Five common misconceptions that eyesight cannot be improved

            Many people - even if they would like to see without glasses or contacts - doubt that it's possible.

Much of that skepticism is rooted in misunderstanding. There are five common misconceptions that lead people to think that eyesight cannot be improved. They are:

1. Poor vision is inherited.
2. Vision inevitably deteriorates with age.
3. Poor vision is caused by certain visual activities.
4. Weak eye muscles cause poor vision.
5. Seeing is solely a physical, mechanical process.


1. Poor vision is inherited          The first misconception is that vision problems are inherited; that is, if your parents had poor vision, then you will too. Once universally accepted, it is now recognized by most eye doctors that the ability to see is not fixed at birth.

Only 3 people out of every 100 who cannot see clearly are born with inherited vision problems. The other 97% develop vision problems at some point in their life. Just as we learn how to talk or how to walk, we also learn how to see.

Since most of us were actually born with clear vision it would be more accurate to say that we learned how to not see clearly. Of course, we didn't learn it deliberately or consciously, and we weren't taught it by anyone, but we did develop an improper way of using our eyes and brain that led to unclear vision.

Recent studies indicate that even 1-day-old babies can focus clearly. When shown a picture of their mothers' face, these little infants could bring the picture into focus by adjusting the rate of their sucking on an artificial nipple. If they sucked at the right rate, the picture would stay clear. If they sucked too fast or too slow, the picture went out of focus. Invariably, the infants were able to keep the picture in focus!

Until this ingenious experiment was conducted, scientists erroneously thought that babies couldn't focus clearly until 3 or 4 months of age. Instead, it turns out that it was the scientists' inability to communicate with babies that led to their misunderstanding.

As human beings, we learn about the world around us through our five physical senses. The most dominant and highly developed is vision. In fact, 80% to 90% of the information that we gather comes to us through our eyes. Our vision is our primary means of relationship to the world around us.

         Over half the people in this country wear glasses or contacts. Needing corrective lenses to see clearly is now considered normal. We have become a nation of people largely dependent on an artificial means to perform a most basic and essential human function.

Yet, it wasn't always this way. Vision problems affect five times as many people today as compared to 100 years ago. This huge increase took place during only three or four generations. If poor vision was inherited, who could we have possibly inherited it from?

2. Vision inevitably deteriorates with age
           The second misconception is that vision inevitably deteriorates with age, and that everyone will eventually need glasses for reading.

The visual system - just like any other part of your body - can deteriorate with age. This is certainly true if nothing is done to retain its inherit youthfulness and flexibility, and if years of accumulated tension and rigidity are not released. But this decline is not inevitable and it is not irreversible. In fact, nothing is further from the truth.

As just one example, The Cambridge Institute recently received a letter from a remarkable 89-year-old man who had been using the same vision improvement system that you are about to start. He said in his letter, "I had been wearing reading glasses for 50 years, since I was 39. Now after 2 months of using The Program for Better Vision there are times when I can read without my glasses and it's completely clear and effortless."

That's a pretty amazing change, but the part of the letter that was the most striking was when he said, "I learned that I can succeed in helping myself and I'm looking forward to more changes in the future." Now, that's a youthful attitude!

Your eyes and your visual system respond to exercise, relaxation and stress relief. It all depends on the attitude you have and the concrete steps that you take to retain the vision that you have.

In fact it is our experience that middle-aged sight (presbyopia) responds very quickly to training. Many people who start to use The Program are able to not only halt the decline of their vision but also return it to its former degree of clarity.

3. Poor vision is caused by certain visual activities
             The third misconception is that poor vision is caused by what you do with your eyes: If you read too much, or use a computer, or watch too much TV, it will ruin your eyes.

And statistics seem to point in that direction:

Only 2% of students in the fourth grade are nearsighted; in the 8th grade, about 10% to 20% are; by the end of college between 50% and 70% of the students are nearsighted. Thus, it would seem that the more you read or study, the more likely it would be that you would become nearsighted.

But it is not because of the activity. It is because of how the eyes are used when performing the activity. And nobody is ever taught how to properly use their eyes and how to protect the good vision that they were born with.

When people are taught how to properly use and rest their eyes, then vision problems are much less prevalent.

For example, in China, students and workers are taught simple eye exercises that they practice every day in school and at work. And the rate of nearsightedness (myopia) has decreased substantially.

Unfortunately, these techniques are not yet common practice everywhere. But there have been a handful of school systems that have incorporated these and other changes with just as promising results as in China.

Extended periods of study, reading and computer use place added nutritional demands on the eyes and the body which, if not adequately met, can also contribute to visual difficulties.

But, there is no question that it is the visual habits that are critical, not the visual activity. The real problem is a lack of education. Vision care principles need to become more widely known and accepted, and more widely practiced.

Someday, there will be such a shift in attitude. But you don't have to wait. Right now you can do something good for your eyes and protect your eyesight by practicing the right way to use your eyes.

4. Weak eye muscles cause poor vision
           The fourth misconception is that weak eye muscles cause poor vision.

Yet, the muscles around the eyes are 150 to 200 times stronger than they need to be for normal use. These muscles rarely weaken. Instead, tension builds up and affects these muscles, preventing them from moving in a natural, fluid manner - their movements become stiff and restricted.

An analogy: If a person is right-handed, the muscles on the right side of the body will be stronger - and more coordinated - than those on the left. Why? Only because they have been used more, not because they are inherently weaker.

The same is true for eye muscles: Over time, certain visual patterns and habits develop, and some eye muscles become stronger and more coordinated than others. But the primary source of the problem is the underlying patterns and habits. And the eyes can be trained to function with new, more effective patterns. As this retraining occurs, the symptoms of visual difficulties - such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, etc. - decrease and disappear.

5. Seeing is solely a physical, mechanical process
            The fifth misconception is that seeing is a mechanical process and that clear vision is determined only by the shape of the eye. If the eye is the correct shape, the result is clear vision; if it is misshapen or distorted the result is nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism.

Actually, the shape of the eye is one element in the visual system, but not the only one. As just one example, eye doctors have long known that even though two people have exactly the same refractive error (how far from the retina the distorted image registers), each could have a completely different measurement of acuity (how clearly they can read the test letters on the eye chart). Mechanical measurement alone does not exactly predict how much a person can see. Other factors besides the shape of the eye are involved.

Many people notice that they see better at some times during the day than others. Some notice decreased vision when tired or under stress. What accounts for these daily fluctuations?

Have you ever driven down the highway, so engrossed in your thoughts and daydreams that you don't "see" your exit? Or been so tired that you read page after page without understanding a word?

Vision is a dynamic, changing process, affected by many different physical, emotional and mental factors. The shape of the eye may be one factor, but even that can change as a result of training and nutrition.

Let's look at how the eyes work, and the roles played by the body, mind and emotions in vision. Once we gain a fuller understanding of the holistic nature of vision, we'll be ready to see better for ourselves...