What is the Bates Method? 
The Bates method has been around for 100 years, healing all sorts of vision problems of all ages, from infant to 100 some years old.
It was pioneered by Dr. Bates who was a medical eye doctor and eye surgeon in NY city in early 1900’s. He noticed that when people lost their glasses and did not wear them even for a few days, their eyesight improved. He also noticed that when people relaxed their eyes and mind and did not stare and strain, their vision condition improved. The Bates Method has been utilized around the world to heal vision issues including nearsightedness, farsightedness, middle-age reading vision, astigmatism, crossed eyes, lazy eye, cataract, glaucoma, nystagmus, retinitis pigmentosa, and legal blindness.
For 40 years Dr. Bates researched scientifically on his own in spite strong opposition from his fellow eye doctors, practiced natural vision with tens of thousands of people, and achieved incredible success.
Three Vision Principles Discovered by Dr. Bates
The Bates Method is based on 3 main vision facts discovered by Dr. Bates:
- Relaxation of the eyes and mind is necessary for good vision as vision is mostly controlled by your nervous system.
- The human eye can see only one point clearly at any moment, which is called centralization. You see the best where you’re looking. When you try to see everything all at once, your sight gets blurry, because you’re not using your central vision for clarity; instead, you’re using your peripheral (side) vision which doesn’t give you clarity even if you have normal sight.
- We see by sensing the changes generated by the light and movement, because the light and movement activate and stimulate the visual system.
The Bates Method Techniques
Thus, the Bates Method includes techniques related to these main principles – relaxation of the eyes and mind, movement to enhance your peripheral vision, centralization to increase clarity for all distances, and fusion to enhance visual & mental focusing power. In this modern days, we also teach how to relieve computer eye strain, proper lighting, posture, nutrition, mental/emotional stress reduction, etc.
Mimi Shekoski, PhD, Natural Vision Teacher | Holistic Natural Health Doctor