Sanpaku Eyes?

[Brainster]

I could not find a thread on this one, but I remember it well from the 1970s. Decent coverage at the skeptic's dictionary:

Some people believe that it is a sign of physical and spiritual imbalance if the white of the eye can be seen between the pupil and the lower lid as the subject looks forward. Such a condition is called sanpaku and those afflicted with it are said to be recognizable by their "chronic fatigue, low sexual vitality, poor instinctive reactions, bad humor, inability to sleep soundly and lack of precision in thought and action."* The cure is a macrobiotic diet.

John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Marilyn Monroe were sanpaku, according to an expert in the field, Fred Pulver, who is also an expert in takionic energy.

Well, you can imagine, anything that could be proved with JFK was proven indeed. I recall that his biorhythm was bad on November 22, 1963 as well.

Anyway, I hardly ever notice people with the sanpaku eyes, but as it happened, tonight I decided to watch the mediocre at best 1985 movie, Young Sherlock Holmes. And oddly enough, YSH himself, Nicholas Rowe, was amazingly sanpaku. It seemed like every scene had an up-nose shot a la Gil Kane. Rowe's whites were front and center.

And yet Rowe still survives. As do most of the actors and actresses in the movie.

There was a book, You Are All Sanpaku about this nonsense as well. I thought I would start a thread as it is needed here.

 

[Mojo]

I could not find a thread on this one, but I remember it well from the 1970s.

I remember someone observing that anxiously leaning forwards to examine their eyes in a mirror can make anyone dangerously sanpaku.

 

[Puppycow]

Interesting! I live in Japan, yet I had not heard of this. I'll have to ask my wife if she knows about this. Sounds like what we would call an old wives tale.

 

[Tiktaalik]

This used to be a thing taught in law enforcement circles (along with other psychological crapola) but from what I recall it was said to be a sign of severe stress and probable deception, or great alarm.

 

[foophil]

Interesting. I've never heard of this before. I just took a quick selfie with my phone and it appears I suffer (very slightly) from this condition! This explains EVERYTHING!!!

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Interesting. I've never heard of this before. I just took a quick selfie with my phone and it appears I suffer (very slightly) from this condition! This explains EVERYTHING!!!

Surely you are not allowed to Suffer from a Condition anymore? Are you not just Differently Advantaged?

 

[Max_mang]

Over 25 years ago I had a friend who strongly believed in these types of things and had books of 'ancient eastern wisdom' that explained how to tell the health of a person from eyes, hair, nails, etc. I remember him explicitly telling me in 1990 that Spike Lee and Muhammad Ali would not live much longer since they had sanpaku eyes.

 

[casebro]

There is a bulging eye thing, thyroid or adrenal malfunction, I don't remember. So there maybe was some truth to the rumor before the miracle of modern medicine?

 

[Puppycow]

So I asked my wife if she heard of this and she has, although she didn't say anything about "chronic fatigue, low sexual vitality, poor instinctive reactions, bad humor, inability to sleep soundly and lack of precision in thought and action." She said that it was an attractive feature of certain famous movie stars (Marilyn Monroe I suppose, although she didn't mention her by name). But looking at pictures of her, it's only evident in some of the pictures, not all. In a couple it looks like she is intentionally opening her eyes as wide as possible. In others she gives a more sultry look with eyes half closed.

There's a famous Newsweek cover of Michele Bachmann where you can see the whites above her eyes. She looks a bit unhinged in the photo.