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About the Bates Method
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What is the Bates Method?
The Bates method recognises that visual problems are rarely static: vision is a dynamic process and needs to be worked with in a dynamic way. Dr Bates maintained that the key to most visual problems was central fixation.
What is Central Fixation?
Central Fixation means that you see best the thing that you are looking at.
For this to happen the eye needs to be able to clearly distinguish the centre from the periphery. For this to happen the eye muscles need to be able to move freely and sensitively.
For this to happen, the eye muscles and all other parts of the visual system need to be relaxed.
Strain and Relaxation
If you strain to see, the eye muscles become tense, the eye does not move freely and the retina becomes desensitised. In the early stages of a visual problem, it may be quite easy to let go of the strain: if it has become a habit over years it may be very difficult to let go. That is why so many optometrists believe that the eye is fixed and vision does not change.
Relaxation of the eyes does not mean vaguely staring into space: it means using the eyes properly, looking at everything in detail and with full attention, but without strain. People who see normally do this as a matter of course: people who have had trouble seeing for years may find it quite difficult to learn.
How does the Bates Method work?
Practitioners start with simple techniques to encourage relaxed use of the eyes - to learn the difference between strain and relaxation. From there you would progress to learning to recognise the ways in which we defeat ourselves in the attempt to see and to overcome them by learning how to keep the mind in contact with what we are looking at while keeping the eyes relaxed.
Movement games are also used to further develop relaxation and to help the eyes relearn the natural movement patterns that are vital for central fixation.
When this starts to work correctly, the system begins to automatically recalibrate itself.
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