“Vision should come to the eye effortlessly as scent to the nostrils, music to the ears and the touch of velvet to the fingertips.” – Margaret Y. Ferguson, D.C.
Vision is an autonomic, involuntary body system. Without any effort on the part of the seer, colors appear vibrant, objects contain full dimension, and contrasts remain distinct. A person with perfect sight allows the body and mind to function naturally while seeing, comparable to the heartbeat’s automatic rhythm. On the other hand, a person with imperfect sight at some point decided to affect the visual system in order to see more clearly. Different scenarios create effort in vision, where a person starts “trying” to see, such as anxiety in school, fear, or simply a misunderstanding of how the mind and body coordinate to create clarity. A person with imperfect sight often believes that stopping all visual movement, inhibiting the breath and working hard to see supports perfect sight. In reality however, these practices cause blur and discomfort. The Bates Method of Natural Vision Improvement proves to a person with imperfect sight how she/he creates blur. It introduces proper vision habits and allows a person with blur to discover natural clarity.
 This monumental field of Natural Vision Improvement began in the late 1800s with ophthalmologist William H. Bates. Dr. Bates graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University and eventually became an instructor of ophthalmology at New York Post Graduate Medical School and Hospital. As a practicing doctor, Dr. Bates noted a discrepancy between conventional medicine’s model of the visual system and his patients’ visual experiences. For example, he observed, “Presbyopia is the name given to loss of power to use the eyes at the near point, without the aid of glasses, which usually occurs after the age of forty. The textbooks teach that this change is a normal one; but it is a noteworthy fact that many other eye troubles often date from the time of its appearance or develop a little later. Many cases of glaucoma start about this time and so do many cases of cataract and inflammation of the interior of the eye… The accepted explanation for the loss of near vision with advancing years is that it is due to the hardening of the lens, but it is quite impossible to reconcile the facts with this theory; for not only does presbyopia occur much below the age of forty and even in childhood, but it is often delayed beyond the age of fifty, and sometimes does not occur at all. There are also cases in which near vision is restored after having been lost.”
Bates began experimentation on the eye as he simultaneously improved the vision of patients and students outside of the lab. In response to Dr. Bates’ method of improving sight without glasses or surgery, New York Medical School removed Dr. Bates from its faculty.
He continued his experiments at Columbia University and in 1920 published Perfect Sight Without Glasses. In its original unedited version, the book reveals Dr. Bates’ lab experiments and translates the results into a practical guide for vision improvement without corrective lenses or surgery. He discovered, “Temporary conditions may contribute to the strain to see which results in the production of errors of refraction (imperfect sight); but its foundation lies in habits of wrong thought. In attempting to relieve it, the physician has continually to struggle against the idea that to do anything well requires effort. This idea is drilled into us from our cradles…Whenever the eye tries to see, it at once ceases to have normal vision…It obviously requires a strain to fail to see at the distance, because the eye at rest is adjusted for distant vision. If one does anything when one wants to see at the distance, one must do the wrong thing. The shape of the eyeball cannot be altered during distant vision without strain. It is equally a strain to fail to see at the near point, because when the muscles respond to the mind’s desire they do it without strain. Only by effort can one prevent the eye from elongating at the near point. The eye possesses perfect vision only when it is absolutely at rest…” With this observation, the Natural Vision Improvement field emerged. Dr. Bates, with the help of his assistant and wife Emily C. Lierman, improved the vision of hundreds without glasses, contacts, or Lasik. Bates’ 132 issues of “Better Eyesight Magazine” document many of these remarkable Natural Vision Improvement stories. These magazines include examples of eyesight improvement not only with each of the functional vision problems such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, presbyopia, astigmatism and strabismus, but also vision improvement in diagnosed glaucoma, cataract and optic nerve degeneration cases.
In more recent times, Anna Kaye provides a testimony to the Bates Method of Natural Vision Improvement. She immigrated to the United States after World War II with the inability to see a door, diagnosed as atrophy of the optic nerve. Four ophthalmologists recommended she learn Braille. Unable to accept near blindness, she studied Natural Vision Improvement with Clara Hackett in New York City and regained 20/30 vision in both eyes. Meir Schneider who currently teaches in San Francisco also moved from Braille to near perfect sight with the Bates Method.
Instead of integrating Bates’ findings into conventional medical practice, the medical establishment invalidated Bates’ research. It highlighted Bates’ experimental errors, prohibited him from teaching at New York Post Graduate Medical School and failed to acknowledge the hundreds of patients who discarded glasses and healed severe vision problems with the Bates Method of Natural Vision Improvement. Bates explained, “A small number of physicians, including a few eye specialists who have improved or seen members of their family improve eye troubles, without glasses, operations, or medication, have been convinced that the old theories about the eye…are wrong; but very few have had courage to endorse the new education method publicly.” He continues elsewhere, “The fact is that, except in rare cases, man is not a reasoning being. He is dominated by authority, and when the facts are not in accord with the view imposed by authority, so much the worse for the facts. They may, and indeed must, win in the long run, but in the meantime the world gropes needlessly in darkness and endures much suffering that might have been avoided.” Even after Bates’ death in 1931, the medical establishment continued to threaten the Bates Method into near extinction. It took Bates Method teachers such as Anna Kaye and Margaret Corbett to court repeatedly on allegations of medical practice without license. Due to this negative reception from the medical community, past Natural Vision Improvement teachers mostly refrained from advertising or promoting their work publicly in order to avoid legal difficulties.
Today, Bates Method teachers and progressive ophthalmologists or optometrists work together to provide high quality eye care for the eye doctor’s patient. Bates Method teachers do not diagnose or prescribe but simply offer an educational approach to maintain or create perfect sight. Therefore, a Bates Method Natural Vision Improvement student remains under the care of their eye physician while practicing the Bates Method.
Many choose the Bates Method of Natural Vision Improvement because it offers a solution to blurred vision that does not involve surgery such as Lasik, and minimizes or discontinues altogether the use of glasses and contacts. The Bates Method teaches that poor vision affects the health of the entire body. From this perspective, surgery (Lasik), glasses or contacts seem mere band aids. Blurry vision provides the body with a natural signal which indicates a dysfunction in the visual system. When a person chooses surgery, glasses or contacts to mask this simple warning signal, more serious problems may arise. Ophthalmologist Deborah E. Banker, M.D. commented, “…your reading glasses are causing you to lose your ability to see for near, accelerating cataracts, glaucoma, floaters, vitreous detachment, potentially retinal detachment and perhaps macular degeneration…” Furthermore, since the eyes remain attached to the body, visual discomfort translates to other parts of the body. For example, a person with blur oftentimes complains of tension in the neck, head and shoulders. By reducing the blur without surgery, glasses or contacts, the Bates Method restores circulation and nutrition to both the visual system and other compromised body systems. Posture may improve along with emotional health, concentration and imagination. Visual qualities such as vivid color, texture awareness and depth perception increase in conjunction with clarity improvement. The rewards of Natural Vision Improvement prove much greater than those of its mechanical alternatives which “fix” the blur but leave the rest of the body clamoring for natural vision, which is essentially optimal health.
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“My eyes are improving the doc says ...hmmm… you may find me a convert despite
myself!!
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~M.F.
Great Barrington, MA
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