I started writing this post as I could see that there is very little information posted by people who visited the aurobindo ashram for the purpose of improving their eye sight. My kid was diagnosed with myopia at the age of 5 (he had power of -1.0 in Right Eye and -1.25 in left eye). I myself had myopia which started with -2.0 when I was 13 years old and stabilized when it reached -5.0 in my nineteenth year. Every year the power increased in increments of 0.25 or 0.5 and every year changing glasses and headaches were routine and this was during the time when computers and mobiles were not part of my daily existence. I know from my own experience that no matter what food you intake the eye power keeps increasing with age at least till early twenties and I didn't want my kid to go through the same pains which I had gone through. I had finally undergone lasik surgery when I reached 24 years and I din't want to take chance on how much my kid's eye sight will worsen before it stabilizes. So, I started looking out for alternatives for reducing or stabilizing myopia and thats when I got to know about Aurobindo asharm and the Bates method of reducing myopia.
I visited Aurobindo ashram in pondicherry on June 1st 2013 along with my 7 year old boy to learn the eye exercises which could help reduce myopia. We both went to the eye clinic with prior appointment by email. We were instructed in the e-mail to bring along the eye sight prescription, eye glasses which kid currently uses, a tennis ball and birth certificate for proof of age.The incharge lady then did eye examination and asked my kid to read the chart similar to the below...
My kid was able to read only till 6/18 level with out straining and he was able to read 6/12 line with great difficulty. She then prescribed the list of exercises and gave us a card with the selected exercises. We were asked to go upstairs where the exercises where taught and practiced. Following were the list of exercises my kid did:
I visited Aurobindo ashram in pondicherry on June 1st 2013 along with my 7 year old boy to learn the eye exercises which could help reduce myopia. We both went to the eye clinic with prior appointment by email. We were instructed in the e-mail to bring along the eye sight prescription, eye glasses which kid currently uses, a tennis ball and birth certificate for proof of age.The incharge lady then did eye examination and asked my kid to read the chart similar to the below...
My kid was able to read only till 6/18 level with out straining and he was able to read 6/12 line with great difficulty. She then prescribed the list of exercises and gave us a card with the selected exercises. We were asked to go upstairs where the exercises where taught and practiced. Following were the list of exercises my kid did:
1. Sun Exercise
2. Eye massage
3. Palming
4. Bar Swinging (the lady mentioned since my kid's eye prescription says that cylinder was high, this exersice helps)
5. Fine Print Reading
6. Ball Exercises:
7. Distant Chart Reading
8. Vapour and coldpack
Detailed explanation on how to do these exercises can be found at their site (https://eyecare.sriaurobindoashram.org/resources/School_For_Perfect_Eyesight.pdf)
All these exercises took around 30 to 40 minutes of time and the instructers at eye clinic helped us get the exercises right.
I could see that kids of all ages were there and some kids had so much myopia that they were not able to read the chart from 1 feet distance also. The parents of these kids were instructed to make them practice distant chart reading from 1 feet distance and keep increasing the distance day by day as the kids gets comfortable in reading the chart at that distance. I was surprised to see a teenager with -17 power also in the clinic and I heard the incharge there saying to the girl that she can get back here normal vision in two years if she continues her exercises daily.
Since we were staying in pondicherry for only one week, we visited eye clinic twice a day. Within two days of doing these exercises, my kid was able to read till 6/9. He can read some alphabets from 6/6 line as well.
The results were astonishing.
At the end of the week, when the incharge lady again tested my kid, he was able to read till 6/6 line easily with both eyes. He still has problem reading 6/6 line with his left eye but the lady said the improvement is good. She said my kid need not use the glasses when playing etc but he can continue his glasses to school just in case he faces difficulty in reading from the board in class. We have continued most the exercises at home for last month and I can see that my kid eyesight has improved. He can read easily till last line in the chart with both eyes. He still has difficulty reading last line (6/6) with his left eye but the improvement was astonishing.
Hopefully I can make him continue these exercises at home even after his school starts.
UPDATE:
Looks like there is another school of perfect vision opened in Coimbatore with support from the aurobindo ashram... https://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/For-your-eyes-only/article16668259.ece
3. Palming
4. Bar Swinging (the lady mentioned since my kid's eye prescription says that cylinder was high, this exersice helps)
5. Fine Print Reading
6. Ball Exercises:
7. Distant Chart Reading
8. Vapour and coldpack
Detailed explanation on how to do these exercises can be found at their site (https://eyecare.sriaurobindoashram.org/resources/School_For_Perfect_Eyesight.pdf)
All these exercises took around 30 to 40 minutes of time and the instructers at eye clinic helped us get the exercises right.
I could see that kids of all ages were there and some kids had so much myopia that they were not able to read the chart from 1 feet distance also. The parents of these kids were instructed to make them practice distant chart reading from 1 feet distance and keep increasing the distance day by day as the kids gets comfortable in reading the chart at that distance. I was surprised to see a teenager with -17 power also in the clinic and I heard the incharge there saying to the girl that she can get back here normal vision in two years if she continues her exercises daily.
Since we were staying in pondicherry for only one week, we visited eye clinic twice a day. Within two days of doing these exercises, my kid was able to read till 6/9. He can read some alphabets from 6/6 line as well.
The results were astonishing.
At the end of the week, when the incharge lady again tested my kid, he was able to read till 6/6 line easily with both eyes. He still has problem reading 6/6 line with his left eye but the lady said the improvement is good. She said my kid need not use the glasses when playing etc but he can continue his glasses to school just in case he faces difficulty in reading from the board in class. We have continued most the exercises at home for last month and I can see that my kid eyesight has improved. He can read easily till last line in the chart with both eyes. He still has difficulty reading last line (6/6) with his left eye but the improvement was astonishing.
Hopefully I can make him continue these exercises at home even after his school starts.
UPDATE:
Looks like there is another school of perfect vision opened in Coimbatore with support from the aurobindo ashram... https://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/For-your-eyes-only/article16668259.ece
