Reading Palms and Palmistry - Anything in it?

Way back in the 1940s when I was a boy, I saw at film starring James Mason and Steward Granger. The film was called, The Man in Grey and in it a Gypsy fortune teller refused to read the hand of a woman who was later to become a murderess. She’s seen something there and didn’t want to talk about it.

So is there anything in this thing called Palmistry? Can a person’s character really be told by someone who’s an expert in the field? I’m talking expert; somebody who’s studied the art for years. Yes, I believe there is.

Palmistry been with us for eons. The Babylonians and Ancient Egyptians were into it, as were, later, the Greeks and Romans. It was certainly around when the Old Testament book of the Christian Bible were being written. Here’s what it says in the Book of Job 37.7 “He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work.” It has been suggested that this could refer to Palmistry. There is also this quote from Proverbs 3.16. “Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.”

We do notice hands. Moreover, we already use what is shown in them to a large degree, and have done for a great many years.

Back in 1974 until 1976 I was as a civilian radio operator with the New South Police Department. In this job quite a lot of references were made to ‘Prints,’ meaning the Fingerprint Section. We do know this: Everyone has individual prints. They are as distinctive and different as faces are on people.

Also, we know about the auric emanations which surround the human body, what the Russian scientists refer to as the Bioplasmic Body. In a study of this body it is noticed that the whorls of fingerprints reveal the energy patterns emerging from the finger-tip ends.

Here is a qote from a book by Fenton and Wright called Modern Palmistry. Here we’re reading an excerpt from Chapter Seven.

“For centuries palmists have enjoyed talking about lines on the hand,

giving them names and characteristics, sometimes with barely a

glance at the picture they really portray. Lines are controlled by

the nerve endings. They give a physical computer printout of the life

and development of each of us. The lines show our order of priorities

and the value that we award to ourselves and also our activities. They

pick out the environmental influences upon us, add our reaction to

those around us, and indicate the depth of the feelings we have towards

our mate, family and friends. They display our dedication to a career or

job and our ability to handle it.”

 That’s saying something, isn’t it!    And here’s part of the opening chapter of an older book, this one written by Geddes and Grosset.

“Whether it be palmistry, however, or any of the other various methods of forecasting events, telling fortunes or reading character, the chief point to strike us is the age of all these methods. With practically no modification, they have been handed down to us through generations. They do not change with the march of time, and their very antiquity should bring them veneration and respect.

Further down in Introduction -Hand to Brain & Vice Versa

Why certain lines should always be associated with certain conditions is a question that has long aroused speculation. This can be answered by looking at the physiological connection between brain and body. There is a direct link between parts of the brain with portions of the hand. The cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain, which is crucial for complex mental processes such as thinking, memory and voluntary action, receives messages from our senses and gives out motor commands to the various muscles in our bodies. A region in the frontal lobe known as the motor projection area controls movement. Experiments carried out on animalsand human subjects, under local anaesthetic, where parts of this area were electrically stimulated, (thus) giving a concurrent reaction in a specific part of the body. The portion allocated to the hands and fingers is proportionally very large because these are capable of such complex movements and co-ordination.

The palmist’s view has always been that there is a connection between the lines on the hand and certain traits or conditions of personality. Is it perhaps possible that the correlation between brain and motor function is reflected in the alleged link between palm and personality?

Conclusions.

The shape and lines of the hands do have meaning, but that meaning is largely subjective, i.e. subject to the interpretations of the palm reader. However, there has been broad agreement for thousands of years what particular hand and finger shape, lines etc. mean, generally. We know that the lines of the hand change over time.

The general agreement is that the non-domimant hand (usually the left) indicates what our life is ‘objectively’ about at that time. But that our right hand is what we are making of it. Nothing is ‘set in concrete.’ We do have free will. And there is often very great disparity between our so-called ‘fated’ left hand, and our ‘free will as used’ right hand.