Reading toes
Curiosity
Reading Toes was developed out of curiosity.
Around 1987 a Dutch couple, Margriet and Imre Somogyi, wanted to find an answer to two questions:
1. Is there a relationship between the five fingers and the toes and the yin and yang in the five physical energy centres called chakras of the human body?
2. If so, how could this relationship be described?
Margriet was a medical assistant at the University of Leiden in The Netherlands and also a yoga- and Polarity Therapy teacher. Imre was a journalist and producer at Dutch public Radio and Television. He also studied homoeopathy, herbal therapy and he too was a Polarity Therapy teacher.
The Somogyis searched for an answer everywhere possible: in Europe, the USA, India, Japan and China, but they could not find any literature on the meaning of position and shapes of toes.
Mainly Imre, being a curious journalist, was very annoyed by the fact that the answers to their questions were not available. So the couple decided to start their own research, examining their own toes and those of their children and relatives and later on every toe they saw on beaches and in saunas. Whilst looking at toes, they interviewed the toe owners about their character, attitudes and behaviour.
The Somogyis discovered that the shape and the position of each toe could be related to a certain property or quality and gradually they were able to develop their ‘toe alphabet’.
Gradually they discoveredthe meaning of the different shapes and positions of toes, and learned to relate them to the personalities and behaviour of people.
The shape and length of toes is inherited, but their position may change and is influenced by the way one responds to stimuli from the outside world.
Never mind
People with crooked toes cannot withstand the pressure they experience from people around them and they produce an attitude such as:‘I walk a line others have drawn’ or ‘never mind’.
Shoes
It is often said that bad feet and crooked toeshave been caused by poorly fitting shoes.
That is no doubt true, but a willingness to wear poorly fitting shoes tells more about the person than about their shoes. Such people accept the dictates offashion and pay less attention to comfort.The acceptance of pressure from the outside and also conforming to what others say is the kind of behaviour always found in people with crooked toes.
No shoes
Whilst travelling in Central Africa, the author ofREADING TOESdiscovered to his surprise that black people who never wore shoes also had bunions, corns and crooked toes. When he interviewed them they confirmed that they all had an attitude of ‘let it be’. Not one of them was a fighter.
People with crooked toes (hammer toes and claw toes) yield to pressure from the outside and let their own energies flow into the earth.People with perfectly straight toes stand up for themselves and don’t give in under pressure.
Round-tipped toes represent tact and diplomacy while angular-tipped toes represent angular behaviour: ‘Straight to the point’.
What is good for me is good for you
What is the motivation of the Somogyis to go on teaching Toe Reading all over the world?
Imre Somogyi: “Both my wife Margriet and I have lost precious years of our lives because our parents did not know much about our basic personalities. They brought us up with the motto What is good for me is good for you. They did not take into account that both my character and that of Margriet were quite different from theirs. As a consequence of this they did not recognize our abilities and needs.
As a child Margriet was creative. She played the piano, sang and she was extraordinarily talented in drawing and painting. After having finished secondary school she wanted to go to Art College, but her parents decided that it would be better if she became a hairdresser. Being an artist was not a serious option. That would lead to a poor, wild and indecent life. Margriet trained as a hairdresser but did not like this work at all. She got a job in a tourist office and later on she became a medical assistant. Only at the age of forty did Margriet get back to her creative roots and became a stylist and photo cook. She worked for several cooking magazines and commercials and illustrated over nine cookbooks. She also became a stained glass artist. Finally she got outlets for the creative part of her character.”
About Imre’s lost time: As a child he played the piano very well but his father gave it away because Imre loved playing the piano more than doing his school work. In the opinion of his father he should become a medical doctor. His father would have loved to be one but he did not get the chance to study because of a lack of money.
When Imre’s father died the family wanted Imre to become a glassblower. That was a rare and well paid profession. No one ever asked whether this choice corresponded with the great ambition and the extreme mobility of Imre. As a glassblower Imre was very unhappy. He bought a guitar, studied day and night and joined a band in his leisure time. The family noticed finally that they had made the wrong choice and sent Imre to a teacher training-college, again not taking into account the character and the ambition of the young Somogyi.
Only years later when Imre became a journalist and producer at the Dutch Radio and Television, when he could travel, move around and mix with lots of people, he had for the first time in his life the idea that he had reached his destiny and that he was finally developing his ambition and talents. At the age of 52 he joined a Country and Western Band, enjoying music like he should have done as a young man.
”If parents have insight into the possibilities, the ambitions and the basic qualities of their children, they will certainly not make the same mistakes as my parents did,” Imre says.
Motivation
When Margriet and Imre had developed their ‘toe alphabet’ they realized that this was not enough if they wanted to help people to analyze characters. If they wanted to share their knowledge with the larger public they felt that they should write a book. Margriet was too involved in her work as a stylist and suggested that her husband, the journalist, should do the job. When the manuscript wasn’t even yet finished, a Dutch publisher expressed interest and in 1992 the book ‘Tenen Lezen’ was published. It was translated into English in 1997 under the title: ‘Reading Toes, Your Feet As Reflections Of Your Personality.’
This first book on learning how to read toes has been translated and published into thirteen languages.
In the meantime Imre and Margriet have been teaching ‘Toe Reading’ in Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, The Netherlands, the USA and Switzerland. Recently interest has been registered from Brazil, the Caribbean, Ireland, South Africa and Spain.
From the beginning
Imre and Margriet would have loved to start reading toes with babies but that was impossible because babies cannot confirm or deny, so verifying an analysis of baby toes is impossible. But the couple still wanted very much to provide the knowledge system ‘Reading Toes’ to parents so that they would not make the same mistake with their children as their own parents had done. Knowing and understanding what a child is like, why it is so loud or insecure, why it always goes against or manipulates parents, helps a lot in bringing up children. Looking at toes and realizing in a moment what your child is like, knowing the possibilities and realizing that some qualities are already very strongly present, will help parents to make the right choice, not only for themselves but certainly for their children. That is why Imre and Margriet wrote the book ‘Reading Baby Toes’. Margriet also made the illustrations.
Research
This ‘Reading Baby Toes’ was only written after Imre had analyzed over eighty photos of baby toes that were sent to him by e-mail. Imre made the analysis and verified them over a period of a year before he was sure that not only the position and shape of adult toes could be interpreted, but that the system also worked for babies.
Imre is an enthusiastic storyteller and has a lot of anecdotes:
“I once got a photo from a mother in Italy who had heard of toe reading. She had a question about the toes of her baby. If she should have the sixth toe of her baby removed through surgery?
The little toe at the right foot represents insecurity and fear and this particular toe was doubly present on the child’s right foot. So I mailed her back with the question if the baby was extra (double) fearful and insecure. The immediate answer was that the baby was extraordinarily sensitive and that, when for instance a door slammed, this caused a lot of loud long lasting crying and panic.
A surgeon advised an amputation and I did as well because the double insecurity and fear could easily be removed with hopefully a positive effect.
The mother reported a much quieter child that behaved more normally after the operation. I was happy to have been able to analyze beforehand that the effect of an amputation could positively alter the character of this child.
The mother confirmed that the reading of the toes had been a support that made the decision much easier for her.”
Loud communication
Imre has another example of reading baby toes. Once young parents asked for an analysis of the toes of their three month old son. Imre immediately noticed the extreme big Big toes reflecting amongst others communication. Because of the unusual big size of both Big toes, Imre concluded that when the child communicated, it would do so with extreme loudness and a lot of outgoing energy. Both mother and father confirmed this and the mother got very emotional. She told about her fear that the neighbours would be disturbed during the night when their baby was crying his heart out so loudly. When Imre told the parents that for their child this was normal behaviour because he had a lot of communication energy, the parents were re-assured and realized that also the laughing, the uttering of joy was also very loud indeed. When they started to accept that they had a ‘loud’ child, they looked at their son with different eyes and they were less fearful that their child was abnormal. This more balanced quiet attitude that the parents got from the analysis had a very positive effect on both parents and baby.
The next day the parents reported that their child was much more quiet and seemed to be more in balance and that their night had not been disturbed.
Babies are very sensitive to the moods and thoughts of parents and react to their emotions.
In this case the re-assurance that there was no abnormality and that the baby simply had a lot of volume and communication energy, was enough for the baby to feel more comfortable.
‘Reading Toes, Your Feet As A Reflection Of Your Personality’ is published in the U.K. under ISBN number 0-85207-310-0.
’Reading Baby Toes. What Your Baby’s Toes Know That You Don’t’ is published in the USA under ISBN number 9781605206349.
More information on Reading Toes can be found on www.readingtoes.com and www.babytoes.info
Imre & Margriet Somogyi will teach their Certified Level 1 Toe Reading Course in Ireland on May 22nd & 23rd in The Prince of Wales Hotel, Athlone. See advertisement for details on info, bookings & early bird price. CPD points provided.