I was amazed to learn that nearsight, farsight and most common vision problems are not caused by heredity, but are caused by tension in the vision system. The secret to healing your vision, then, is to teach your body to relax the vision system. If your vision system is perfectly relaxed, you will see perfectly clearly.
I know this is true because I saw it with my own eyes. Coming from a 9-diopter nearsight prescription (something akin to 20/900) after three weeks of ocular physical (vision) therapy, I read a 20/40 card from 60 feet away in bright sunlight without wearing my glasses. That’s 20/15 eyesight! If nearsight were inherited or otherwise cast in stone, that would not have been possible for me.
The benefit to this approach is not just to improve your eyesight. Macular degeneration can even be caused by nearsight, since nearsight puts extra stress on the macula. Healing your nearsight really can heal your eyes. For more on healing macular degeneration, see Taking On Macular Degeneration.
What relaxes the vision system? Movement! The more motion you have in your vision, the healthier it is. This is just a tiny fraction of the wisdom taught me by Gloria Ginn, a brilliant vision teacher in Los Angeles. Gloria is a self-taught vision therapist who has studied vision therapy techniques in London and China. She went to London and read all of William Bates’ notes to learn directly from him how to heal nearsight, farsight, astigmatism, lazy eye, all kinds of vision problems.
I have not found a vision therapist where I live now whose techniques are compatible with Gloria’s, but that’s not to say there isn’t one in your neighborhood that can help you. Keep this in mind: the key to vision therapy is relaxation. Vision therapy is actually more accurately ocular physical therapy. The goal of vision therapy is to relax your vision system completely. If your vision is perfectly relaxed, you will see perfectly. Period.
If there is damage to your eyes from retinal bleeds, vision therapy may help the existing vision loss as greatly increased blood flow will help clear away matter such as old blood blocking the vision, and it will help prevent future vision loss due to retinal bleeds if the reason for the bleeds is nearsight. If there is another reason for the bleeds, such as radiation exposure from living at the equator, or diabetes, or “old age,” and you also have significant nearsight, vision therapy can also be helpful because you will be eliminating a source of stress on your retinas by relieving the nearsight.
If there is damage to your eyes from surgery, such as surgery to correct a lazy eye, or laser treatment for nearsight, this method is not advisable because it will harm your vision rather than help it. Tension in your vision system caused your vision problems and surgery was used to correct them–this is how you have achieved status-quo. So glasses or whatever methods you are currently using will be the best solution for you. Vision therapy would be a bad idea.
When I last tried vision therapy, I achieved success by doing one simple exercise three times a day for 15 minutes at a time. William Bates called it “the long swing.” Stand relaxed with your feet about shoulders width apart, facing forward. Keeping your spine straight, lift your left heel up, then set it down again. This will turn your body to the right. As soon as your left heel touches the ground, lift your right heel, turning your body to the left. As you continue this motion, your body will swing to the left, right, left. Remember to keep your spine straight, this is not a spinal twist. It is a very relaxing motion. While you are doing this, notice the room “moving” past you. Notice that things in the foreground seem to move “past” things in the back ground while you are swinging. Notice movement in your peripheral vision. Notice the trees “moving” over your head in your peripheral vision, the floor or ground “moving” under your feet. This “motion” you are seeing is extremely therapeutic! If you do this three times a day for fifteen minutes at a time, you will be giving your body a huge comforting “drink” of relaxation. If you have significant nearsight, your face and shoulders may feel different after doing this. You may start getting “flashes” of perfect vision like I do, or you may notice a gradual improvement in your visual acuity.
Substantial improvement in nearsight and farsight can also be gained using other techniques, such as daily face, head and neck massage (if you can, do this 3 times per day!), or practicing relaxation techniques like looking for the edges of the pixels on a computer screen, or looking for the edges of the fibers text is printed on in a book.
When I practiced these methods for the first time twelve years ago, I was unmarried and worked out of my home. I was able to live without glasses while my vision came up to speed. I do not feel comfortable doing this now since my responsibilities have increased, so I will be doing vision therapy this time while wearing glasses or contacts. I have a weak pair of glasses I use for computer work–these will likely be the glasses I use for everyday tasks except driving. I will start by bringing my vision up to perfect with these glasses. When I do that, then I can decrease my prescription and bring my vision up to the new level, until I eliminate glasses altogether. I will let you know how this goes!
If you are farsighted, vision therapy can help you, but I have not done this and I do not know the specifics of how to get you there. I do know techniques that relax your vision system will be effective. The book Relearning To See by Thomas Quackenbush is packed with information on effective vision therapy techniques pioneered by William Bates. It is a great place to start you on the path towards vision wellness.