Book reviews

I have read some books on vision improvement, and below are the book reviews of some of them. I hope they will be useful to you in choosing one that is suitable for you and your vision needs. Bear in mind that natural vision improvement is not accepted by the scientific community for good reason: it remains unproven.

Natural Vision Improvement

by Janet Goodrich

This is the first book on vision improvement I read. The approach is basically relaxation of both mind and body. If both mind and body are relaxed and calm, clear eyesight will eventually follow. One of the major plus points of the book is the fun element: lots of it! There are comic characters illustrating the various vision games. The aim is to make vision improvement accessible to everyone and I think the book has succeeded.

There are clear, structured guides on how to go about improving one's eyesight. There is a chapter on teaching children how to take care of their eyes. This has now been expanded to an entire book, Help Your Child to Perfect Eyesight Without Glasses by the same author.

But I disagree with some of the writings. For example, Goodrich interprets "short-sighted" and "far-sighted" too literally. There is no reason why a lack of foresight would lead to myopia! Also, attempting to generalize people into stereotypical categories does not sit well with me. Saying that myopic people are introverts, study hard while hyperopic people are outgoing is all very interesting, but it does not mean that changing our personalities would change our eye defects. This relationship between personality and myopia has already been scientifically investigated. None exists.

On the whole, Natural Vision Improvement is a decent book on how to improve your eyesight, but you should take some of what the author says with a generous pinch of salt. Her arguments are unconvincing and unsupported by hard evidence.

Improve your vision without glasses or contact lenses: A new program of therapeutic eye exercises

By Dr. Steven M. Beresford, Dr. David W. Muris, Dr Merrill J. Allen, Dr Francis A. Young

This book is all about eye exercises, lots and lots of them. There are 7 visual habits, 16 booster techniques and 10 simple strategies. As you can see from the authors, this book has a lot of scientific minds backing it. So you can get the confidence that the eye exercises have some scientific basis.

What I like about this book is how clear it explains the facts behind myopia, and the procedures for exercising. It is simple and accessible, the kind of book that everyone can get into easily. The downside is that it can be too simplistic at times. When you want more elaboration on a topic, the book gives it a superficial treatment instead. It can get a bit annoying at times when a new term is thrown at you without any explanation, taking the example of "potentiation".

I have some reservations about this book after I started reading more about myopia. Their assertion that myopia comes about as a result of excessive near-work is based on incomplete evidence. In fact, myopia should be viewed as a combination of both the environmental and genetic factors. Also, the authors totally ignored the differentiation between pseudo-myopia and true myopia.

All this highlights the ignorance that exists in myopia. Despite the commonality of this eye disease, its cause and ways of prevention remains outside our understanding.

Reader review by Maria Grundmann

This straightforward, easy-to-read book is ideal for the practical pragmatist who wants a quick explanation of the facts followed by useful tools and tips that are ready to use, no assembly required. Other (usually more expensive) books go into much greater detail, but this one tells you everything you need to know to start improving your vision. It respects the healing power of prayer and meditation without going all touchy-feely, and the program really does work: my eyesight improved enough that I need to get my prescription reduced again.

Would you like to contribute your own book reviews? Just send it to hanwen@bigfoot.com!

The Bates method for better eyesight without glasses

By William H. Bates, M.D.

This book introduces the Bates Method, which is based on the ideas of William H. Bates who stress the importance of relaxation (both mental and physical) in vision improvement. It is one of the most important and influential ways of naturally curing eye defects. Although Bates has long since passed on, his ideas of eyesight remain with us.

Bates' ideas were formulated in the 1920s. His hypothesis that eyesight is inherently variable and that improvement can be achieved through relaxation was quite a breakthrough. At that time, the usual cure for defective eyesight was (and still is) the prescription of eyeglasses. Through constant experimentation on his patients, Bates developed the Bates method.

This book clearly explains the cause of bad eyesight and how to use the Bates method to overcome it. I found the language a bit hard-going, but reading it is definitely a rewarding experience. If you are serious about improving your eyesight, this is one of the most-recommended books by the pioneer of natural vision improvement.

But I'm going to throw cold water all over you and point out that the Bates method has not been scientifically proven to prevent or reverse true myopia. Pseudo-myopia is caused by excessive accommodation of the ciliary muscles while true myopia is characterized by an abnormally long eyeball. Theoretically, relaxation would work to reverse pseudo-myopia by relaxing the chronically tense ciliary muscles. How this would help with true myopia is debatable.

The Bates Method: Alternative health

By Peter Mansfield, illustrated by Shaun Williams

This is simple, introductory text to the whole notion of natural vision improvement and the Bates method. It is written by a practitioner of the Bates method in England. It gives an overview of the Bates method but there is no in-depth explanation of how to go about practising it. This is probably due to the author's belief that the Bates method is most effective when taught by a teacher. One can easily misunderstand the ideas in a book.

The focus of this book is different from many others, which are loaded with "how-to" procedures. Instead, the bulk of the book is devoted to the principles and ideas of the Bates method. So, if you want a clear introduction to the Bates method, this book is for you.

More reviews are appearing soon! Look out for them!

Relearning to see

By Thomas R. Quackenbush

This has got to be one of the most biggest books on natural vision improvement and the Bates method ever written. The presentation is wonderful and the writings clearly bring the idea across. The author is highly experienced in teaching vision improvement courses and this quality shines through in his book.

With 600 pages and 60 colour plates in the book, each concept is explained lucidly. The book begins with an overview of the physical structure of the eye and goes on to explain what goes wrong in the eye when we have blurred vision and what we can do to overcome the problems. The facts are "backed up" by scientific evidence, albeit papers published decades ago, and supplemented with personal anecdotes.

Unfortunately, there are flaws with the scientific facts (or the lack of them). At the first reading, I was persuaded that the Bates method is scientifically proven. But deeper consideration of the facts presented in this book led me to believe that the scientific basis of the Bates method is non-existent.

Let me illustrate with an example: Quackenbush argues that the external eye muscles control accommodation, a fact disputed by almost all vision researchers. His evidence: animal studies showing that the ability to accommodate is removed by severing external muscles. Sounds good? Unfortunately, I have read human studies showing that the effect of disturbing the external muscles is to make the world seem to move. Conclusion: external eye muscles move the eyeballs, and not to accommodate. Accommodation is handled by the ciliary eye muscles.

The recurring theme is "correct vision habits". Quackenbush emphasizes that blurred vision comes about as a result of incorrect vision habits. Only when we get down to the root of the problem can we start the journey towards clear sight. It is not a matter of eye exercises being the solution, as wrong vision habits would undo all the good that has been done.

This book adopts a very interesting format. The author quotes passages from William Bates' original book and then gives his interpretation of Bates' ideas. Very novel concept, and there is an additional benefit: you'll be getting 2 books for the price of 1! But the language used in the original Bates book is sort of tedious, and not very comfortable reading.

The conclusion is that this is a very-well written book professionally presented. Slick presentation is one thing, are the facts correct? I am not too sure about that. In the original Bates method book, William Bates was vague about the source of stress and strain that supposedly causes all eye problems. But now that Quackenbush has made it explicit the root of the stress lies in the external eye muscles, you start to wonder if what they say really makes sense.

So take what you want from my review, but If you only want to buy one book on natural vision improvement, make sure this is the one. You can't explain it any clearer than this book.

The first word that came to my mind when I was reading this book was "eclectic". I have to say that the approach adopted by Robert Zuraw is unique among vision improvement books. He took techniques from around the world and combined them into a series of eye improvement techniques. Just to give you a feel of the book: There are exercises and advice from China, India, Egypt, Germany and many others with names like "Exhaling Bull", "Yang-Eye Candle", "Egyptian Black Dot Technique" and so on. But the next thought was: Has every technique been evaluated before inclusion in the book? Or were they there just to "make up the numbers"?

There are also the more common Bates method, various relaxation tips and plus lens therapy. There are so many more that if you do just a different exercise every day, it can last you for weeks! The advantage is that one can surely find a few favoured techniques among so many described there. Lest you become overwhelmed or confused, Zuraw has a section on drawing up a daily programme.

Included too, a few chapters on general health advice such as nutrition and body massage. "Perfect Eyesight" certainly didn't miss out much information on eyesight improvement. One of the main emphasis was on the liver as the "center of health". As you may probably realize by now, this book is not backed up by scientific evidence. All we have are the author's claims that they do work.

One serious drawback with this book is that the organization and presentation could have been more professional. It would have been much more pleasant to read a proper book than a plastic binding of papers that could have passed for a high school student's project. More diagrams would have been helpful too, especially since some of the techniques described in the books are quite obscure. When I pay US$19.95 for a book, I expect a book. Not a stack of pages together by a plastic binder.

On the whole, "Perfect Eyesight" is an interesting read, and chock-full of information . Reading it would widen considerably your idea of what one can do for one's eyes, but remain very skeptical when digesting the information.

Latest news (9th March 98): Zuraw has just informed me that a paperback version of "Perfect Eyesight" will be available in the bookstores soon.

Even latest news (8th Nov 98): I haven't seen any sign of the book yet, don't think it's going to come out.