"Practice Time": The Routine of the Bates Method Given by Dr. Bates Himself!

While reading the filing of the Better Eyesight Magazine, I stumbled upon something I thought did not exist. In November 1928 issue, on the first page, there is a small article titled "Practice time" where Dr. Bates gives us a concise yet accurate recipe of what patients should routinely practice to get cured with his method, and most importantly, how much, how long and how often they should do it. 

I was amazed to discover that my own practice has been several times less intense than Dr. Bates suggested it to be. Three weeks ago I discovered this instruction and since then I follow it diligently and literally. As Dr. Bates said many times, the ones that simply do what they are told to are cured the quickest, and finally there is the instruction that is easy to follow. I am already seeing some progress. I admit I was wrong thinking that the Bates method was not routine; now I believe it is more routine and maybe even tedious. Regularity is king. The strategy is to make small improvements as often as possible, never allowing yourself to sink back to deeper strain again. This way the average level of strain decreases. The other strategy - make seldom but long relaxation sessions does not work to make any improvement permanent, I have proved it by two years of my practice.

Because the 1928-11 BEM issue is not available online, I typed it below. 

Practice Time

A large number of people have bought the book "Perfect Sight Without Glasses" but do not derive as much benefit from it as they should because they do not know how long they should practice.

Rest: The eyes are rested in various ways. One of the best methods is to close the eyes for half an hour after testing the sight. This usually improves the vision.

Palming: With the eyes closed and covered with the palms of both hands the vision is usually benefited. The patient should do this five minutes hourly.

Shifting: The patient looks from one side of the room to the other, alternately resting the eyes. This may be done three times daily for half an hour at a time. The head should move with the eyes and the patient should blink.

Swinging: When the shifting is slow, stationary objects appear to move from side to side. This should be observed whenever the head and eyes move.

Long Swing: Nearly all persons should practice the long swing one hundred times daily.

Memory: When the vision is perfect, it is impossible for the memory to be imperfect. One can improve the memory by alternately remembering a letter with the eyes open and closed. This should be practiced for half an hour twice daily.

Imagination: It has been frequently demonstrated and published in this magazine that the vision is only what we imagine it to be. Imagination should be practiced whenever the vision is tested. Imagine a known letter with the eyes open and with the eyes closed. This should be practiced for ten minutes twice daily.

Repetition: When one method is found which improves the vision more than any other method, it should be practiced until the vision is continuously improved.

Got the Original Bates Book

Couldn't find time to boast that I have ordered and received recently the original Bates book "Perfect Sight Without Glasses", the Edition of 1920. I bought it in an online second-hand book store, quite expensive, but it's worth every penny.


Needless to say that I'm totally enchanted by the book. It is in a very good condition and but the yellowish side face of pages, one wouldn't tell the book is 90 years old! The paper is pretty dense and glows with milky white. The font is also something special - I have never seen that kind of big black periods above i. The illustrations look much more vivid than in the scanned copies, and the photographically reduced micro print is amazing. I even think I should print more pages in micro type on a high-resolution laser printer, because I find reading the fine print very beneficial, when done properly.


The letters seem very black and distinct and seem to swing all by themselves. I believe Dr. Bates intended this curative effect by carefully choosing the font, page size, paper etc. That's what I've bought the book for - I've already read it many times, so I don't need to chase for new information and can read meditatively, swinging the letters, realizing with awe that it's the book printed by the great Dr. Bates himself!

The First Thing to Start with

The first and foremost thing you need to do is to read and understand the original Bates book, Perfect Sight without Glasses! This is so important, that I'd begin each and every my blog post with this urgent recommendation.

I can hear you thinking that you've already read it, and you may think you've understood it, but believe me you haven't. I'd bet you read another "Bates-like" book, and it was too much a while ago and most of things you have forgotten or confused with other wrong ideas.

The original book by Dr. Bates is a masterpiece. It's not a usual book that you give a cursory glance and move along. Although the text may look quite dry and old-fashioned at first glance, it is unbelievably carefully worded. There is no single word out of place, and each word is there for a reason. If some pieces seem unclear or unfeasible to you, or in reverse, you shrug shoulders why Dr. Bates writes about such obvious things, this is because you aren't yet experienced enough and haven't reached the state when you can understand it. Keep opening the book now and then, and you will be surprised to find the answers that you didn't previously realized were there. All missing pieces marvelously fit into place.

Like all things of genius, the Bates method is very simple, and the book by Dr. Bates sets forth the complete and pure essence of the method, without any redundancy. Some people call themselves "disciples" of Dr. Bates and write their own books, invent new techniques etc., but what they actually do is at best misinterpret and misplace the accents. I haven't seen not a single book that evolves and adds value to the Bates method, but I've seen a lot of unnecessary and wrong interpretations.

I like to quote one guy who is known to have his eyesight completely cured:

"My recovery has been too long and too slow. I think there are simple reasons for this. First and foremost, I initially had too little faith in the great Dr. Bates. My faith in some of his statements didn't come until I thoroughly had demonstrated the facts to myself, which in some cases took a very long time. Secondly, my mind was for a long time (and maybe still is) cluttered with ideas from Bates books written by people with defective sight and wrong ideas. One of these ideas, I think, is that the people that have the most success, are the people that go on and invent a lot of their own techniques. This I did for a long time. Actually I think I've made up enough of my own techniques to fill up close to a thousand pages in a book. My biggest dream some time ago, was to write all this down, and get my own book on the Bates method published. The techniques I mostly thought were revolutionary at the time I made them. Unfortunately, in the aftermath I've discovered that they're not. What I've discovered is that all of them were just complicated and inefficient ways of doing what the methods, as Bates explains them, do a lot better. That's why I wrote this: "If I hadn't taken all these precautions about posting (and if I weren't so lazy), I would have posted a lot more f.ex. on the use of the imagination, which I consider my strongest card. But I see that the way I use my imagination is changing so much, that I am too afraid to give people wrong ideas - which there is really WAY more than enough of on the other vision lists. I consider the only safe route to perfect vision is to follow the advice of those who have actually got there. Of course, I read other opinions too, but then I'm very careful to have the filters in my brain running." After this time, I've only realized this more and more, and I'm glad that I hesitated in writing up on some of my ideas, because I now know that they were not good ideas. So I doubt that you'll see a book published by me in a long, long time. Anyway, if I had to write down my own experience, I would have to use the same words as Dr. Bates did."

It is unbelievable how many months I have wasted doing totally wrong things while thinking I was practicing Bates. And when I finally got over my laziness and opened the original book, I was amazed to discover that I had never actually read THIS book! Don't repeat my mistake! Now I've made my habit to open the book now and then and it is always a tangible step forward.