Each part of the whole body contains information on all parts of the body. This is true for all forms of life, at the level of genetic encoding for metabolic processes, cellular respiration, and tissue generation. For example cutting off some trimmings from a Geranium bush and sticking the branches into the ground triggers a differentiation process, changing the cut end into a root system and produces a new Geranium bush. Many similar examples can be found in both invertebrate and vertebrate physiology, including planaria, salamanders, and cloning which has been successfully performed on many mammals including humans. This is the 'holistic principle' and is also found in the method of laser holographic recording, where any small portion of the holographic recording contains the entire image. This property has also been found among fractals (recursive mathematical expressions), and is known as self-similarity.

Genetic self-similarity is a well-known and established property of all forms of life at the molecular DNA encoding level. At issue is whether there may be an analogous property at the ultrastructural or anatomic levels, specifically, in the form of the hypothesized correspondence between the iris structure and the qualitative properties of specific organ systems. The hypothesis arises from empirical observations (made by medical doctors and other researchers over the last 300 years) which suggest that certain dysfunctional states are indicated by localized textural and chromatic properties of the iris.

A structural correspondence between iris tissue and organ systems is reasonable to consider based on the prima-facie evidence. Whether the iris structure may change in a detectable way during a person's life in response to functional changes in organ status is a separate and further issue which presupposes the primary structural correspondence.

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