Meir Schneider, Ph.D., was born with vision problems, including cataracts. Following five failed eye-lens operations in childhood, Meir was legally certified blind. At the age of 17, Meir practiced the Bates eye exercises up to 13 hours a day, and added his own massage and eye movement routines. Within 18 months he achieved 20/80 vision and an unrestricted California driver's license. Your eye doctor can tell you whether his methods will work for you.
Find Your Horizon
Find a vista, a place where the farthest point is miles away. Look for your own horizon. This is the farthest distance at which you can distinguish anything, even a slight variation of shape or color. This may be beyond the point where you can distinguish any details. Move your eyes right, left and back again over as wide a panorama as possible, from place to place along your horizon. Set your gaze on every detail, no matter how indistinct. Search as if you are seeking for something unexpected or lost. Continue this for many minutes, but not to exhaustion or fatigue of your eye muscles. Expect your exercise time to increase over days or weeks as you become accustomed to finding your own horizon. Blink frequently to prevent drying your eyes.
Move Your Horizon Closer
After you have explored your horizon for many minutes, move your eyes to a slightly closer horizon and shift your gaze back and forth, detail to detail as before. Eventually, you will distinguish more details. Continue to bring your horizon closer by small increments and take in every available detail. When you have advanced your focus as close as you can, you may be nearly overwhelmed by the details, clarity and variety you see. If your eyes fatigue, rapidly wiggle your fingers around in your peripheral field of vision for a minute, or softly cup the palms of your hands over your closed eyes until you feel relief.
Reverse Your Horizon
The third exercise is to reverse your search for your horizon. Begin by shifting your vision back and forth on the closest object you can focus on. Gradually move your focus farther away. After each stage, close your eyes for about a minute. Visualize what you saw in as much detail as you can. Try to maintain a clear sense of everything you saw as you peer into greater distances.
Repeat and Gaze
Repeat the exercises from close to distant instead of right to left, slowly gazing from very near to your distant horizon and then back to your nearest focus. Repeat this near-far cycling slowly over a few minutes. Complete this exercise by stopping with your gaze on your horizon and look at it for 7 minutes. Remember to blink and move your eyes from point to point. Continue to notice every possible detail, including colors, differences in contrast, shapes and forms. Meir Schneider and many others who have used these exercises say you can expect significant improvements within eight to 18 months of daily exercises.
