References to aspects of the eyes’ relationship to human health have been traced to Hippocrates.

Some people have suggested the Chaldeans in Babylonia have left iris markings and their relevant meaning on stone slabs.

The famous Italian Medical School in Salerno which existed between the tenth and thirteenth centuries. This was the most prominent medical school in Western Europe at the time. However, the first documented writing on Iridology, according to the German iridologist Theodor Kriege, is the book: Chiromatica Medica by Philippus Meyeus (Philip Meyen von Coburg) published in 1665 and reprinted in 1670 and 1691 in Dresden, Germany, which describes the iris as:

“The upper part represents the head. Since the stomach has a close relationship to it, then all diseases originating in the stomach are found in the eyes.

The right side of the eyes show as the liver, the right thorax and blood vessels.

The left side of the eyes can show all organs that lie on the left side, therefore the heart, left thorax, spleen and small blood vessels. Conditions of health and disease arising from the heart are found here, especially weakness of the heart or fainting.

The lowest parts of the eyes represent genitalia and also the kidneys and the bowel, from which colic, jaundice, stone diseases, gall and venereal diseases are to be found. These signs consist of vessels, weals and flecks.”

Johann Sigmund Eltzholtz published work in 1695 and 1785 and Christian Bartels published a work in 1786 called The Eye and Its’ Signs (De oculo et signo). Both played some early influence but the true person considered the modern-day founder of Iridology was the Hungarian physician Dr. Ignaz Peczely.

Ignaz von Peczely (1826-1911)

Ignaz von Peczely first developed iridology after noticing, at the age of eleven, in 1836, a prominent marking appearing at six o’clock in the bottom of the iris in the eye of an owl with a broken leg, that he was freeing from a fence. This left a lasting impression on the young von Peczely.

Another version of the story says he wasn’t freeing it from a fence, but trying to remove his hand from the grip of its claws.

As it goes, he splinted the injured limb and kept the owl as a pet. He nursed that owl for several years and found later that white lines appeared in the eye, and the dark shade lightened, but never disappeared completely.

Von Peczely started as a practitioner of natural therapeutics then later became a physician after studying at Budapest in 1862 and Vienna in 1864. He studied the eyes of his patients.

Some people have questioned the validity of this story, and called it apocryphal. Nevertheless, he is the first medical professional we know of in the modern day who formulated a structure around the science, particularly developing an iris chart.

Von Peczely later developed a large following as a homeopath.

Peczely went beyond just looking into the eyes of the general population, but in the hospital he worked in, he specifically looked into the eyes of people before and after operations and even performed autopsies. This gave him tremendous insights to explore the markings in the iris.

He first noticed, as have I, that surgeries develop large black markings in the iris surrounded by white crooked lines, and that pharmacological medication would sometimes produce changes in the iris.

He served prison time during the Hungarian revolution after being made a captive for being part of the revolt.

His first published work appeared in 1873 and they continued into the 1880’s. In 1880 he published Discoveries in the Realm of Nature and Art of Healing (Eutdeckungen auf dem Gebiete der Natur – und Heilkunde).

He wrote a book on Iridology, Discovery In Natural History And Medical Science, A Guide To The Study And Diagnosis From The Eye in 1881. His student Dr Emil Schlegel later published a book The Eye-Diagnosis of I.V Peczely.

Von Peczely felt that all disease conditions were reflected in the iris, often before any symptoms are shown.

The power of markings appearing in the iris before a condition appeared in the body confused Von Peczely greatly. Reflecting this is an apocryphal saying attributed to von Peczely – ‘Hic signum ubi ulcus’ (here is the sign but where is the disease)?

Nils Liljequist (1851–1936)

Nils Liljequist was from Stockholm, Sweden. Liljequist was both a Swedish doctor and Priest who noticed pigment in his own eyes. He noticed these changes after being treated with Iodine and Quinine when he was sick with enlargement of the lymph nodes after vaccination.

Peter Thiel(1905) noted:

“Liljequist devoted much attention to the study of the colours due to poisonous drugs, and sought to find the characteristic color for each one; for example the dull luster in lead poisoning, the minute glittering points in mercury poisoning, a yellow white in quinine, a gray white in arsenic, a misty gray in opium creosote, a dirty gray in salicylic acid, a light gray in opium poisoning.”

In Liljequist’s own words from Lahn (1914, pg 13,14):

“In my thirteenth or fourteenth year I was vaccinated for a second time. Being formerly hale and hearty, I now became sickly; first the lymph glands of my neck began to swell, then I was taken ill with malaria, vehement cough, influenza, polyps appeared in the nose, terrible pains in the bones and legs, and all that in the course of a year after vaccination.

Physicians were consulted for years. They always prescribed iodine to besmear the swollen glands, quinine for malaria, and used the tongs to remove the polyps which, however, reappeared every year. Thus years passed by.

In the meantime I noticed how colour of my eyes changed more and more, and when twenty years of age I brought forth my discovery: ‘Quinine and iodine change the colour of the iris, formerly I had blue eyes, now they are greenish with red spots in them.’

Nevertheless I continued taking medicine in spite of the warning from Dr T, a homeopath and the teacher at the Helsingborg gymnasium. He even offered me homeopathic remedies and let me try small granules of sugar. Why didn’t I accept his kind offer? I often regretted it, but then my sound judgement was disturbed by a newspaper article which wholly ridiculed homeopathy. I took the same standpoint which the Royal Swedish Board of Medicine still takes in the year 1893 and believed that ‘homeopathic medicine contained nothing but sugar, starch and water.’ Besides I desired to become a physician myself and I did not care to promote the silly teachings of homeopathy. But the longer and the more I suffered, the more vanished my admiration for the sacrificing, philanthropic vocation of the physician, and finally I lost my liking for it all together.

When I came to the city of Lund in 1871 I consulted there new physicians, hoping they would prescribe for me some better mixtures, but I was disappointed I continually got quinine and iodine with the addition of iron which should help my exhausted stomach. I began to protest, but the physician declared that it would be my death if I stopped taking quinine. As I did not like to die quite so young, I strictly followed his advice. Sometimes I got up to three grams of quinine per dose. Thus I spent six of the best years of my life on the sick bed. Oh! If I had only conformed myself to suffer from malaria, I should have felt well at least some of my life, as the fever does not appear daily during the whole year. But on account of the quinine and iodine dosing I had been constantly sick since by seventeenth year; every day vehement headache, especially in the forenoon, heaviness and dullness above the eyes, ringing in the ears, all symptoms of quinine poisoning.

Finally in my thirtieth year I arrived at the conviction that there must be other methods to acquire health, and other remedies besides those which I had taken. Professor Jaeger’s work Die Neural-Analyse convinced me of the truth of the excellence of homeopathy, and in the year 1882 I became my own physician, and I did not get any worse on that account. On the contrary in spite of having suffered from malaria for seventeen years, and in spite of the immense quantities of quinine and iodine which I had swallowed. I am now at 45 years of age a healthy man, full of love and vigor for work.”

“The only consolation I could find was that our sufferings should remind us to guard our fellowmen against similar misery, and if they ever become afflicted with sickness to help them as much as possible… and for that purpose I have written this book.”

While these substances, such as quinine, in large doses, aren’t commonly used to treat people in general today, the link was made between toxic build up and pigment changes in the human iris.

Liljequist wrote a two volume set Om Oegendiagonesen ( Diagnosis of the Eye) in 1893 which included 258 black and white drawing and 12 colourised double iris drawings.

Liljequist discovered the Epileptic centre of the iris. Myself, Henry Lindlahr and Dr Bernard Jensen have all observed a similar pattern in the eyes of some epileptics.

Henry Lindlahr (1919, p 123) commented on this as follows:

“Liljequist one day examined a man suffering from epilepsy. The disease had been caused by an accident in a saw-mill. A saw burst, a piece of it striking the man behind the left ear, burying itself deeply into the bones of the skull. The epileptic convulsions dated from that time.

Evidently the condition was due to pressure on the brain, caused by the piece of steel, which had penetrated the skull, Liljequist looked into the iris for a sign of the wound in the head and found a well-defined open lesion in the left iris. Afterwards when examining the eyes of epileptics he always looked for signs of the disease in this area of the iris and seldom failed to discover indications of abnormal conditions in that locality.

My experience has been the same. In almost every case of epilepsy I find the signs of drug poisons, of nerve rings, or of acute and chronic lesions in the iris area of the left cerebellum.”

It is interesting the emphasis Liljequist put on pigments, in contrast with von Peczely who put emphasis on location.

Other contemporaries around the turn of the century include Stiegel, Rapp, Wirtz and Zoeppritz.

Von Peczely and Liljequist as co discoverers

Some people have credited both Liljequist and von Peczely as being the co discoverers of modern day iridology, based on the idea that some people believe they both came to similar conclusions, independently, not being aware of each other’s work.

Dr Emil Schlegel (1852-1934)

A German homeopath from Tubingen supported Iridology from around 1887. He published a book titled, Ocular Diagnosis, in 1911.

Pastor Emmanuel Felke (1856-1926)

Pastor Emmanuel (sometimes spelled Immanuel), Felke, of German descent, never wrote about his work, although eventually it was published by A. Muller in 1907 and called The Eye Diagnosis Based Upon the Principles of Pastor Felke.

He was known for supplying meals with little animal products, and was sometimes referred to as the “clay pastor” because he applied healing earth to people and he would encourage them to have cold baths outdoors in zinc bathtubs because they’d have to sleep on clay floors or straw sacks exposed to the open air at night.

The name the “clay pastor” was probably based on his interest in the work of the famed German healer, Adolf Just, who founded the healing clay society in 1918 and started the German company Luvous, specialising in medicinal clay.

It’s believed Felke modelled the work of Adolf Just when he opened his sanatorium. Adolf Just, like Felke, promulgated clean air, water, natural foods and a return to nature.

Some people called him the cofounder of combination homeopathic remedies due to his work of multiple remedies in one formula rather than the singular which had been traditionally practised.

Felke inspired others such as Magdalena Madaus (1857 – 1925), Heinrich Hense (1868 – 1955), and the more familiar Josef Deck (1914 – 1990) whose iris charts are used by many students of iridology today.

Henry David Lane (formerly Henry Lahn)

Henry Lane was born Henry Lahn in Austria. When he came to the United States he changed his name to Lane. He was a student of the german Peter Johannes Thiel.

A natural practitioner in Austria, he later graduated as a medical doctor in the United States. He was the early authority on Iridology, or as it was known in the United States, Iridiagnosis. Dr Lane published Diagnosis from the Eye: A New Art of Diagnosing with Perfect Certainty from the Iris of the Eye the Normal and Abnormal Conditions of the Organism in General and of the Different Organs in Particular; a Scientific Essay for the Public and Medical Profession A Scientific Essay for the Public and Medical Profession. It was the first book published in America on iridology. He did his research mostly at the Kosmos Sanitarian, Evanston, Illinois, coming to his conclusions of the association between iridology markings and surgical and autopsy findings.

Concerning the importance of the eye in showing the condition of the body Lahn, (1914, pg 11) said:

“It has been said that the eye is the mirror of the soul, and that it discloses the different mental and physical conditions of the body: we generally speak of the ‘vivid clear eye’ of the well man, of the ánguishing, glaring eye of the consumptive, of the éxpressionless eye in typhoid fever and especially insanity (a contraction of the pupil in regular intervals is noticed during delirium in typhoid fever), of the broken eye of the dead sick.

The enlargement of the pupil indicates the presence of spool worms: a small inequality of the pupils with the inclination to enlargement is found in those suffering from tuberculosis: various nervous diseases are disclosed by the decreased mobility of the pupil; frequent disturbances of the sight are seen in the kidneys (diabetes), as does also the falling out of the eye-lashes.

The inward growing of the eye lashes discloses scrofula, and reddened eyes female diseases: Basedow’s (graves) disease bring the eyes out of their holes; a swelling of the eyelids makes us suspect trichinosis.

In a book probably 300 years old I found the following instruction: Shepherds judge the disease of their sheep by the lines (falsely called radii solaris) and other signs of the eye. In man signs near the iris indicate disease of the lungs and chest, and also cough. If children have sound flesh in the inner angles of the eye (canthus), it means health; if these angles lie deep and are devoid of flesh it means disease or death. If the white of the eye is turning blue and is veined, it indicates diseases of the sexual organs; and so on in a really interesting manner.”

Peter Johannes Thiel (1861-1948)

A German iridologist who ran a school of hygiene in Bensheim Germany. Peter Thiel wrote: The Diagnosis of Disease by Observation of the Eye, which was published in 1905 and translated into English, in 1918, by Dr F W Collins.

Peter Thiel tried to turn away from the work of von Peczely and Liljequist and into a present and future orientated approach to iridology. he emphasises the importance of this in his words that follow.

“While Peczely and Liljequist directed all their attention to previous wounds, scars, poisonous drugs etc I turned away from these things and paid special attention in regard to the prognosis of the length of time of convalescence and of future illnesses. Prevention is very much more important than the cure. Of course one gets less healthy thanks for the former than for the latter. And so I have developed from a diagnostician to a teacher o f the art of healing.

For the healthy as well as for the sick, it is very much more important to tell him, from the examination of his eyes, about his wounds, scars, iodin inunctions, creosote ingestion etc. For the practised eye examiner, the past, present and future ills are clearly distinguishable from one another. The latter appear as the faintest shadows in the light as well as dark areas.” (Thiel, 1905, pg 63).

Dr Anderschou

Published a book in 1916 called Iris Science: Diagnosis of Bodily Diseases Through Examination of the Eye.

Professor Rudolf Schnabel (1882-1962)

A famous German teacher who did far-reaching studies on pigments. He was a forerunner in the study of pupil dynamics and one of the first to define pupil irregularities. His work suggested that the rising of intracranial pressure contributed to ellipsoid pupil.

Schnabel, like Angerer of Germany, who he greatly influenced, was able to work with medical hospitals, xrays and autopsies to confirm his iris findings.

Rudolf Schnabel wrote a book on iris pigments called Iridoscopy. In 1925 he published Die pupillendeformationen (The Pupillary information). He also wrote a 2 volume work, Ophthalmo-Symptomatology. (Opthalmo-symptomatologie mit besanderer berücksichtigung der pupillo-und iridoscopie), published in 1926 by Kruger & Co. in Leipzig.Then he followed with The Eye as a Mirror of the State of Health in 1930.
In 1959 he received a prize from the London Academy of Sciences due to his having published his double volume work on iridology.

Dr Leon Vannier (1880-1963)

French Leon Vannier was a homeopath who utilized iridology. Published Le Diagnostic des Maladies par les Yeux: (The Diagnosis of Diseases by the Eyes – literal translation) Inscopie & Irigraphic. Paris: A Maloine et Fils, 1923. With typed notes on textbook by AN Laws.

Dr Vannier said, “The constitution is seen by the experienced observer but the temperament is perceived.” — put this quote in margin

Magdalene Madaus (1857-1925)

Magdalene Madaus was a homeopath influenced by Felke including fostering her interest and development in iridology. In 1920 published the journal Iriscorrespondens and a number of works including the book in 1925, Textbook on Iridology with additions of other Diagnoses, Physiognomy, Chirologie. 2nd Edition. Bonn

Manuel Lezaeta Acharan, (1881 – 1959) published his work Eyes Reveal your Health in Chile, South America, in 1930.

Dr. Vincente L. Ferrandiz (born 1894)

Studied initially at Benedict Lust’s American School of Naturopathy. Upon returning to Spain he published Salud y Vida, the Nature cure magazine in 1923. He started schools teaching physiotherapy, massage and botanic medicine and published his book on iridology in 1970.

K. Baumhauer

Wrote “The eye diagnosis, comprehensive treatment for the establishment of disease of the human organism through eye investigation.” (Baumhauer, 1927).

Dr Wirz

Wrote 2 volumes of ‘Der krankheitsbefuned (Diagnose) aus der Regenbogenhaut der Augen. (Signs of illness (diagnosis) of the iris of the eye) (1922, 1927) where he brought out the damaging effects of exposure to mothballs used at the time and how the iris holds indications of poisons.

Heinrich Hense (1865-1955)

Wrote “Eye diagnosis and facial expression information” in 1931.

Kronenberger

Wrote “Iris diagnosis” in 1931.

Frau Pastor Magdalena Madaus’s (1857–1925) daughter, Eva Flink (1886–1959),

from Germany and Hans Struck (1899 – 1963). Flink and Struck in 1935 wrote “Manual of iris diagnosis. 1, The iris diagnosis in practice” which was illustrated by means of 50 iris plates with schematic signs and explanations, as well as brief ruptures of the diseased histories; complemented by photographic sectors, drawings and explanations of individual iris drawings, as well as a comprehensible localization scheme.

Alfred Maubacch (1893-1954)

Alfred Maubach was a student of both Emmanuel Felke and Emil Schlegel. He wrote: Eye diagnosis as constitutional diagnosis, early diagnosis and differential diagnosis in 1952.

Dr F. W. Collins

He was born in New jersey and published Disease diagnosed by observation of the eye in 1919. As one of the teachers of Dr Bernard Jensen, it is said that he made Jensen sketch over 500 iris photos before he graduated!

Henry Lindhlar (1862-1924)

Henry Lindlahr practised in Chicago. Dr Lindlahr published a book called Nature Cure: Philosophy and Practice Based on the Unity of Disease and Cure attempting to express natural cures scientifically. It was later expanded into six volumes. Volume six was his book on Iridology.

He was an American Iridologist whose work advanced the field before later Jensen solidified it in the West. He started as a student of Dr Lane. He published a magazine called Nature Cure.

Dr Lindlahr was a fan of “The healing crisis” which he called housekeeping or cleaning.

He was a huge fan of elimination and hated suppression.

He popularised the saying “Give me a healing crisis and I can cure any disease.” Dr Lindlahr, like Nils Liljequist, noticed the changes that drugs produced including colour changes in the eye and he liked to relate which drugs produced which colours in the iris. He documented changes he saw in irises from Lead, Arsenic Mercury, Quinine and other drugs used at the time.

As the drugs Dr Lindlahr saw in the iris by colour, are no longer used in Western Medicine, we appreciate now that pigments in the eye are not necessarily from one specific toxin that is consistent across everyone.

Otis Carroll (1879 – 1962)

Suffered from rheumatic fever and consequently juvenile arthritis when he was young. He was associated with Father Kneipp and underwent treatment to cure his ailment. He then studied botanical medicine and trained from with Henry Lindlahr, in Chicago, from 1904-1908 when he set up a practice in Spokane, Washington til his death in 1962. He used constitutional hydrotherapy with his patients, even treating Dr John Harvey Kellogg’s wife. He had studied iridology with Lahn and Lindlahr and used iris diagnosis on every patient for both diagnostic and prognostic purposes. He also employed fasting and believed in the ‘healing crisis.’

Petar Dimkov (1886-1981)

Petar was from Bulgaria. When he went to St. Petersburg, Russia in 1899 to study at the military academy, he had a prior interest in natural healing, particularly hers, he also went to the medical university for lectures on homeopathy and traditional Tibetan medicine while also reading the works of Dr. Peczely, the father of Iridology. He wrote “Eye Diagnosis.”

Dr John Arnold

Dr Arnold of the U.S.A. changed the name ‘iridiagnosies’ to ‘iris analysis.’ He appreciated that Iridology could be used to see weaknesses in the body long before these weaknesses ever become active and used the new terminology to indicate that conditions within the body could be analysed, rather than diagnosing specific diseases. He was founder of the World Iridology Fellowship. Jensen and Arnold developed an updated iridology chart.

Dr John Christopher (1909-1983)

Dr Christopher, a Mormon doctor, was legendary in his lifetime, and one of the latter proponents of Iridology and Herbalism. His texts School of Natural Healing are considered classics in the field.

Dr Joseph Angerer (1907-1994)

A German author of many textbooks, well-known for his interest and work on pupil borders and pupil signs. Professor Rudolf Schnabel was one of his notable teachers. He was a prisoner of war in the second world war. He held lectures at Ingolstdadt and founded the Heilpraktiker-Fachschule, in Munich, which became known in modern times as the Joseph Angerer Schule. He released a twelve-volume work on iridology called Ophthalmotropic Phenomenology. He was noted for his comprehensive Iris chart.

Josef Angerer did a chart in the 1960’s. He served as physican in WWII Like Deck he was held prisoner in Russia.

Dr Josef Deck (1914-1992)

Dr Deck, from Germany, who became known as Europe’s foremost iridologist, estimated that over 40 years he had looked at over one million eyes. He was considered, alongside Joseph Angerer, to be one of the most well-known Iridologists in Europe at the time and set up a prominent iridology research centre.

He suffered a stroke later in life, and discovered much when he was a doctor during war time observing pathological change during disease, war injuries, surgeries and studying cause of death.

His method was to organize iris patterns into constitutions and so he introduced the constitutional model of Iridology. He thought of the iris as being a genetically inherited structure, almost like a genetically inherited blueprint from previous generations. This took into account predisposition to particular diseases, but as his studies were done on persons living in Northern Germany, who predominantly, likely, had a combination of light and low pigment saturated brown irises it sidelined persons from other areas such as Southeast Asia with high pigment saturated brown irises and limited his overall model.

When a prisoner in the Second World War in Russia he worked in the Moscow Military Hospital. Josef Deck did a chart in 1960. He developed a microscope with the purpose of looking into the iris, and gave credit to Schnabel and others for contributing to this work.

He documented many types of syndromes and lacunae. Josef Deck noticed not all people who has a lacuna had an active problem, and he purported a lacuna indicated a predispistion or tendency to weakness.

One work, Grundlagen der Irisdiagnostik – Ein Lehrbuch mit Therapiehinweisen was published by Karlsruhe in 1965 with two of his other works, Principles of Iris Diagnosis: Textbook One with Atlas and Indications of Treatment, as well as Differentiation of Iris Markings, 2nd edition, being both translated by R. Freystuck- Baynham, Ulrike Fuchs, and Hans-Jurgen Fuchs, and published in 1982, in Ettingen, Germany.

Willy Hauser

A student of Josef Deck. Hauser founded the Felke Institute.

Dr H.W Schimmel

Devised many sub types from the division of the three main constitutions. He was a German doctor and authored Constitution and Disposition from the Eye in 1986.

Theodor Kriege

Theodor Kriege of Osnabruck, Germany linked specific iris signs to specific diseases and their treatments. He published his work, Fundamental Basis of Irisdiagnosis: A Concise Textbook, which was translated by A.W. Priest. Essex, England and published by Fowler & Co., Ltd., 1969.

Evgeny S. Velkhover

He is considered the father of Iridology in Russia. He has been head of the department of neurology at Patrice Lumumba People’s Friendship University in Moscow.As a neuropathologist and professor of medicine, he combined modern medicine with traditional methods and went on to found the People’s Friendship University and Education Centre, in 1977 which has equipped over 2,000 doctors of iridology who have gone to work in around twenty-five different countries. Combined with a laboratory, he made large-scale investigations covering pathologies of many body organs along with iridopsychology and more, working with scientific-research based medical and sports centres. In 1984, iridology began being recommended for use in medical practice, with certified training courses through the Medical scientific board.

Velkover published twelve monographs including Clinical Iridology (1990) as well as co-authoring along with N.B. Shulpina, Z.A. Aliev, and F.N. Romashov, in 1982, the first Russian book for iridologists, Principles of Iridology, with a 2nd edition in 1988.
The first Russian Iridology Association was started in 1989.

Dr. Iossif E Makartchuk

Iridology Research and Development Specialist in Russia.

Siegfried Rizzi (1914-1987)

Was an Italian Iridologist of note who similarly to Angerer, had a placement for the spleen at 5’ in the left iris ciliary zone. Rizzi, Emilio Ratti and Dr Vincenzo Di Spazio were involved in compiling the iris signs compendiums. Rizzi was the founder of the Italian Iridology Organization.

He taught Dr. Daniele Lo Rito.

Daniele Lo Rito (1954 – )

Is a leading authority on study of the pupil border who studied Iridology with Dr Rizzi from 1980. He practices iridology, homeopathy along with acupuncture and herbal medicine in Italy. He graduated in Medicine and Surgery at Padua in 1980, with a dissertation on acupuncture related otolaryngology in which he specialised at the University of Verona in 1983.

He developed Time Risk Iridology which studies the inner pupil border of the eye it observed when where an individual possibly experienced a physical or psychological event at a certain period of time in their life. That event possibly caused an alteration of the biological function, stimulating other predisposing pathologies.

He believes time moves and is recorded counterclockwise in the eye.

He often had Gino Bellinfante ND as a colleague and sometimes as a translator.

Bernard Jensen (1908-2001)

Bernard Jensen started as a chiropractor and is considered the father of North American Iridology and devised charts that later became the most widely used in the world. Bernard was a relentless student who preferred to study than eat or sleep. He was early on in life influenced by a Seventh Day Adventist doctor who emphasised whole pure foods.

Dr J Haskel Kritzer (MD) in the 1930’s encouraged him to study Iridology. Dr Jensen like his teacher Dr Collins beca,e a Chiropractor in 1929 and gave his first lecture on Iridology in 1931. Dr Jensen released his first Iridology chart in the 1950’s. He then improved on this chart in 1978. He died in 2001, a month before he would have turned 93 years of age.

As he got older he was fanatical about utilizing technology to record irises including iris cameras.

Out of the front of his office hung “Hunger is cured by nutrition, and ignorance through study. You’re looking for a good doctor, I’m looking for a good patient.”

He also studied with other notables of his time including Dr John Harvey Kellogg (MD) who founded the Kellogg’s company and Dr Max Gerson who later popularised the Gerson Therapy for cancer. Professor V. G. Rocine, a Norwegian homeopath was his greatest influence and spent 10 years teaching him how our medicine is obtained from food.

He published two classic books Iridology Volume I and II. Bernard Jensen’s first book The Science and Practise of Iridology Volume I was partly based on all he’d learned from what was available from many of the brave people, tested against clinical experience.

He saw over 350,000 patients, and was interested in cultures with the greatest longevity. He was knighted in 1978 into the Order of St. John of Malta for his humanitarian efforts.

He wrote over fifty books covering the importance of maintaining a clean colon, the value of iridology and the must of good nutrition.

He led the way in using colour iris photography. Many Iridologists in the west were trained by him. His system is probably the most widely used in the world today.

Box: The acknowledgment of Dr Jensen

I have noticed that perhaps more than anyone, I have cited Dr Jensen’s name in this book. For his writings, we all owe him a debt of gratitude. His proficiency at bringing written detailed information about Iridology based on earlier masters, gave us strong, detailed and usable information.

An incredible thinker, who without knowing it, has influenced current culture in popularising nutrition, a fact not often referenced today.

His ability to synthesise and offer new ideas, puts him along with Dr Richard Bandler, Anthony Robbins, Dr Albert Ellis and several others in my opinion as one of the great thinkers and influencers of our time.

Dr Jensen learned from Dr Rocine, and Dr Kellogg.

Before that time we had Dr William James, Dr Herbert Spencer and Dr Charles Darwin as influential thinkers.

Any contribution we make in any field, if the knowledge is retained in popular culture, or academic circles, is a contribution to the next generation, so knowledge should build in succeeding generations.

I highly recommend you become familiar with the work of all of the above.

Dr Jensen’s approach to Iridology, and Dr Christopher’s approach to herbalism have both been highly influential on myself.

I recommend less animal products than Dr Jensen due to the use of hormones now, and more closely align with the work of Dr John Christopher who I refer to as the grandfather of American Herbalism.

Ellen Tart-Jensen

Ellen married Bernard Jensen’s son Art, so Dr Bernard Jensen was her father in law.

She integrated Jensen’s work with much of the work of Angerer and Deck from Europe to create a more unified field, particularly information Bernard Jensen couldn’t get access to during the Second World War when communication was cut off. She updated the Iridology terminology to be more consistent with terminology from other disciplines that study the eye.

Toni Miller

Toni is a well-known Australian iridologist who practised and was one of the early pioneers of Iridology in Australia. She has been a teacher to me. Toni taught at the Southern Cross Herbal College founded by Denis Stewart from 1983 to 1988, and studied the work of the German Iridologist Joseph Angerer with the Australian Robert Lucy.

She was also influenced by Bernard Jensen and Dorothy Hall.

She attempted to integrate German and American charts.

Harri Wolf

Translated information from German into English on the subject.

Other well-known Iridologists
Others well-known for supporting iridology studies include:
Dr Unger, Dr Wermuth. Pastor Felke’s students, H. Hense, Alfred Maubach (1893 – 1954), Gunter Lindemann and Dr Anton Markgraf who lectured on iridology for many years and wrote a series of books. A student of Deck: Peter (**?)

Also involved were Dr Anderschou from England.

J. Haskel Kritzer from the USA, published and printed his 5th edition of Text-book of Iridiagnosis in Chicago in 1921, Los Angeles in 1924, with the 7th edition published in 1948 in Los Angeles.
Dr Rene Bourdiol is known for teaching about pigments, ethics, deontology and iris relief out of the French iridology school. He advocated embryonic iris projection, which although is not a widespread thinking, has been adopted by some iridologists from Spanish and Portuguese iridology schools.

Other names associated with iridology in the more recent past include Ernst Kabisch, Jurgen Rehwinkel, Sigold Wenske, Paul Falkenstein and Gunter Jarosyzk.

It is with considerable regret to the author that many works of Iridology still lay in German including Walter Lang, a contemporary of Josef Deck and Franze Vida and were not available to the author in English for purposes of this book. If translation from German was done, and in some cases French and Russian we’d have a much more rich diversity of teaching material available to us.

Modern Day Iridology

Iridology in the modern day has a rich mix of practitioners globally devoted to progressing and improving on the sacred science. Other teachers of note include John ANdrews from the UK, Milo Milosevic in Australia and Bill Caradonna.and Pierre Fragnay from France who wrote books in Fenech on iridology.

Iridology research continues around the world including Australia, United States, Canada, England, Russia, China, South Korea.

Emilio Ratti of Italy and Dr Mikhail Dailakis from Greece have contributed their thoughts to the importance of sclera signs.