The See Clearly Method &
Other Programs: Do
Eye Exercises Improve Vision?

By Rob Murphy, with updates by Gary Heiting, OD, and Marilyn Haddrill

The first thing you want to know about a self-help program involving eye exercises is whether it works. Before you spend time and money on a program such as the once widely advertised See Clearly Method, be wary of any claims that such a program might "eliminate or reduce your need for glasses and contacts."

Keep in mind that it's also against the law for a company to profit by making unvalidated claims in order to sell a product or program.

For example, an Iowa district court in November 2006 halted all sales of See Clearly Method kits marketed for several years as a way of using eye exercises to improve vision. Based on allegations that included misleading advertising, the state court ordered the Iowa company selling the kits to pay $200,000 into a restitution fund to compensate consumers who had paid about $350 for each of thousands of kits.

In the lawsuit, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller accused the company of making "dramatic claims for its product that could not be substantiated."

Steven M. Beresford, PhD, is founder and CEO of American Vision Institute (AVI) — the entity behind the original See Clearly Method. Beresford told AllAboutVision.com via e-mail in late 2008: "In our opinion, the Iowa attorney general was paid off by the AOA [American Optometric Association] by means of a bribe or campaign contribution to carry out a proxy attack."

The AVI now lists on its Web site a new Power Vision Program of eye exercises, which is offered free of charge. Information published on the site says the institute is privately funded, and does not require payment. The site also includes a long list of published studies, upon which the vision improvement method is said to be based.

The previously marketed See Clearly Method is only one example of different versions of eye exercise programs offered on the Internet and through other media outlets, with wording that indicates you can improve your vision naturally.

It's true that there are legitimate forms of vision therapy, such as for sports vision enhancement and focusing problems caused by convergence insufficiency. Also, a person with a brain injury or other neurological problem may need a vision therapy program to help the eye and brain learn to "connect" again, enabling better vision.

But widespread research indicates that it's highly unlikely you would be able to "throw away your glasses" for normal, significant vision errors such as nearsightedness (myopia) simply by exercising your eyes — if this is the claim being made.

Can Eye Exercises Alter Your Eye's Basic Anatomy?

To better understand why these claims of dramatic "natural vision improvement" are pretty far-fetched for most common refractive errors, you need to understand the eye's basic anatomy and how the eye refracts light to achieve focus. Problems with how the eye is shaped typically contribute to focusing errors such as nearsightedness, farsightedness (hyperopia) and astigmatism. For example:

• When the eyeball is too short, you are farsighted and can't focus at near distances because light rays entering your eye achieve a point of focus somewhere beyond your retina, where images are processed.
• When you are nearsighted and your eyeball is too long, light rays have too far to go and "fall short" of achieving a point of focus on your retina.
• When you have astigmatism, usually your cornea or the clear surface of your eye is irregular. Sometimes, astigmatism results when your eye's natural lens has an irregular shape. These irregularities cause light rays entering your eye to split into different points of focus, creating blurry vision.
• Another common vision problem, presbyopia, occurs with aging when your eye's natural lens starts to lose elasticity and no longer can move properly to accommodate focus at multiple distances. This condition typically causes your near vision to start blurring, beginning at around age 40.

When you "exercise" your eyes, you move your eye muscles to create up-and-down, side-to-side or circular motion. You also "work" the muscles controlling back-and-forth movement of your eye's natural lens, to help achieve sight at multiple distances.

So if you are considering an eye exercise program for a common refractive error, ask yourself these questions:

• Will exercising your eyes change the basic shape of your eyeball, by making it longer or shorter?
• Will eye exercises alter the basic shape of your eye's clear surface (cornea), and change the angle of how light rays enter your eye to achieve focus? (For example, this is how LASIK works to correct common vision errors.)
• If you have astigmatism, will exercising your eyes somehow reshape your eye's irregular surface?
• If you have presbyopia, will eye exercises restore your eye's lens to its once youthful elasticity that has declined due to aging processes?

A recent review of research published in peer-reviewed, scientific journals conducted by AllAboutVision.com failed to uncover any studies showing that eye exercises can alter the eye's basic anatomy significantly or eliminate presbyopia — which no one escapes after a certain age.

You possibly can "train" your eyes to see better in different ways, such as in how your brain and your eyes adapt and function. Children with certain early vision problems, such as amblyopia or "lazy eye," may need a specific type of vision therapy to make sure their eyes work together properly (binocular vision) and that vision is developing normally.

But above all else, eye shape determines your basic refractive error. And if you have a significant problem with the way your eye is shaped, it's unlikely you will be able to "throw away" your glasses even after a devoted program of eye exercises.

After evaluations of various studies involving programs of eye exercises, biofeedback, muscle relaxation, eye patching and eye massage, officials at the American Academy of Ophthalmology issued this statement in 2004:

"It is not clear if patients purchasing these programs for use at home outside of the controlled environment of a research study will have any improvement in their vision. No evidence was found that visual training has any effect on the progression of myopia. No evidence was found that visual training improves visual function for patients with hyperopia or astigmatism. No evidence was found that visual training improves vision lost through disease processes such as age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy."

The "tromboning" exercise had you hold a small object at arm's length, inhale, then move the object in to touch the tip of your nose. You would then exhale, look at the object, and move it back out. "Tromboning exercises the focusing mechanism, improves control of the extraocular muscles and stimulates the flow of nutrients inside the eyes," according to the manual.

The See Clearly Method of Eye Exercises

When the See Clearly Method was being widely promoted, the original Web site (seeclearlymethod.com) did not have any statements indicating that the program actually worked.

No word promoting the product — a regimen developed by four doctors from the AVI — promised anything. (AVI licensed the See Clearly Method to Vision Improvement Technologies, Inc., which marketed the program.)

Yet, the Web site also told you that the do-it-yourself vision improvement plan was a "safe, healthy alternative to glasses, contacts and even laser surgery." But then a disclaimer on the site noted: "The rate at which your eyesight improves as a result of the See Clearly Method and the extent of that improvement, if any, will vary among individuals."

With no way of knowing whether it worked, purchasers bought the product on faith. The Iowa Attorney General's office said the company charged customers about $350 retail for each of the 5,000 to 10,000 kits sold monthly. People wanting to return the kits for a refund encountered difficulty getting through to a company representative.

In the aftermath of the See Clearly Method investigation and details revealed about the company's business practices, even the most fervent of the faithful devoted to eye exercises would be well advised to learn all they can about any programs making similar claims without solid scientific basis.

How Was the See Clearly Method Supposed To Work?

The basic version of the See Clearly Method included three videotapes, three audiotapes, an instruction manual, a daily progress chart and other materials. The deluxe version included a CD-ROM.

Supposedly you could get your money back within 30 days of your purchase if you were not satisfied. Presumably you were supposed to see some improvement by then.

A fundamental premise of the program was that refractive disorders such as myopia and hyperopia have both hereditary and environmental causes, such as nearpoint stress from reading. Certain eye exercises are designed to relieve so-called spasm of accommodation, believed to be a "locking up" of the eye's focusing mechanism due to stress and fatigue.

Other exercises are said to improve the eyes' coordination or to straighten misaligned eyes. It's important to note that while many people think of such eye exercises as vision therapy, most vision therapists do not advocate or endorse self-directed programs.

The See Clearly Method had you do 30 minutes of exercises a day to strengthen and enhance the flexibility of the muscles that govern the eye's focusing power and control its movements. Six of the activities were described as "new visual habits." One, for example, had you hold a finger up as you varied your focus back and forth from the finger to a distant object.

Then there were 10 "booster techniques," designed to "address problems or encourage faster progress," according to the instruction manual. The "blur reading" technique, for example, had you turn a magazine upside-down at a distance from which the words were blurry. You were then supposed to select a word and run your gaze around it, and if you could pick out any letters, run your gaze around them. Each of the exercises might take two to four minutes. You recorded your progress in the journal that came with the kit.

The instruction manual recommended personal affirmations to help you along. You might remind yourself, for example: "I am seeing better each day." If you were having any doubts, you might declare: "I can see without my glasses." For a vaguer standard of success, you could simply say: "I feel positive changes in my vision taking place."

"Visualization" also was a component of the See Clearly Method, along with techniques that were holdovers from an eye exercises regimen called the Bates Method, developed in the 1920s by maverick New York City ophthalmologist William Horatio Bates, MD.

Light therapy, a takeoff on Bates's technique of "sunning," had you sit with your eyes closed and your face six inches from an unshaded 150-watt bulb, just far enough to make your eyes "pleasantly warm but not too hot," according to the manual. Meanwhile, the manual suggested that you "repeat your affirmation and visualize your inner lens becoming more flexible and the ciliary muscle more powerful. Visualize the eyeball transforming into a better shape."

The "palming" technique had you close your eyes and rest them against your palms, while "hydrotherapy" had you alternately placing hot- and cold-water-soaked towels against your eyes. Affirmations and visualization were said to help with these techniques as well.

As (or if) your vision improved, you were encouraged to obtain progressively weaker corrective lenses from your eye doctor until you no longer required correction or you enjoyed the maximum improvement. You were advised that patching one eye could be necessary if the fellow eye lagged in its expected improvement.

The Scanning Chart exercise was one of the See Clearly Method's 10 "booster techniques." You would position the chart just into your blur zone, then jump from dot to dot in time with the music on the exercise video. The booster techniques were meant to "encourage faster progress," according to the manual.

Does This Type of Eye Exercise
Method Ever Work?

A long-standing criticism of eye exercises, coming from both mainstream optometrists as well as from eye surgeons, is the absence of reliable evidence that eye exercises can reduce your reliance on corrective lenses at all, let alone eliminate it. The medical literature lacks well-controlled clinical studies — with strict scientific criteria including carefully matched comparison populations — showing that eye exercises effectively treat myopia or hyperopia.

David W. Muris, OD, one of the four doctors who developed the See Clearly Method, himself conducted what he called a clinical evaluation of the product in his Sacramento, Calif., practice during the fall of 1999.

"The investors just wanted some due diligence and some people to actually go through this," Muris said. "They didn't want to require anything scientific."

According to Muris, the evaluation involved 21 people ages 14 to 80 with mild myopia (less than -3.00 diopters). After six weeks of therapy, nine of the 21 had "significant" improvement and 11 had "moderate" improvement in visual acuity. Seven eliminated their need for glasses or contacts, he said, while 11 had "reduced dependency," meaning they needed their corrective lenses for less time than before.

AllAboutVision.com conducted its own decidedly unscientific evaluation of the See Clearly Method when a staffer gave it a try and experienced no vision improvement. In addition, as a busy working mother of three, she found the minimum of 30 minutes a day the program required too demanding of her time and felt that just wearing her contact lenses was a more reasonable option.

Acupressure exercises had you applying firm pressure to specific points surrounding the eyeball. You would press for just a second, then release, and continue this pattern. Basically, it was a massage for the muscles surrounding the eye.

Eye Exercises: Defiantly Occupying the Fringe

Eye exercise programs occupy a nebulous space somewhere between medical science and folk remedy. Most optometrists and ophthalmologists are dismissive of the types of programs promising that you can "throw away your glasses."

The See Clearly Method's advocates not only acknowledged the fringe status of the program, but they regarded that position as a virtue.

From the instruction manual, we learned that: "In the history of medicine, new ideas have often been resisted by those schooled in traditional methods." We were told that the decision to wear glasses or contacts — for the present purposes defined as "crutches" — borders on the mentally unsound.

Promotional materials declared: "Certainly, except for diseases and injuries for which there is no cure, nobody in their right mind would willingly accept a condition that compromises the ability to function and enjoy life, or to be dependent on crutches forever."

The number of corrective-lens haters is open to debate, but Levi Meeske, a 25-year-old job-placement counselor in Atlanta, found his contact lenses sufficiently loathsome to give the See Clearly Method a try. Six weeks after starting the program, he was delighted, he said, with his visual improvement. The refractive error in his right eye had improved modestly from -3.25 to -3.00 diopters, while his left eye remained stable at -3.75 diopters.

Meeske still needed contacts lest his world appear blurry. "But when they are in, I can see farther — as I'm looking at buildings or at trees, the amount of detail that I'm able to pick up has greatly increased," he said. "Looking at grass, looking at flowers, the colors are much more vibrant."

Keep in mind, however, that the Iowa Attorney General's office found in company records that far more unhappy customers wrote in about their results, and that positive letters were "relatively scarce."

The See Clearly Method was one of the more popular eye exercise programs and was widely advertised. But others exist and continue to offer or sell similar training programs.

For example, one such program that still advertises on the Internet at one time claimed to be "FDA-approved." However, inquiries to regulators from an optometrist and current AllAboutVision.com editorial board member in 1996 produced no evidence backing this claim. That same California-based program in 2009 continues to operate with Internet marketing claims stating that the program is a natural alternative to contact lenses, eyeglasses and eye surgery.

In fact, a 2009 Web search for programs of eye exercises to improve vision produced a cornucopia of amazing assertions such as the much touted "conspiracy theory" alleging that legitimate optometrists and ophthalmologists know the "truth" about benefits of eye exercises. But these eye care professionals supposedly all have agreed not to tell their patients because then they would be unable to sell eyeglasses, contact lenses and eye surgery.

Learn To Temper Your Expectations About Eye Exercises

Anyone wishing to market a self-improvement program must strike a delicate balance between attracting buyers and overselling the product's benefits. As a consumer, it pays to be careful. Do your homework by reading up on the program and others like it.

If you're interested in a home program like the See Clearly Method, it makes sense first to get an evaluation and professional opinion from an eye care practitioner to see if you might benefit from this approach.

But the best advice when you encounter any self-directed eye exercise program making too-good-to-be-true claims may be to keep your expectations in check and your money in your wallet.

[Page updated May 2009]