Mark Twain's hand print from the book "Cheiro's Language Of The Hand"
Destiny is a fascinating subject and
question: Are our lives predetermined or can we change our destiny at
any given moment? There are many ways to approach and explore this
question. One way is through the study of palmistry.
I was introduced to palmistry through my
parents and, more specifically the lectures of my father, Michio Kushi.
Among the many diverse and interesting subjects that he taught
including macrobiotics, alchemy, spirituality, ancient and future worlds
and so many other topics, one thing that peaked my personal interest in
palmistry was the fact that I noticed then that I had and still have
the longest life line on my right hand that I have ever seen on anyone.
“What does it mean?”, I thought to myself. Does it mean that I am
going to live a long time? Being an extremely pragmatic and
scientifically oriented person I did not take palmistry too seriously.
Yet the larger question of destiny always fascinated me and along with
it, whether the lines in our hands can actually foretell our future.
William John Warner (a/k/a "Cheiro")
Palmistry and the reading of the hands is
an ancient and traditional practice among the far eastern cultures of
Japan, China and India. It was popularized in the West in the late 1800s
by an Irish man, William John Warner,
who studied palmistry in India and then called himself “Cheiro”
(meaning “hand”) and dubbed a new science and art called “Cheiromancy.”
Since then many have introduced palm reading but the lack of scientific
rigor has dismissed it to the stereotypical realm of charlatans and
crystal ball readers at side show carnivals who prey upon a naive
public. But it has gained a resurgence of popularity since the late
1960s to the present, along with the interest of the study of all things
of ancient Eastern origin by Westerners that deal with the subject of
destiny including the I-Ching, Oriental Astrology, Feng Shui and Face
Reading.
The principle of palmistry is simple and
is that our life and fortune or destiny is fully revealed in our hand
including its shape and size, the length of fingers and the myriad of
lines that are found on it. The study of palmistry, however, can be
life-long and never-ending, as with any discipline of this nature partly
because it is built upon the discoveries of others and requires sifting
through and re-evaluating catalogs of past subjective interpretations. I
have only dabbled in it superficially and have approached it more from a
question of how much of it is really valid science versus just
speculation or subjective interpretation. In other words, I was less
interested in learning the details of palmistry and instead more curious
to find out why it might work. My reasoning was that by studying the
“why” it might work then the details will naturally fall into place.
The following are some of my thoughts.
1. The Clarity, Depth and Length Of The Three Major Lines In Our Palm Are Formed During Our Fetal Period
Fists made by fetus
We have three principle lines in our hand
which are the life line (which encircles the thumb), the intellect or
head line (which starts at or near the life line between the thumb and
index finger) and the emotion or heart line (which starts at below the
pinky and usually curves upward toward the index finger). These three
lines are formed and defined when we make a fist in our mother’s womb.
The clarity, depth and length of the lines depend on how strong and
tight a fist we make. The strength of the fist we make in the womb
depends on the condition of the fetus which is directly related to the
health of our mothers and is the direct result of what she is and has
been eating and the social and natural environment and lifestyle she
experiences. A healthier baby will be more contracted, or yang, making a
very strong fist, thus creating deep and long lines in his or her
palm. After birth these lines basically do not change, thus becoming
indicators of our health during our fetal period.
Our fetal development sets our biological
foundation which, in turn, determines our potential future for the rest
of our life. Does it accurately predict what will happen in the
future? I don’t think so. It only tells us how healthy we were in our
mother’s womb. A person who has a deep and long life line may not
necessarily live a long time while one who has a short and shallow one
may live a very long life. However, this does not invalidate the
significance of these lines. If a person is born with deep and long
lines then there will be a tendency for this person to, because of their
strong health, abuse it in the future, while, on the other hand, a
person with weaker lines may become ill sooner and therefore begin to
manage their lives much more carefully and, by doing so, live a long
time.
2. Vertical Lines (Fate, Health and Fortune) Running The Length Of The Palm Can Change Overtime
The vertical lines in our palms can
gradually change overtime based on our life’s activity. The harder and
longer that one works and uses his or her hands then the deeper the
lines become. The vertical lines can get stronger or deeper, while the
other lines mostly stay the same. In palmistry, how lines appear in
relation to each other do make a difference in identifying a person’s
destiny; for example, where the lines meet and intersect and so forth.
It does not identify the actual scope, content and events of one’s life
but the tendency in relation to other elements in of one’s life. A
person, for example could be extremely wealthy but it may not show up in
the lines because their wealth may not be of any relevance to
themselves and their life. But, generally speaking, I have found that a
long and deep straight vertical line that starts at the base of the
palm and goes up to the ring or middle finger indicates a person who is
or will be extremely successful and fortunate in life. It shows a
person whose life path is very steady and is not hampered or distracted
by intellectual and emotional issues.
Note the long straight vertical line running through the center of Barack Obama's hand.
3. Proportional Relative Measurements Matter; Not Actual Size
A wide palm is significant only in
relation to the rest of the features of the hand. The length of the ring
finger is significant in relation to the palm and the other fingers.
One study (reported by the BBC here)
has revealed that digit ratios between ring and index fingers might be
linked to the amount of testosterone a fetus received during pregnancy.
A longer ring finger indicates greater testosterone during fetal
development and is commonly found among athletes and musicians (having
to stay focused on precise physical timing) and other persons who lead
an active physical life. What is significant about this finding is that
it scientifically confirms the fact that our natural tendencies can be
revealed by looking at our hands.
4. The Destiny Question
Can we see our fate in our hands? Can we
accurately pinpoint our death by studying our lines? Can we change
it? The answer is relatively simple. We are born with a certain
biological foundation that was given to us by our parents. To that
extent our lives have character, potentiality and tendencies and has its
limits. But what is not determined is the scope and domain of our
lives. We can live life on grand scale or we can live it on a small
scale. Ignoring scale and scope, the life we lead will be generally the
same based on our inherited biological conditions. We can also change
our destiny through hard work and carefully managing our health. We
will still face challenges that are predetermined by our inherited
biology, but whether or not we survive them depends on the scope of the
life we choose to lead and our own personal health management.
Palm reading is only one of a multitude
of ways to see one’s health, biological foundation, limitations and
potential and our possible destiny. One can also see it in the face, in
bumps on the head (phrenology),
and many more ways. There may also be a way to see it through DNA
analysis that is yet to be discovered. There is a potential problem in
studying subjects related to destiny and is that one can become too
focused on details and by so doing lose their objectivity and common
sense and end-up ignoring the more obvious and basic principles of
change and free will.
We do have free will but our lives are
limited, and to that extent, predetermined, by our inherited biological
foundation, by the larger collective destiny of humanity and by the even
larger destiny of the earth traveling through space all of which take
precedence over our own lives. Or rather, they are all part of our
lives and although you and I may have the freedom to express ourselves
differently on an individual level we are all part of one and the same
destiny of this universe. Or it could be expressed as Michio had said,
“Our free will is nothing but the free will of the order of the
universe.”