The iris illustrates the whole person, including the whole body and the whole mind. Individual traits are identified at two levels, intrinsic and extrinsic, and in two aspects, static and dynamic. Traits exist at both the physical material level and the psychological behavioral level. One's characteristics are described as both the substance of one's structure and the imprinting of it, in both the mind and body aspects.

Intrinsic Traits.

The intrinsic traits are primarily static, and it is this constitutional quality which is indicated by the overall structure and color of the iris. Constitutional qualities are the long-term genetically-determined traits which are considered structural in terms of being present throughout life. The traits represent one postion or step along an ancestral tree, which is the individual's heritage. Intrinsic traits are primarily static, but change can be seen from both the micro (aging of the anatomical structures) and the macro (step-wise evolution) aspect. Profiling the static aspect of the intrinsic (identification of both of mind and body constitution) is the primary task for the iridologist. Estimating the dynamic aspect of the intrinsic (e.g. current health status) is a more advanced methodology which generally includes non-iris body factors and other sources of clinical data.

Extrinsic Traits

Extrinsic refers to one's current status in terms of both situation and behavior. Environmental influences (exogenous factors) including behavioral imprinting are estimated from iris patterns using a temporal analysis. Iris biography is the process of estimating one's lifetime progression of personal evolvement in mind and body. Some models offer a map of the future in the sense of "where this person is heading," but the prima facie evidence pertains to the past. Modeling personal history is most efficient when including non-iris sources of data, but the iris provides the context for interpreting the other data such as relationship history for example. It is like using archeology to determine history, or in a medico-legal context (to mix metaphors), it is like using patrol, criminology, and judiciary to locate, confirm, and remediate wrongdoing. Conventional medical strategy is to identify the perpetrator of the illness as a germ, virus, or toxin, and (to mix metaphors again) conduct a military attack on it with the goal of destroying or removing the offending agent using drugs and/or surgery.

Changes in Traits

Dynamic traits are indicated by small changes in the iris during the person's life. More advanced methods can be applied for identifying the past chronology of accumulated iris markings. Dynamic iris traits are primarily localized color change due to pigmentation buildup. Less common and slower to show are textural changes, which are usually secondary to iris dystrophy. Iris changes may be perceptible only after many years of observation. There is little evidence to support the notion of clinically detectable iris changes among adults, however the pigment formation process is known to take place in the first decade or two of life. Statistically, more color spots have been observed in older people than younger people at all age ranges.

The iris is like a chalkboard which does not get erased. Typically the human iris starts out with a clear blue color and soon becomes brown in the more melanized individual or remains blue in the less melanized one. During subsequent life, color is slowly added to the iris via melanogenesis. The color may be added in spots or in diffuse patterns, it is a cumulative process, and much of the pigmentation takes place in the first decade of life. The way that color is added via selective melanogenesis to the iris one is born with, is like a unique signature applied throughout life to one's own custom watermarked letterhead, or like the imprint of a hand on the beach sand.

-- Jon (jon@milesresearch.com), March 30, 1999