The Bates Method is probably the best known method for improving eyesight naturally, without the use of glasses. It was developed by Dr. William HD Bates MD, a leading American ophthalmologist in the early 20th century and can be found in his book Perfect Sight Without Glasses.
Dr. Bates believed that the most common eye conditions are caused by mental stress and strain on the eyes, poor visual habits developed in childhood, and glasses. In fact, he believed that glasses are responsible for impaired vision, because they make the eye sluggish and prevent it from healing itself. Refraining from the use of glasses and recovering natural sight habits will improve our eyesight naturally.
Tension and stress are the main factors affecting poor vision. The mind and the eyes work very closely together. The eyes see what the mind tells them to see, and their job is to help the mind understand and memorize. When the mind is relaxed, the eyes move naturally, taking in the things they see, enjoying the world and transmitting this information to the mind, in a calm and stress-free way. Relaxed eyes do not strain to see, they only see what they can and let the mind imagine the rest. Good eyesight goes hand in hand with a good memory and a vivid imagination.
However, if the mind does not want or cannot understand what the eyes see, if it is blocked by stress or bored, the eyes strive to see better. The eyes reflect and follow the movements of the mind. A tired, stressed, overworked mind, filled with unpleasant thoughts, forced to focus on boring or annoying things, immersed in daily tasks and chores, will be reflected in eyes that move erratically and jerky instead of ebbing and flowing. . A mind that is trying in vain to understand and memorize reams of information will stagnate, reflected in staring, tense, unmoving eyes. The movement of the eyes is crucial to the visual process, but it has to be a smooth and relaxed movement, it has to be a movement that allows the eyes the freedom to take in the world at their own pace, the freedom to calmly follow the things and impart the information to the mind. .
Years of mental stress and physical strain can permanently damage the eye. The reason is that long-term physical stress around the eyes can affect the balance of the optic muscles, which are responsible for changing the shape of the eyeball to allow it to focus on different objects, distances, and angles. The most common eye conditions, such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, presbyopia or astigmatism, are caused by the weakening of the optic muscles due to tension and their consequent inability to maintain the shape of the eyeball.
Therefore, the first step to improve damaged vision is to relax your mind. The second step is to relax the eyes and restore natural vision habits. The focus of the Bates Method is to remove the mental tension that underlies the physical tension. All the elements of the method are simply different forms and exercises that aim at mental and visual relaxation.
The Bates Method was developed as a means to enable school-age children to learn and memorize better without straining their eyes with textbooks and blackboards. The idea was implemented in a visual chart with letters and simple shapes, which was hung in a conspicuous place at the front of the classroom and the children were encouraged to look at it for a few minutes, whenever they felt the need to relax. his eyes. The few schools that adopted the Bates Method reported a significant improvement in students’ ability to concentrate and absorb new knowledge. Unfortunately, the school board felt the method was too distracting and decided to abolish it. In fact, China is the only country that includes vision training in its curriculum.
