Product Description

In this accessible presentation of the famous Bates method, Thomas R. Quackenbush (who teaches the Bates method in California and Oregon) describes how eyesight can improve naturally, at any age and regardless of heredity. This book is a wonderful tribute to the genius of Dr. Bates, who was a pioneer in discovering how vision becomes blurred and how it restores itself naturally to clarity and acuity. Now 80 years later, his findings and teachings remain light years ahead of our contemporaries. His approach to treating vision problems was truly holistic and the theme throughout this book is very much an extension of that holistic approach. Dr. Quackenbush is to be commended for his dedication in getting the truth out and keeping the torch burning in this "bible" on vision improvement.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1031412 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04-25
• Released on: 1997-04-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 552 pages

Review
""Relearning to See" is a very impressive text!...outstrips all its predecessors...Most complete text that we've ever seen on natural vision improvement. For anyone seeking to improve their eyesight without drugs, surgery or prescription lenses...For anyone seriously interested in vision improvement or the Bates method, "Relearning to See" is a "must have.,.""
- Rosemary Jones
""Relearning to See,.".has got to be one of the best and most comprehensive books on natural vision improvement and the Bates method ever written...many glorious illustrations...two books for the price of one!...a very well-written book professionally presented. If you only want to buy one book on natural vision improvement, make sure this is the one."
- Chen Hanwen

Review
"Relearning to See is a very impressive text!...outstrips all its predecessors...Most complete text that we've ever seen on natural vision improvement. For anyone seeking to improve their eyesight without drugs, surgery or prescription lenses...For anyone seriously interested in vision improvement or the Bates method, Relearning to See is a "must have"..."
- Rosemary Jones

"Relearning to See...has got to be one of the best and most comprehensive books on natural vision improvement and the Bates method ever written...many glorious illustrations...two books for the price of one!...a very well-written book professionally presented. If you only want to buy one book on natural vision improvement, make sure this is the one."
- Chen Hanwen

Chen Hanwen, The Vision Improvement Site
Relearning to See...has got to be one of the best and most comprehensive books on natural vision improvement and the Bates method ever written...many glorious illustrations...2 books for the price of one! [Quackenbush's and a lot from Bates' writings]...a very-well written book professionally presented. If you only want to buy one book on natural vision improvement, make sure this is the one.

Customer Reviews

Perfect sight---your birthright!
"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 from San Francisco to the Natural Vision Center in Ashland, Oregon. RTS contains the pioneering work of ophthalmologist William H. Bates, MD. This educational program is *not* about eye exercises---a common misconception of the Bates Method. The most important contribution of RTS is that it concisely describes the 3 principles and 3 habits of natural vision. Yet 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 booklet 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. 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. 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. While Dr. Bates did make some errors, his *solutions* of re-establishing correct vision habits are flawless---because they are created by nature. Read Chapter 1, Chapters 2-4 if you have been wearing glasses or contacts; then jump to Chapters 9+ and get started with natural vision principles and habits. You can also read 50+ extraordinary feedbacks on this book (search for "NVCSF"). Then buy this book and begin Relearning to See---naturally and clearly! Also, check out his even larger, second work: "Better Eyesight: The Complete Magazines of William H. Bates," a 550,000+ word compilation of all 132 monthly magazines from 1919-1930.

Blinded by Science
"What is quality?" asks Robert Pirsig in his exceptional novel, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Relearning to See is QUALITY plus!

This book is a wonderful tribute to the genius of Dr. Bates, who was a pioneer in discovering how vision becomes blurred and how it restores itself naturally to clarity and acuity. Now 80 years later, his findings and teachings remain light years ahead of our contemporaries. There is at least one current book which gives you the impression that improving your vision naturally is "newly" discovered. Hardly. Tom is to be commended for his dedication in getting the truth out and keeping the torch burning in this "bible" on vision improvement.

As an ophthalmologist, Dr. Bates distinguished himself from the pack as a truly critical thinker. His colleagues were content to ignore or rationalize away the numerous cases of patients whose vision improved yet shouldn't have according to the orthodox theories. Dr. Bates was troubled enough to undertake his own extensive experiments and thorough analysis to debunk the myths. His approach to treating vision problems was truly holistic and the theme throughout this book is very much an extension of that holistic approach.

My vision improvement using the Bates method has been nothing short of spectacular. When I began, my near-sightedness was roughly 20/600. Now on a clear and sunny day outside, my vision settles in to about 20/30 on average, with many periods of 20/20. Under indoor artificial light, my vision averages about 20/40, with periods of 20/30. (Why does it vary, you ask? Read this book and you'll understand why eyesight isn't a fixed and rigid condition under all lighting conditions.) My vision continues to improve subtly each day (it's amazing how one can sense the differences that I'm sure no instrument could detect) and at this rate, I know that the perfect vision I fondly recall as a child will soon be restored.

Being formally educated and employed in the sciences, there was a time when I would have been extremely skeptical about holistic healing. I'm a firm believer now, because I have had reversals of other types of conditions that I never in a million years would have related to poor vision. This book describes many negative cognitive, emotional and physical symptoms that result from blurred vision.

Before getting this book, I had already been using the Bates method of improvement for several months. I was making good progress based on an obscure paperback first published in 1929, Better Sight Without Glasses, by Harry Benjamin. Tom's in-depth and comprehensive book gave me a much fuller understanding and appreciation for some of the finer points of Dr. Bates' work. The book also describes phenomena that I had experienced very early in my vision improvement that startled me at the time, such as brief "flashes" of 20/20 vision and incredible depth perception.

"Blinded by science" takes on a literal meaning when it comes to orthodox methods of "correcting" vision. There's no doubt that the eye care profession in its infancy was developed on good intentions. But it's a science that has gone terribly astray, with countless numbers of people needlessly suffering the consequences. This book discusses one of the founding principles of the profession based on experiments conducted in the mid-1800's where the reflection of a candle on a subject's eyes was checked under different focusing conditions. This experiment and its erroneous conclusions wouldn't likely meet the grade for a current school science fair.

I assume that many have chosen a career in the orthodox eye care industry for noble reasons beyond the almighty dollar. Yet they've been duped in their education to faithfully believe the mythical genetic condition of progressive myopia and they are unwittingly selling us snake oil (prescription lenses and contacts). To add insult to injury, a new brand of snake oil (laser surgery) is being offered. It's utterly preposterous the harm that has been inflicted to our most valuable sense organs in the guise of "treatment".

A philosopher once stated that truth goes through three steps. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. And thirdly, it is accepted as self-evident. Buy this book and go immediately to step 3. Learn the proper vision habits (not exercises) and you will be rewarded with marvelous clarity, incredibly healthy eyes and a whole new outlook on life.

concise and detailed
I did not realize this was such a large book and technical at the same time. But it is concise and thorough and I skipped many of the technical explanations and derived the main geist of improving vision naturally.

Mainly the book conveys the importance of relearning correct habitual seeing at all times as opposed to exercises for the eyes. The book is emphatic and focused on this point.

Mainly the three habits of seeing is blinking, sketching, and breathing and the book goes to great lenghts to explain and convince in many different situations its relevance.

Outstanding reading. Just realizing your erred visual habits will improve your sight to an extent which varies widely but as the book says it will take more time and relearning to undo years or lifetime of incorrect habits that it becomes natural and subconcious as was what you were born.