Palmistry is the pseudoscientific practice of fortune-telling through the study of the palm. Also known as palm reading, chiromancy, chirology or cheirology, the practice is found all over the world, with numerous cultural variations. Those who practice palmistry are generally called palmists, palm readers, hand readers, hand analysts, or chirologists.

There are many—and often conflicting—interpretations of various lines and palmar features across various teachings of palmistry. Palmistry is widely viewed as a pseudoscience due to various contradictions between different interpretations and the lack of evidence for palmistry's predictions.^[1][2]

History

Ancient palmistry

Palmistry is a practice common to many different places on the Eurasian landmass;^[3] it has been practiced in the cultures of Sumer, Babylonia, Arabia, Canaan, Persia, India, Nepal, Tibet and China.

The acupuncturist Yoshiaki Omura describes its roots in Hindu astrology (known in Sanskrit as jyotish), Chinese Yijing (I Ching), and Romani fortune tellers.^[4] In medieval times, Sanskrit texts on palmistry start to be written, locating themselves as a branch of Sāmudrika Śāstra (Sanskrit: सामुद्रिक शास्त्र) which included the studies of marks all over a person's body such as astrology and palmistry (Hast-rekhā), as well as phrenology (kapāl-sāmudrik) and face reading (physiognomy, mukh-samudrik).^[5][6][7] From India, the art of palmistry spread to China, Tibet and to other countries in Europe.^[4][8]

Palmistry also progressed independently in Greece where Anaxagoras practiced it.^[4] Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.) reportedly discovered a treatise on the subject of palmistry on an altar of Hermes, which he then presented to Alexander the Great (356–323 B.C.E.), who took great interest in examining the character of his officers by analyzing the lines on their hands.^[9] A chapter of a 17th-century sex manual, misattributed to Aristotle, is occasionally incorrectly cited as being the treatise in question. The text is not contained in his canonical works.

In Renaissance magic, palmistry (known as "chiromancy") was classified as one of the seven "forbidden arts", along with necromancy, geomancy, aeromancy, pyromancy, hydromancy, and spatulamancy (scapulimancy).^[10] During the 16th century the art of palmistry was actively suppressed by the Catholic Church. Both Pope Paul IV and Pope Sixtus V issued papal edicts against various forms of divination, including palmistry.^[11]

Relationship between Palmistry and Dermatoglyphics

Dermatoglyphics and palmistry both study the intricate features of the human palm, like fingerprints, creases, shapes, and mounts, but their purposes differ greatly.^[18] Dermatoglyphics is a scientific field examining these patterns for genetic and medical insights,^[19] while palmistry interprets them to reveal personality traits and predict future events.^[20][21][22] The former relies on empirical data, whereas the latter is based on the 12th-century text Samudrika Shastra.

Criticism

Scientific literature regards palmistry as a pseudoscientific or superstitious belief.^[23] Psychologist and noted skeptic Ray Hyman has written:^[24]

I started reading palms in my teens as a way to supplement my income from doing magic and mental shows. When I started I did not believe in palmistry. But I knew that to "sell" it I had to act as if I did. After a few years I became a firm believer in palmistry. One day the late Stanley Jaks, who was a professional mentalist and a man I respected, tactfully suggested that it would make an interesting experiment if I deliberately gave readings opposite to what the lines indicated. I tried this out with a few clients. To my surprise and horror my readings were just as successful as ever. Ever since then I have been interested in the powerful forces that convince us, reader and client alike, that something is so when it really isn't.

Skeptics often include palmists on lists of alleged psychics who practice cold reading. Cold reading is the practice that allows readers of all kinds, including palmists, to appear psychic by using high-probability guessing and inferring details based on signals or cues from the other person.^[25][26] Although some Christians condemn palmistry as a form of divination, Jewish and Christian traditions are largely ambivalent about divination in general.^[27] During the 16th century the Catholic Church condemned the practice of palmistry.^[11] However, there is a long tradition of practicing palmistry within both Jewish and Christian mysticism,^[28] and some practitioners, such as Comte C. de Saint-Germain, have argued that the Bible does not oppose it.^[29]

See also

• List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
• Methods of divination
• Alectryomancy
• Chironomia
• Digit ratio
• Graphology
• Onychomancy
• Phrenology
• Physiognomy
• Reflexology
• Single transverse palmar crease
• Tarot
• Tasseography

References

Further reading

• Beamish, Richard. The psychonomy of the hand: or, The hand an index of mental development according to Mm. d'Arpentigny and Desbarrolles
• Chauran, Alexandra (2013). Palmistry Every Day. Llewellyn Worldwide. ISBN 978-0-7387-3494-1.
• Cheiro (1916). Palmistry for All at Project Gutenberg
• Chinn, Sarah E. (2000). 'Technology and the logic of American racism'. Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-4750-0.
• de Saint-Germain, Comte C. (1897). Practical Palmistry. Chicago: Laird & Lee Publishers.
• Dwivedi, Bhorai (1970). Wonders of Palmistry. New Delhi: Diamond Pocket Books. ISBN 978-81-284-0099-5.
• Heron-Allen, Edward (2008). Palmistry – A Manual of Cheirosophy (reprint ed.). Baltzell Press. ISBN 978-1-4437-6535-0.
• Omura, Yoshiaki (2003). Acupuncture Medicine: Its Historical and Clinical Background. Dover Publications Inc. ISBN 978-0-486-42850-5.
• Sharma, Hari Dutta (1995). The A–Z of Palmistry. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. ISBN 978-81-207-1661-2.
• van Dijk-Rijneke, Magda. Universal Hand Analysis, 2017 Elmar Publishers ISBN 978-9038925912

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to chiromancy.

• Palmistry – Skeptic's Dictionary