How professional face reader convinced a sceptic that the technique can assess health
Ahead of his Hong Kong visit, Eric Standop explains how he became a practitioner of the technique, based on ancient theories
Eric Standop has read many a face in his years as a professional face reader, and the one that haunts him the most is his father’s.
In November 2012, Standop and his brother decided to bring their father to watch the latest James Bond film. The elderly man, a big 007 fan, had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) a few months prior and was given three years to live.
While helping his father into the car, Standop saw his father’s face illuminated by the garage light. “When I looked at his face, I saw all signs of death,” Standop recalls. “At that moment, I knew he would only live for another 24 to 72 hours.”
The following night, this father died. Standop says it was the “most shocking” moment of his career and the “biggest proof” of face reading’s credibility.
Face reading dates back thousands of years in Chinese culture and in the West. In her book Face Reading in Chinese Medicine, American practitioner Lillian Bridges writes that face reading was one of the diagnostic tools – with pulse, tongue and smell – used by Chinese doctors and healers.
The ancient Greeks studied physiognomy, which is the assessment of a person’s character or personality from their outer appearance, especially the face. Both Aristotle and Plato wrote about faces, and Europe has had a long tradition of evaluating faces. In America, Abraham Lincoln was known to have picked his cabinet members based on their faces.