How to Improve Your Vision

A Personal Account of the Art and Science of Vision Training Using the Bates Method

This is the true story of my experience with The Bates Method of Vision Training, with commentary and a bit of research thrown into the mix.

I blogged some of this story in 2021 where it found readers wanting more.

Here is more.

A tremendous thank you to those who sent me down this trail.

Introduction:

When an internet pop-up threw itself into my path and told me that we computer users are getting elongated eyeballs, I yelled, "Look near to far, folks, near to far!"

Not that anyone could hear me, of course, but I felt better after that yell, plus the computer didn’t hold it against me. The author of that pop-up said, "Look up once in a while."

I’m here to tell you there is more to the story.

If we are getting elongated eyeballs from focusing on our computer screens, it's time to delve into some corrective measures.

Some 30 years ago, I took The Bates Method of Vision Training. At the time I was having difficulty reading the Phone Directory (Remember those?) After the training I was able to read it without glasses.

Another testament to the training was that about half-way into the training, I went to dinner with 5 friends. The restaurant was dimly lit, and I was surprised to be the only person at our table who could read the menu.

Julia Galvin, a Bates Method instructor, said that perhaps Dr. Bates's method of vision enhancement is lost and will wait until it is rediscovered. It isn’t lost, but it isn’t well known or believed.

Bates was a bit pig-headed, Galvin said, and that can antagonize people. Pig-headedness can show, though, that pioneers in their field get fed up with the resistance they encounter, and that affects their attitude.

Aldous Huxley (Brave New World) was a wild proponent of the Bates Method and wrote extensively of his experience with it in his book, The Art of Seeing.

In his preface, Huxley describes how, at sixteen, he had a violent attack of keratitis punctata, which made him nearly blind for eighteen months. After that, he was left with severely impaired sight. He managed to live as a sighted person with strong glasses, but the strain of reading left him exhausted.

Eventually, he sought the help of Margaret Corbett, a teacher of the Bates Method. He found “Cobert’s teaching immensely helpful and wrote: "At the present time, my vision, though very far from normal, is about twice as good as it used to be when I wore spectacles, and before I had learned the art of seeing."

Available on Amazon Kindle Unlimited (for Free as long as Amazon decides.)