The best way to view the palm is a window into the workings of the brain. In terms of anthropological development, there’s a clearly established link between the way the human hand has become increasingly sophisticated and the way the human brain has evolved. A massive amount of the cerebral cortex is devoted to the palms. In proportion to the amount of brain surface area given to, for example, the knees, the palm’s cortex area is for a pair of organs each around four square feet in size!

Palm size

A word about palm size. Some people have disproportionately bigger or smaller palms than average in relation to body size. An easy way to check this is by comparing someone’s hand to the size of their face. When the base of the palm is lined up with the chin, the fingertips should rest around the mid-forehead level.

Large hands

People with large palms are plodders. They take things slowly, they’re pedantic, deliberate and like life on a small scale. Big hands are great with tiny details and they often work in fields that require meticulous care where the focus is on getting things just right: jewellery makers, dental technicians, classical musicians, painting restorers, research scientists. They can often miss the bigger picture as they’re so absorbed in the painstakingly miniscule.

Small hands

Those with small palms are unconcerned with details and have no time for the minutiae of life. They always see the bigger picture and are firmly focused on the road ahead. Small handed people are impatient and love to balance lots of plans and projects at once, rushing to deal with things head-on. Small palms are suited to working in busy environments and in taking the initiative, but they’ll always need someone to clear up and dot the ‘i’s’ behind them!

Short fingers

If they’re short, the person’s mental processes will be short and holistic. They like to be realistic, relative, and they calculate quickly with little time for details. They’re multi-taskers with a ‘hands on’ approach. Check out the finger length of anyone that makes quick decisions - one of life’s doers, you’ll find they have short fingers. The exception to this is when the digits have enlarged joints and are knotty. Knots tend to slow down and re-circulate the thought process. If someone’s fingers have pronounced knots The Shape of things to come they’ll be argumentative, pedantic and exacting. It makes for logical, detailed and thorough mental processes. Pronounced knots make it hard to be spontaneous.

Long fingers

Long-fingered people have long thoughts, they dwell on things mentally and take a long view. Long-fingered folk tend to be specialists, they like to think things over and have a good eye for detail. Look at the fingers of a classical musician or a researcher. Long-fingered people refine and assess information before they act.

Palmistry has traditionally been blighted by superstition and hocus-pocus. It's been impossible to learn the art from a long list of signs, markings and squiggles to remember. Until now that is. Here's a simple, commonsense guide that works. You can start palm reading after a few hours of study with this book. Using the modern language of psychology, rational observation and common sense, you'll be amazed at how much you can see in your own or anyone's palm. Try it - it works!