Mind and Vision: A Handbook for the Cure of Imperfect Sight Without Glasses
Agarwal
(7th Ed.) 1978
Submitter: We are a small public library. I found this in the health section. It was added in 2007 and, apparently, not donated but in fact purchased with real money from Amazon for $9.95. There is potentially helpful advice in this book. Unfortunately it also suggests that staring into the sun, with your eyes closed, will cure the need for corrective lenses. It was a shelved in 617.7, near books on LASIK. This book is a wonderful example as to why we need to weed our health sections regularly.
Holly: Well, dang, if I knew that I wouldn’t have spent $600 on bifocals!
Yeah, as someone who’s had glasses since kindergarten, if my library had spent actual money on this, I’d have had Words with someone. Particularly about the whole “spend hours looking towards the sun” part.
Find out who bought it (if they’re still around) and collect the price from them for buying a useless book that was already 30 years old before they added it!
(Maybe start with former employees named “Agarwal”?)
I think the medical advise in this book is about on par with the one that said women could think their breasts bigger.
At least that one didn’t tell you to look near the sun all the time! Or even expose them to it repeatedly. Or wave them around.
Just repeat “My vision is getting better, my vision is getting better, my boobs are getting bigger…”
My thought was the antidepression anal contraction book.
What book was that: “Are You There God ? It’s Me, Margaret” ?
This sounds very much like Dr. William Horatio Bates’ program of eye exercises to improve vision without corrective lenses. As an albino, Mr. Thipu was subjected to this from an early age.
the book might find a home in a medical library. It has no place in a modern public collection and probably never did.
I knew it looked familiar. I don’t recall Bates prescribing so much sun, though.
Two – Three years ago I was surprised to see one of those Microwave manuals that came with the device in the 70s and early 80s on the new book shelf. It was brand new looking yet the date was 1980. I asked and I was told it was a patron replacement for one they had lost from the collection. As a collections librarian, I was surprised they thought it was worth replacing it and spending the time, energy and money to get it back into the collection.
Just use ortho-K contacts to keep your myopia from progressing. Those have actual science behind them.
I have read that there are some studies that show that exposure to sunlight might help slow the progression of myopia in children, but they mean like, playing outside, not staring directly into the sun, jeez.
I stared up into the sun
to correct my astigmatism
It’s a beautiful world we live in:
who needs rose colored glasses?
I stare into the sun….
…..I’m blind! I’m blind!!! Auuuggghhh!!!!!!
…..I need a drink
I need a pair of beer goggles.
There is considerable scientific evidence that sun exposure (though this usually means just being outdoors during daylight hours, not staring directly at the sun) can reduce risk of developing/worsening myopia, which is a growing epidemic as youth are spending more time indoors during the day, and trend studies have found that the rates & severity of myopia are growing across the board for younger generations, and the most severe form also increases risk of retinal detachment.
But as I noted, this should be not be misconstrued as prescribing staring at the sun to treat myopia.