Book excerpt: Better Eyesight Without Glasses is not only the definitive source for the classic Bates Method, it is in itself a remarkable phenomenon. Dr. William H. Bates’s revolutionary and entirely commonsensical theory of self-taught improved eyesight has helped hundreds of thousands of people to triumph over normal defects of vision without the mechanical aid of eyeglasses. If you think that your eyesight could be made better by natural methods, you are right. After years of experimentation, Dr. Bates came to the conclusion that many people who wore glasses did not need them. He gradually and carefully developed a simple group of exercises for improving the ability of the eyes themselves to see, eliminating the tension caused by poor visual habits that are the major cause of bad eyesight. These exercises are based on the firm belief that it is the natural function of the eyes to see clearly and that anyone, child or adult, can learn to see better without glasses.