The Rev. Prof. Paul Bouts (1900-1999)

Paul Bouts was born in 1900 in the Belgian province of Limburg. From 1924, he teached at the Normal School (pedagogic academy) of Tienen, Belgium. In this pedagogic environment he specialised in characterological studies and devised a new method of characterological analysis, which he coined "Psychognomy" and which was largely based on Phrenology, combined with Typology and Graphology. This led to his life-work, "La Psychognomie", initially published in Paris by the "Librairie philosophique Alcan". It was subsequently translated in Dutch and Portuguese.
The theories of Bouts were further developed in specialised institutes which were founded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Chicoutimi, Québec.
Bouts continued his research in the field with the paleo-anthropological work "LesGrandioses Destinées Individuelle et Humaine dans la Lumière de la Caractérologie et de l'Evolution cérébro-cranienne".

After the war, Bouts  experienced serious health problems, due to overburdening. These enticed him to study a healthy lifestyle, which he described in his work "Modern Hygiene of Intellectuals" (published in French as "Hygiène Moderne des Intellectuels", and in Dutch under the title "Ik ben nooit moe", i.e. "I am never tired"). He underlined the  importance of wholesome, healthy food and of the  maintenance of respiratory capacity through exercise. The adoption of this healthy lifestyle allowed him to regain full strength and to lead a productive life until age 99.

In 1967 he established himself on the woody Middelberg hill in Rotselaar, Belgium (in Flemish Brabant, 35 km east of Brussels), where he built the "St. Paul's Home", as well as a reform shop called "Sol & Vita". He continued to publish a number of spiritual works, like "Onze overheerlijke lotsbestemming, het Paradijs" ("Paradise, our marvellous destiny", in Dutch).

Paul Bouts is also keeper of several inventor's patents.

I had the honour and the privilege to meet the Rev. Prof. Bouts several times, and to assist to his last public course in Psychognomy (1991). I will honour and remember him as a true master in characterological diagnosis, to whom I owe my interest and passion in the subject.