look at the pencil again. Refocus in the distance and memorise where the pencil comes in relation to the distant view. Uncover the stronger eye. Does it dominate the weaker one completely; does the pencil immediately switch sides? Or are you able to retain the weaker eye's pencil, at least for a moment or two?

Similarly, practise covering the stronger eye if both pencils are visible but one is clearer than the other. If the distant point is also double, practice with one eye at a time, focusing first on the pencil, and then in the distance, bringing your focus back to the pencil. Repeat this routine three times with each eye, then try both together. Don't worry if you have difficulty with this or with any of the fusion drills. They will all come eventually, aided by your progress with palming and sunning.(Page 53)"

Book: Barnes, Jonathan. Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight without Glasses. Souvenir Press, 1999.

Two-Pencil Fusion

"For two-pencil fusion you need some definite reference point in the distance: any object that will fit conveniently into the 'gateway'. Hold one pencil up at arm's length, and another a few inches from your face. Practise making two gateways, one enclosing the other and both enclosing the reference point. Aim to make each of the 'four' pencils equally plain, although the nearer gateway will of course be more blurred. Now focus on the further pencil. You should find that your reference point has doubled: each of the two should appear equally plain. Bring your focus back to the nearer pencil. The far pencil should now be making a gateway, which is itself enclosed by the paired images of the reference point. Again, the paired images and the gateway should appear equally plain. Finally, focus somewhere in the middle distance, between the far pencil and the reference point, and see whether you can maintain not only both gateways but also the paired images of the reference point. (Page 54)"

Book: Barnes, Jonathan. Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight without Glasses. Souvenir Press, 1999.

Comments

The 'distance' referred to in the instructions for pencil fusion and two-pencil fusion should be a distance which is farther away than your eyes are accustomed to at the time you do the exercise.

For example if you are watching television, and you are doing the fusion exercises during the commercials, you should focus on a point in the distance which is farther away than the television.

Mobility

"The techniques [blinking and breathing, shifting, swinging, long swinging] given under this heading, besides improving the remaining functions of the extrinsic muscles (tracking, searching and scanning), also counteract the various tendencies which are part and parcel of the habit of ‘trying’ to see. As already noted, this ’trying’ is commonly accompanied by some degree of immobility of the eyes and body. The rate of blinking decreases; breathing becomes shallower and may, for a while, even stop. The muscles of the head, neck, shoulders, and perhaps other parts of the body too, may be unnaturally tensed, and all the time the eyes are fixed with increasing intentness on their target. As the eyes become fixed so does the attention, which only encourages the eyes to become yet more fixed, with a resulting impairment of both vision and perception. (P. 59)"

Book: Barnes, Jonathan. Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight without Glasses. Souvenir Press, 1999.

· Vision: Mobility/Ocular Motility

Accommodation

What is Accommodation?

"Bates's proposal was that the eye accommodates [changes focus for far and near objects], not by a change in the shape of the lens, but by a change in the shape in the eyeball itself, this change being brought about by the six extrinsic muscles which control the movement of the eye in it's socket. (Page 3)."

Book: Barnes, Jonathan. Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight without Glasses. Souvenir Press, 1999.

Convergence, Divergence

“…Your eyes accommodate and converge and diverge…”

icare4u.com:3D Vision

· Vision: 3D Stereo Images: Instructions: Convergence and Divergence (additional information about convergence and divergence)

· Vision: 3D Stereo Images: Increasing Alpha-Theta Waves/Decreasing Beta Waves

· Vision: Binocular Functions: Convergence Insufficiency

· Vision: Binocular Functions: Accommodative Insufficiency

Changing Focus, Room Lighting

Note: Focusing on a small object in the distance (e.g. a small tree branch), or the texture of an object, seems to be helpful.

This may be helpful because if you are only looking in the direction of an object, but are not focusing on the details of the object, your eyes may not be accommodating at the distance of the object, but, instead, accommodating at a shorter distance.

Also, focusing on the texture of an object can be helpful because it stimulates the pattern recognition function of the right frontal lobe.

"When indoors you should remain aware of the need for frequent change of focus. While reading, look up from the page at regular intervals-say at the end of each long paragraph or each page-and, just for a second, consciously focus on some distant object. While watching television [or a computer monitor], keep a light on in the room and frequently look away from the screen, whether at an object nearer or farther away. (Pages 75-76)"

Book: Barnes, Jonathan. Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight without Glasses. Souvenir Press, 1999.

“Try looking at something with a white background, such as... [a web page with a white background].

· If the white seems almost like a light source, that's too bright.

· If it seems to have a gray filter over it, that's not bright enough.

If your room lighting is neither too bright nor too dark, you should end up with a setting in your monitor's mid-range.”

'Computer related Health issues' [this page contains information which no longer exists on its referenced sites]

· Vision: Binocular Functions: Light Sensitivity: Suggestions: Contrast and Brightness

“The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the apparent depth of pictorial images on accommodation…perceptually-based accommodation had only a secondary effect on the overall accommodative response level under naturalistic viewing conditions, with blur dominating.”

Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics (Journal): 'The effect of apparent depth in pictorial images on accommodation'

Zooming

Instructions

· "Cut a strip of paper about eight centimeters (three inches) long and two centimeters (slightly under an inch) wide, and in the center mark a small ink cross…Should you not have a bit of paper by you, close your hand slightly so that one of the creases in your palm becomes more pronounced, and use that as your object instead. (Page 76)"

· "Wrap the strip of paper round the base of the middle finger of your left hand, in such a way that the cross is towards you when the palm is uppermost. The strip is held in place by your ring and index fingers.

· Cover your right eye with your right hand and, watching the cross, bring it slowly closer, and closer still, …until it is merely a blur, and then make it slowly retreat. Take it out to arm's length and bring it back rather more quickly. Do this five times in all, accelerating as you go, so that at the end your hand is moving rather rapidly.

· Repeat with the right hand and the right eye, and then, still with the strip on your right hand, with both eyes together.

· Pause, look into the distance, and repeat the whole drill once more.

· Slowly build up to five repetitions, making six sets in all. (Page 76)"

Book: Barnes, Jonathan. Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight without Glasses. Souvenir Press, 1999.

Things to Avoid

"Zooming can be relatively strenuous in the beginning, so do not try to attempt too much, and stop immediately if you find yourself becoming tired or losing interest. (Page 76)"

Book: Barnes, Jonathan. Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight without Glasses. Souvenir Press, 1999.

Examining Small Objects

"If you are already able to focus at reading distance, get into the habit of, now and then when you are alone, examining very closely some small object.

· Insects--if you can bring yourself to look at them--make a fascinating subject for study with the naked eye, as do

· Leaves,

· Flowers,

· Bits of bark,

· Ferns,

· Feathers,

· Pebbles:

· In fact, anything from nature.

Examine also the minute appearance and texture of such objects as your

· Front door key,

· Pen nib [the end of the pen used to write with], or

· Wristwatch.

Use both eyes together and, from time to time, measure and make a note of the minimum distance at which you are able to focus [the near point of convergence]. (Page 76)"

Book: Barnes, Jonathan. Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight without Glasses. Souvenir Press, 1999.

· Research Topics: Model of Stages in Object Perception

Problems with Accommodation

· Vision: Binocular Functions: Accommodative Insufficiency

· Research Topics: Brainwaves: Alpha Waves: Low Alpha Waves (staring at a blank wall)

Tips

Scheduler or reminder programs can be helpful in reminding you to rest your eyes while using a computer. For example, a program could remind you to look into the distance, for 20 seconds, every twenty minutes.

· techtv: Prevent computing injuries with an automatic reminder to take a break.

Vision and the Mind

Unconscious Vision

"According to the Bates hypothesis, faulty vision can arise as one result of emotional difficulties, among which may be a subconscious desire not to see. As far as refractive error is concerned, this desire not to see can be compared to the desire not to walk or talk shown in certain kinds of hysterical illness. The brain is able to block the responses of the body so that walking or talking-or focusing-do indeed become more difficult, or even impossible.

The brain can also block the visual process in another way, by erecting a barrier of some sort between the unconscious and the conscious mind, so that, even if the eyes are performing well, the signals are obstructed or degraded before being allowed to reach the consciousness.

It is helpful to think of this barrier in symbolic terms, as being made of some substance which can vary in consistence according to the subconscious wishes of the brain. When vision is perfect the substance of the barrier is perfectly fluid and the signals pass through it freely, but as vision deteriorates the substance becomes more and more glutinous, slowing down the passage of signals or preventing it altogether.

There are two distinct ways in which the brain can block the visual process. The first is by interfering with the mechanics of vision; the second is by altering the 'consistency' of the barrier between the unconscious and the conscious mind."

(Page 81)"

Book: Barnes, Jonathan. Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight without Glasses. Souvenir Press, 1999.

"The outer edges of the retina contain relatively few photoreceptors, mostly rods, and provide vision which may be compared to that of primitive animals. At the very periphery of the retina, indeed, there is no conscious vision at all, merely an awareness of movement and contrast. When you see something 'in the corner of your eye' and automatically turn to see it better, you are responding to signals generated in this portion of the retina. (Page 9)"

Book: Barnes, Jonathan. Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight without Glasses. Souvenir Press, 1999.

Suggestions

· Three-Dimensional Stereo Images

· Palming

Recommended Books

Book Review: Improve Your Eyesight: A Guide to the Bates Method for Better Eyesight Without Glasses

"One unique offering is his explaining how there are two ways for the brain to block the visual process. One is to interfere with the mechanics of vision, by altering the eye shape with the extrinsic muscles, preventing proper blinking and shifting, and encouraging disease that impairs vision. The other way is what Barnes refers to as altering the consistency of the barrier between the subconscious and conscious mind. The first type of blocking (mechanical) tends to be more easily overcome than the second. The second is purely mental, when there is clear information that has made it through the visual system but it isn't recognized for what it is. So there are times when the eyes are working in an improved manner, but their signals are prevented from passing through the barrier (from the subconscious to conscious mind)."

iblindness.org: Recommended Books for Further Reading

· Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality by Anthony de Mello

"This book is about a lot of things, but mainly the world of illusion that people live in due to the false ideas in their heads. This kind of wrong thought is particularly involved in vision problems."

· Natural Vision Improvement by Janet Goodrich, Ph.D.

"In this book she offers some important aspects of vision improvement such as energy, attention, and a lot about mental states."

· Sunlight by Zane R. Kime, M.D., M.S.

· Light: Medicine of the Future by Jacob Liberman, O.D., Ph.D. [Syntonics]

Neuropsychology of Myopia

"M. Corbett:           Help Yourself To Better Sight
W. Bates:                Better Eyesight Without Glasses
A. Huxley:               The Art of Seeing"

Back to 'Vision' Suggestions