An Introduction to Physiognomy as diagnostic tool in addiction treatment, Part 1

In clinical practice we have diagnostic techniques available to us that are often overlooked.  Physiognomy, the science of reading physical body patterns of health and disease, is a crucial element in treating clients.  Physiognomy is a diagnostic system that reveals weakness in both the internal and external organs, including glands, joints and extremities of the body.  It is possible that spiritual, emotional, mental and physical disease that can be missed with modern machinery is brought into the light using these methods.

Medical systems from Nubia, Egypt, Babylon, India, and China all had a system to analyze, decipher, and interpret physical signs of disease on the body.  Every square inch of the human body can be used for these purposes and illness will manifest as raised bumps, bruises, discoloration, and irritation on the surface of the skin.  Thus we find the body acting as a virtual feedback mechanism for the health practitioner to treat clients who are healing from substance abuse.

We must be careful in viewing these disease patterns from a strict, left-brained, Western understanding, however.  Physiognomy reveals weaknesses in individual organs and regions of the body rather than outlining mechanisms of disease.

There are several methods of diagnosis via physiognomy:

IRIDOLOGY reveals both the presence and depth of disease occurring in the body, heart, mind and spirit.  Whenever trauma occurs to the spiritual, emotional, mental, or physical bodies, markings appear on the surface and inner tissue of the iris. Each organ of the human body is connected via nerve pathways leading to the eyeball and transmits information along these channels.  Irregular lines, localized discoloration (cloudiness, uneven shading or color variation), cysts, rings around the iris and within the rim are all indicators that illness is present within the client.

SCLEROLOGY is also a roadmap into the disease patterns arising from physical injury or emotional, mental, and spiritual trauma.

Iridology and sclerology are companion diagnostic techniques that should be used alongside one another.  The former technique is better known among practitioners in the United States, even to the point where some are unaware of its sister science.

The above techniques are best used with a high power magnifying glass or digital zoom lens that magnifies the iris and sclera from a short distance.  The practitioner’s naked eye may also be used in limited range to detect larger spots, and lines, though smaller details are missed due to the small size of the rods and pupil in the iris.

TONGUE DIAGNOSIS is a preview of the tongue’s neural network and reveal the health or disease state of the internal organs through the absence or presence of cracks, change in color, swollen taste buds, redness, localized pain or swelling, canker sores, or a white coating that may accompany the aforementioned symptoms.

REFLEXOLOGY uses touch to tonify the internal organs; the health of each can be determined through firm pressing of the corresponding zones on the ears, hands, and feet.  If a particular area is painful to the touch due to inflammation, we know there was either direct physical trauma to that location on the ear, hand, or foot, or its corresponding energetic zone has been damaged.

Physiognomy is generally taught orally within a master/apprentice relationship in cultures where traditional medical systems are in place without Western parameters of diagnosis.  In the West, however, we are able to teach these systems as part of our treatment plans, no matter our areas of medical specialty.

Glas, Norbert. Reading the Face: Understanding a Person’s Character Through Physiognomy: A Spiritual-Scientific Study. Temple Lodge Publishing: Trowbridge, Wiltshire, 2008.

Haner, Jean. The Wisdom of Your Face: Change Your Life with Chinese Face Reading. Hay House, Inc.: South Africa, 2008.