Yes it can.

As eyesight can worsen, it can also get better. It can fluctuate up and down, from day to day, even moment to moment. For example, it may decline in times of stress, such as during a period of grieving or while getting an eye exam. It may improve in times of rest and relaxation, while on vacation or when glasses are not worn for a period of time. Eyesight can improve through Natural Vision education.

Natural Vision Improvement is a holistic and educational approach to vision care that gets to the root of eyesight problems.

It addresses the cause of poor eyesight, which is stress. Relaxation and re-education of the mind and eyes are at its foundation. Bates Educators help you observe poor vision habits and find ways to relearn to see more efficiently and clearly.

Eyesight issues share a common cause: stress in the mind and tension in the eyes. This can lead to using the eyes in ways for which they were not designed. Instead of the eyes seeing in a naturally relaxed way, they strain. This unconscious strain can cause chronic tension of the muscles around the eyes. The eye muscles can get stuck, squeezing the eyeball and holding it out of shape. This affects the eye’s flexibility and its ability to change shape to focus.

Natural Vision education helps to ease this unconscious tension. As natural habits of good eyesight are relearned and incorporated into daily life, the eye muscles relax. With the muscles relaxed, the eyeballs can return to their natural shape. This improves circulation and allows for proper functioning of the eye. Learning to relax and use our eyes effortlessly, without tension, allows them to return to experiencing clear vision.

Vision occurs mainly in the brain. Our eyes receive information in the form of light. The brain processes this information to make meaning of it and create our “visual world.” The process of improving our eyesight through Natural Vision education enables us to see more clearly. And seeing in a natural way, helps to bring us into greater balance and harmony with ourselves and our surroundings.

The body is an intelligent interconnected organism that wants to work correctly. Given the opportunity to function properly, it naturally will.

It began with William Horatio Bates, who was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1860. Bates graduated with a medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in New York in 1885. Dr. Bates became a successful and well-respected eye surgeon in New York and an instructor of ophthalmology at the New York Postgraduate Medical School and Hospital from 1886 to 1891. At various times, he also acted as advisor to school boards in the State of New York. From 1911 to 1922 he worked in outpatient clinics at the Harlem Hospital.

Early in his career, Dr. Bates became dissatisfied with conventional ophthalmological practice and began his own research into eyesight disorders. As early as 1891 Dr. Bates had learned how to help people get out of their glasses. His dissatisfaction began when he observed people whose eyesight seemed to spontaneously improve, sometimes to the point of a complete reversal of symptoms. This led him to question one of the most basic assumptions of the accepted practice of ophthalmology; namely, that once symptoms of refractive error were present in a patient, then nothing could be done other than prescribing glasses.

Dr. Bates went on to formulate new theories about eyesight and to develop a method to help people improve their vision. This method became known as The Bates Method. The Bates Method continues to be taught all over the world by professional teachers in many countries who are helping people to see better without artificial lenses or surgeries.

The term “Natural Vision Improvement” most likely started in 1987 with vision educator Janet Goodrich. It was her first book title.

The Bates Method is a method of vision reeducation through relaxation of eyes and mind to regain normal, effortless eyesight, which is comprised of both central clarity and expansive peripheral vision. And unlike what you might have heard, it's quite the opposite of eye exercises.

The Bates Method is about changing your visual straining habits that caused your eyesight problem. The way to see better permanently is to apply those natural, healthy habits all day. This needs to be practiced by first noticing and feeling the strain. Nearly everyone with eyesight problems is initially not even aware of the strain in their eyes and mind. Creating that awareness and attention is the first step, just like in any other transformational process.

Consciously reversing the habits and choices you made to get your eyesight to where it is today is the key to success. This is not a quick fix! And unfortunately there is none.

The Bates Method is an educational approach to relearning the habits of good eyesight. It is based on the principle of dynamic relaxation and of letting go of strain in the mind and eyes. Mental strain and tense eye muscles cause blurry and distorted vision. It is not a set of eye exercises. It is relearning and incorporating into daily life the habits of Natural Vision that bring back visual clarity.

The Bates Method defies the traditional belief that that vision problems are genetic or age-related and therefore unavoidable. Ophthalmologist William H. Bates has shown that eyesight is highly variable and can be improved as much as it can be worsened by conscious choice and unconscious habits.

Here’s an answer from a fellow vision educator:

“The Bates Method was developed almost 100 years ago in the early 20th century but is still not accepted as credible by most of orthodox optometry. At first this may sound like a long time ago, but consider the fact that mainstream optometry is still using even older theories from the 19th century. The currently accepted theory of accommodation, presented by Hermann von Helmholtz in 1855, states that the lens is the only contributing factor to our focusing ability. Dr. Bates proved that the six extrinsic muscles around each eye work in accompaniment with the lens and both contribute to our ability to focus light properly on the retina in the back of the eye. Since the human body is highly complex and interconnected it makes sense that several muscles, not just one, work together toward accommodation.

"Not many people have heard of the Bates Method before because it has been ostracized by the medical field. Eye doctors make a living prescribing glasses for people, so anything that prevents people from needing glasses may be seen as a threat. Additionally, the Bates Method challenges the entire behemoth of the optical industry, a $35.47 billion industry according to a study conducted by the Vision Council and released by Vision Expo.” Massive medical industries do not allow any room for alternatives and do not want anyone to experience anything aside from what they offer.”

— Claudia Muehlenweg

No. Exercise implies effort. It also implies the need for continuing to exercise to maintain good vision, and that if discontinued vision would decline. Rather than being about exercise, Natural Vision Improvement is about relaxation. It is about learning to let go of the strain and tension that is lowering vision. Practicing easy and gentle activities helps wake up Natural Vision. This allows the mind and eyes to function in their naturally relaxed and proper way.

Initially, these activities take conscious practice. This does take some personal responsibility and commitment to practice. But, gradually the activities become Natural Vision habits and are incorporated into daily life.