Palm reading in mental hospital

First off, let me confess that I put this topic here because I wanted it to get maximum exposure initially and then, after that, according to Martijn's preference and judgement - it is his website, after all !

What I want to tell you all is that I conducted an experiment recently: I went to the general ward of a mental hospital and was appalled by the general misery, gloom and doom of the place, the screaming, the chaos, the desperation, etc, etc.

However, I got permission, gritted my teeth and got down to examining the palms of the unfortunate denizens of this hell-hole (not the beautiful rooms you imagine, light and airy, with a cut flower in the vase and bees humming in the garden outside...) and got the shock of my life, then got inured to the phenomenon. I can say this with perfect confidence now, based on the 20 palms I examined:

There is no consistent connection between the lines on the palm and ANY of the mental characteristics of the individual. I found DEEPLY troubled and utterly retarded patients with perfect palms, and wonder of wonders, a nurse with a deeply "retarded" palm full of BAD lines and signs but in the PINK of mental health, bright as a button, to use an old fashioned expression.

I studied statistics at university so please do not think that I am saying this lightly; I am also not claiming that this is the final word. But I will NEVER again give any credence whatsoever to palmistry.

But the visit did add to my philosophy of life - that there is no cure for it (I mean life really is a disease for some people, and they are unfortunate beyond imagination or description) and the only hope may be the mysterious peace that passeth all understanding, Nirvana, that the mystics keep talking about. But even that does not seem enough to me, because the misery is still there in the other human being even though YOU may understand, whatever that means !!!

Very sorry to burst your bubble, if indeed I have.

Caledonia

hello Caledonia

Very interesting experiment, I am still learning myself, so my knowledge of palmistry is almost nil. I
don't know how much to believe in yet. I've seen only 50 palms so far of friends and relatives, all normal people.

I have 2 questions for you:

1. Is your skill level a beginner or have you already read a few 100 hands ?
2. What signs were you looking for ?

Thanks.

Hi caledonia,

First of all, thank you for your efforts & your first report!

Your conclusions look firm at first sight, but I would like to add that I also notice a lack of specificity regarding your research design & your conclusions.

For example: have you been able to collect handprints and study the details properly? If not, did you use some kind of research protocol to registrate your observations?

Also, you mentioned the hand lines; but knowing that the (major) hand lines may vary significantly within ANY specific population it might actually take a larger sample of subjects in order to study the significance of the hand lines for their specific condition.

Finally, you also leave me wondering about your expectation; because maybe... it was kind of just the bubble resulting from your private expectations that got bursted???

Anway, I am looking forward to see you share more details regarding your 'experiment'. Please be aware: a solid experiment requires good preperation, therefore I also would like to ask you to give us a glimp about how you prepared your experiment, and maybe you can also give a description of the hypotheses that you had in mind, etc.

  

Hi Caledonia, I commend your attempts to burst our bubble, it's good to challenge, but I do think many more palm prints would be necessarily have to be taken and studied in order to come to any specific conclusion. Each person is an individual with an individual reaction to life in general, environment, administration of drugs etc, their palm prints are specific to them alone although of course there are general similarities. If you can carry on with your experiment say in other mental hospitals I would be very interested in your findings.
Sue