Written By Will Grant
 

There are some things we know not to do. Crossing the road without looking, not wearing a seatbelt…and looking at the sun. A fairly intrinsic lesson we all learned at some unidentifiable point in our lives.

But some people throughout history have rallied against this fundamental human law. One of them is an orange quack who ruled America for a brief, nightmarish period of time. 

Another is an eyeball guy (an actual ophthalmologist) William Horatio Bates, born in 1860. But did this guy start out as a rule-breaking, sun-staring charlatan?

It seems Master Bates had a fairly normal life until 1902 when he went missing for six weeks. He was found not on his home continent of North America but across the ocean in England, claiming no recollection of his former life. 

Later in his life, he went missing for eight years (EIGHT years!). This was back in the days when it was still possible to completely fall off the face of the Earth.

After these curious episodes, Bates' life resumed a rhythm of somewhat normalcy, at least to the untrained eye (see what we did there?). But in his field of ophthalmology, where he had once been considered a luminary, Bates stepped off the deep end.

This well-revered ophthalmologist developed a distinct hatred of glasses. 

That’s basically eye doctor blasphemy! He’s lucky a mob didn’t come to raid his house Simpsons style.

Now, at this point in his career, Bates authored an entire book centred around his rejection of glasses. His mission was to cure people without them. And regardless of how noble of a mission this was, Bates had a couple of theories that, to be crystal clear, were absolute garbage. 

Our friend Bates was convinced that eyeball exercises such as palming (yes, that term makes us nervous too) could cure eyesight… mkay.

And the final exercise he recommended for 20/20 vision, sans glasses? Oh yes, have a bit of a stare at the sun. Just stare right into the centre of that laser beam old boy, you’ll be fine. 

It’s like something out of an old-school Batman episode where the evil villain has finally captured Adam West.

I mean, this solution is just as bad, if not worse, than other eye treatments that have been suggested across history. Ground up sapphires anyone? Some amniotic fluid perhaps?

Even better, his theory asserted that if you went blind using his methods, it was all just a mental illusion. Couldn’t possibly be the giant laser beam you were staring into. It’s all in your head!

So, what happened to Bates’ methods? Did he manage to seduce people with the promise of a return to 20/20 vision? And what actually happens to your eyeballs when you stare at the sun?

 
 
 

  • Will 00:00

    So we've just had an eclipse just here was only about 10% here in Canberra, but they had the full deal over in Western Australia. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was it was a smidge it was a smidgey eclipse where look the sun's bit of sun Yeah, it's like the sun had a bite out of it.

    Rod 00:19

    I've never ever been impressed by the Eclipse I've seen live and I'm really disappointed by that every time...

    Will 00:25

    Well, did you see any of the footage from Western Australia where they got the full deal

    Rod 00:30

    Footage does not count. I mean in the person.

    Will 00:33

    Well I just want to give you a little bit of description because it sounds really cool. So this comes from Dr Sabine Bellstedt, who's an astronomer over at University of Western Australia she was there for the for the whole magic said the moment of totality was beyond surreal. First there was this very sudden darkening that had been slowly approaching for 15 minutes, which you know, it sort of slowly approaches then it accelerates as it gets a bit warm. I watched a video and it gets HOLY SHIT dark like Doc doc doc. People started quietening the temperature plummeted and the wind still it was amazing to feel everything calm down around us as one minute turned to 30 seconds to go and then 10 seconds to go. A clip watches and remember this is the this is a collection of certain kinds of people

    Rod 01:22

    Scientists, nerds who know who challenged each other to who knows more about eclipses

    Will 01:27

    Eclipse watchers were overcome with bewilderment. I saw tears in eyes goosebumps on arms with only 58 seconds of totality.

    Rod 01:36

    Yeah, look, I'm sure it is I'm sorry. I know you're gonna tell me more and I'm going to be moved but ever since childhood when they said there's going to be an eclipse that I was out in the middle of the day going it's gonna be a fucking dark right in the middle of the day. It did not. It barely changed

    Will 01:47

    Total Eclipse or did you see a little bit partial?

    Rod 01:51

    Allegedly Total Eclipse but I didn't listen all the details. I was a child. I was busy. I had shit to do.

    Will 01:57

    Anyway. Yeah, it felt like there was too much that one wanted to see from the eclipse itself to the corona of light around it. Yeah. Then the whole sky were stars suddenly popped through. And the people on the ground gazing up and all you can just imagine is 58 seconds is like oh, whoa, that's cool. This is cool. It was too much to see in that short time belt instead. It was definitely overwhelming. You should take a picture. Probably should probably should. As the totality receded, everybody cheered I can just imagine a group of however many gets 200 400,000 People all just like this is what we came a long way for it would look at all those astronomers possibly anyway, I was I was flicking through the images that came out of this you know, there's there's a whole bunch there's basically two different types of pictures here. Cool pictures of the sun, and not the sun. You know? The the moon getting in front of the sun, living living humanity's desire to imagine what it's like to destroy the sun, which we all want to do.

    Rod 02:57

    Oh, let's take a moment.

    Will 02:59

    And then also a whole bunch of people looking at it. You got you to the lookers...

    Rod 03:04

    pictures of the lookers? Do they dress up?

    Will 03:06

    From what I saw yes and no.

    Rod 03:09

    Oh god, that's not dressing that's forgetting to get dressed. I found a bag on the couch. I'll throw it on and wander out.

    Will 03:17

    I feel like they were they were saying the star is over there. Like the beautiful thing is happening over there. I'm not the focus of this party.

    Rod 03:23

    I agree when someone took their picture. I said look,

    Will 03:27

    that's true. No, but what I was looking at that there's everyone is with their equipment. So there's the there's the telescope folk they've got they've got their telescopes up. There's a couple I saw with binoculars blacked out so they can hidden holes. Well yeah, there's the pinhole pinhole camera so that's that's the recommended one we put a hole in a piece of cardboard or paper you could obliquely and look at it look at obliquely which sounds a little bit like you're just looking at it photo but

    Rod 03:54

    put a live photo the tinfoil hats many of those?

    Will 03:58

    I didn't see any tinfoil hats disappointed again the clips there's there's the dorky glasses that look like 3d glasses. I did see a bunch of people in in welding masks like yeah, so you can use a welding mask. Darth Vader I kind of I kind of imagined I did see one headline that said it was a bit like Mad Max. Like you can imagine a fleet of people in welding masks staring at the sky that that that makes me very happy.

    Rod 04:23

    Yeah, that's great idea. I don't know what sort of welding masks. Next eclipse we're gonna go and get welding masks

    Will 04:27

    We shoudl do that. Western Australia is a good place to do it because this was this was in a pretty desert area. Okay, so there's not a lot of light pollution so but you know, the other thing that came with all of the articles was that standard advice that we've seen on all Eclipse articles ever don't Donald Trump. Don't look at the sun. That's what he did. Yeah, don't don't look at the sun. Every every article leading up to the eclipses, you can enjoy but you're not allowed to look directly as much as you want to.

    Rod 04:54

    Do you know what sucks though, like Trump looks at the sun doesn't give a fuck. Nothing happened to him. Like His reality bubble is so powerful that it has astronomical influence Or...something you are going to tell me ok. haha.

    Will 05:09

    All of these articles saying, don't look at the sun like that that's a red rag to The Wholesome Show bull. Because it says to me, there's either two types of things going on here. One is, there might have been a time when people thought, I can look at the sun if I want ain't gonna hurt me or two. There might be some people out there who are like, Nah, looking at the sun is just fine and dandy. And so today, it's a little bit of column A and column B, because I'm going to tell the story of a man and his followers who not only shun that nerdy pinhole camera and dark glasses, but they will take off all of their glasses and point their giddy stupid faces at the sun as much as they bloody could. Welcome to The Wholesome Show.

    Rod 06:01

    The podcast that stares directly at the blazing hole of science. I'm doing it now.

    Will 06:07

    Am I the blazing hole of science?

    Rod 06:08

    Today you are. I have to squint a little bit.

    Will 06:11

    Finally. The Wholesome Shows me Will Grant

    Rod 06:15

    and not him. Roderick Lamberts. You mentioned earlier just before the excellent thing to read reg to the wholesome show book. I didn't know we had a ball but I'm very excited to meet it.

    Will 06:25

    She Bible. I'm going to start with the fundamental question of William Horatio Bates's life

    Rod 06:31

    that's not a question.

    Will 06:33

    Did he start as a quack or did something really strange happen?

    Rod 06:39

    When he was young was he called Master Bates?

    Will 06:41

    He probably was called masturbates. There we go. William Horatio Bates, born New York, New Jersey in 1860. He graduated from Cornell University in 1881 and got a medical degree from Columbia. 1885.

    Rod 06:55

    So that was the stage we actually had to go to uni to be a doctor.

    Will 06:58

    You did. You did. He's at the stage of fancy go to uni, go to Columbia. And then he began practicing ophthalmology. So that's that's the eyeball one.

    Rod 07:10

    I thought that was about maximizing performance? That would, that's the best that's all I got. Totally go

    Will 07:16

    the eyeball one. ophthalmology, in New York. And he seems to have done pretty well for himself. Like the next 17 years. He was like, pillar of the community. He he was teaching as well as his practice. He was teaching ophthalmology at the New York Post grad medical school. He was attending physician at the hospital at New York post grad med school and Bellevue Hospital. And in New York, I infirmary and just eyes, just eyes. He was an eyeball guy.

    Rod 07:45

    What a fucking great like specialisation because he's sitting there people come in, they got problems with their bums, not vomiting, limbs hanging off your eyes. It's coming when someone's like been poked in the eye. I'm the guy doesn't mean that leave me alone.

    Will 07:58

    It's not a gross one at all. Like I know the specialisations can be cool.

    Rod 08:02

    like a slashed eyeball can't be pretty.

    Will 08:04

    What? They're all going to be a bit gross,

    Rod 08:07

    but I'm just thinking of all of them, the only thing better maybe as a hair specialist or something. That's not really disease, is it? It can be. It's torture. We suffer from this hair every day.

    Will 08:21

    Now he's eyeballs, his eyeballs. Oh, yeah, he's consulted by other physicians. In unusual cases. He's like house eyeball MD. He also he invented stuff. He apparently invented the idea of adrenaline being used in eye surgery. I'm not sure how, why, but he did.d

    Rod 08:41

    hold still no fucking adrenaline. Let's see what happens.

    Will 08:45

    Cokek you up on adrenaline. I don't know. I don't know.

    Rod 08:48

    I surgery. You know what I reckon known as no one cared what he was doing. No one's paying attention. He goes, watch this. My patient goes crazy. Oh, that's terrible.

    Will 08:57

    But on August 30 1902, after you've been practicing, and living a sensible normal life for 17 years, something really strange happened. It began as far as I can tell with what the New York Times later called an affectionate characteristic letter to his wife, Aida Seaman Bates. Come on. I know.

    Rod 09:23

    Masturbates and his wife Seaman Bates. Master Sea. This is excellent. We got to stop this perfect episode. Don't waste any more time with story

    Will 09:32

    Anyway, Aida Bates had gone to visit her mother, who lived back in New Jersey for the weekend or something like that. And William Bates wrote a letter saying, My dear wife, I'm called out of town to some major operations. I go with Dr. Forsch. An old student to do a mastoid some cataract and other operations. He promises me Bonanza too bad to miss the whole show. But I'm glad to get so much money for us all. I am in such a flurry. Do not worry I will right detail was lighter, yours lovingly Willie.

    Rod 10:02

    I'm in a flurry but don't worry, Willie. That sounded solid.

    Will 10:06

    Obviously he used the word flurry regularly before and he said don't worry, so she didn't worry.

    Rod 10:12

    See, so she's an obedient.

    Will 10:13

    She stayed there in New Jersey with her mother for a couple of days. But a few days later, the janitor called

    Rod 10:22

    Is the toilet leaking? Have you run out of buckets?

    Will 10:26

    The janitor called and said Mrs. Bates your husband snapback this was unusual. I don't know if the janitor regularly calls and that was unusual and it had been way long. Or it was unusual to that he had been away for a while.

    Rod 10:42

    So the janitor also knew when he should be back and gets worried?

    Will 10:47

    Maybe there was a note to the janitor as well you need to do is lovingly Willy.

    Rod 10:53

    Don't worry about the flurry.

    Will 10:54

    Aida rushes back to the city and began the search for her husband.

    Rod 10:59

    How late are we talking? Like days, months, years?

    Will 11:01

    I mean, I think it's a couple of days. I have I have another marker in time in a bit. So so this is this is a couple of days after he's gone so worthy of rushing. Yes. Wait, wait to rush at that point. What's the janitor calls? So the janitor says it's been it's been a few days, the toilet hasn't flushed in that time or something I'm monitoring the toilet has nothing to clean. I'm very worried about your husband. She asked everywhere up and down the city. But there was no sign where could he be? So she started asking family and friends, you know, throughout the eastern seaboard of the US.

    Rod 11:35

    So she walks up and down the streets of New York, New York, New York.

    Will 11:38

    So it's weird. Yeah, there's a New York and New York.

    Rod 11:41

    Going Have you seen my husband? Okay, screw it. I'll try people he actually knows then. Yes. As my second go to.

    Will 11:47

    I'm not No look, that can be a flaw in my storytelling.

    Rod 11:49

    First I'll walk up and down the street. Then I'll ring people.

    Will 11:52

    Maybe she rang people first?

    Rod 11:55

    No, no, I like your vision better. Okay.

    Will 11:58

    And then didn't turn up anything. So she asked around family and friends in Europe, which is a long way to jump to straightaway. We're talking early 1900s 1902.

    Rod 12:08

    So you're not exactly jumping on a flight?

    Will 12:10

    Oh, well, no, you're not. No, if you if you got to get to Europe, you're definitely taking the boat. It's a long swim. Still nothing. Right. But luckily, Bates himself was prominent Mason. So he's, he's quite well known in the in the Masons. So he says, Alright, I'll go to the local Masonic chapter. I'll give him give them his picture and say, can you ask around like you asked your other chapters send a photocopy around to a bunch of other places, because good man, see if anyone's seen it. Six weeks later. She gets a hook.

    Rod 12:41

    Six weeks

    Will 12:42

    one of the other Masonic chapters from Britain, London, reports that a man fitting the doctor's description had been found working as a medical assistant at Charing Cross Hospital in London.

    Rod 12:52

    So that's how unusual it is. In two ways. One he was a doctor was not a medical assistant. Yeah, that's true. And he's in Londres.

    Will 12:59

    And it's in London. Apparently the man had turned up there a few weeks earlier looking haggard, confused and gone. Like he hadn't eaten in weeks off. That's the adrenaline he checked in as a patient. Oh, and then worked his way up to being a medical assistant

    Rod 13:13

    is that how it works? I am going to be in hospital. There was one time I was in hospital for a couple of weeks. Yeah, like they never went, ah you've been here a while, want to be a nurse?

    Will 13:24

    Orderly. Could you could you move some stuff around? Well, I've never heard this before...

    Rod 13:29

    Keep it up like this and you could be a surgeon two to five years.

    Will 13:31

    He might not have had any money. At this point. There is there is...

    Rod 13:34

    Can I work it off?

    Will 13:35

    There is some suggestions that yeah, he he definitely had a bunch of money in his bank account, but he might not have been able to access it. Anyway, Mrs. Bates, so record disheveled and working as a medical assistant. Yeah, jumps on the boat goes all the way to London.

    Rod 13:50

    And in nie, in only mere four weeks she was there. Zipped across in the hydrafoil.

    Will 13:58

    So she turned up at the Charing Cross Hospital and, and there's her husband. Things didn't go so well. She found her husband and exhausted nervous state, with no recollection of either recent events or his previous life in New York. Apparently he didn't even recognize her. Cool. He said to her, I don't know why you bother, madam. We are strangers.

    Rod 14:19

    How relaxing for her. Alright.

    Will 14:21

    Anyway, she persuaded him to Alright, can you I can. I can look after you for a bit. I've got a room at the Savoy Hotel.

    Rod 14:28

    Yeah. Come slum it with me.

    Will 14:30

    Can you come there for a period of rest and recovery? It's there he started to dimly recall a few details. And I don't know if this is recalling. Or he's making it up. And he this story seems a little bit weird to me.

    Rod 14:45

    I'm gonna go with absolute truth.

    Will 14:48

    He recalls being called away from New York to board a ship and perform an operation on a sailor with a brain abscess. But oh no. The ship had sailed while he was operating.

    Rod 14:57

    Whoopsie you've heard it 1000 times. I mean...

    Will 15:00

    If I'm a doctor, and there's a sailor who has a problem, I'm like, let's, let's either don't sail the boat, get off the boat or get off the boat. I'm not just gonna do it on the dock and you just end up in London, because you don't get off the boat.

    Rod 15:14

    So you're saying you're calling bullshit on that story? Or maybe oopsie on that story.

    Will 15:19

    And weirdly, he he been stuck on the boat, and then somehow he'd forgotten his whole life when he'd arrived in London.

    Rod 15:25

    oh can happen at sea. You know what it's like, you've been to sea.

    Will 15:28

    Across the dateline, they don't cross the dateline between there but he crossed the

    Rod 15:32

    No back then there was a dateline. In between that moves. it's magnetic. And El Nino related. That's the science.

    Will 15:40

    He'd forgotten his whole life. Okay,

    Rod 15:42

    I think there's more going on than just going on a trip.

    Will 15:45

    That's what I wonder. I wonder if elements of this maybe maybe he didn't want to be in his life anymore, and he ran further than he should have done. Anyway,

    Rod 15:55

    I meant to go to Oregon. I ended up in London arts because I forgot everything.

    Will 15:59

    Confused but relieved Mrs. Bates plan to stay in London for as much time as necessary for her husband to recover from the ordeal, okay, and for some of the memories of their previous life to surface again. Two days later, Dr. Bates abruptly walked out of the Savoy Hotel, disappearing once more into the London crowd. And Mrs. Bates never saw her husband again. After he walked out of the Savoy Hotel that autumn day his wife spent years tirelessly searching for him up and down Europe and the East Coast of America, tracing every clue that she could find

    Rod 16:31

    and she started again with the strangers on the street. This has worked so well for her in the past.

    Will 16:36

    janitor again. He's seen anything. He's come home? Yeah. Apparently she died five years later, reportedly embracing her portrait of her husband in 1907.

    Rod 16:49

    Of course, all novels end that way.

    Will 16:52

    Well, well, Ada sadly, never saw her husband, William Bates. Again, others did. But it wouldn't be for eight years after he walked out of the Savoy. The idea I mean, all that has been pieced out of this period is that he was a wandering itinerant doctor in Europe

    Rod 17:09

    a medicant priest.

    Will 17:11

    Yeah, I would trust a medicant priest, I would be happy. Well, if I've got a wandering person who is like, listen, listen to the voice of cosmos. I'd be like, Okay, that's, that's interesting.

    Rod 17:21

    Also, I'm an ophthalmologist.

    Will 17:22

    So yeah, exactly. I'm not sitting around waiting for a homeless ophthalmologist to go. Finally, my eyeball has been having some troubles wandering, wandering without home. No fix the dress ophthalmologist is not the ophthalmologist for me will drop pants for food or prefer my eye surgery. I like I like the idea of, you know, busking. You get the hat there. And it's like, yeah, any eye operation, I can do it.

    Rod 17:51

    I can juggle. And I can also remove cataracts.

    Will 17:55

    I mean, there is no real information of where he was during this time. This is just assumed from some of the stories that are pitched,

    Rod 18:02

    natural assumption, wandering doctor. All right, I accept.

    Will 18:07

    But in 1910, a good friend of Dr. Bates from his New York days, Dr. J. Kelly, happened to be passing through a town in North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, a small town 12,000 People everyone's heard of, and they're under circumstances never revealed in detail. And I read a bunch like the New York Times obituary The New York Times story. No one knew that. Kelly recognized his old friend who had set up a small ophthalmology practice for himself in the town at some point.

    Rod 18:35

    It's part of the giveaway that you Willie.

    Will 18:38

    A few months later, Kelly persuaded Bates to return back to New York. Despite having no memories of being in New York before or or any deal. Yeah, no, he's got, apparently no memory

    Rod 18:51

    I'm going to call claiming no memory

    Will 18:54

    Claiming no memories of his time in New York or his time before. Like he's not putting down memories and said, Do you want to go into practice together?

    Rod 19:02

    That's what you do with most amnesiacs.

    Will 19:05

    Do you forget everything? How about we start a business

    Rod 19:07

    let's go into business

    Will 19:08

    look, if you're a scam guy going into business with an amnesiac it'd be awesome. It's like you can just change the contract all the time.

    Rod 19:15

    Unless you needed them to remember something. Or Yeah, forget 90% of what I'm about to tell you. Here's actually which 10% to keep. Yep.

    Will 19:24

    Look, I don't think I would ever want to go into business with total Forget everything person. I mean, I forget everything.

    Rod 19:30

    I was gonna say well, I'm not easy. Right now. We're both perilously close.

    Will 19:34

    I remember who I am, at least to you, John. What where am I Keith?

    Rod 19:40

    You're on a boat doing my surgery.

    Will 19:41

    So let's set up a little practice on on West 83rd street with a little white lettered signs. Dr. J. Kelly and Dr. W.H Bates

    Rod 19:48

    white leather sign? Oh white lettered. White leather's cooler.

    Will 19:53

    lived quietly with his old friend Dr. Kelly, and gradually began building up a practice as he did years ago. Starting In his career anew.

    Rod 20:01

    any inkling of how old he is now, he's 51. There you go. That's pretty precise. Yeah. So it's never too late to reinvent.

    Will 20:07

    So so eight years missing 17 years beforehand is a and he's got he's got more career in front of him. She does so so someone said it was as if he had a chunk of his mind removed like a slice of watermelon chopped away and eaten by an invisible monster. But it didn't hold him back. What an analogy like a

    Rod 20:29

    Chopped away. You could have stopped at the chopped away. ending by an invisible monster

    Will 20:33

    But it's an invisible monster that loves watermelon.

    Rod 20:36

    They all do. I'm sure they because it dissolves quickly so it doesn't reveal their whereabouts.

    Will 20:43

    He built up his career again, he went on to serve as an attending physician at Harlem Hospital. He eventually remarried I think twice. To two outside observers, his life had resumed a rhythm of normalcy. With one major exception, I want to use night Peterson's description here in his field of ophthalmology, where he'd been viewed for years as a luminary. Suddenly, he stepped off the deep end, betas theory seems to have developed in the years between 1910 and 1920. He might have had some of it while he was a wandering doctor, but we can go with the start of his 1920 book, which is probably his biggest impact book, the cure of imperfect sight by treatment without glasses, oh, clips, treatments, and he starts with the very beginning with the fundamental principle. I can give you some instructions here, right? Because you have your glasses on. I should have glasses on. But, you know, did you read imperfectly? No, I read like a genius. Take your glasses off for a sec. Is that even words? Can you observe then that when you look at the first word, or the first letter of a sentence, you don't see where you are looking? That you see other words or other letters just as well or better than the one you're looking at? But only if I look at the first word? Yeah. Like you look at a word and the words around it sort of pop into your brain. Yep. Do you also observe that the harder you try to see the worse you see? Sure. Okay, now close your eyes. Now it's even worse. Yeah. Now you got to rest them for a little bit. I'll give you I'll give you some other techniques later, but you gotta rest them like really rest. Remember some color? Well, black or white? Can you remember black or white,

    Rod 22:29

    Which one man, it's a lot to remember, it's a lot of black, black, black. ,

    Will 22:32

    Keep keep focusing on the black, keep them closed until your eyes feel rested. Or until the feeling of strain has been completely relieved. Look at your face, you look very relaxed. This is your sleep face.

    Rod 22:43

    I know how to to chill.

    Will 22:44

    Open them and look at the first word or letter of a sentence for a fraction of a second. If you've been able to relax partially or completely, you will have a flash of improved or clear vision.

    Rod 22:53

    Yeah didn't work.

    Will 22:58

    Well that ruins it.

    Rod 23:02

    I assume that means I didn't relax enough as in all good religions or crackpot theories. You didn't try hard enough.

    Will 23:07

    you didn't try. In this way you can demonstrate for yourself the fundamental principle of the cure of imperfect sight by treatment without glasses. Now I was

    Rod 23:15

    So you know what's interesting about that, because I just put my glasses back on clear as a whistle. All the words, it's amazing.

    Will 23:21

    Now you're not allowed to have the glasses. So what was Bates's theory? Instead of muscles inside the eye, and moving the lens. And poor eyesight is either that there's a problem with the lens or prom with the muscles inside the eye. He was like no, it's the muscles outside your eye. What they say it's not that far out, I just do the ones a little like around your face that gets closer, closer, like just the ones around your face.

    Rod 23:48

    Face muscles, okay? It's muscles are triceps.

    Will 23:50

    So what they do in his theory, is they squeeze your eyeball. If you want to look at further or longer or closer objects, they squeeze your eyeball either a little bit longer or a little bit shorter to adjust this in his idea. bad eyesight is because the muscles around your face are too strained. Like they're all too strange. And so if we relax them, then we can all get better eyesight.

    Rod 24:16

    So Botox should help?

    Will 24:18

    Potentially potentially Now just a quick spoiler is good. This is all bullshit. So ...I just wanted to you know, yeah, they know that. There are some animals that actually do adjust their vision like this fish and I think maybe rabbits maybe fish too. Anyway. Humor is similar. Humans don't know they have rigid eyeballs that just prove that don't change at all. Really at all? No, by the face muscles. So so he's just just stressing here. His theory is garbage. But the idea. The idea he has is that glasses are crutches that make your eyes weak, and they put too much strain all this strain around your face. And all we need to do is relax.

    Rod 25:03

    So the the whole glass don't get glasses because it'll make your eyes weaker is something that was received wisdom when I was a youth.

    Will 25:11

    I don't think he was the first person to say that he definitely he, well he hated glasses,

    Rod 25:17

    but the idea that it makes your eyes lazy that there was a strong theory at least when I was in primary school, maybe in high school, but it wasn't because your face muscles get flattered from the effort. He had other reasons

    Will 25:27

    it is nice, like all like all early 20th century science, he combined it with some nice little bits of racism. So inside i

    Rod 25:36

    If you get a black guy you see worse.

    Will 25:40

    Inside his book he had, he had pictures of what he called primitive people. Lovely. And I just read this caption here the sight of this primitive pair meaning two men from the Patagonia Ian's and the following groups that have chosen the tennis outfits. Yeah, they are very tennis outfits. But they were the at the World's Fair at St. Louis.

    Rod 26:01

    So where everyone had to switch to go white headband and white polo shirts, and this staring blankly straight?

    Will 26:09

    Do you look very ready for tennis?

    Rod 26:10

    Totally tennis was bad. mustaches

    Will 26:13

    No they're not bad. But he say if you can look like he's like..

    Rod 26:17

    I can't tell for sure. Because I use glass as a crutch you're

    Will 26:19

    allowed to glasses on for this moment. I'm across. The sight of these people was tested at the World's Fair and found to be normal. And he's saying that primitive people because they don't have glasses have normalised because they look after their face properly.

    Rod 26:31

    It's noble savage. It's paleo at all. Everything in the past was pure, beautiful and perfect.

    Will 26:36

    Yeah. But he's saying right at this moment, or you can see they're squinting right now. And I'll do because it burns because they've obviously been disturbed by having their picture taken. Because they're unused to facing the capsules being store that they are. So that's that's what

    Rod 26:52

    Patagonians. So South American Patagonian tennis players. Yeah. professionally. So I assume they're doing doubles.

    Will 26:59

    The cool thing in this book, he's gonna hold photos of like, yes, some racist photos of people, but also just all sorts of different people. And he's spotting eye troubles just from their face. Like he can see our like, he's screwing up his left eye that means it's whatever myopia and he he's, he's squinting a little bit. That means whatever.

    Rod 27:20

    A photograph is definitely the perfect capturing of a whole person's life. It's true. It's true.

    Will 27:24

    Also, knowing what they're seeing. It is it is not used to help but but somehow he believes he

    Rod 27:30

    are you an ophthalmologist?

    Will 27:31

    I'm not there you go. So what does he recommend for treatment?

    Rod 27:37

    I'm very excited. Eclipses I assume.

    Will 27:41

    Yeah....we'll start with the benign ones. The first one, you can take off your glasses to try this one.

    Rod 27:49

    He's trying to kill me.

    Will 27:50

    Well, well, well, step one actually is throw away your glasses. I'm like, he's so good. He's like,

    Rod 27:54

    I'm not going to do that. I love this showt.

    Will 27:56

    Right, just put them on the table. Okay, I can do that. In one article. He's got more than 30 years ago, not knowing any better and being guided by the practice of other eye doctors. I recommended patients with imperfect sight to throw away their eyes and see with their glasses. Since that time, I have made some valuable discoveries which have enabled me to cure people without glasses. The slogan now is throw away your glasses.

    Rod 28:18

    Don't throw away your...

    Will 28:19

    And see withyour eyes....Wild

    Rod 28:23

    Throw away your eyes? I see a flaw in the plan.

    Will 28:27

    That's, that's okay. He was he was really quite that he's got a whole chapter on how terrible glasses are. Which is weird because it combines both glasses are a crutch that weaken your eye. But also he's then they're also really ugly and annoying. Like if people get dirt specks on them. It's terrible. I

    Rod 28:45

    t's true. Psychiatric disorders abound. There's a smudge on my glasses. I might have to murder a family

    Will 28:51

    when you see multiple reasons for something. And it's like, just because they're ugly is not is not the reason

    Rod 28:57

    also glasses can be cool.

    Will 28:59

    glasses can be totally cool. I know. You're excited. I'm very excited.

    Rod 29:03

    And I gotta say, I mean, even though I now actually need them, which is annoying. There are times I put on a new pair of glasses and think fucking cool glasses man.

    Will 29:09

    Oh, yeah, totally. Totally. I looked like I read some stuff.

    Rod 29:11

    Lucky me as opposed to people who go unnamed who would just wear the frames, or plain clear glass to try and look more something or a monocle? Nothing wrong with a monocle.

    Will 29:21

    Can I have to monocles Am I allowed to, but then you got to do

    Rod 29:24

    But then you've got to do this the whole time to hold them in. If you don't know what I'm doing, you need to subscribe to the YouTube channel.

    Will 29:32

    Okay, now some physical exercise is off. That's right. So the first one seems pretty benign, okay. It's called. He called it palming, where you cover your eyes with your palms for a bit to deepen the relaxation.

    Rod 29:46

    I'm sorry when someone called masturbates tells me about palming I get a little nervous, but I'll try it this way instead.

    Will 29:51

    So you're going to cover your eyes with your palms are going to head on so I can't really do it yet. Yeah, keep them like that for a while now. And now you got to really relax. By now, but I'm standing up, do you see do you see black? Or do you see like spots of color

    Rod 30:06

    studio lights? Getting flashes of studio lights and black. I'm seeing the residual effects of the studio lights because we have studio lights on us and then fairly bright and blackness,

    Will 30:18

    okay, if you can see black, it means your eyes are nice and relaxed. And so therefore your practice and your closed but yes, carry with it No. And this is this is an exercise to make sure that your eyes get properly relaxed by palm because he's thinking that all that stress around your eyes and the muscles around your eyes. That's why you can't see properly, right? And if you relax properly, then when you take your palms off, you'll be able to do that. You can take them off, you can see do you see better?

    Rod 30:47

    Everything's perfect now. Finally, I thought you were blonde. He's amazing.

    Will 30:54

    Okay, now there's a couple. There's a couple of other exercises these, I'm not sure what the logic on this was, but it's more about eyeball movement. You swing your eyeballs left and right. Like like they're watching a pendulum or this one. Yeah, that's good. And that x is that that loosens them up makes them like loosen goosey. And then they'll focus better

    Rod 31:13

    No, every time I do that I get a headache.

    Will 31:15

    You've got to do it more.

    Rod 31:17

    That's true. Whenever I get a headache, I think what caused it do more of the more

    Will 31:21

    you know exactly, I haven't drunk enough. That's your body asking for more of that is the

    Rod 31:25

    Now cameras can't capture my eyeball gymnastics. But they're remarkable.

    Will 31:29

    Look there's a whole bunch of him and his friends at this time, who they lean into the idea of if your body says this hurts, do more because it's learning to cope with the pain and that will make you stronger builds resilience. There was an edited version that came out a while later that took out some of the wildest theories. But there are still people who very much believe that you can see better by good eyeball exercises look...

    Rod 31:55

    and maybe it makes some difference. I don't know.

    Will 31:57

    It's it's tricky to work out how much of this would be psychosomatic? How much of this might actually be something you know, there might be a little bit of relaxation that straining probably

    Rod 32:09

    your eyes get dopey to light if you're tired and your vision I mean even if you have good vision you get tired your eyes can get a bit fuzzier and lazier and when you need glasses as I do your eyes do get worse when they're tired. So relaxing, eating a balanced diet of carrots and asparagus drinking low sodium mineral water obviously

    Will 32:27

    I think I think it is still very appealing for people that are like I don't want glasses. So you can understand why this bill but but his his his final exercise that you reckon is have a bit of a stare at the sun look I'm gonna say the picture the pictures in this book of wild this is this picture here. Woman with normal vision looking directly at the Sun note that the eyes are wide open and there is no sign of discomfort.

    Rod 32:55

    No but she does look drugged.

    Will 32:56

    Ahhh, she looks happy or something I'll show you some other pictures in a second. So this this chapter was vision under adverse conditions of benefit to the eye.

    Rod 33:07

    First we start with gravel now broken gloss now blowtorch

    Will 33:12

    there was a there was an ancient doctor who prescribed groundup sapphires for eye problems. At first, that is a very expensive cure.

    Rod 33:22

    So I just read something today where what is it ophthalmologists or doctors are still saying that people stop you need to stop putting amniotic fluid in your eyes and miotic for and it might have been it was for conjunctivitis or something bizarre but like people actually doing that. And then they went on to describe in great detail that amniotic fluid is basically baby piss and bits of poo.

    Will 33:42

    And where were we? We were we getting the amniotic fluid

    Rod 33:47

    Um blank. Providers of alternative services.

    Will 33:51

    People will fucking sell everything won't they?

    Rod 33:53

    Yeah. And the concern was great enough that there were actually people who were selling products that did appear to include amniotic fluid

    Will 34:02

    push, you know that there are fake amniotic fluid providers though?

    Rod 34:06

    Of course I mean who hasn't heard? I mean it'd be fine we all know that that's obvious. This was warned as a child

    Will 34:12

    in all of the quack industry you know that there must be there must be a whole lot of people that are going alright it's far easier not to just get a bit of a you know baby piss, regular baby piss or

    Rod 34:21

    Yeah, something that smells a bit gross and looks unusual. Boom.

    Will 34:24

    Oh my god. Yeah.

    Rod 34:26

    weird coincidence, but literally was reading that today is like you have to tell people not to put that in their eyes. What else do you have to tell them?

    Will 34:32

    Quite a frickin lot.

    Rod 34:33

    I mean, what's quite a lot quite a lot. Don't eat your own body parts. I mean, I don't know.

    Will 34:39

    It is not light but darkness that is dangerous to the eye. Prolonged exclusion from the light always lowers the vision and may produce serious inflammatory conditions.

    Rod 34:47

    Not that you could just come out of the cave after 500 days she can see didn't see that story. So that story so that she can see

    Will 34:54

    when the eyes are properly used vision under adverse conditions not only doesn't injure them, but actually a benefit because greater To a degree of relaxation is required to see under such conditions than under more favorable ones. I'm not sure about this. He's saying he's saying it looking into the sun helps you relax. So the I in the process of evolution like back through back through history has acquired the ability to take care of itself under extreme conditions have illumination to a degree hitherto deemed highly improbable. Persons with normal sight have been able to look at the sun for an indefinite length of time, even an hour or longer without any discomfort or loss of vision. Immediately afterwards, they're able to read a Iset eyesight card test card with improved vision, their sight having become better than what is ordinary considered normal immediately afterwards. Yeah. Okay. And if you have any problems, looking at the eye, looking at the sun, sorry, if you get strange colors schemata, which is like spots in your vision, or if you go totally blind. That's only mental illusions

    Rod 35:57

    Oh it's on you. If you go totally blind.It's because you didn't do it right?

    Will 36:03

    Here's two other photos from his book. I love this woman is 37 with child aids for both looking directly at the sun without discomfort, and neither look happy.

    Rod 36:12

    totally happy.

    Will 36:13

    That is the oldest looking baby I've ever seen

    Rod 36:15

    Yeah that kid looks 40

    Will 36:16

    it's 40...

    Rod 36:19

    The lines around the mouth, the world weariness in the eyes. Mum, why are we staring at the sun. But also it's like a picture of Prince Charles down the bottom there.

    Will 36:28

    Yeah, that's definitely that is definitely his king now, he's king Charles.

    Rod 36:33

    But back then that he was only a prince

    Will 36:34

    also also check this one. This is focusing the rays of the sun upon the eye of a patient focusing by means of a Burning Glass. Like by Burning Glass. He means magnifying glass here, and he is literally focusing it harder on to the eyeball.

    Rod 36:52

    What is it about the word burning that eluded him?

    Will 36:57

    And the patient said, sure.

    Rod 36:59

    fuck yeah. I already find it a little bit tricky to read the newspaper, magnifying glass my eye.

    Will 37:08

    you know, it's the ability to go, no all of that pain you're experiencing because of mental illusions or stronger

    Rod 37:15

    Jesus.

    Will 37:17

    So he put in a whole bunch of case studies he's like this is an example. In one of the cases, the sensitiveness of the patient, even to ordinary daylight was so great that an eminent specialist had felt justified in putting a black bandage over one eye and covering the eye with smoked glass. So dark has to be nearly opaque. So basically someone who normally is blocked out from all light right she was kept in a condition of almost total blindness for two years without any improvement. Damn other treatments. Extending over some months also failed to produce satisfactory results, but but again, got it to look directly at the Sun. The immediate result of course was total blindness, which lasted several hours. For Bad, bad, bad, but next day the vision was not only restored to its former condition, but was improved 2040 vision. Not quite not quite. The sungazing was repeated next day and the day after each time the blindness lightest lasted for a shorter period. At the end of a week the patient was able to look directly at the sun without discomfort and her vision which had been 2200 which just just to explain means you can see at 20 feet what a normal person can see at 200 So that is basically that 2200 is the legal definition of blindness. So you what you can see 20 feet you know six meters away. Yeah. normal person can see at 200 feet a long way.

    Rod 38:36

    So 20/20 means you can see it 20 feet what everyone else can see it 20 feet.

    Will 38:40

    Yeah.

    Rod 38:41

    Is that all the means? You know, I've never known

    Will 38:43

    I hadn't known until I looked this up. It's 2020 vision. I'm like, tops. It's 2020 Correct. So if you've got worse vision, the second number is bigger. So her vision had been 2200 Without glasses and 2070 with them 21 had improved to 2010 not twice the standard accepted for normal vision

    Rod 39:04

    it had not I'm gonna go with unverified Oh shit. Or it was already she was Clark Kent.

    Will 39:15

    Also there's another weird bit where he reckons his his vision technique of imagining black that's part of this. Yeah, he's operating on eyeballs without anesthesia just by people imagining Black

    Rod 39:30

    is it wait so a number of questions. One is are the nerves you know eyeballs? I'm thinking No,

    Will 39:37

    probably not on the inside I mean big big optic nerve but other than that no

    Rod 39:40

    but like so like if I take this needle and pop it in your eye right now other than thinking about it being horrifying your I wouldn't actually go

    Will 39:46

    totally fine. Totally fine. So listener, give it a go. Let's give it a go. And you don't even have to I mean don't give it a go but by this is not a legal advice or anything. Anything that I do, do but don't

    Rod 39:57

    but don't don't and to be fair, if anyone thinks what we're advising is credible. See a psychiatrist.

    Will 40:03

    Blame someone else first for for sure. Find a credible person to blame, then do it and then report back to them. And then to us. Yep. So anyway, he published this in a couple of places. There was the big book, The 1921. He teamed up with a guy that I've talked about a while ago. Bernard and McFadden are gonna have to tell me yeah, he was big into the raw food movement in the 1910s 1920s. And he changed his name from Bernard to Bernard because it sounded more like a lion roaring.

    Rod 40:31

    It's just a name to argh. how you spell that? I don't know.

    Will 40:37

    Apparently, 1000s of people loved it. Apparently, apparently, amongst the most famous was Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Doors of perception, who from the age of 16, he had had a disease that made he had terrible vision. One I could basically only sort of perceive light but not actually see, the other had 10 200, which is breaking the scale, but it should have been twice 24 420 400 Yeah.

    Rod 41:04

    Something I'm not used to learning on this podcast.

    Will 41:07

    But then he heard of the Bates method. And within a couple of months, I was reading without spectacles, what was better still without strain and fatigue? At the present time. My vision, though far from normal, is about twice as good as what it used to be when I will spectacles. But but there was a sad story in 1952 Aldous Huxley was speaking at a Hollywood banquet wearing no glasses, apparently reading his paper from the lectern without difficulty. But then suddenly, he faltered, and the disturbing truth became obvious. He wasn't reading his dress at all, he'd learned it all by heart. To refresh his memory, he bought the paper closer to it and closer to his eyes. When only an inch or so away, he still couldn't read it and had to fish for a magnifying glass in his pocket to make. It was an agonizing moment. It's just it's people deluding themselves.

    Rod 41:51

    Yeah I get it. I get what you want it to be better. You ever own dust? Everyone does. I'd rather not need glasses like I was reading a porridge recipe the other day as you do.

    Will 42:01

    Who needs other recipes?

    Rod 42:02

    Well, this is what surprised me. So I got these organic oats and having had oats for one I thought that's normally what about. So it's one site, one unit of oats to two to two and a half units of liquids, on average. And this recipe was written so infant tests on the small I thought of these specialists and I'm looking at screening does that say 1/3 of a cup to one half of a cup? That doesn't make any sense. I must be blind. I put my glasses on. Still couldn't read it. Hey, I'm holding it at arm's length. I ended up getting the old iPhone magnifier out and it was still only barely visible. And I realized it's not just because I'm blind. It was ridiculously small. And then as my partner was getting small, the recipe was wrong. And she says so two things you've just told me this morning, you needed the apple magnifier to see a recipe for oats into your damming the recipe is wrong. And you've corrected it. Are you going to write them a letter?

    Will 42:53

    You are getting older.

    Rod 42:56

    But I was really like Dear sir, this recipe, it's minuscule and when I could finally see it using many prostheses. It was even correct. I like it. I like that's my blindness story. That's all I have. But it does incorporate it. I know you love a note.

    Will 43:12

    In the end, the Federal Trade Commission issued a complaint against baits for advertising falsely or misleadingly. But his methods continue to grow in popularity. A whole bunch of people seduced by the idea of improving their eyesight without resorting to corrective measures. I mean, basically, people do can experience abrupt fleeting moments of clear vision where practicing or there's a whole bunch of using your imagination, while using your imagination. We are very very good at filling in the gaps

    Rod 43:42

    and often with stuff that there at all, but that's part of it as well.

    Will 43:45

    Yeah. And some were able supposedly to throw away their eyeglasses. Bates himself died in 1931 after weirdly stepping out in front of traffic because he didn't really know his son was in you know, his his son did a runner as well, like disappeared all of a sudden in 1929

    Rod 44:01

    Master Bates the second still no good. And it's like yeah, maybe

    Will 44:05

    maybe something's going on. But his office and the teaching practices were taken over by his third wife Emily and Dr. Harold peppered. They published an updated version of his book that took out a bit of the sungazing like they minimized it they said looking at the sun is good for a bit and to glance just just a little bit less. They also took out the you can imagine black and metal mean you don't feel pain. This revised version was revised several times and is still in print and there is still some sun treatment that's just on the whites of the eyes. There is also still was also kids book available that they're pushing out now

    Rod 44:42

    what a good idea he clearly did you buy one?

    Will 44:46

    I looked at it but I didn't

    Rod 44:48

    The first 9 million people to email Will at his secret address...

    Will 44:52

    I feel like we shouldn't be be pushing this because in general this is quack this is this is quackery, listen to legitimate ophthalmologists and optometrists. And probably if you need glasses, get glasses. So take home message. Don't stare at the sun. You might not go permanently blind if you watch an eclipse, but it can do damage. Here's some nice a nice description from the clinical spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Russell van Gildo. It's like a magnifying glass. You use a magnifying glass and you can concentrate the Santa ball hurt, burn a hole in paper, your lens in your eyes about four times as strong. So so if you're looking at the sun, then you are focusing that on the back of your eye and you will absolutely burn a hole in the back of your retina literally.

    Rod 45:40

    So that's bad.

    Will 45:41

    Yes, okay. patients with this condition known as solar retinopathy show a very characteristic pattern of eye damage. It looks like someone took a hole punch and just punched out the photoreceptor cells in the retina God damn. So it's neat. Most of them do recover pretty quickly. So those are 2000 2002 study a 15 patients, they compensate, a guarantee there's a whole bunch of rebuild, I think there's both and they rebuild, they rebuild, and people compensate quite quickly. So so the testing is done in a rigorous way to test for how they would to get around the compensation. People definitely compensate in the light.

    Rod 46:16

    You've done those experiments like where our optic nerve pops in the back of your retina we're blind we're completely just that spot and we don't notice because our eyes constantly wiggle a little bit to make up for doing constant readings and scans and it's amazing what we actually make up for already

    Will 46:32

    No so from from what I was reading, it was it was we're doing a lot of that compensation work and that will happen like straightaway after the after the burning event, but the retina itself will heal. Oh fuck, I have no idea. So yeah, 2002 study of 15 patients in England with solo written retinopathy from viewing an eclipse in 1999. All but two had normal vision on an eye exam eight to 12 months later. There were some subtle eye problems and theoretically someone could become legally blind but just not likely to happen because you'll get it you'll get a burnt spot but you'll still get all of your peripheral vision around

    Rod 47:13

    So there's a story to scam the government out of money

    Will 47:16

    is a thing. You 100% can do significant damage to your eyes if you stare at the sun so don't don't don't don't wait if you accidentally did it during Eclipse or something like that don't worry,

    Rod 47:30

    you could still be President of the United States twice. Don't you remember him doing that? All I remember he looked straight at the sun I thought that fucking asshole is going to have no negative effect at all.

    Will 47:43

    You could probably look at the sun. It probably you go there for a bit it probably wouldn't hurt that much for a bit...

    Rod 47:48

    I really wanted him to go blind. I really wanted that.

Will Grant
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