Vision Training - does it work?

“Intriguing, the idea that I have control over my own eyesight is wonderful” Sarah Smidt.

Recently, I received an email from Vivian, a mother with a 7-year-old daughter that had one eye turning in towards her nose. The mother had researched this problem and knew all the medical terms. She had been told numerous times that the only solution was surgery to move one of the muscles in her daughter’s eye. There seemed to be no alternative.

Understandably, Vivian was quite sceptical about the idea that you could simply exercise away esophoria, the medical term for an eye that turns in towards the nose. She asked me if I had anyone who had benefited from this work, so I emailed her this story written by another mother a few years ago about her son, Dominic.

“Mom, do I look more handsome with or without glasses,“ my son, Dominic, 8, asked. ”You looked handsome with glasses but you look so smart without them,“ I said. Dominic started to miss his pair of glasses soon after he got rid of them as people used to say he looked good wearing glasses.He was born farsighted, so the ophthalmologists said, and was diagnosed to have 700+ far sight. He began to wear glasses at the age of two.

Magically, after joining the Magic eyes workshop (over the Lunar New Year Holidays, Feb. 2007) conducted by Leo, he got rid of his farsightedness. He got rid of his glasses right away, in three days. 

On the first day of the workshop, Dominic learned to do the string and knots exercises. Leo stressed that he must do this repeatedly and intensively on the second day if we were to see any quick results. How intensive? 50 times a day, which means you must do it every 15 minutes. Dominic almost hit the target. He was kind of successful as he did it 48 times. It paid. He was rid of the far-sight problem almost at once. He told me he saw things very clearly without glasses. We made it, except for one thing: his two eyes were not coordinating very well. His right eye’s vision was better than the left so the left eyeball would turn in at times. This worried me as the workshop was over and I felt a little bit helpless. 

I managed to speak to Leo over the phone the next day and he asked me to keep practising the string and knots as well as the eye chart with Dominic until the eyeball would not turn in. Dominic and I were doing the exercises as a team so both of us needed to work hard. Dominic had to go back to school after the holidays though, so we just forgot about the exercises for the moment as advised by Leo (“Give him a break,” he said. ”Do it only on weekends”). We spent the following weekend practising the string and knots and eye chart. This time, we did about 20 times (I just wanted to make him feel relaxed so I did not push him real hard). Also, I remembered what Leo said: we, the parents, must give the kids lots of praises in doing the exercises. I did. By the end of the day, I almost noticed the change.

His left eyeball did not turn in that often. We did the exercises again over the next weekend and I could see that the problem was getting better and better. 

After about two weeks, life returned to normal: no more string, knots and eye chart as Dominic’s left eyeball did not turn in at all! It works. The string and knots exercises are very, very useful. It helps the two eyes to coordinate such that you learn to use both eyes to locate the target (the knots). When you use both eyes to see, the eyeball will not turn in any more. 



I ask Dominic to do the eye chart once in a while (every two months) just to check his eyesight. He has now achieved the 20/20 (100%) vision. We are working towards 16/20 (120%).It sounds magical, but it is not. We, Dominic and I, have put in much effort in it. You and your kid must work together, and be a good team. But first and foremost, you must have faith in it before magic can turn into reality!

(By Teresa Ho,
21 May 2007)

20 mins after sending this, another message arrived from Vivian. It simply said, “Thanks Leo, very, very encouraging.” !

Sometimes the stories are more down to earth, but no less dramatic. One lady sent this message. After taking the class, “I have reduced my prescription five times.” This is simply done by buying daily disposable contact lenses half a diopter less each time you buy a pair. Combined with active eye exercises, this works.” !

There is no magic to this. Everyone, know that if you practise your tennis serve or your golf swing, you improve. In fact, all success in sports is due to training. Our eyesight is a function controlled by muscles, so there is no reason that training your ability to see should not work.

I have presented my vision training workshops for almost 20 years. During that period, I have come across most of the vision problems possible. These are the eyesight problems that can be trained successfully.

Astigmatism

– if you see shadows or double images, most people see improvements after just a few exercises by responding quickly. 

Near sight

– if you are just a few diopters/degrees from perfect vision, then chances are that you can reduce your prescription and probably restore your vision to normal. I wore glasses for 26 years (-5.5 diopters near sight), and 24 years ago, I found out how to get rid of my glasses. I have enjoyed perfect eyesight ever since. It worked for me and it will probably also work for you.

Presbyopia

– the need for reading glasses afflicts the largest number of people, as much as 40% of the population. The older you get, the higher the percentage becomes.

At a workshop in Melbourne, a group of participants was trying each other’s reading glasses during the lunch break. One of them told me that she was astonished to discover that she was perfectly comfortable with glasses borrowed from the gentleman across the room. They were +2.0 diopters less than the glasses she wore normally. She was very motivated. 
Less common problems such as strabismus, mentioned above, lazy eye or when there is a large difference between the visual ability of the left and right eye, and coordination problems when the eyes do not converge accurately on the object you are focusing on – all these eye problems respond well to vision training.

In fact, most of my participants will notice an improvement in their eyesight during
the workshop. Many will need to change glasses or go back to using old ones. 

Yes – it does work.