Shanghai Daily Feature:
'Scientific' Palm Reading
By Kate Chapman
As published May 16, 2007 in the Scope section of Shanghai Daily
This isn't hocus-pocus fortune-telling or palmistry, claims life coach Beth Ronsick. No, it's hand analysis based on a "scientific process." Skeptical journalist Kate Chapman lends both hands, and an ear.
As I am having jet-black water-soluble block printing ink rolled onto my palms and fingers, I begin to wonder if this was a big mistake. I am a journalist after all; we are known for being skeptical and cynical and yet here I am about to have my palms "read."
But this is no ordinary palm reading. Certified hand analyst and life coach Beth Ronsick uses a modern technique developed by Richard Unger, who set up the International Institute of Hand Analysis in California in 1985 after years of research. The technique is called "life purpose analysis," which might sound airy-fairy, but as analyst Ronsick explains, it is based on a "scientific process." She doesn't go into detail.
"It has a scientific process to it because it has patterns that are identifiable, repeatable and teachable," she says.
"How can you deny if you live in nature that there are blueprints for how certain things are supposed to be. It doesn't do an oak tree much good to think it's a daffodil." That's where the life purpose comes in.
Unger undertook many years of research into traditional palmistry and personally read over 50,000 palms. Hand analysis differs from palmistry because it is not a fortune telling exercise. "It helps people to realize their potential," says Ronsick.
She believes everyone has their own unique attributes and her analysis is intended to make people aware of what theirs are."
Part of how I'm wired is to give people information that is immediately useful and helpful. Knowing their life purpose can help people accept themselves," says Ronsick. "If you accept yourself anything is possible."
After this introduction to the system, I am pacified and Ronsick sets to work making prints of my palms. She makes two copies of each palm - so I have a copy to take home, she explains. The prints are made because they are a "snapshot," she says. "Fingerprints don't change as we go through life, but our palm lines do."
Standing in her small, immaculate kitchen with black tiles and countertop and blue cupboards, Ronsick studies my palm prints and makes some notes. I wash the ink off my hands. It comes off surprisingly easily with soap and water.
With a magnifying glass and flashlight Ronsick looks at my hands. She constantly moves between my palm prints and my palms.
We move into the living room to do the analysis. The room is light, comfortable, and stylish with a white sofa, hardwood floors and family pictures and flowers for decoration.
Ronsick looks at the unfamiliar lines or "markers" on my hands. She asks me to sign a liability waiver. This basically says that she is not a certified psychotherapist and that I understand this. Presumably I would not hold her responsible for any poor decisions I might make based on her observations.
She says I can participate in the analysis however I wish, sit quietly or ask questions as I wish. She starts the MP3 recorder and begins to tell me what my palms say. I later get a copy of the recording.
Each finger represents a different life purpose theme such as artist, innovator, or family person, she says. Each fingerprint is ranked based on the complexity of the pattern. So, the more complex a fingerprint the higher the ranking of that finger's life purpose theme. People may have one, or several combined themes.
Ronsick tells me that mine is leadership. My life purpose is to be a passionate leader. This is about having influence, power and authority, says Ronsick. "When you're clear about what you're passionate about, the leadership will follow." She links this to my job and the power of informing people.
The second significant part of the analysis is finding out my life lesson, something I need to work on. This sounds like it's going to be bad. But, Ronsick says, she never tells anyone anything negative because she doesn't believe there is anything bad.
Rather, there are things we need to understand and learn from. Mine is emotional authenticity. "The need to really understand what you're feeling, when you're feeling it, and accept it without judgment," says Ronsick. As opposed to bottling up my feelings and having them explode at totally inappropriate times - good advice, I'd say.
Your life purpose and life lesson are what your fingerprints tell you. Your palms offer insight into your personality. Ronsick explains that I have earth and water hands with a fire heart line which indicates "practical creativity." My big thumbs in comparison to the rest of my hands indicate that I am willful and ambitious.
I'm not sure what to make of all this. Feeling like Ronsick now knows a lot more about me than I do about her, I begin to ask questions. How on earth did she get into hand analysis? The answer is simple; she had it done herself.
In November 2000 just as Ronsick was getting ready to move from New York City to Hong Kong, she and some girlfriends had their hands analyzed. "It was really just on a lark." But, over the years she would refer back to the recording of the analysis and different things would resonate with her.
When Ronsick returned to the United States in 2005, after taking a year off to travel the world and visit family, she began working as a life coach, a job closely related to her previous work in people development and training for a global advertising firm.
She became a certified life coach. While working towards this she noticed that the woman who had first read her palms was now teaching hand analysis and Ronsick decided to go to her weekend workshop to use it as a tool for coaching. She enjoyed the first workshop so much she kept going and was eventually certified. The certification course consisted of assignments, many palm readings and an exam.
Shanghai has always been on her shortlist of places to live; she arrived in August 2006 and hasn't looked back. She runs her own life coaching and hand analysis business and thrives on the one-on-one work. "When a person comes to you and they're ready to make changes, that's a powerful process," she says.
Shanghai has received Ronsick and her teachings with an open mind. "This is a market that is really welcoming and excited about using this (hand analysis) as a tool." Most of her clients are expats, predominately entrepreneurs, artists and executives although she's open to clients of all ages, cultures and occupations.
At 39 Ronsick still has a lot of life ahead of her, for now she is content in Shanghai. "I like being here. I like being part of this community." And, she sees a huge opportunity for her services. "Once you have an idea of your own mission in life, it doesn't matter where you go, you take that with you."
Ronsick's life purpose, according to her own hand analysis, is to be a "big shot mentor and artistic person in the spotlight"; it seems like her fingerprints are spot-on.
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For more on hand analysis, please see the post titled "Life Purpose Hand Analysis" in the "Tools for Awakening" section of this blog.
