文章将 Craumer 的案例连到更大的流行趋势：一项 2016 年研究估计，到 2020 年全球将有 26 亿人近视，较 2000 年增加 50%；到 2050 年该数字预计倍增至接近 50 亿，意味著届时可能有约半数人口近视。研究与专家将此「近视流行」主要归因于生活型态而非遗传：长时间室内与萤幕使用被认为会促使眼球变长、造成远距模糊，而日照可能透过多巴胺讯号让眼球「停止生长」；随年龄增加，延长的眼球也提高视网膜剥离等严重风险，Emory University 的眼科医师 Machelle Pardue 将其称为威胁大规模失明的「定时炸弹」。在这种背景下，受到 Andrew Huberman、Dave Asprey 等影响者以及对主流医疗的不信任所推动，一些人把矛头指向约 1080 亿英镑的全球镜片产业，宣称可用放松、凝视远方与想像等方法取代矫正镜片或手术，尽管 Ohio State University 的验光师 Donald Mutti 以「你不可能靠冥想变成 6 ft 2 in（约 1.88 m）」来否定其可行性。

叙事进一步描述该社群在西班牙 Valencia 举办的会议规模与实作方式：现场约 300 名参与者、为期 5 天，行程包含视力瑜伽、团体眼部疗法与心态训练，并延续 William Bates 在 1920 年著作中将近视归因于「紧张」并主张 palming、sunning 等放松技巧的思想。文章同时呈现主流眼科的分歧解释：多数眼科医师认为一旦眼球结构性延长，真正的近视除手术外难以逆转，但放松可能短暂缓解由睫状肌紧张造成的「假性近视」，使短秒数的清晰闪现看似改善；作者在一次 palming 后也仅短暂看清出口标志。Craumer 则声称在 2020 年那次 15 秒清晰后持续努力，4 年后度数下降：右眼减少 1.5 屈光度、左眼减少 1.75 屈光度，虽然部分眼科医师仍质疑结构性近视能否出现如此幅度的改善；整体而言，文章将此现象描绘为在快速恶化的统计趋势下，人们以有限而争议的证据追求可控感的尝试。

On an autumn morning in 2020, 35-year-old software engineer Mike Craumer tried to reverse his myopia using “biohacking” rather than lenses: his prescription measured -6 in the left eye and -6.25 in the right. After wading into New Hampshire’s Merrimack River without contacts, he briefly perceived the distant scene sharpening, then lost it immediately after checking his phone; the “breakthrough” lasted about 15 seconds, yet convinced him that clarity could be trained back and situated his effort within a growing natural-vision narrative.

The article frames Craumer’s experiment against a larger numerical trend: a 2016 study estimated 2.6bn people worldwide would be myopic by 2020, 50% more than in 2000; by 2050 it projected a near doubling to almost 5bn, implying roughly half the world could be nearsighted. Researchers and experts attribute the surge mainly to lifestyle rather than genetics, linking heavy indoor and screen time to eye elongation and distance blur, while sunlight may signal (via dopamine) when the eye should stop growing; with age, elongated eyes also raise risks such as retinal detachment, and Emory University ophthalmologist Machelle Pardue calls the prospect a mass-blindness “time bomb.” In that context, influencers such as Andrew Huberman and Dave Asprey, plus mistrust of mainstream medicine, help fuel a backlash against the £108bn global lens industry, with proponents claiming relaxation, distance focus, and imagination can replace glasses or surgery, even as Ohio State University optometrist Donald Mutti dismisses it: you can’t meditate yourself into being 6 ft 2 in (about 1.88 m).

The narrative then details the movement’s organized scale and methods at a Valencia, Spain conference of about 300 attendees over five days, featuring vision yoga, group eye therapy, and mindset work rooted in William Bates’s 1920-era claims that strain causes myopia and that techniques like palming and sunning restore sight. It also presents conventional ophthalmology’s competing account: true structural myopia is widely considered irreversible without surgery, but relaxation may briefly relieve ciliary-muscle tension and “pseudomyopia,” producing seconds-long clarity that can be mistaken for real change; the author likewise reports only a momentary ability to read an exit sign after palming. Craumer, however, reports sustained effort since his 2020 river episode and says that four years later an eye test showed drops of 1.5 dioptres in the right eye and 1.75 in the left, though multiple eye doctors still doubt that structural myopia can improve by that magnitude; overall, the piece portrays a contested bid for control amid worsening population-level statistics.