Articles

Dr. William H. Bates was very much a holistic doctor, perpetually interested in the effects of posture, breathing, diet, and even sleeping position, upon eyesight. This short lead article appeared in his Better Eyesight Magazine. Try this breathing technique for 1, 2, or 3 minutes. You'll be amazed at the relaxation and sense of ease in your eyes and your entire being. -gm

Relax Your Eyes in 60 Seconds
with this Breathing Technique
by William H. Bates, M.D. (Original title was "Breathing")

MA…

The author of this article was a daughter of a doctor, partly deaf, and a delightful and witty writer. It was published in Dr. Bates' Better Eyesight Magazine as New Eyes for Old. This wonderful article includes her discoveries and thoughts about the following:
1. "Seeing black while palming" (later de-emphasized but well worth investigating)
2. The riddle of how best to apply oneself to these principles
3. The surprise of realizing you have been operating clearly without your glasses
4. How to …

The more you delve into Natural Vision Improvement, the more you will appreciate the central problem of mental strain. It disrupts our happiness as well as our eyesight. The following article sheds more light on the tight relationship of vision with our state of mind. This article originally appeared in Dr. Bates' Better Eyesight Magazines as "Mind Strain". -gm

How to Drop Mental Strain
By Emily C. Lierman, (Assistant to Dr. Bates)

There are many causes of mind strain and [many] people suffer…

Imagine going through your day seeing clearly without glasses or surgery. Many thousands of people have reduced their prescription or stopped wearing glasses altogether using natural methods. Nearsighted, farsighted, astigmatism, reading glasses, and other conditions can be helped.

Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, was going blind and reading Braille when he met a “Bates Method” natural vision teacher. Eye doctors had given up on him. Huxley regained his sight and wrote The Art of Seein…

Very Inspiring! This article was published in Dr. Bates' Better Eyesight Magazine. The writer was as grateful for his new sense of vitality and mental clarityas he was thrilled to regain clear vision. -gm

PROGRESSIVE MYOPIA RELIEVED
By E. E. Agranove

Original Editor's Note.—The writer of this article, a young man of twenty, was wearing, when first seen, the following glasses, prescribed three years earlier: both eyes, concave 6.50 D. S. combined with concave 3.00 D. C. 180 degrees. He also br…

The point of this article will be a surprise to most people, that a person with excellent vision is fully "comfortable" throughout their body. Can you become fully comfortable, especially through your neck, shoulders, and back? This article originally appeared in Dr. Bates' Better Eyesight Magazine with the title, "Be Comfortable".

BE COMFORTABLE, SEE BETTER
By William H. Bates, M. D.

It can be stated without fear of successful contradiction that persons with perfect sight are always comfortab…

This article by Dr. Bates comes from the Better Eyesight Magazines. It gives many hints about how to erase fatigue by using the body, mind, and breath correctly. Of course these same measures will help the sight. -gm

THE TRUTH ABOUT FATIGUE
By W. H. Bates, M.D.

This is a true explanation of fatigue. The mystery of fatigue has been one almost equal in the mind of man for ages with the mystery of death. Dr. Bates explains not merely why there is fatigue, but the lack of necessity for it!

ABOUT …

Notes:
This article from Dr. Bates' Better Eyesight Magazine was originally titled "Tension"*. Note Dr. Bates' interest and excitement about F.M. Alexander's approach to finding elusive tension and then releasing it, with sometime stunning improvements in digestion or other health issues.

Several years after Dr. Bates' death, Aldous Huxley revisited this connection between F.M. Alexander's work and the Bates Method. Huxley reversed his blindness through working with Bates Method teacher Margare…

Relaxation
First published by William B. MacCracken, M. D.
as a chapter in "Normal Sight Without Glasses"

We often hear the word Relaxation. With most it is little more than a joke. To the thoughtful, it is something they are trying to learn about. They have realized that it is of vital importance. They know that it must be mental. Tersely it means: Be yourself, at your own best, deliberate but alert, confident and expectant, but without abnormal tension, conscious that you are relying on the m…

The following is an original chapter from Dr William H Bates' book, Perfect Eyesight without Glasses.
A more popular and abridged version is available today as "Better Eyesight Without Glasses".

From PERFECT EYESIGHT WITHOUT GLASSES "STRAIN"
By William. H. Bates, M. D.

TEMPORARY conditions may contribute to the strain to see which results in the production of errors of refraction; but its foundation lies in wrong habits of thought. In attempting to relieve it the physician has continually to …