I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that it’s totally possible to heal your eyes — without surgery — so that you no longer need glasses. Now here’s the bad news: It takes work.
If you aren’t committed, if you can’t dedicate 10-15 minutes every morning to do these exercises, then don’t bother reading any further. This method isn’t for you. But if you are committed, then read on and learn special Qigong techniques that can dramatically improve your eyesight, whether you are nearsighted, farsighted, or have an astigmatism.
You should maintain your regular Flowing Zen Qigong practice while adding these techniques. For those who haven’t yet learned Flowing Zen Qigong, I recommend that you start with my free audio lesson. For everyone else, you can do these eye techniques before or after your normal routine, but they must be done in the morning (as you’ll read below).
If you have any questions as you practice these techniques, then please post them in the comments section below. And post your successes too, even minor ones!
Stage 1 – The Closing Sequence
Go outside between dawn and about 10:00am. The earlier, the better. Don’t skip this step. It’s critical to do all of the techniques outside, in the morning light. There is an energy in the morning light that stimulates healing in the eyes.
Once you’re outside, do the Closing Sequence that we normally do at the end of the 15-Minute Routine. (If you don’t know this sequence, then you can learn it from this video here.) Take a little longer than usual with the sequence, especially while holding the palms over the eyes. (You can hold there for as long as five minutes.)
You’re going to continue doing the Closing Sequence throughout all of the stages, so make sure you know it well. Practice this stage for 2 weeks before moving to the next stage.
Stage 2 – Counting Leaves
Stand a comfortable distance from a tree, plant, or bush with green leaves. Using only your eyes (not your fingers), count the leaves. Start with roughly 50 leaves, and gradually work up to 300 over a period of a few weeks.
If you run out of leaves, it’s fine to recount leaves that you’ve already counted. In wintertime, you’ll need to find a suitable evergreen tree, or a bush. If this isn’t possible for some reason, then bring your own leafy plant outside with you. (Don’t forget to bring it back inside after!)
After Counting Leaves, finish with the Closing Sequence. Continue like this for at least 2 weeks before moving to Stage 3.
Stage 3 – Rolling Stars
With the eyes open, roll both eyeballs in big circles ten times in one direction, and then ten times the other direction. Make the circles as big as possible, and try not to move the head.
Then circle the eyeballs in opposite directions. Just kidding!
Finish with Counting Leaves and the Closing Sequence. Practice this stage for at least 2 weeks before moving on.
Stage 4 – Angry Eyes
Open both eyes as wide as possible and hold for about 1-2 seconds, and then shut both eyes as tightly as possible, holding for 1-2 seconds. Repeat about 10 times.
Continue with Rolling Stars, Counting Leaves, and the Closing Sequence. Practice this stage for 2 weeks before moving on.
Stage 5 – Far and Near
Stare for a few seconds at a distant object like a cloud, or a tree, or a faraway object. Then stare for a few seconds at a nearby object, like the tip of your nose, some grass at your feet, or the hairs on the back of your arm. Repeat back and forth about 10 times.
Continue with Angry Eyes, Rolling Stars, Counting Leaves, and the Closing Sequence. Practice this stage for 2 weeks before moving on.
Stage 6 – Focusing on One
Stare gently at an object roughly 5-10 feet in front of you. Keep the eyes steady and do not blink. Hold for as long as you can, which may be a few seconds, or a few minutes. At first, your eyes will get tired, and it will probably be uncomfortable. Tears may roll down your eyes. This is part of the healing process. Don’t torture yourself, but don’t be a baby either.
Don’t get attached to the amount of time spent on this one. Some days, you’ll last longer, while other days, you’ll get tired very quickly.
Continue with Far and Near, Rolling Stars, Counting Leaves, and the Closing Sequence. Practice this stage for 2 weeks before moving on.
Stage 7 – Nourishing Eyes
For this stage, start with the other exercises. So begin with Far and Near, Angry Eyes, Rolling Stars, and Counting Leaves. Then stand upright, relax, and close the eyes gently. Let your Qi nourish your eyes. At first, the eyes may feel itchy or tired. This is a good sign, and it indicates that the Qi is working on the problem.
Over time, you’ll find that your eyes get more and more comfortable, and that your mind is clearer.
Finish the session with the Closing Sequence.
Stage 8 – Throwing Away Your Crutches
This stage is the hardest, but also one of the most important. When you are confident that your eyes are improving, then it’s time to throw away your glasses or contact lenses. If you continue to use your glasses, then your eyes will never fully heal. Remember — glasses and contacts make your eyes lazy.
As a temporary solution to help you build up confidence, try doing the eye exercises without your glasses. Some of the stages won’t work, but some will. Just do your best.
When you’re ready, resolve to take your glasses off for 1 hour every day. (Obviously, don’t take them off during dangerous activities like driving.) At first, it will be uncomfortable. You will want to reach for your crutches. But you can manage for 1 hour without them.
Gradually work up to 2 hours every day. Then 3 hours. Eventually, you’ll only need your glasses at night time, and you’ll be doing more and more of the morning exercises without glasses. At this point, you can confidently get rid of your glasses completely.
Tips for Success
- Cheat. If you don’t have time for all of the stages, then you can cheat as follows. Progress through the stages as normal, but just do the new exercise, plus the Closing Sequence, skipping the exercises from the other stages. When you get through all of the exercises, start again at the beginning.
- Eat lots of liver. I know this sounds strange, but according to Chinese medical theory, eating liver will strengthen your Liver Energy, which in turn will strengthen your eyes. If you are serious about healing your eyes, then eat liver at least once per week. I recommend that you only buy organic liver. My favorite recipe is chicken livers wrapped in bacon. Yum!
- Rest. If you aren’t sleeping enough at night, then your progress will be slower. Rest your eyes, and your body, every night.
- Track your progress. You can use my progress chart, or you can use your own method. But please do something. If you don’t measure your progress, then you won’t notice it, and you’ll quickly lose motivation.
- Don’t strain. Throughout your day, become aware of the tension that you hold in your eyes. If you are constantly straining your eyes at work or at home, then you’re going to have to work even harder to heal them.
- Don’t rush. Although many people start seeing results (Ha! See what I did there?) within a week, it will probably take anywhere from 3-12 months to fully heal your eyesight if you’ve been wearing glasses for years. But isn’t that worth it? Take your time and enjoy the journey.
- Drink less. If you drink a lot of alcohol, it will put an additional strain on your Liver Energy. Cut down or quit for a while to strengthen your Liver Energy, which in turn will help heal your eyes.
- Renew your prescription. If your eyes are improving and you haven’t yet thrown out your glasses, then go get a new prescription. Yes, I know that it’s expensive, but it’s also concrete proof that your eyes are healing! If you continue down that road, then pretty soon you won’t need to spend any more money on your eyes!
- Go outside. In case you missed this advice earlier, it’s critical that you do the exercises outside. Morning light has a quality that is very nourishing to the eyes. Don’t skip this step.
- Comment. If you’re having trouble, then come back to this article and post your questions and comments. I’ll do my best to help, and you may get some advice from others as well!
- See my wife. If you want a big boost, then go see my wife for acupuncture. She’s a miracle worker, and she has also done a bunch of post-graduate work on healing the eyes using acupuncture and alternative medicine.
Zenfully yours,
Sifu Anthony
Sifu Anthony Korahais used Qigong to overcome clinical depression, aching low-back pain, chronic bronchitis, and a heart murmur. He is the founder and director of the Flowing Zen Center in Gainesville, Florida, and an internationally recognized teacher in the world of energy arts. To contact Sifu Anthony directly, click here.
Is it necessary to have chi flow in order to heal my eyes?
Hi Steven. Most of the people I’ve taught the eye techniques to were my students, but I think you can get decent results without knowing Flowing Breeze Swaying Willows. Experiment, and find out!
Hmmm.. this is tempting. My contact prescription is -6.5 in one eye, -8 in the other. Meaning that I’m very near-sighted. Would someone with really bad eyesight be able to reach 20/20 vision, or just a significant improvement? I was told that even with laser correction surgery, I’d still need some kind of glasses or contacts.
Give it a try, Melissa. I’m not really in the business of saying “that’s impossible!” I’ve seen so many people shock their doctors by reversing so-called “incurable” diseases that my mind is always open to possibilities.
Melissa, just a bit of encouragement for you, but I’ve seen reports of people following the Bates Methods and going from -10 (!) to not needing glasses, and I have a hunch that the method Sifu posted will work better than the Bates method.
Sifu, I was interested in asking you about this! Did you used to wear glasses yourself? I have some books that are based on the Bates method of vision correction, but I started them and never finished, and never really followed through with the exercises/techniques described in them. You’ve renewed my will to make a change! I’m excited to start (and I think Andy will be, too.)
Hi Sifu!
I’m going to do this. After practicing for almost three years, I was wondering if it was possible to reverse poor eyesight with Chi Kung. So this sounds great!
My first question: Is it recommended to “throw away my crutches” before Step 8? I can happily and easily go without my glasses (they are for nearsightedness) for hours at a time at home. Is this recommended, or should I be patient?
Thank you for posting this, and for teaching us these arts. They and you are greatly appreciated.
Steve, you can put away your crutches any time. Since you’re pretty comfortable without your glasses, definitely try to do the exercises without them. Obviously, if you need them to drive, keep them handy.
Hello Sifu Antony
I am trying these exercises the past 6-7 months and lately I have been feeling improvement! The thing is that use the instructions of Sigung Wong: http://shaolin.org/answers/ans04b/oct04-2.html (6-7: I leave them for after a couple of months, slow progress is good progress for me) and not your instructions 1->6->5->4->3->2->7
I believe that either way is working and I don’t want to sound disrespective but how come have you changed the original way?
Thanks,
Charalampos
The exercises are 95% the same as Sifu Wong teaches them. I’ve made a few minor changes based on experience, and feedback from students.
Thanks for sharing this, Sifu. I will now work on committing myself to this. How can I not do so.
Jimmy
Thanks Sifu Anthony
Hello: Have you seen any success in lowering ocular pressure? Glaucoma is my concern.
I think these exercises will help with glaucoma because they bring so much energy to the eyes. The extra energy will help to restore normal pressure, similar to how it restores other imbalances in the body, like high blood pressure. Experiment, and let us know how it goes!
Sifu,
Thanks for posting. My situation is I can see long distance fine but my reading vision is going bad. I had Lasix surgery about 6 years ago in both eyes. I’m curious to see if this can help my up close vision. It bugs me that I have to wear glasses.
I am so glad you posted this. . I have been wondering for some time now how I can improve my farsigthedness and throw away my glass as suggested in Si-Gung Wong’s books.
Now I am all over this practice, started today as a matter of fact. I will post up the results in a months time.
Hi Anthony siheng,
What do you think of eating carrots to improve your eyesight?
Is it really true or is it one of the few tricks mothers pull on their children to make them eat them? (My mum still does these kind of tricks on me though.)
I’m starting week 4 of the healing eye exercises and I’ve noticed real improvements in my eye with astigmatism. 6 inches farther without squinting, and several feet beyond that there is less blur. One more week of counting leaves, then adding on rolling stars!
I have a trivia question if you know the answer, Sifu: is there a particular significance to counting green leaves? Does the color make a difference?
While I realize that it’s great to be able to rise above and beyond the expectations of medical science, I’ve been told to avoid straining my eyes too much without my glasses. Though these exercises are very helpful, I trust you’ll understand if I stick to the advice of my ophthalmologist on avoiding too much strain. Interestingly, he is opposed to ocular surgery as am I. I see eyeglasses as far less harmful than an invasive procedure. I don’t like the idea of cutting into anything unnecessarily. That’s especially so when it can make the patient go blind!
Interestingly, I already was doing eye exercises before this that were prescribed to me by western science. I have a convergence insufficiency, which means that I see double because of a muscle dysfunction. Both those exercises and the ones outlined here have been helpful to me. I am grateful to you for that.
I was curious if other foods designed to activate the liver meridians would help just as well. I understand that limes, mussels and mulberries activate the same energy. Is this true?
Thank you very much!
Yes, foods that nourish the Liver Meridian will help. But this presumes that you’re doing Qigong as well. Unfortunately, I can’t speak for other styles of Qigong that don’t include the technique Flowing Breeze Swaying Willow, which circulates the energy freely. In that case, eating foods that nourish the Liver may help a bit, but I can’t say if it will get to the root of the problem or not. Do let me know how it works though!
Okay, well it’s been over a month since I stated that I would give the results in a month’s time.
First of all I will say that it is not that I have not been commited to the practice, but due to the odd hours I am working, I have had to practice this method off and on, on certain days. I can say this much for sure, I am seeing a slight improvement. IE: if I walk into a Grocery Store and look up at the Isle signs from a distance, with alittle more focus the lettering/Words are more visible, and of course other things in far sight are becoming more clear; The Television Closed Captioning included. However this practice is going to take longer than orgininally intended for a speedy way to cure bad eyesight.
I will say I remain devoted to the practice, it’s just going to take me longer than others.
Thanks Again Sifu,
David.
Keep up the good work, David. Slow and steady wins the race.
Hi Sifu,
I have tried over and over again with the Bates method (which is very similar to your method) and have been able to keep it going well for a week but somehow need to keep my momentum to keep going after this! I am trying once again and am determined to make it!
The problem I have is that my vision is -6 in both days which means I can’t go to work and not wear contacts/glasses. I am just wondering if I make sure to spend an hour relaxing in the morning and maybe doing a couple of exercises and then when I get back home immediately taking them off and relaxing again will it still work?
Thanks Sifu
So glad you’ve made a site like this 
Also do you known of anywhere were there might be a forum online to encourage us to keep going?
Sophia
Hi Sophia,
Have you learned Qigong yet? That may be the missing piece. I’ve met people who were successful with the Bates method, but it sounds like it took a lot more work (and discipline). This makes sense because they were only addressing the physical side of things. With Qigong plus these exercises, you address the physical and the energetic.
Yes, you can continue to wear your glasses. Most people have to do this. The exercises will still work.
As for discipline — just remember what you want. That’s a big motivator.
-Sifu Anthony
Sifu,
Some days, I am not able to make it outdoors before 10AM with enough time to do these exercises. Is it better to skip the exercises for the day completely and wait until the next morning, or should I do these at another time during the day? So far I have just skipped for the day.
I am up to stage 4 now, and notice that I do not get eyestrain as badly as I did before. I think I also see a little more clearly. I am going to start reading an eye chart every few days to track my progress in a more concrete way.
Thank you for sharing this information!
I think it’s good to skip a day now and then to let the eyes rest. But it’s also okay to do the exercises after 10am now and then, assuming that you’re getting some morning light on most mornings. You can always do the point massage, nourishing eyes, and heavenly drum!
Here is my progress update. I have been following this protocol for the past two and a half months and now I can see 20/20 out of the glasses that I was prescribed 16 years ago (which are 1 diopter weaker than my “current” prescription that I can no longer wear–they’re much too strong now). I am kicking myself for not testing my vision in these glasses when I started practice, but I know it was NOT 20/20. I ordered further reduced prescription glasses online and should receive them this week. Looking forward to being able to get rid of the glasses forever before too much longer. Before I started the protocol, I was getting ready to get fitted for stronger lenses, because I was not seeing well out of the “current” lenses.
If anyone’s curious I am myopic and my “current” glasses are -4.25 in each eye; the old lenses I’ve been wearing are -3.25. And I have definitely cheated some during this time! I’ve skipped days, and had to do the cheat that Sifu suggests with only doing the new exercise and the closing sequence, instead of the full complement of exercises. I have not eaten any liver during this time (bad Amanda!), I’ve still been consuming alcohol, and I’ve spend a LOT of time in front of a computer. Yet, I have still seen improvement! I also notice significantly fewer “floaters” in my field of vision, which is nice.
How is everyone else doing?
I went through the program, though I started with Rolling Stars because I couldn’t find any trees in places where I felt safe practicing (there’d been a rash of burglaries and muggings in the area, go figure). I did notice after my morning practice session after a few weeks of Closing Sequence, Rolling Stars, and Angry Eyes, however, that I could look across the two-lane street and count the leaves of a large tree without glasses, which surprised me! Sadly, the tree is losing its leaves with the colder weather, so I’m trying to instead count points on its branches.
Unfortunately, I wear my glasses quite often because I’m studying and reading microbiology, so my results aren’t ideal. I have noticed that I’ve added a few inches to my clear reading vision (papers can now be about six inches away from my eyes instead of two or three inches). I can now clearly see my hand at the end of my outstretched arm (couldn’t do that a few years ago!) A few weeks ago, I felt confident enough to drive (in an empty neighborhood!) sans glasses for a few blocks. I also regularly bicycle sans glasses.
Rarely, when practicing Focusing One (my apartment is rather scarce, so I use a wall-hanging of Guan Yin), everything suddenly becomes crystal clear for an instant before blurring again. Those moments are very inspiring for me to continue practicing these exercises.
Hi Sifu, Kindly, may i know whether it is required to put our glass on or without wearing glasses to do the exercise? and if both are permissible, which will be better?
Hi Brahim. It would be better to do the exercises without your glasses. But if that’s not possible, then use your glasses for whichever stages you need them.
Hi Anthony siheng,
My eyes strain quite easily when I read a computer screen with my glasses on. (Tried different prescriptions and checked my overall posture), but when I don’t wear them I can read it quite comfortably. Any ideas? Btw. I’ve been doing the eye exercises for almost a year now.
Best regards,
Kan
(ps. I know acupuncture can help me. But who can I trust here in my country?)
Do the techniques help for far-sightedness too, or only for near-sightedness?
Thanks
Hi Jesus. Yes, they definitely work for far-sightedness too!
Sifu,
I’ve started doing this in the morning. Can I follow it with a 15 minute routine?
Of course. You can start or finish with the eye exercises. See what works better for you.