Thanks for all the useful info so far, guys--and I'm looking forward to hearing some of those stories. I would personally welcome observations from those within the mainstream eye care industry as well as those outside it; my impression is that while institutions may create a bias against methods that undermine them, individuals are genuinely interested in helping people, regardless of how that's done. This seems true of the Bates method as well. Everything I've seen thus far includes links and resources that involve paying cash, especially for books and teachers. For all that, I'd imagine that very few people decide to teach the method if they don't have a reason to believe in it themselves. Ditto for optometrists and so forth. Which is a long way of saying any information is good information, as far as I'm concerned.
As for Relearning to See , I'm very ambivalent thus far. There's a lot of questionable information--I'm very suspicious when people say that things absolutely won't work if you don't believe in them fully--and much that seems to be to be flat-out wrong. But I'm finding some of the ideas about how we see to be fascinating. It's too soon for me to say if they're working; like I said, I tend to see improvement where there is none, but they're certainly thought-provoking. The chief "lesson" I've picked up so far is that in many ways I've given up on seeing clearly; when confronted with a blur in the distance viewed without glasses or contacts, I just let my eyes glaze over. This book suggests that we stop trying to see everything at once and practice zeroing in on specific details. Following this advice may not have affected my vision yet, but it has affected my seeing, if that distinction makes sense.
I wouldn't really mind if this were something I had to "work on" for the rest of my life; this particular book, at least, emphasizes that its suggestions are not exercises, but rather habits of good seeing that we need to re-learn, and I'm pretty down with that. But I'm going to have to notice more verifiable improvement before I make up my mind. In the meantime, I'll keep practicing. . . . (oh, and my sister is preparing to have Lasik, so I'm following that with interest as well).
Dude. Sorry about the super long post, by the way.
