BETTER EYESIGHT
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE PREVENTION AND CURE OF
IMPERFECT SIGHT WITHOUT GLASSES
January,
1925
Sun-Gazing
By W. H. BATES, M.D.
IT is a well-known fact that the constant protection
of the eyes from the sunlight, or from other kinds of light, is followed by weakness or inflammation of the eyes or eyelids.
Children living in dark rooms, where the sun seldom enters, acquire an intolerance for the light. Some of them keep their
eyes covered with their hands, or bury their faces in a pillow and do all they possibly can to avoid exposure of their eyes
to ordinary light. I have seen many hundreds of cases of young children brought to the clinic with ulceration of the
cornea, which may become sufficient to cause blindness. Putting these children in a dark room is a blunder. My best results
in the cure of these cases were obtained by encouraging the patients to spend a good deal of the time out of doors, with their
faces exposed to the direct rays of the sun. In a short time these children became able to play and enjoy themselves a great
deal more out of doors, exposed to the sunlight, than when they protected their eyes from the light. Not only is the sun beneficial
to children with inflammation of the cornea, but it is also beneficial to adults.
When the patient looks down sufficiently,
the white part of the eye can be exposed by gently lifting the upper lid, while the sun's rays strike directly upon this part
of the eyeball. In most cases it is possible to focus the strong light of the sun on the white part of the eyeball with the
aid of a strong convex glass, being careful to move the light from side to side quite rapidly to avoid the heat. After such
a treatment, the patient almost immediately becomes able to open his eyes widely in the light.
Plain
sunlight (without use of the convex glass) is also very effective. Glass filters the light causing unbalanced, unhealthy (not
full spectrum) sunlight to contact the eyes. The convex glass is only used by a experienced eye doctor and only in cases of
extreme vision impairment, blindness and is not applied too often.
Looking at the bright area of the sky on a sunny
day,(not directly into the sun) and closed eye sunning while facing directly at the sun are safer alternatives.
Mental Strain
By W. H. BATES, M.D.
IT can be demonstrated that all persons conscious of imperfect sight have a mental strain. To try
to do the impossible is a strain. It is impossible with the eyes closed to remember or imagine a small black area continuously
black and stationary. Persons with perfect sight or a perfect memory, when trying to imagine a small black period stationary,
notice an effort or mental strain very quickly, in a few seconds or less, while persons with imperfect sight or an imperfect
memory may strain for a longer time before they become conscious of as effort. To concentrate the attention on a point for
any great length of time usually causes discomfort, fatigue, or pain, in the eyes or elsewhere.
MYOPIA, or NEAR-SIGHTEDNESS, is caused by a strain or an effort to see distant objects.
It can always be produced in the normal eye temporarily, or more permanently, by trying to see distant objects. With perfect
sight the eyes and mind are at rest. All the sensitive nerves of the body are passive. Myopia is never continuous. At frequent
intervals, lasting for a fraction of a second or longer, the patient is conscious of flashes of better vision. To test the
facts, the retinoscope is reliable. When a patient with myopia looks at a blank wall without trying to see, or remembers something
perfectly, the retinoscope, used at the same time demonstrates that there are, periods of time when the eye is normal. This
fact can be demonstrated in all cases.
Even patients with thirty of forty diopters of myopia are not myopic all the time.
This fact is offered as evidence that myopia, as described by many authors, is not a permanent condition of the eyeball. It
can also be demonstrated that when the mind is at rest, and there is no mental strain when the patient remembers or imagines
a letter, a color, or some other object perfectly, the myopia disappears. To have imperfect sight from myopia requires much
mental effort, time, and trouble to produce it. Every person with myopia has to maintain a mental strain with all its discomforts,
in order to maintain a degree of myopia. These facts suggest successful methods of treatment. Since mental strain, or an effort
to see distant objects, is the cause of myopia, mental relaxation or rest is followed by benefit. By closing the eyes for
five minutes or longer, while letting the mind drift from one thought, or memory, to another, slowly, easily, and continuously,
rest of the mind is obtained, and when the eyes are opened, the vision is usually improved for a short time, or for a flash.
Blinking, in which the eyes are opened and closed frequently, is a great help, because the eyes and mind obtain a measure
of rest when the eyes are closed, even momentarily. Many patients obtain a greater amount of rest by closing the eyes and
covering them with the palms of one or both hands for a few minutes, or longer. We have to consider individuals because, while
there are many cases benefited by palming for a half hour or longer, there are others who do better when they palm for a few
minutes only, or for short periods of time. Mental strain is usually unconscious. It is a bad habit. When myopic patients
learn that they have this unconscious bad habit of mental strain, or when they find out what is the matter with them, it helps
in the cure. When patients think it is no fault of theirs that they have imperfect sight, treatment becomes more difficult.
To change the unconscious bad habit of mental strain to a habit of relaxation and rest, requires that the patient consciously
practices relaxation and rest until the conscious practice by repetition becomes an unconscious habit.
HYPERMETROPIA, or FAR-SIGHTEDNESS. The length of the eyeball
is shortened in hypermetropia, which is the opposite of myopia in which the eyeball is lengthened by a mental strain to see
at the distance. The cause of hypermetropia is a mental strain to see near objects. When a patient reads fine print with normal
sight at twelve inches, with the use of the retinoscope at the same time, it can be demonstrated that the eye is accurately
focused for twelve inches. But when the patient fails to read perfectly at twelve inches or nearer, he usually feels the discomfort
of mental strain, and the retinoscope demonstrates at the same time that the eye is focused for a greater distance than twelve
inches. In all cases examined, the mental strain to see near objects produces not myopia, but just the opposite, hypermetropia.
When hypermetropia is not great enough to prevent reading fine print perfectly at a near point, the retinoscope demonstrates
that the eyes are accurately focused for that distance. As occurs under similar conditions with normal or myopic eyes, the
hypermetropic eye can only read perfectly without a mental effort. If the hypermetropic eye fails to read fine print perfectly,
the retinoscope always demonstrates that the eyes are focused for a greater distance. The vision of the hypermetropic eye
is improved by the same methods which improve the vision of the myopic eye. Since the cause of hypermetropia is a mental effort,
its cure is obtained when the mental effort disappears.
PRESBYOPIA.
When the vision for the distance remains good, while the ability to read at the near point fails, the condition is called
presbyopia. In most text-books, if not all, on the eyes, the statement is made that presbyopia begins soon after the age of
forty, and increases gradually until the ability to accommodate is entirely lost. Most ophthalmologists have observed that
sometimes presbyopia may begin before the age of forty, or it may not appear until a much later date. I have seen patients
over sixty years of age, who had normal sight in each eye for the distance, and the ability to read the diamond type at six
inches or less with each eye. A popular belief of the cause of presbyopia is that it is due to hardening of the lens, which
prevents the lens from changing its shape. I have quite frequently published facts which demonstrated that the lens was not
a factor in accommodation, and that the cause of presbyopia was a mental strain when trying to see or read at a near point.
Such patients, when they read the distant test card with normal vision, feel comfortable, but when they plan to read the newspaper
or fine print at twelve inches or nearer, they are conscious of mental strain or effort, and the greater the mental strain,
the less does the patient see. Presbyopia is cured by practicing relaxation methods. Closing the eyes and resting them for
five minutes or longer, may enable some patients to read fine print at twelve inches or less in flashes. Blinking is a benefit
to some patients, but not to all. Very gratifying results have followed palming for an hour, or longer, in some cases, while
in others palming was a failure. Any method which secures mental relaxation is always a benefit.
Presbyopic patients
are often cured quickly by a perfect imagination of the halos, which are the white spaces between the lines of letters that
appear whiter than the margin of the page. The eyes, when reading perfectly, do not look directly at the letters, but at the
white spaces or the halos.
(Modern teachers state to look directly at the letters (central fixation)
when reading. Look at the white spaces to rest the eyes when not reading.) Dr. Bates also states this in other articles. ASTIGMATISM
is caused by mental strain, and is cured by relaxation of the mental strain.
Stories from the Clinic
No. 59 Mental Strain
By EMILY C. LIERMAN
AT
one time a young man, aged twenty-seven years, came to us suffering from severe mental strain. His large staring eyes would
make anyone uncomfortable just by looking at him. I approached him in the usual way asking him what his trouble was. He smiled
and said:
"Now, that's just what I am trying to find out. Nobody seems to want me. Everybody thinks I am crazy."
I answered, "You are wrong. I don't think you are crazy."
Just the same, this poor fellow did make me feel
sort of creepy. I was just a little afraid of him, but did not dare to show it.
He had much to say, but the main thing
he wanted me to know was, that he was not insane. When he calmed down a bit, I said, "Now let me say something. I know
that you are staring so badly that if you don't stop it, you can easily become insane or blind."
I wanted him to
understand that I could not help him, nor anyone else, if he continued staring his eyes out of his head.
I asked Dr.
Bates to examine his eyes and to tell me what treatment was best for him. The doctor said there was nothing organically wrong
with his eyes, but that he was under a terrible mental strain. I understood very well what was before me when Dr. Bated said,
"I think you had better knock on my door if the patient tries you too much."
After I had taken his name and
address, I asked him where he was employed. His eyes protruded and he stared without blinking, as he answered, "Didn't
I tell you that no one wants me? I cannot get any work. America is at war, does Uncle Sam want me? No, I have been to all
the recruiting stations here in New York, and all of them have refused me. I want to fight for my country's flag, but they
won't give me a chance." He actually wept, and I could not refrain from crying too. His mind was affected, yes, but when
he was calm, all he could think of was Uncle Sam, and how he wanted to fight for him. I was not acquainted with him a half
hour when I understood easily enough why the United States could not use him. He demonstrated to Dr. Bates and to me very
clearly that one can not have normal vision with a mental strain. I placed him ten feet from the test card and told him I
wanted to test his vision. He answered, "I hope you will be able to improve my sight, because I think my nervousness
will also improve."
He read a few lines of the card, but when he reached the fifty line he leaned forward in his
chair, wrinkled his forehead and his eyes began to bulge. At that moment a small mirror from my purse, came in very handy.
I held it before him, and the expression of his face changed immediately from strain and tension, to a look of amazement.
He waited for me to speak, and what I said affected him terribly. He covered his face with his hands and wept. I kept very
quiet, but touched his shoulder lightly to reassure him. When he raised his head a few moments later, he said: "Maybe
that is why they refused me. I guess they saw what you saw. No wonder they thought I was crazy." I feared more hysteria,
so I said that if he would let me help him, no doubt the United States Army would be glad to admit him into the service. He
left the office after his first visit, feeling very much encouraged. I could not improve his vision beyond the fifty line
that day, and I decided not to test each eye separately. All I could record was 10/50 with both eyes.
One week later
he came again. Apparently he had forgotten to practice anything he was told to do. His vision was still 10/50 with both eyes.
I directed him to cover his one eye, and read the card with the other. His vision with each eye separately was the same, namely
10/50.
He told me that I had encouraged him so much that he tried again to enlist. I said, "You cannot expect to
win out unless you take time to practice. This you must do all day long. When you tire of palming, keep your eyes closed and
imagine something perfectly." While I was telling him all this, he had his eyes covered with his hands, and was moving
his body from side to side, very slowly. What he did next certainly frightened me at first.
While his eyes were still
covered, he asked me in a loud voice, "Do you mind if I sing 'America' while I am reading the card?"
I answered,
"No, but perhaps the other patients might object. Just wait a moment and I will ask the Doctor."
Dr. Bates
said if singing was his way of relaxing, by all means let him sing. That was all that was necessary. This poor fellow sang
every word without a mistake. After each verse he would stop long enough to read the card. After the first verse he read two
more lines 10/30. When he finished the hymn, he also finished reading the whole card without a mistake, 10/10. He blinked
his eyes as he moved his body from side to side, and there came a great change in the expression of his face. I directed him
to sing "America" when he practiced reading the test card at home every day. He left us in a very happy mood, and
promised to practice as he was told.
We did not hear from him for a whole year. One day there came a letter from him,
written in Bellevue Hospital, but mailed by a friend outside. He stated in his letter that he was all right, although he was
confined. He also explained why he was sent there. It seems that when he applied at a recruiting station for enlistment, they
found his vision imperfect. When he insisted that if they would only let him sing "America," his vision would at
once become normal, the officers of the recruiting station considered this statement so absurd that they believed he must
be crazy.
He was sent to the insane ward of Bellevue Hospital, where he was promptly admitted. While there, he wrote
a play of three acts, all about the doctors, the nurses and patients. It was well written, and after he had persuaded some
of the doctors to read it, they recommended his discharge.
He called to see us, and I found his vision was normal, 10/10.
His mental strain was relieved and did not return except temporarily, when he became excited and talked rapidly.
A Teacher's Experiment
By EDITH WOOD, Allendale, N. J.
(This is a fine example of the results that can be obtained by teachers,
parents and others, who have charge of children.)
IN September, while testing the eyes of my pupils, I came across Stephen
Bodnar, a boy of ten, who was apparently blind in his right eye. In testing him, I brought him so close that his nose almost
touched the test card, and still he said he could see nothing. I concluded there was nothing to be done. Some days later the
pupils were lined in the yard, when an idea came to me. I called Stephen to one side so that we would be out from the shadow
of the building. I covered his left eye with his cap, and turned his face directly toward the sun. Then I asked if he saw
anything. He said, "No, it is all yellow." Next I passed my hand back and forth so that the shadow would pass over
his eye. He said, "It gets light and dark." I knew then that there was sight there, so I arranged with Stephen to
come to my room at one o'clock the next day.
I fixed a shield for his good eye, and when he came next day, after adjusting
the shield, I took him to the window and asked him what he could see out there. He replied, "Nothing." Next I took
a manila card four by seven inches. Printed on it were the figures, 6A. I had not planned to use the printing on the card.
I merely passed it back and forth so that the shadow passed over his eye. In swinging the card I began close to his face,
and gradually increased the distance, requesting him to let me know when he no longer saw the shadow.
When I got about
two feet away from his face, he said he could not see the shadow any more. When I held the card at four feet, he said, "I
can see you. You have on a dark dress, and it has light spots on it." I immediately asked him to look out of the window,
and he saw the boys and girls moving about. He could also see houses and a tree.
The next day at one o'clock he came
again, and we repeated the work of the day before. After a few minutes he said, "There are letters on that card."
I held the card still, and asked him if he could tell me the letters. He said there was a 6 and an A, but he could not tell
the smaller letter, although he could see it was there. I put the card down, and asked him to look at me, and tell me what
he could see. I had a gold watch, suspended from my neck by a black ribbon. He said, "You have a ribbon round your neck"
I closed one eye and left the other open, and he told me what I had done. While I was fixing his attention on my face, with
my left hand I brought my watch out. He said, "I can see your watch." I said, "Be careful, Stephen, or I'll
fool you. Isn't that a large yellow button?"
"No, it's a watch, for I see a ring, and a ribbon fastened to
it," he answered.
Next he looked out of the window, and he could tell what the children were doing and how many
windows there were in the houses. I told him about palming and the long swing, and asked him to do them morning and night,
which he said he would do. I remember that he astonished me so with what he could do, that I thought he must be peeking with
the other eye. I tried to prevent him from turning his head, but he would do it, so I got behind him and held his head. He
read just the same as before.
I have seen very little of Stephen of late. When I last saw him he could read the whole
test-card at eighteen feet, and he could read from a book held at the normal reading distance.
Stephen's progress at
the start was so rapid, that it astonished me. After about one week's work with the shadow, I dropped that and confined the
work to the test card and the book.
Had any one told me this story, I'm free to say that I would have been skeptical.
Suggestions
to Patients
By EMILY C.
LIERMAN
+ WHILE sitting do not look up without
raising your chin. Always turn your head in the direction that you look. Blink often.
+ Do not make an effort to see things more clearly. If you let your eyes alone things will clear
up by themselves.
+ Do not look at anything longer than
a fraction of a second without shifting.
+ While reading
do not think about your eyes but let your mind and imagination rule.
+
When you are conscious of your eyes while looking at objects at any time, it causes discomfort and lessens your vision.
+ It is very important that you learn how to imagine stationary objects are
moving without moving your head or moving your body. Stationary objects move when the eyes shift without
moving the head/body, but moving the head and body with the eyes, in the direction the eyes are moving increases the ability
to see the movement and moving the head, body with the eyes improves central fixation, eye movement, relaxation and movement
of the neck, head, body, eye muscles.
+ Palming
is a help to you, and I suggest that you palm for a few minutes many times during the day, at least ten times. At night just
before retiring it is well to palm for half an hour or longer.
New Year Fairies
By GEORGE GUILD
A CERTAIN
man had much money. One day he gave forty million dollars to charity, and had a lot left. He invited me to spend an evening
at his home. He asked me if I would like to learn how he made his money. I answered, "No."
"What would
you like to talk about?" was his next question.
I replied, "Although you seem to be well advanced in years,
your hair is not gray and your eyes seem good, because I notice that you are able to read without glasses. How have you been
able to preserve your eyesight all those years?"
He smiled and answered, "I do not know unless it was due to
the influence of the New Year Fairies." He stopped and waited for me to say something.
All I said was: "Tell
me about it."
With his eyes partly closed, I can see him now, smoking his cigar slowly, and letting his mind drift
away from me and his surroundings to a time long ago when he was a poor boy living on a farm. He told me that he had many
brothers and sisters, all of them now dead. Christmas, one year, had been a very sorry affair. They had very little to eat,
and their poverty was extreme.
New Year’s Eve, as he sat by the open fire, a small boy of ten, he felt very hungry,
very despondent, and very unhappy. He watched the flames of the burning wood, watched them grow larger, grow smaller, change
their color, and, as he watched, a fairy appeared in the light. She had the most beautiful eyes that he had ever seen. They
were so bright, clear, full of sympathy and love, that he could not look away from them. She seemed to read his mind, and
spoke encouraging words to him, which made him feel better. Then another fairy, all dressed in blue, a very beautiful blue,
waved her hands to him, threw him a kiss and started to dance. While she was dancing, other fairies came out of the dark and
danced with her. It seemed to him that wherever there was a spot of light, there was a fairy, many fairies, all of them with
the same sympathetic, loving, blue eyes of the first fairy.
The memory of these eyes has never been lost. He said that
he could see them now just as clearly as he did in the long ago. The memory of these eyes brought with it a wonderful feeling
of rest, relaxation, and comfort. It seemed to him that those fairies brought a blessing which had helped him to accomplish
many things which other people believed were impossible.
After he went to bed in the dark it seemed that he could still
see the burning fire, and all those fairies with their sympathetic and loving eyes. When he awoke next morning his attitude
of mind was entirely different. He ran to each member of the family, his father, his mother, each sister and brother, threw
his arms around them and wished them all a Happy New Year. He tried to dance as he had seen the fairies dance, he tried to
smile as he had seen them smile; he tried to be as sympathetic and as kind to everybody as the fairies had been to him. He
was all eagerness to be busy. Formerly he had shirked what little work was expected from him, but now he had an uncontrollable
desire get busy, to do things. He had no feeling of fatigue no matter how hard he worked, or how much he accomplished. His
mother was amazed to have him fly around the kitchen, and to help her in as many ways as he possibly could. He brought in
more wood for the stove than could be used in a week. He ran to the barn and started in cleaning house. It was the first time
in his life that he felt a desire to do something to help the horses, the cows, and other animals. He got busy with a few
tools and fixed up the chicken-coop, stopped all the cracks so that the cold air would not blow on the chickens, and all the
time he was thinking of those eyes of the New Year Fairies, because the memory of their love did him so much good.
He
felt a desire to go to school, and tramped through the deep snow two miles to get there. The teacher was surprised to see
him and asked him what he desired.
"I want to go to school. I want to learn things. I want to be a big man. I want
to make people happy."
The teacher smiled, give him a desk, some paper, a pencil, and a few pages of a primer, and
told him to copy as much of it as he possibly could. He used up a great deal of paper, and before school was out he had done
something very wonderful, because he had copied all the pages that had been given him.
He told me that his health was
always good, and as far as his eyes were concerned, he never gave them a thought. He know that he could see well, but he was
not conscious that he had eyes most of the time. When he was forty-five he had an attack of the grippe, from which he soon
recovered, but when he tried to read the newspaper, he was very much alarmed to discover that his sight was very poor. He
at once consulted an eye specialist, who told him that he needed glasses because all persons in middle life, past the age
of forty, needed glasses. He had some business to attend to which occupied his time for a few days. During that time be tried
to rest his eyes by not looking at the newspaper. After avoiding any use of his eyes for reading for four days, they felt
quite comfortable. Later he picked up a newspaper, and was surprised to find that he could read it for a short time. When
his eyes tired, he rested them, and he discovered that by reading the paper and alternately resting his eyes, his vision improved
to the normal. At subsequent periods in his career he had similar attacks of being unable to read, which were always relieved
by rest. He felt that as long as he could improve his sight by resting the eyes, it would be perfectly safe for him not to
wear glasses.
"It may sound very queer to you," he said, "but I find that I can obtain perfect relief
immediately when I remember the sympathy and love in the eyes of those New Year Fairies."
Report
of the League Meeting
By
MISS MAY SECOR, Secretary
A REGULAR meeting of
the Better Eyesight League was held at 383 Madison Avenue, on the evening of December ninth. Miss Kathleen Hurty, president,
presided.
Miss Hurty announced that the annual election of officers will be held at the January meeting. The nominating
committee was appointed as follows: Mrs. Warring (chairman), Miss Agnes Herrington, and Miss Mabel Young.
Miss Hurty
gave an exposition of the Bates Method. Miss Agnes Herrington, a teacher in Erasmus Hall High School of Brooklyn, told of
the great benefit she had derived from the use of this method. Miss Herrington wore glasses for ten years; she has now discarded
them, with the exception of occasional use to read very small figures. Dr. Bates advised those who experience difficulty in
reading small print to relax by means of palming and swinging; this will relieve eyestrain, and the small print will become
legible. Miss Herrington found the following most helpful: sun treatment, blinking, and imagining a white cloud upon which
is placed a black "o" having a period on either side.
Mr. George Weiss reported several cases which are under
treatment at Erasmus Hall High School. These cases are all showing marked improvement. One case has been cured of insomnia
as a result of relief from eyestrain. Mr. Norman Bernat, a member of Miss Hurty's eye group at Erasmus Hall, reported that
by means of the Bates Method he has secured normal vision. For seven years he had used artificial lenses—one set for
general use, one for reading, and one for "the sun." Mr. Bernat demonstrated the long swing in an unusually pleasing
and relaxed manner.
Dr. Bates reported a case in which the patient was unable to see things moving. The Doctor requested
the patient to look at the upper left hand corner of the small square of the Snellen card, to sway, and to hold the corner
stationary. The patient followed instructions, and a severe headache resulted; after this experience, however, she was able
to see things moving. Dr. Bates explained that it is sometimes advisable to teach a patient how to use his eyes in the wrong
way, in order to effect a cure. Another case had occasional attacks of complete blindness. Dr. Bates taught this man how to
consciously produce complete blindness; the lesson was a difficult one. The result, however, was complete relief from attacks
of blindness. After his cure the man served over-seas; when he returned to New York his vision was still normal.
Dr.
Bates treated one case which had been diagnosed by neurologists as insanity. This man had double vision at times, and frequently
saw imaginary figures dancing on the top of tall buildings; it sometimes appeared to him, also, that men approaching him took
off their heads, and carried them under their arms. In this case a correction of the visual defects removed all apparitions,
and the man was recognized as normal. Dr. Bates spoke also of a little girl who attained very high visual acuity by means
of central fixation, seeing best a part of each letter. The Doctor stated that floating specks are the result of imperfect
imagination, and are a sign of strain. At the close of Dr. Bates' discussion the meeting was adjourned.
Announcement
We are pleased to announce that Capt. C. S. Price,, of London, England, will visit Dr. Bates around
the latter part of January. He is planning to discuss with Dr. Bates the best methods which are employed for the cure of imperfect
sight without glasses. The spread of Dr. Bates' method in England is largely due to Capt. Price's enthusiasm and success in
helping others. There are now two clinics, and a Better Eyesight League in England, all reporting favorable results. We are
hopeful that Capt. Price will attend the February meeting of the League.
Questions and Answers
Q—What
is the difference between the long and the short swing?
A—In the long swing, objects appear to move an inch or
more. In the short swing, objects appear to move an inch or less.
Q—My hands become tired when I palm. Can I sit
in a dark room, instead of palming? Can I cover my eyes with a dark cloth?
A—No. I have found this to be a strain.
Q—While palming is it necessary to close the eyes.
A—Yes.
Q—When I read and blink consciously,
I lose my place.
A—This is caused by strain, which prevents one from remembering the location of letters.
—How
long is it necessary to read the test card before obtaining benefit?
A—Some patients by palming, and resting their
eyes, have obtained benefit in a few minutes.