Palmistry
The art of hand reading has evolved over thousands of years. From stone age man�s curiosity to the sophisticated hand techniques and analysis is a complex investigative process, a piece of detective work, by which information about an individual is slowly put together through careful and meticulous study of his/her hands. The study itself is conducted on several levels. No one factor stands alone each part modifies, confirms and co-relates every other factor until a profile of the individual is build up. There are serious applications for hand analysis in both the psychological and medical fields. Hand analysis would be a superb aid to understand the personality and motivations. It could certainly help to sort out individual problems and behavioral complexities. In the medical field, hand analysis could be used as a valuable dignostic tool. Hand can be an indicator of character and personality, a mirror of transparent and disposition, a register of our potential, and a record of the events that takes place in our lives.
Palmistry is the practice of telling fortunes from the lines, marks, and patterns on the hands, particularly the palms. Palmistry was practiced in many ancient cultures, such as India, China and Egypt. The first book on the subject appeared in the 15th century. The term 'chiromancy' comes from the nineteenth century palmist who went by the name of Cheiro. (The Greek word for hand is cheir.)
Palmistry was used during the middle ages to detect witches. It was believed that certain spots on the hand indicated one had made a pact with the Devil. Palmistry was condemned by the Catholic Church but in the 17th century it was taught at several German universities (Pickover, 64). Britain outlawed palmistry in the 18th century. It is popular enough in America in the 20th century to deserve its own book in the Complete Idiot's Guide series.
According to Ann Fiery (The Book of Divination), if you are right handed, your left hand indicates inherited personality traits and your right hand indicates your individuality and fulfillment of potential. The palmist claims to be able to read the various lines on your hand. These lines are given names like the life line, the head line, the heart line, the Saturne line. The life line supposedly indicates physical vitality, the head line intellectual capacity, the heart line emotional nature, etc.
Some palmistry mimics metoposcopy or physiognomy. It claims that you can tell what a person is like by the shape of their hands. Creative people have fan-shaped hands and sensitive souls have narrow, pointy fingers and fleshy palms, etc. There is about as much scientific support for such notions as there is for personology or phrenology. All such forms of divination seem to be based on sympathetic magic and intuition, i.e., prejudice.
The authors of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Palmistry, Robin Giles and Lisa Lenard, claim that "palmistry works because your hand changes as you do." They claim to have a few anecdotes to back them up on this, but fail to produce any scientific support for the claim. They also think that cloning makes it much easier for us to understand how palmistry works. "Palmistry is possible because you are represented in your hand. No two hands are alike because you--and your cells--are unique." True, and they are as likely to discover whether I will marry a rich woman or find the job of my dreams by looking at my cells as by looking at my palms.
Although you can often tell a lot about a person by examining his or her hands, there is no scientific support for the claim that you tell such things as whether you will inherit money or find your true love from the lines or marks on your hands. I suspect that many of those who think they have found support for palmistry are guilty of confirmation bias and have found it in the form of anecdotes.