The Science behind Hand Analysis

If you’ve ever been to New York City and taken a stroll through the Village or Soho, you’ll see countless signs for psychics and palm readers, waiting to tell you your fortune for the bargain price of $20. Probably $30 if you want good news. Wherever you stand on your belief in things like fortune-telling and divination, while some practices are mainly superstition, palm reading is actually based on scientific fact. 

Not what you might think

Now, “palm reading” is a well-recognised colloquialism and it might conjure in your mind trite scenarios of basement-dwelling eccentric women in fancy headdresses sitting in front of a crystal ball and telling you you’re going to meet a tall, handsome stranger. That’s not what we’re talking about here so to avoid any ambiguity, we’re specifically talking about ‘hand analysis’. Unlike Tarot cards or leaps of faith, hand analysis has been extensively researched by the International Institute of Hands Analysis, with hard data on over 500,000 hand samples. (to be clear, no hands were harmed in the making of this study!) The power in your hands is a lot more literal than you ever expected. 

Hands related to our personalities

What the IIHA discovered is quite fascinating and definitely an interesting subject to explore. Our hands give a very eye-opening view into our core selves – they essentially act as topographical maps to our personalities. Our biological makeup forms our personality and in essence, what makes up our personality is ingrained in our nervous system. Based on this biological makeup, our lives actually follow a pattern, which, based on our unique traits, can actually be predicted.

Now, this isn’t to say that our whole lives are predetermined at birth – because this would imply that we don’t actually have control over the course our lives take, which is of course not the case – these predictions refer to the sorts of outcomes that will come about as a result of our establish personality traits. Our hopes, our fears, our desires, our hates – all of these elements are a part of our physiological make-up and have a direct impact on the lives we lead, whether you’re a pro athlete or a kindergarten teacher. After all, your personality traits, strengths and weaknesses, will determine our goals and limitations and thus directly impact the choices we make, in everything from careers to hobbies to relationships.

Hands and Brains

This biological identity can be seen very clearly in our hands. The personality patterns can actually be categorised, and people fall into one of 50 possibilities. In case you’re worried that this somehow takes away your uniqueness, don’t. Everyone is their own person, but just as Dr Paul Ekman’s work on microexpressions has taught us that, no matter how different our personalities, our faces have universal ways of expressing core emotions, like anger or disgust, so do our hands reveal the personality patterns that determine the kinds of people we are. In a way, you can liken this to handwriting analysis, which is scientifically proven to indicate known personality traits, based on how we instinctively express ourselves through writing.

The network of sensory neurons in the human body is vast – but it may, or may not, surprise you to learn that the highest concentration of said neurons is in your hands. Signals from these neurons travel up to your sensory cortex and limbic system, which is the part of the brain that deals with behavioural and emotional responses. So in essence, your hands are directly connected to the core building blocks of your personality. Thus, in a very real way, this is why you can think of your palms as the maps to who you are. This hand to brain connection is very important – there’s a reason our palms sweat when we get nervous!

Traits and Predictions

Our hands change just as we do as people throughout our lives, and the result is very telling. Studies have been conducted on countless individuals, including special cases of identical twins that were separated at birth, that corroborate the hypothesis that a detailed analysis of their hands could accurately predict the decision making processes that led them to the lives they currently lead.

So, why is this important to you? You may be stuck in a rut of endless toxic relationships, a flailing career or a sense of purposelessness that makes your overall life experience feel stagnant and unfulfilling – and despite your best efforts, you probably can’t figure out why. Well, what if you literally had a roadmap to yourself.

You can not hope to change yourself or improve your outlook if you don’t really understand yourself. And we’re not just talking about being honest or “living your truth” – human beings are complex machines and the intricate web of our emotions, physical and cognitive abilities makes us the most complicated maze to follow – but with a detailed and data driven hand analysis, you could get the crib sheet you need to find the centre. To understand why we do what we do, what decisions impede us, while others set us on the right course is critical no matter what you want to achieve. 

Last Updated on April 1, 2022 by Lucy Clarke