On a tomb in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Florence was found an inscription which read, “Here lies Salvino degli Armati, Inventor of Spectacles. May God pardon him his sins.”
– Nuoro Enciclopedia Italiana, Sixth Edition
The above quote is on the first page of Dr. William H. Bates’ 1920 book, “Perfect Sight Without Glasses.” In chapter eight, Dr. Bates goes on to comment, “The Florentines were doubtless mistaken in supposing that their fellow citizen was the inventor of the lenses now so commonly worn to correct errors of refraction. There has been much discussion as to the origin of these devices, but they are generally believed to have been known at a period much earlier than that of Salvino degli Armati. The Romans at least must have known something of the art of supplementing the powers of the eye, for Pliny tells us that Nero used to watch the games in the Colosseum through a concave gem set in a ring for that purpose. If, however, his contemporaries believed that Salvino of the Armati was the first to produce these aids to vision, they might pray for the pardon of his sins; for while it is true that eyeglasses have brought to some people improved vision and relief from pain and discomfort, they have been to others simply an added torture, they always do more or less harm, and at their best they never improve the vision to normal.”
Glasses are helpful
Glasses can be helpful. When your vision is blurry, they can make things look more clear. They be an immediately relief. They can help you function and get along in your life. And, for now, you may need to pop them on at times for safety, such as when driving, or when driving at night.
Yes, glasses can be helpful, but at a cost. They do have side effects. Unfortunately, glasses cause strain and encourage that strain to continue. They cause mental strain and eye strain. This strain makes vision worse. Dr. Bates discovered this and developed a method based on relaxation to relieve this strain, improving vision, so that glasses are no longer needed.
Glasses can’t replace your natural vision
Glasses can’t replace seeing with rich, vivid, colorful and contrasting detail. They can’t replace seeing with freedom, movement, openness and expansiveness. Glasses can’t replace your mind’s curiosity and delight in seeing with awareness millions of points of light in a fraction of a second. Glasses can’t replace your brain’s ability to immediately put it all together into a perfect package of naturally clear and vibrant vision.
And, glasses can’t replace doing all this and more, that is so impossible to describe and must be experienced to truly appreciate, in a relaxed and effortless way.
Glasses never really correct vision
Not only do glasses not improve your vision, they cannot really correct it. When you take your glasses off, your vision is not improved and is usually worse than before you put them on. Your vision lowers from wearing glasses.
“For the prevailing method of treatment, by means of compensating lenses, very little was ever claimed except that these contrivances neutralized the effects of the various conditions for which they were prescribed, as a crutch enables a lame man to walk.”
– William H. Bates, M.D.
At best, glasses are like crutches. No, they’re not even that. After using crutches for a time, your broken leg mends. After wearing glasses, your eyes do not.
Your vision does not improve from wearing glasses. It just just gets worse. And, your worsening vision increases your risk of even more eye problems.
According to Dr. Bates, “At their best it cannot be maintained that glasses are anything more than a very unsatisfactory substitute for normal vision.”
– William H. Bates, M.D.
What Glasses Do To Us
In his book, “Perfect Sight Without Glasses,” Dr. Bates discusses the short comings of glasses, their inability to address the root cause of poor eyesight, and the fact that they can never give you normal vision.
And although prescription contact lenses and the permanent etching of your prescription on your cornea with Lasik surgery were not an option in Dr. Bates’ day, many of the short comings of glasses also apply. Nothing can replace normal vision. And, neither glasses, contacts nor surgery address the root cause, the strain that lowered your vision in the first place.
Lets hear what Dr. Bates had to write in his book back in 1920, in chapter eight, titled “What Glasses Do To Us.” Here are some of the highlights…
Glasses make color less intense and form less distinct
“That glasses cannot improve the sight to normal can be very simply demonstrated by looking at any color through a strong concave or convex glass.”
Color is always less intense when seen through your glasses than when seen with your naked eye.
Dr. Bates reasons, “Since the perception of form depends upon the perception of color, it follows that both color and form must be less distinctly seen with glasses than without them. Even plane glass lowers the vision both for color and form, as everyone knows who has ever looked out of a window.”
Glasses maintain refractive error
You cannot see through glasses unless you produce the same degree of refractive error which your glasses are designed to correct.
“But refractive errors, in the eye which is left to itself, are never constant. If one secures good vision by the aid of concave, convex, or astigmatic lenses, therefore, it means that one is maintaining constantly a degree of refractive error which otherwise would not be maintained constantly.”
In other words, your vision fluctuates. Sometimes you see better, sometimes you see worse. This is normal. This forced maintaining of a constant degree of refractive error with glasses is a strain to your eyes.
Glasses make vision worse
“It is only to be expected that this should make the condition worse, and it is a matter of common experience that it does. After someone begins to wear glasses, their strength, in most cases, has to be steadily increased in order to maintain the degree of visual acuity secured by the first pair.”
If you where glasses, you may have experienced that when you go without them glasses for a period of time your eyesight frequently improves. Dr. Bates stated, “As a matter of fact, the sight always improves, to a greater or less degree, when glasses are discarded, although the fact may not always be noted.”
“Persons with presbyopia who put on glasses because they cannot read fine print too often find that after they have worn them for a time they cannot, without their aid, read the larger print that was perfectly plain to them before.”
– William H. Bates, M.D.
Glasses are difficult to get use to
“That the human eye resents glasses is a fact that no one would attempt to deny. Every oculist knows that a patient has to “get use” to them, and sometimes they never succeed in doing so. Patients with a high degree of myopia (nearsightedness) or hypermetropia (farsightedness) have great difficulty accustoming themselves to the full correction, and often are never able to do so. The strong concave glasses required by myopia of high degree make all objects appear much smaller than they really are, while convex glasses enlarge them. These are unpleasantnesses that cannot be overcome. Patients with high degree of astigmatism suffer some very disagreeable sensations when they first put on their glasses, and are warned by the “Conservation of Vision” leaflets published by the Council on Health and Public Instruction of the American Medical Association to “get used to them at home before venturing where a misstep might cause a serious accident.” Usually these difficulties are overcome, but often they are not, and it sometimes happens that those who get on fairly well with their glasses in the daytime never succeed in getting used to them at night.”
Glasses contract the field of vision
“All glasses contract the field of vision to a greater or lesser degree. Even with very weak glasses, patients are unable to see distinctly, unless they look through the center of the lenses, with the frames at right angles to the line of vision, and not only is their vision lowered if they fail to do this, but annoying nervous symptoms, such as dizziness and headaches are sometimes produced.”
So, when looking through glasses, eye movement is restricted, because the only area where you can see clearly through them directly in the center of the lens. Your eyes cannot turn freely in different directions, which creates tension and strain in the eyes, face and neck.
Glasses are difficult to keep clear
“The difficulty of keeping the glass clear is one of the minor discomforts of glasses, but nevertheless a most annoying one.”
On damp and rainy days the moisture clouds them. On hot days sweat drips on them. On cold days they fog up. Dust, dirt and fingerprints get on them. Reflections from strong light can be annoying or dangerous.
“Soldiers, sailors, athletes, workmen and children have great difficulty with glasses because of the activity of their lives, which not only leads to the breaking (and scratching) of the lenses, but often throws them out of focus, particularly in the case of eyeglasses worn for astigmatism.”
Glasses are (un) fashionable
Dr. Bates had a strong opinion about glasses as fashion. He wrote a colorful and engaging paragraph about it.
“The fact that glasses are very disfiguring may seem a matter unworthy of consideration in a medical publication; but mental discomfort does not improve either the general health or the vision, and while we have gone so far toward making a virtue of what we conceive to be necessity that some of us have actually come to consider glasses becoming, huge round lenses in ugly tortoiseshell frames being positively fashionable at the present time, there are still some unperverted minds to which the wearing of glasses is mental torture and the sight of them upon others far from agreeable. Most human beings are , unfortunately, ugly enough without putting glasses upon them, and to disfigure any of the really beautiful faces that we have with such contrivances is surely as bad as putting an import tax upon art. As for putting glasses upon a child it is enough to make the angels weep.”
“Most human beings are , unfortunately, ugly enough without putting glasses upon them, and to disfigure any of the really beautiful faces that we have with such contrivances is surely as bad as putting an import tax upon art. As for putting glasses upon a child it is enough to make the angels weep.”
– William H. Bates, M.D.
Resource
“Perfect Sight Without Glasses” (also called, “The Cure Of Imperfect Sight By Treatment Without Glasses”) by William H. Bates
I am a natural vision improvement teacher and coach, massage therapist, yoga teacher and the owner of Relearn To See – Natural Vision Improvement. I take a wellness coaching approach to helping you negotiate life in a more relaxed and natural way that can benefit your eyesight, health and well-being.