Better Eyesight: The Complete Magazines of William H. Bates [Paperback]

Even though I'm not a novice at natural vision improvement (see Relearning to See review), this book has greatly inspired me. The moment I began reading Better Eyesight, it was like stepping back in time to get personal advice from Dr. Bates in his clinic. It was also uncanny to read many unique observations so similar to my eye re-education experiences. I'm on the homeward stretch of my 20/20 goal (or keener!) and Better Eyesight has bolstered my motivation. It's helped remind me to quickly recognize and correct myself when I lapse into poor vision habits and my progress has surged.

Dr. Bates humbly stated that he had no external cure to improve eyesight. It was nature's way of healing and he cited cases where people improved their vision with no knowledge of his teachings. (I know of two adults who hated their prescribed glasses as kids, quit wearing them, and their sight returned to normal.) However Dr. Bates found that most people, especially those who'd worn lenses for any length of time, needed to relearn the relaxed use of their eyes to have any chance of reversing locked-in strain and blur.

Dr. Bates appeared to have high scientific principles, yet knew the limitations of science and the dangers of submissive adherence to authoritative dogma. He once believed the orthodox teachings and it took him many years to reconcile their errors to his satisfaction. His findings were well documented and published in the medical journals and scientific literature of the day and apparently went unchallenged. Instead Dr. Bates was ostracized and ridiculed in such a bigoted and arrogant manner. He seemed to take it all in stride with a sense of humor by interspersing his wit in many articles squarely aimed at the nay-sayers.

Better Eyesight also gives glimpses of Dr. Bates beyond the eye clinic. His ethics, values and philosophy towards industrialization, mass-education and modern medicine closely parallel views of more contemporary social critics such as author Ivan Illich. In Limits to Medicine --- Medical Nemesis, Illich provides a definition from a medical dictionary of iatrogenic conditions or disorders. In essence, they are those caused by medical intervention. Progressive myopia has to be the granddaddy of all iatrogenic disorders, mainly due to the prescribing of full-power compensating lenses, and not the genetic disorder falsely invented.

Another interesting facet of Dr. Bates was his discovery of adrenaline, now a household word when we hear overpaid professional athletes on TV talk about their adrenaline rush. Yet sadly the benevolent work of improving vision naturally for which Dr. Bates dedicated his life is so little known and has been so grossly maligned. Thankfully his teaching methods and writings were preserved and have been edited and annotated by the author in this legacy. Hopefully it will help set the record straight and give Dr. Bates more widespread recognition that's long overdue.

Maybe some future day when these teachings become mainstream principles a museum will house a chamber of horrors displaying artifacts of the iatrogenic era. Animated lifelike figures in a "Blind Faith" section could depict people straining to see through Coke-bottle glasses, poking bloodshot eyes to insert contact lenses and having corneas burned by lasers. Aghast parents will be at a loss to explain to their children how so many people willingly paid to be maltreated in the name of progress.