Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Can Palmistry predict behavior?

Whether it is possible to predict future events by reading hands was discussed earlier, and this post addresses another question. Whether a person’s actions and behaviour can be predicted by the hand. As personality traits and even one’s inner psychology are clearly marked on the hand surely the hand should be able to predict behaviour?

Actually no. Reality is too complex for such a clear connection, and while this may be obvious to some, there are some who believe that hand reading or palmistry is a supernatural art which mysteriously predicts behaviour.

Will a person whose hand shows greed, steal? Will a highly sexed person be
promiscuous? The truth is that even if a person has a personality trait like greed or even dishonesty, does not necessarily mean that he/she will steal or cheat or make money by some dubious method.

Coincidentally, in today's Mumbai Mirror, there was an interview with neuroscientist James Callen asking his opinion on the psychology of the perpetrator of the recent horrific sexual assault on a foreign national in Mumbai. What he said was that “many of us have the potential to be violent” but “the interaction between your genes and your early life experiences determines whether you will falter.”

Let’s take subject A who has inherited an aggressive, impulsive and even violent life-threatening situation. Thus there is no sure way of knowing how exactly the person will behave even though we know that somewhere deep within his/her subconscious there is a violent streak.


Magnifiying glass on a book on hand reading

Callen’s reasoning has two implications when it comes to hand reading. One, that traits like violence and aggression can lie dormant (because of a good, stable upbringing), and thus, these traits will be seen on the passive hand, which tells us about our subconscious mind. If these traits are not evident on the active hand, it means that aggression lurks too deep under the surface to be evident, and will only surface in an extremely stressful situation, for example, if the person's life is threatened or someone he/she loves is in danger. This is why some people become violent and revengeful if their loved ones are hurt. Of course, the person’s judgment, temperament and intelligence also come into play when it comes to what he/she perceives as a threat.

The second scenario is when a person who has inherited a violent nature remains violent due to his/her upbringing. This aggression will, therefore, be evident on the active hand and lurks just under the surface and does not require too much of a trigger. How often this flares up depends on the person’s inherent judgment, intelligence, frustration tolerance, and also what is considered acceptable in society. In some societies violence is accepted and in some it is not.

Thus, even a person with a “violent” streak may therefore never commit murder or any violent act although many tend to channel their aggression towards the weak, like a spouse, children, or those lower in the social hierarchy. Personality characteristics like willpower (ability to control a violent impulse), the level of excitability, impulsiveness and ego all come into play. The nature of the violence exhibited depends on the type of person ... is it do with rape, assault, abuse, or murder? Violence can be emotional and verbal. Physically weak people resort more often to emotional abuse.

The reason for writing this post is to answer the comments and emails I get asking me to predict behaviour. Predicting behaviour is not possible from the hand. Hand-reading cannot predict behaviour, especially as each individual's environment is different. And therefore the future too cannot be predicted.

Hand reading can, however, show inherent tendencies, developed personality traits, strengths and weaknesses, which is also very important because none of us knows ourselves as well as we think. Knowing the self is the first step towards happiness and fulfilment, the first step towards leading an aware and disciplined life.


If interested in the predictive aspect of Palmistry, there are other posts here you might also like to read: How hard is it to change the future, Why do you want to know your futureStars, Crosses, Symbols and Superstition in hand readingDeath and hand reading, or instead check out this collection of posts on the unreliability of predictive palmistry.

You might also like The Myth of the Marriage Lines, or Love, Marriage and Relationships or just check out all the posts filed under the label Palmistry.


If you want to get your own hands read, know more about What to expect from a private hand reading. You can also read the Testimonial pages, starting with the first one.

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7 comments:

  1. What about known corrupt people? Will their hands show that they are dishonest?

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  2. Well, considering that a dishonest person need not be corrupt or even steal (depending on various factors as mentioned in the post) that is a little difficult. On the other hand, someone who is actually "honest" could be tempted to cross the line like say cheat on his taxes because he/she believes that it is an accepted thing in the society. If he firmly believes that what he is doing is not wrong (even in his subconscious) because everyone is doing it, then his hand will not show dishonesty as such but it may show other traits like manipulation, shrewdness and so on. The hand reflects self-perception, even if the person is not conscious of it.

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  3. I thought behaviour and personality traits were the same! I understood the difference in your post. It's slightly difficult to believe that these things can be found from ones hand. We used to say that the thoughts reflect on one's eyes. Like that, now we can say personality reflects in ones hands! It's been long since you updated. Been busy?

    Destination Infinity

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  4. Interesting analysis Nita.

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  5. Actually yes, I have been getting a lot of palmistry related work. It gets difficult to cope at times specially as hand-reading requires tremendous concentration and it is difficult to switch from one hand to another.
    And yes everything about ourselves is in the hand. If it cannot be seen or is wrong seen, then it is because of the limitations of the palmist or hand reader, not palmistry.

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  6. Very interesting post. Answered some questions I've had about this topic.

    Thanks.

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