Relearning to See: Improve Your Eyesight - Naturally! by Thomas R. Quackenbush (2000, Paperback)

"Relearning to See" is the largest and most comprehensive book ever written on the Bates Method of Natural Eyesight Improvement Re-Education. The author has taught Natural Eyesight Improvement and Teacher Training classes since 1983. He has recently relocated his Natural Vision Center from San Francisco (and Oregon) to Nijmegen, The Netherlands (Holland).

RTS contains the pioneering work of ophthalmologist William H. Bates, MD. The most important contribution of RTS is that it concisely describes the three principles and three habits of natural eyesight. Each principle and habit is thoroughly explained, since all of them are necessary for normal, clear sight. RTS is a 521-page tome containing 60 color plates, over 150 illustrations and eye charts, (not a small edition like most other books written on this topic), and contains information on how to improve nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, presbyopia, strabismus (e.g. crossed-eye), amblyopia (lazy-eye), and many other vision problems. Even many serious eye problems have improved with this educational program. RTS covers reading, driving, using a computer, in nighttime vision, flying, light tolerance, artificial lighting and many other topics.

Glasses are an artificial crutch, and contact lenses are foreign objects. Both tend to reinforce strained vision habits and make your eyesight worse. Many people have noticed that when they were glasses for a few hours, their vision is significantly more blurred when the take them off. RTS educates you about lenses and prescriptions so you can go to your eye doctor and get legal, safe, reduced-power glasses while you are improving your eyesight.

This educational program is *not* about eye exercises---a common misconception of the Bates Method. Many people have discovered that when they stop doing "eye exercises" their vision goes back to the old blur again.

No LASIK! An ophthalmologist recently told me that he is seeing lots of people in his office who are now needing eyedrops permanently because of dry eyes caused by the unnecessary and risky operation LASIK. He says this is due to the abnormal edge in the cornea created by the natural curvature changing to the flattened region. Tears must cover the eyes all day long. Tears are not able to adhere normally to the cornea any more due to the artificial edge. Tears contain natural antiseptic properties which help prevent infections in the eyes. Insufficient tears can even cause blindness. You should also know that, legally, there are many known potential side effects that are not required to be revealed to you before LASIK operations.

One of the most interesting and valuable chapters is called "Brains and Vision," where the author presents a larger perspective on the Bates Method using the modern right brain/left brain model. Bates stated that vision is primarily mental. The sections on left-brain myopes versus right-brain farsights are quite revealing. There are many mental and vision quality benefits to improving eyesight naturally, including memory, concentration, imagination, creativity, color perception, depth perception, contrast and texture awareness.
Go to www.NaturalVisionCenter.com for more information and his second massive book "Better Eyesight: The Complete Magazines of William H. Bates."

So far I've read 120 pages and just got into the first step of the relearning to see process. I read about 100 pages of William Bates's book Better Eyesight without Glasses and realized that I did not need to do that because Relearning to see contains Dr. Bates' work so really your getting 2 books for the price of one. Nice colorful illustrations and so far enriching details on why conventional wisdom is incorrect when it comes to eyesight and why Bates' way is addresses the root problem of eyesight.
I've just started the exercizes and it only takes a minute to obtain better eyesight with the methods in this book. Unfortunately it only lasts a few seconds but I have not read the other steps in the book and it says that what I'm experiencing is normal so this is good.
If this book does provide the information on how to obtain better eyesight and actually works then it will truely be a wonderful thing.
Get it, try it, live it. Have faith and perseverance and your eyesight will improve.

''Relearning to see'' is really the most comprehensive book about visual reeducation.
I am dooing this program and my eyes are much less dry than before I started because of one of the habits the autor suggets: blink frequenly. The progress is slow but it works (anyway the author never said it would be quick).
If you have to buy one book about this topic, buy this one. The book is about the Bates method but even Bates himself doesn't explain the principles of visual reeducation as well as Quakenbush.
I have read 5 books about the same topic and they do not arrive to the ankle of this one. Even if there are some unnecessary chapters in this book (like about the retina or the prescriptions, or at least they could be more abreviated) I highly recommend this book and I give it a 5/5