Batesmethod of Natural Vision Improvement

The Bates method of Natural Vision Improvement ' is a system which represents the Batesmethod of today. The original Batesmethod is created by ophthalmologist William Horatio Bates, M.D.has been improved first of all in the way it is being taught. For example Bates claim about the focusmechanism of accomodation is not completely supported by authority teachers. Looking directly to the sun has changed into sunning with closed eyelids. The Batesmethod of NVI aims to relearn the correct relaxed vision habits and reverse the habitual strain. Bates described his method in a 1920 book entitled Perfect Sight Without Glasses, and in his monthly magazine entitled Better Eyesight (1919-1930).

Bates claimed that his system improves sight and reverses ocular disorders to normal. It is argued by proponents that it works by eliminating "mental strain" of any kind which inhibits the "natural habits" of seeing.

Bates believed that various types of strain originating in the mind are responsible not only for refractive errors which are usually compensated for with glasses (such as myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and presbyopia), but also for other abnormal eye conditions including strabismus, cataracts, glaucoma, amblyopia, conjunctivitis, blepharitis, and diseases of the optic nerve and retina.

Since the batesmethod is controversial an explanation is given below from three different points of view.

"Natural vision teacher" Thomas R. Quackenbush defines the Bates method as: An educational program created by ophthalmologist William H. Bates, M.D., in which natural, correct vision habits—based on relaxation of the mind and body—are taught; optional self-healing activities and games are often included to accelerate integration and self-healing; commonly misunderstood as only "eye exercises"—even by many "Bates Method" teachers.

However skeptics of the Batesmethod like skeptic Martin Gardner, a popular American mathematics, said : the batesmethod is a fantastic compendium of wildly exaggerated case records, unwarranted inferences and anatomical ignorance." Bates theory of accommodation suggested the contraction of the ocular muscles resulted in changes in focusing power rather than changes in the lens and contraction of the lens zonules. Gardner argues that current high-resolution dynamic ultrasonic biomicroscopy has shown Bates' theory of accommodation (by elongation of the eyeball) to be false.

A systematic review, by ophthalmology, about the applicability and efficacy of eye exercises concludes : . As yet there is no clear scientific evidence published in the mainstream literature supporting the use of eye exercises in the remainder of the areas reviewed, and their use therefore remains controversial..

Although many people claim to have been helped by the method, the efficacy of the Bates method is controversial. His theory that the eye does not focus by changing the power of the lens, but rather by elongating the eyeball, through use of the extraocular oblique muscles, was and is contradicted by mainstream ophthalmology and optometry.

Thomas Quackenbush says about the eye focus-mechanism.

In the February 1922 "Better Eyesight" magazine, someone asked Bates about the role of the ciliary (lens) muscle:

* Q—2. What is the function of the ciliary muscles?

* A—2. I do not know.

Not a great answer from someone who wants to overturn the Helmholtz lens theory of accommodation.
Bates, as a result of his research and experiments on the two oblique, external eye muscles, believed that these muscles, which are wrapped around the eye somewhat like a belt, produced accommodation. More specifically, when the eyeball is "at rest" the two oblique muscles were relaxed, the eyeball was in a round shape and a person sees clearly in the distance. When the two oblique muscles contracted, the eyeball became elongated, and a person was then accommodating to see clearly up close. It is his opposition to Helmholtz' lens theory of accommodation that probably led many conventional eye doctors to reject much if not all of Bates' work. (Bates also believed that when the two oblique muscles are chronically tense, they elongated the eyeball to produce myopia, or nearsightedness: chronic accommodation!).

Because the copyrights are over 70 years old, the original version of Perfect Sight Without Glasses is available free on the internet (see links). In 1943 Bates' widow, Emily Bates, published an abridged version under the title Better Eyesight Without Glasses. These abridged versions removed many of the more controversial claims, such as "perfectly remembering black" being a suitable substitute for anaesthesia or claims related to looking at the sun (see below).

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu