I love discoveries such as this. It’s an album recorded by an optometrist that is intended to help the listener train his/her eyes to see better without the use of glasses. The front cover explains the contents pretty well, saying, “This daily program of visual re-education is a systematic new approach to the Bates Method of eyesight improvement, which can correct or greatly improve most conditions of imperfect condition.” Then, of course, the liner notes (which cover both sides of the interior gatefold sleeve as well as the back of the jacket) offer much more extensive information. Some excerpts:
“In the early part of this century, Dr. William H. Bates discovered that imperfect eyesight, generally thought to be a non-correctable condition, would respond positively to treatment. He found that stress or tension is the cause of faulty seeing, and that relaxation is the key to better vision. Techniques were developed to relax the mind and body and retain imperfect eyes to see clearly in more natural, relaxed ways.”
The LP is packaged with a variety of inserts (although I guess in the medical profession they’re more like training tools, only record collector scum would call an eye chart an “insert”). My favorite is the “Reading The Fine Print” insert, which starts with rather large-size text and progressively shrinks to a microscopic size, I guess as a means of making you work harder to see…what, at a distance? The microscopic print (which I can read, no thanks to Dr. Bates!) says, “Most of us were taught as children that reading small print was harmful for the eyes, and most children’s books have very large print. Dr. Bates discovered that large print is in fact not good for the eyes since it tends to encourage the eye to see too large an area at once. He also found that the reading of small print actually encourages relaxation, for only when the eyes are relaxed can they read fine print easily. In this eye, reading fine print is practiced as a relaxation technique…” and it goes on and on, generally stating the same thing, that when we’re forced to look at a very tiny area somehow our eyes are more relaxed than they are when we look at a very big area.
The real kicker is that all the liner notes are written by a Dr. Raymond Gotlieb, even though all the information contained in the liner notes and on the record cites a Dr. William Bates as the guy responsible for all this information. So who gets the credit, I wonder? The record label (Wolf Records, catalog number WR7710) simply restates the album title, “Improve Your Eyesight Without Glasses”. The credits cite Jim Wolfe as producer, Paul Herlinger as narrator, the music was composed by Jim Bredouw, Peter Brown, Martin Lund and Jim Wolfe, and it was recorded at the Music Farm in Seattle Washington.
One thing is for certain — this record is a definite oddity, and a must-have for anyone who collects weirdo self-help/educational/informational albums. The seven inserts make it a really choice collector’s item.
Raymond Gottlieb, O.D., Ph.D.
Improve Your Eyesight Without Glasses
(Wolf Records, 1977)
MediaFire DL Link
Side A [MP3]
01. Preparation
02. Sunning
03. Palming
04. Swinging
05. Shifting, Outlining, Memory
06. Alphabet Charts
07. Nose Writing
08. Flashing
09. Fusion
10. Palming 2
Side B
01. Sunning 2
02. Palming 3
03. Swaying
04. Central Fixation
05. Alphabet Charts 2
06. Circle Chart
07. Palming 4
08. Fusion, Peripheral Vision
09. Reading Fine Print
10. Palming 5
