Palmistry

The acupuncturist Yoshiaki Omura describes its roots in Hindu astrology (known in Sanskrit as jyotish), Chinese Yijing (I Ching), and Roma fortune tellers.

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).

After studying under gurus in India, he set up a palmistry practice in London and enjoyed a wide following of famous clients from around the world, including famous celebrities like Mark Twain, W. T. Stead, Sarah Bernhardt, Mata Hari, Oscar Wilde, Grover Cleveland, Thomas Edison, the Prince of Wales, General Kitchener, William Ewart Gladstone, and Joseph Chamberlain.

Dermatoglyphics is a scientific field examining these patterns for genetic and medical insights[21], while palmistry interprets them to reveal personality traits and predict future events[22][23][24].

[25] Psychologist and noted skeptic Ray Hyman has written:[26] I started reading palms in my teens as a way to supplement my income from doing magic and mental shows.

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.

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.

[13] However, there is a long tradition of practicing palmistry within both Jewish and Christian mysticism,[30] and some practitioners, such as Comte C. de Saint-Germain, have argued that the Bible does not oppose it.