ABSOLUTE HOLISM

EDITORS NOTE: The Rayid method was the first Iridology model exclusively devoted to psychological/emotional characteristics. (”RAY-ID” -a beam of light illuminating the deepest ego). It’s inspirator, Denny Johnson, of Boulder, CO, had no initial knowledge of physical Iridology models when he introduced this information in the early 1980’s. The following text was taken from a lecture given by Dr. Bill Caradonna at the GLOBAL HEALTH Conference in ST. George, Utah, May 1993, to an audience primarily composed of Rayid practicioners.

INTRODUCTION

From several conversations I’ve had here today, I have found that I first need to redefine physical Iridology. I would like to remove the resistance that many Rayid practicioners have towards physical Iridology. In America, this practice has had primarily a negative disease-oriented focus - “This is wrong with you, that is weak, this needs fixing, that is bad… etc.” Sometimes people would leave an Iridology session feeling worse than when they came in! Physical Iridology lost the opportunity to advance in this country soon after it was introduced from Europe in the early 1900’s. The two World Wars virtually eliminated an exchange of information with our European colleagues. The advent of “miracle drugs” and the rise of the A.M.A. created a political and economic climate which almost extinguished the Naturopathy and Iridology flame.

In Europe, a different political and economic climate developed. While this task was still difficult, numerous medical doctors and naturopaths were able to take advances in technology, science, and medicine and re-examine old assumptions. Prior beliefs which didn’t stand up to research were discarded, and new approaches were created from understanding and utilizing iris information. Because of this re- examination, European approaches are in many cases radically different from American Iridology practices.

One area relevant to todays discussion relates to changes in Iris pigmentation and structure. A foundational belief of American Iridology practice is that the Iris changes dramatically as the body heals. Iris tissue openings fill in with “healing lines”, darker pigmentations lighten up, etc. Irises are periodically rephotographed or rechecked to see the results of whatever therapeutics have been applied. Progress is then determined. In European Iridology, this emphasis is completely absent. Deeper analysis of this issue reveals that most all of the apparent “before & after” changes are from variations in pupil tonus or from photographic inconsistencies.

Rayid practicioners see iris signs functioning to identify individual characteristics. These signs are not something “bad” needing to be erased, but are markers which identify the positive/negative attitude ranges of particular issues, lessons, gifts, and traits. This schism in approaches has understandably driven a wedge between the two practices.

About 12 years ago, I got involved with an organization called N.I.R.A. One goal of this organization was to bring these newer models to America. While no one model has all the answers, we have been able to incorporate less of a disease orientation and more of an understanding of physical inheritance with options and choices available to determine outcome. This APPLIED IRIDOLOGY approach is what I offer to you as a more positive way of understanding and viewing Iris signs which provide us with physical information.

Twenty two years ago, when I entered Western medicine as a pharmacy student, psychological and emotional influences on health were foreign concepts. Since that time, the philosophy of holism has reemerged. It has challenged us to redefine our approaches to health and healing. This is something that anyone with consciousness and integrity must routinely do, and I applaud all of you who are doing it. Yet there are those in the Iris Analysis field who have learned one way, one approach, one model, who have resisted expanding their views. Though this is regrettable, to a certain extent this is normal human nature. Minds are like parachutes, they only work when open.

When my National Iridology Research Association partner Harri Wolf and I met Denny Johnson nine or ten years ago, we were somewhat skeptical. We had already incorporated some emotional components to our physical iridology. Joseph Deck and other German researchers discussed certain personality traits with particular iris pictures. Oriental Medicine long ago had correlated emotions with negative physical influences: The liver energy affected by anger, the kidney affected by fear, the gallbladder by frustration, and so on. Others had developed connections too. In massage school I learned how people shoulder too much responsibility, and have resultant shoulder problems. While working on people with back problems they would say “Boy, I wish my boss would get off my back!” People would have “gut feelings” that would gall them and leave bitter tastes in their mouth.

Well, we decided to test the Rayid model out, and ultimately found it to be far ahead of anything else. It changed the way we practiced. It opened the doors wide for further exploration and models to be developed.

In 1986, National Iridology Research Association sponsored the first Iridology symposium held in America. Our goal was to bring together different models, viewpoints, and practices so people could share and learn from each other. I was surprised at the significant resistance to the Rayid model by some influential Iridologists. The message was ” keep Iridology pure” (as in purely physical ). This resistance also occured in England, when Rayid was presented there. This was an interesting occurrence, since as Iridologists, we were pretty far away from the mainstream anyway! But it is always easy to spot the pioneers in any field - they are the ones with the arrows in their backs.

Often I see that the physical symptoms people have are their body’s way of reflecting emotional imbalances. These physical signs are the red flags - waving in front of us, trying to get our attention. We need to understand what that message is. While physical Iridology shows the blueprint of where the body is predisposed to express symptoms and how they will manifest, the psychological/emotional information tells us what the deeper issues are. So when I sit down to do an analysis with someone, I now keep the following health equation in mind:

HEALTH =INHERITED PHYSICAL PREDISPOSITION + ENVIRONMENT (diet & lifestyle)

When we just treat the symptoms sometimes they go away. While we think we have been successful, what we often have done is drive the issue deeper into the body, to be expressed elsewhere at a later time. Other times, the symptoms don’t go away, and we think we have failed. In reality, the body can be showing enough vitality to resist being suppressed, and it continues to try to deliver its message over and over again. Only treating the physical with our many potions and practices, without addressing the emotional causes, is at best incomplete and at its worst, it denies the client the ability to gain a deeper understanding of self. Only addressing the emotional without connecting how it is expressed on the physical level denies your client the ability to understand their physical reflections and risks, past, present, and future.

We must pay attention to this. The Rayid practitioner who knows no physical Iridology, or the physical Iridology practitioner who knows no emotional models, is providing his or her clients with less than one half the picture. By providing both, a synergy occurs. Your clients get to see, hear and experience a whole picture of who they are, why they are here, and why particular situations exist in their life. You can help move their awareness to a deeper understanding, and help them see the lessons and gifts that come from the challenges they face. You can provide more appropriate therapies, given your greater understanding of their picture. This is Absolute Holism.

Now, I’ll discuss different Iris signs & we’ll look at both sets of information and see how to combine these two models.

STREAM / RESILIENT PHYSICAL INTEGRITY

We know that Stream types are real balancers. They are trying to be in the middle, balancing each side of the seesaw, bringing people together, acting as the conduit of information. Denny refers to the stream type as the “glue that holds the world together.” In the same sense, they are glued together pretty well too! When you have tight iris fibers, especially with three dimensional depth, (layer after layer after layer of fibers), this provides you with a resilient nature. Does this mean that you’ll never get sick? No. Does this mean that you’ll won’t face limitations in life? No. But what this means is that in general you will bounce when you fall. There is a lot of tread on your tire. Now it’s important to keep in mind that stream types will constantly be trying to do what they do best. Yet it is also important for them to understand that in spite of this resiliency which allows them to take care of people all the time, to bring people together, to be the mediator or diplomat, they may need to give it a rest before they get sick. Most of the time we only pay attention when we get sick, when our bodies say, “Excuse me, but stop.” And a lot of times this isn’t in a gentle way.

If people understand this ahead of time, they have the possibility of making choices in their life based on knowledge. Part of that knowledge is that you are put together very well. You can do a lot. You can abuse your body, but remember, take a break. Remember to take care of your body . Make it last longer. At the same time, stream types are probably the least likely of all the constitutions to do damaging things to their body, because they are middle of the roaders. They won’t go too far to an extreme.

SHAKERS/MULTIPLE PIGMENTS & LACUNAS

Here we have an opposite situation. The Shakers are the type of people who will do everything to the extreme. They know no moderation. They need to be out there, or they think they do. All of these structures and pigment colorations, (or Jewels as is said in Rayid), reflect organ systems that may be very sensitive. These indicate that maybe there’s less tread on their tire in certain parts of their body. These reflect potential challenges. Notice I say potentials. This is a very important word to use in Iridology. Shakers are the people who are most likely to abuse their body, yet they’re the people who most needs to take care of their body. These are the people who most likely push it to the limit, although all these signs say “take care of yourself, let’s do things rationally, let’s go down the middle of the road, let’s do things in moderation. Let’s put some tread back on that tire.” Do you think a shaker person is interested in that? They are too busy being shakers to pay attention. One other interesting thing is, a shaker may go to extremes in getting healthy. So there are no judgements here, just an awareness of where people are in their lives, and how they live their lives, with choices.

FLOWER/MULTIPLE LACUNAS

This is the iris where you can see a specific flower petal pattern, but you also see a lot more openings overall. The difference is the underlying structure. We call this in physical Iridology a connective tissue type. This type is one who needs support. The flower is a person who responds to their world in a feeling, emotional, spontaneous manner. They get excited easily, radiate this energy, and then a week later they are excited about something else, and a week later they are excited about something else. Flowers bring beauty into our lives, whereas the Stream may bring consistency. At the same time, a Flower needs to put its roots in the ground and pull up nutrients to be able to support blossoming. This connective tissue type person needs to do the same thing. This is not a weak individual. This is somebody who with a lot of abuse may not bounce back as fast . If you have them do supportive therapies, then they will be able to do whatever they want without being slowed down.

Here’s the interesting thing about this type of person: they may be better off than the people who have lots of really tight fibers that I was describing as very resilient. Why? Because when they get lots of warnings or symptoms, when there’s a stop sign that they’re pulling up to, they may actually pay attention. Their body will say, “Excuse me, but look at this.” It will talk to them sooner, and then they can put the car in reverse, back up and get back on the healthy road. Somebody whose iris fibers are very, very resilient may be going down many wrong roads and through too many stop signs before they pay attention. They may have a longer way to go to in reverse to get back to where they started.

Now, picture this. Consider someone who has the potential for physical challenges in certain areas and they realize this at an early age, whether consciously or unconsciously. They start taking care of themselves and they become a vegetarian, stop doing alcohol and drugs, etc. These people will be fine if they do that. What the catch is here is that their ability to abuse their body is restricted, and as I said, that could be a benefit, because then they will pay attention and get back on the path that is best for them. Now, in comparison, consider the Flower type with the daisy petal pattern but otherwise tight fibers underneath. These are both flowers, but this person may be able to abuse their body a lot more, except in certain areas. The Germans call this Flower pattern around the wreath a polyglandular pattern. This pattern indicates tendencies towards decreased hormonal or endocrine glandular function. So this person may have trouble digesting certain foods, depending on what else is going on in the digestive zone and the bowel wreath. They may have problems with their adrenals or their thyroid, their energy can get imbalanced too. Knowing physical Iridology, you understand their Flower nature, you understand their own particular yardstick of how much they can get away with and this yardstick is different for all of us. You can have an idea of where their body will wave the red flag.

I know that early on in this society we all start comparing ourselves to other people. We all get measured by the same yardstick whether it’s grades in school, athletic ability, etc. and yet the iris in it’s own beautiful way shows us how different we all are. One of the best things I can do with this work is have people understand their own yardstick. Have them measure themselves appropriately - not against somebody else’s yardstick that is inappropriate for them.

RINGS OF ACCOMPLISHMENT/CONTRACTION FURROWS

These have been referred to as sensitivity lines, rings of achievement, rings of accomplishment, and productivity lines. These rings show somebody who is wound up. The bigger the spring, the faster you go. This is a productive nature. In American Iridology, these have been referred to as “nerve rings” and in some books they will even say if you have one of these going all the way around unbroken, or if you have three or four of these you are going to have a nervous breakdown. I say not. In physical Iridology this sign is referred to as the “anxiety/tetanic type” and reflects neuromuscular tension. This is the drive that gets us to be productive, and at the same time we wind up tight. We clench our jaw, stop breathing deeply, hold our gut in, push our shoulders up to our ears, and squeeze our buttock muscles tightly. We walk around like this all the time. Is this a flexible person? They would like to be, but they have to unwind first. So, if I was a massage therapist, I would take my little magnifying glass, go to health conventions and look in people’s eyes. I would say to the people who had these signs,”come with me, I’m going to give you a free five minute massage.” I would work their muscles and they would appreciate it. They would probably be clients for life, except that I would try to get them to unwind in other ways so that they wouldn’t have to come to me.

These neuromuscular tension signs can create muscle spasms and cramps, headaches and vascular spasms, along with tight muscles. These people love deep tissue bodywork because their “springs” are wound up so much that you can’t get something hard enough pressed into that muscle to unwind the tension. They’ll say “Forget your thumbs, get something sharp, get some high heels or something. Press into this spot. It hurts so good!”

These people have to be productive- that’s their nature, bless them. Do you want to say something negative to them like “You’re going to have a nervous breakdown?” No. Considering everything else in their eye, (because you can not focus on one iris sign without looking at the whole picture), if this person takes this behavior and goes in exactly the wrong direction for exactly the wrong length of time, maybe they will experience nervous breakdown type behavior. What you want to do is try to guide them so they can take the rough edges off, so they can be efficiently productive, so they can accomplish. But to do it in a way that doesn’t cost them on a physical level.

RING OF EXPRESSION/BOWEL WREATH

Next, let’s consider the ring of expression. In physical Iridology we call this the bowel wreath. It has a lot of names including the collarette wreath (like a collar around the pupil), and the autonomic nerve wreath. The autonomic nervous system plays a big role in the functioning of the bowel and digestive system. The location as well as the quality of the wreath structure has a lot to do with how people’s bowels behave.

Let me take this from a physical point of view first. People can have a great potential to suffer from constipation, but for different reasons. The tight wreath around the pupil reflects tendencies towards “constricted constipation” - they hold every thing in. The wreath far away from the pupil has an “atonic” behavior. They don’t have the stimulus to make things move. As a practitioner you ask “Are you constipated?” (Remember, you have to explain what that is in America!). Your client may say “Yes”, but without looking at their eyes, you don’t know which direction this is coming from.

We also know on a psychological/emotional level that the tight wreath person will internalize their world. They will take everything and hold it in. Now this has its advantages because they can be better meditators, they can be people who will not react quickly and will kind of kick things around first before they let it out, but then they have to let it out. This is the big key for them. They can’t internalize, and internalize without letting it out. The atonic wreath person on the other hand may let it out too much. They don’t have enough energy, they don’t retain enough to make this work better. This person, especially with a Flower/extroverted nature will be dissipating energy . You can give them all the herbs in the world, diet changes or whatever therapies you have available. If they don’t change that energetic pattern then you won’t be able to deal with their constipative tendency as successfully.

The same is true with the person holding in all the time. If they don’t recognize that they need to let go of things on other levels then you won’t have fully addressed this condition or pattern. That’s what we are seeing here.

Audience Question??? How does the presence of achievement rings/contraction furrows affect this picture? Remember, achievement lines or productivity lines will wind people up. They will increase the energy being held in. With an inward expander/tight wreath type, I see the rings as walls that reduce our ability to bring our energy out. The more wound up they get, the more internalized everything will be. With a Flower/ extrovert who is dissipating energy, these walls can actually help retain some energy. As they let their energy out, this wound up aspect might help hold some of it back. But if they just take that productive energy and run with it without adequate support, then they will exhaust themselves even more. So in one case it may be positive, in another case it may be negative.

RING OF HARMONY/HYDROGENOID SUBTYPE

This is seen as white or discolored dots in the outer zone of the iris. In German Iridology this tophi pattern reflects the hydrogenoid type. In American Iridology, it’s been called the lymphatic rosary. In this case, it’s an appropriate term. These are people who have difficulty with discord and disharmony. They don’t want to rock the boat, they want to keep everything harmonious. The lymph system in the body serves two major functions. One is to bring healing body defenses to particular areas and the other is to take away toxins, cellular byproducts, or garbage. What does a ring of harmony type person do? They say “Here, give me your garbage, I’ll take care of it.” They take care of everybody else’s because they want to make everything harmonious - exactly the wrong thing for their physical nature. This is what amazes me about the combination of physical and emotional Iridology, it works so well together. The lessons that we have to learn sometimes have corresponding physical risks. If we don’t pay attention, or if we don’t hear the messages, we will then experience physical symptoms and these experiences hopefully then will bring us to a deeper understanding of ourselves. Of course we know in allopathic or Western medicine this philosophy is not followed. If you have somebody who holds everybody’s garbage, wants everything harmonious, has trouble with difficulty and discourse, and doesn’t get things off their chest emotionally, they may get things off their chest physically. I’ve seen too many breast cancer patients with this kind of emotional pattern. That doesn’t mean that if you have this Iris sign and you are a woman you are going to get breast cancer. What I’m saying is, add everything up with our health equation - physical predisposition, environment (diet and lifestyle), emotional factors, and age. That’s when you get a picture. It’s a very,very interesting picture to observe.

RING OF DETERMINATION/CORNEAL ARCUS

This used to be called the ring of rigidity in Rayid. Determination can come in very handy in life, providing that you apply it appropriately. In physical Iridology this is called the corneal arcus. The Germans see this as a lipemic diathesis. In American Iridology, it’s been called the Sodium ring, which is a total erroneous use of that name. This corneal arcus is an infiltration of fat in the cornea. It is not actually an iris sign since the cornea comes up over the eye. When this arcus occurs in older people it is fairly normal. It is cause from decreased oxygenation of corneal tissue and connective tissue aging, etc. But in a younger person, if this shows up, in the third, fourth, or fifth decade, this can be a sign for increased potential for stroke, high cholesterol or arteriosclerotic type behaviors. Their vascular tree gets rigid. If someone takes that rigid energy and they do the wrong things with it, they may end up having a rigid arteriole tree. As a pharmacist, let me tell you, you do not want to have a rigid arteriole tree.

Question from audience???Why is the Sodium ring an erronious term? First, let me say that I appreciate our ancestors who had to try to figure out what was going on from scratch - a very tedious process. I think I have it easy. I get to stand on the shoulders of the people that preceded me. Fifty years ago, a hundred years ago, there weren’t any shoulders to stand on. I have some books from the early 1900’s that proposed many ideas. At that time they thought exposure to heavy metals, (arsenic, mercury,tar, etc.) and other substances harmful to our bodies would be reflected in the eye. They thought that the arcus had to do with excess sodium intake. Since we have been able to apply research principles of the past fifty years or so, we have found that not to hold water. That’s why the sodium ring is not a term that we use anymore. Sometimes it is now called the sodium cholesterol ring, to show the connection with blood fat.

I WOULD LIKE TO LOOK AT A FEW SPECIFIC AREAS NOW

RAYID AREAS 27-30/3:00 & 9:00 NASAL MEDIAN AREAS

This is the vocal expression area in Rayid and the bronchial /throat area in physical Iridology. When you have a opening in the iris tissue there’s a lack of vitality in that area. Where are you likely to get a symptom? In that area! You don’t get sick in your healthy areas. You get sick in the areas that lack resiliency. These are expressed symptoms. Many times when you see an additional sign in the adrenal area there is an asthma picture. In Rayid, this #17 area relates to trust. Do we need to ask the person about when their asthma attacks occur, or when they started occurring when they were younger? Is there some connection with the expression of issues around trust here that sets off the asthma? What we are seeing is a jigsaw puzzle. We have to put the pieces together to make sense out of it. Then this person can gain greater insight into how this all comes about. What I see in the pharmacy is that they get drugs, drugs, and more drugs. Two major things are missed with this approach. One is to allow the person to understand how this comes about on an emotional level. It also does nothing to improve the vitality of the person. This is your area of reactivity, and you have the vitality to react. If you do something wrong and you get a little sore throat or congestion, then you will pay attention. If you don’t get any symptoms , you won’t pay attention. You can’t measure people with the same yardstick. A small sign for one individual can be as significant as a large sign for another. Forget the numbering system commonly used in American Iridology (this area is a four out of five, this area is a two out of five, etc.) You have to look at the whole picture.

RAYID AREA 14-16/RIGHT & LEFT EYE 5:30-6:30

We frequently see openings in this area. As I said earlier, Chinese medicine talks about fear affecting the kidney energy. We know the adrenals sit on top of the kidneys and these are the glands that release adrenaline or epinephrine (among other things), into our blood. That’s our fear reaction, the flight or fight response. If the adrenals are constantly stimulated in this fear response, it sets off many reactions in our bodies. Denny came along and said “Insecurity, self-esteem issues… Somebody with insecurity or self-esteem issues would have a good chance of having a lot of fear reactions. That would then influence the adrenals and the kidney energy negatively. When you talk to this person, if you are just a Rayid practitioner, you may not know enough to tell them they need to support their kidneys. There are things you can do which can wear out your kidneys , there are things you can do to support your kidneys. Remember with our health status equation, age is an important factor. People say “I’m OK. I don’t have any kidney problems now.” But a few years later, they do. By that time, you have to do a lot more work to get them back to being healthy. Applying physical Iridology appropriately here is true preventative medicine .

RAYID AREA #3-5/LIVER AREA 7:30-8:00 RIGHT EYE

When you see brown liver pigments in the liver area you’ll be paying extra attention to the liver. This general area in the Rayid model relates to passion, grace, anger, and frustration. You have somebody with a fire burning inside. It is important to be aware of what fuel they are using. They can burn creative, passionate fuel or they can burn themselves up and abuse their liver in the process. You have to make sure these people understand the connections between these behaviors so people can see themselves, and make appropriate choices from there. Try not to make judgements. This is so important. What we need to do, is understand each person as a package of both physical and psychological/emotional components. Providing this information can to allow them to make decisions in their lives, and then let them experience these things without other opinions because people have their own process, they have their own time, their own way of learning things, and we need to allow them to do that. The best part is that they can go down their path with greater knowledge as opposed to blindly trying to make their way.