Vision Therapy

A while ago my mother 'dragged' me to a session that was supposed to introduce us to vision therapy (or visiotherapy, as they called it).
The 'therapist' studied this stuff with Janet Goodrich, and claims that she used to be short sighted until she corrected it. As I understand what she teaches is more or less the Bates' method.
My mother also has a book by a guy called Leo Angart, which also claims to restore perfect vision, but I'm not sure if that's the same method.
Anyway, the introductory session seemed rather woo-y, the essence of it seemed to be that our whole body is connected - we shouldn't treat just the eyes, but the whole body. Apparently our eyes can't function properly if the rest of the body is 'tense', so we should 'breathe' and relax. Oh, there was also something about bad vision possibly being the result of a subconscious wish not to see the world, or to block out things. While I acknowledge that this might be possible, I don't think it applies to a large proportion of short-sighted people.
If I'd gone to some more sessions, apparently there would have been exercises involved, but the introduction didn't really convince me at all.
Is this stuff real, or is the idea of improving your vision just more wishful thinking?

I think it's just wishful thinking. The only way to improve your vision without surgery is with glasses, contacts, or orthokeratology.

I mean, really, if this was in any way possible it would instantly become widespread and mainstream.

Wishful thinking. It's possible that simple short- or long-sightedness can be marginally improved by Bates-type eye exercises (though I'm not an opthalmologist, so don't quote me on that). But stuff about bad eyesight being an unconsious wish to not see belongs back in the 14th century, along with the whole notion of disease and disability being punishment for sins or bad thoughts.
I'd love to see better - I don't want perfect eyesight, just sight good enough for me to be able to drive a car so that I can go where I want to go, without having to depend on others. I've been wishing that for years, but every year, I need slightly thicker lenses.....

Randi has written about this in SWIFT...

Our good friend Martin Gardner is shocked to see that a scam from almost a century ago has made a comeback. Back in 1920, Dr. William Horatio Bates, M.D., published a book describing an exercise system – including something called “cupping” with the hand – that he said would cure every known sort of eye problem without surgery or the use of eyeglasses. I recall that my own father was quite captured by this notion, because he was a fan of health guru Bernarr Macfadden, a then-popular author and “authority” who endorsed the dippy idea. The Bates System of Eye Exercises urged readers to "throw away" their glasses, and my dad did just that. He wrecked his car shortly thereafter; he promptly threw away the book and ordered new glasses.

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linkenheimer

There was a thread about this here.

Try going to http://www.quackwatch.org/index.html and searching for "vision" and/or other appropriate keywords.

Fallacies of the Bates System http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/bates.html

Eye-related quackery http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/eyequack.html

See also: http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/seeclearly.html

After two days of sifting through vision therapy proponent websites thinking that perhaps there was something simple and easy that would help my condition better, I became highly suspicious when all I found were mere "testimonials" - and various other things you would expect from people who have something useless to sell. I can't tell you enough how pissed I was, but I'm glad that I didn't spend a penny on the "therapies" and books.