History

The science and practice of Iridology is not new. The oldest records uncovered thus far have shown that a form of iris interpretation was used in ancient China as far back as 1,000 BC, nearly 3,000 years ago. In the Bible, St. Luke writes that Christ said, "The lamp of your body is the eye. When your eyes are sound, you have light for the whole body, but when your eyes are bad, you are in darkness."

In the year 1670, the physician Philippus Meyens, in his book, Physiognomia Medica, described the organ division of the iris according to body regions. The Viennese ophthalmologist, Beer, did not know of these old views on iris analysis. Yet, in his publication of 1813, Textbook of Eye Diseases he wrote, "Everything that affects the organism of an individual cannot remain without effect on the eye and vice versa."

A Hungarian, Dr. Ignaz von Peczely, published a book in 1881 entitled, Discovery in Natural History and Medical Science, a Guide to the Study and Diagnosis from the Eye. This book achieved an international renown and he is considered the father of modern Iridology.

Today, in the 20th century, doctors and scientists primarily from the United States (Dr. Bernard Jensen) and Germany (Josef Deck and Josef Angerer) have brought Iridology into worldwide recognition. I have studied the work of these pioneers.