[...A teacher forty years of age was first treated on March 28, 1919.
She was wearing the following glasses: O. D. convex 0.75 D. S. with
convex 4.00 D. C., 105 deg.; O. S. convex 0.75 D. S. with convex 3.50
"I will tell you about my eyes, but first let me tell you other
things. You were the first to unfold your theories to me, and I found
them good immediately - that is, I was favorably impressed from the
start. I did not take up the cure because other people recommended it,
but because I was convinced: first, that you believed in your
discovery yourself; second, that your theory of the cause of eye
trouble was true. I don't know how I knew these two things, but I did.
After a little conversation with you, you and your discovery both
seemed to me to bear the earmarks of the genuine article. As to the
success of the method with myself I had a little doubt. You might core
others, but you might not be able to cure me, However, I took the
plunge, and it has made a great change in me and my life.
To begin with, I enjoy my sight. I love to look at things, to examine
them in a leisurely, thorough way, much as a child examines things. I
never realized it at the time, but it was Irksome for me to look at
things when I was wearing glasses, and I did as little of It as
possible. The other day, gang down on the Sandy Hook boat, I enjoyed a
moat wonderful sky without that hateful barrier of misted glasses,and
I am positive I distinguished delicate shades of color that I never
would have been able to see, even with clear glasses. Things seem to
me now to have more form, more reality than when I wore glasses.
Looking into the mirror you see a solid representation on a flat
surface, and the flat glass can't show you anything really solid. My
eyeglasses, of course, never gave me this impression, but one
curiously like it. I can see so clearly without them that it is like
looking around corners without changing the position. I feel that I
can almost do it.
I very seldom have occasion to palm. [Editor's Note: By palming is
meant the covering of the closed eyes with the palms of the hands in
such a was as to exclude all the light, while remembering some color,
usually black.] Once in a great while I feel the necessity of it. The
same with remembering a period. Nothing else is ever necessary. I
seldom think of my eyes, but at times it is borne in upon me how much
I do use and enjoy using them.
My nerves are much better. I am more equable, have more poise, am less
shy. I never used to show that I was shy, or lacked confidence. I used
to go ahead and do what was required, if not without hesitation, but
it was hard. Now I find it easy. Glasses, or poor sight rather, made
me self-conscious. It certainly is a great defect. and one people are
sensitive to without realizing it. I mean the poor sight and the
necessity for wearing glasses. I put on a pair of glasses the other
day just for an experiment, and I found that they magnified things. My
skin looked as if under a magnifying glass. Things seemed too near.
The articles on my chiffonier looked so close I felt like pushing them
away from me. The glasses I especially wanted to push away. They
brought irritation at once. I took them off and felt peaceful. Things
looked normal.
I see better in the street than I ever did with glasses. I can see
what people look like across the street, can distinguish their
features, etc., a thing I could not do with glasses, or before I wore
them. I can see better across the river and further into people's
houses across the street. Not that I indulge, but I noticed an
increase of power while looking out of the window in school.
Speaking of school, I corrected an immense pile of examination papers
the other day, five hours at a stretch, with an occasional look off
the paper and an occasional turn about the room. I felt absolutely no
discomfort after it. Two weeks previous to this feat I handled two
hundred designs over and over again, looking at each one dozens and
dozens of times to note changes and improvement in line and color.
Occasionally, while this work was going on. I had to palm in the
mornings on rising.
I use my eyes with as much success writing, though once in a while
after a lot of steady writing they are a little bit tired. I can read
at night without having to get close to a light. I mention this
because last summer I had to sit immediately under the light, or I
could not see.
From the beginning of the treatment I could use my eyes pretty well,
but they used to tire. I remember making a large Liberty Loan poster
two weeks after I took off my glasses, and I was amazed to find I
could make the whole layout almost perfectly without a ruler, ) just
as well as with my glasses. When I came to true it up with the ruler I
found only the last row of letters a bit out of line at the very end.
I couldn't have done better with glasses. However this wasn't fine
work. About the same time I sewed a hem at night in a black dress,
using a fine needle. I suffered a little for this, but not much. I
used to practice my exercises at that time and palm faithfully. Now I
don't have to practice, or palm; I feel no discomfort, and I am
absolutely unsparing in my use of my eyes. I do everything I want to
with them. I shirk nothing, pass up no opportunity of using them. From
the first I did all my school work, read every notice, wrote all that
was necessary, neglected nothing Everything I was called upon to do I
attempted. For instance, I had to read President Wilson's "Four{*filter*}
Points" in the assembly room without notice in a poor light - unusual
wording, too, - and I read It unhesitatingly. I have yet to fall to
make good.
Now to sum up the school end of it, I used to get headaches at the end
of the month from adding columns of figures necessary to reports, etc.
Now I do not get them. I used to get flustered when people came into
my room. Now I do not; I welcome them. It is a pleasant change to feel
this way. And-I suppose this is most important really, though I think
of it last - I teach better. I know how to get at the mind and how to
make the children see things in perspective. I gave a lesson on the
horizontal cylinder recently, which, you know, is not a thrillingly
interesting subject, and it was a remarkable lesson in its results and
in the grip it got on every girl in the room. What you have taught me
makes me use the memory and imagination more, especially the latter,
in teaching.
Now, to sum up the effect of being cured upon my own mind. I am more
direct, more definite, less diffused, less vague. In short, I am
conscious of being better centered. It is central fixation of the
mind. I saw this in your latest paper, but I realized it long ago and
knew what to call it."...]
- Dr. W.H. Bates, July 1919
A Teacher's Experiences