Palm reading has been around since as early as 2000 B.C. when it was introduced in China. We have all seen the small stands in urban areas, usually advertising “Your future for only $5, have your palm read today!” How many of us actually stop is a completely different story. Most people through deductive reasoning decide that looking into the future and predicting it accurately is impossible, even with the use of a person’s hand. However, thousands of people make their living in the United States each year by studying the lines on a persons hand and supposedly foretelling the future. But is there any science behind it? Does palm reading actually have some shred of truth behind it? Well I am here to discover that.
Chiromancy is the technical name for palm reading or evaluating a person’s future. Expert palm readers are taught to study the lines in one’s hand and study the fingerprints and any bumps evident on the hand. Palm reading stems from Greek mythology where each finger and palm was thought to represent a god or goddess. So each finger ties back to a god and the characteristics of that god are supposedly translated down into the finger and back into the person. Shape, flexibility, color, and texture are all taken into account when palm reading. Hand shape and lines are the most important influences in a person’s future. The four main types of palm shapes are: Earth, Wind, Air, and Fire. Fire hands are square hands with shorter fingers, Water has long fingers and an oval palm, Air hands have square palms with long fingers, and Earth hands have broad, square palms and fingers. The three main lines are the heart line, the head line, and the life line. The life line begins near your index finger and sweeps around towards your thumb and it represents matters of the heart, and sometimes cardiac health. The head line starts near the life line and goes straight across the palm. It is thought to represent the way
References: Palmistry: How to Chart the Lines of Your Destiny by Roz Levine; published December 1992, Simon & Schuster