TAKE a close look at your fingertips. Use a magnifying glass if you have to. Look at the whorls, loops and arches. If you have a concentric whorl, high chances are that you have high levels of initiative, enthusiasm and determination. You may also be independent, competitive and bossy. A tented arch is a sign of a good learner but it may also indicate impulsiveness. A loop pointing towards the thumb signifies an easy-going personality but at the same time, you could also be one sensitive soul. If you have a combination of all three, there is a high chance that you possess multiple characteristics and may even be volatile.
Welcome to the world of “dermatoglyphics’’ or, in short, the business of self-discovery through the study of one’s fingerprints.
Creative designs: Sample prints of lunar and radial loops. Individuals with these patterns are purportedly able to think out of the box and can easily adapt to different environments. Explaining how it all works is Marcus Leng, 29, from GeneCode International, which makes use of dermatoglyphics to provide consultation services on talent profiling for individual and corporate clients.
A member of the American Dermatoglyphics Association with three years’ experience and having handled over a thousand cases, Leng was drawn to the field of fingerprint study when a Chinese professor did a scanning and analysis for him at a seminar. In 2006, Leng took a 10-day course in the subject at the Taiwan Overseas Chinese Convention Centre. The event was organised by the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission (OCAC) in collaboration with Yuen Ze University.
Dermatoglyphics, asserts Leng, is not palmistry presented in a different packaging.
“We do not give ‘predictions’ on what is going to happen. Instead, we adopt a positive stance by looking at the ridge counts which indicates a person’s learning efficiency and inborn talents,” says Leng.
To show the relation of fingertip patterns and the primal dispositions of an individual, Leng refers to the document entitled Using Dermatoglyphics From Down Syndrome And Class Populations To Study The Genetics Of A Complex Trait. The thesis was written in 1990 by Thomas Fogle, an associate professor and chair of the biology department at Saint’s Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana, the United States. Fogle’s research interests include the chromosomal study of humans and exotic zoo animals.
According to Fogle’s paper, fingerprint patterns can start to form from as early as the sixth to seventh week of fertilisation. Ridge growth and patterning is believed to coincide with nerve and tissue development. The whole process inadvertently boils down to genetic influences on nerve and epidermal growth.
“There is a full explanation on the above theory in a research paper from the Centre of Anthropological Studies at Fudan University, Shanghai, in 2003. During practical sessions, the finger and palm prints of mentally retarded children were recorded and studied. This research states that the total number of ridge counts are an indication of a person’s learning capabilities,” says Leng.
Do the math: Measuring intelligence using the dermatoglyphics method. The angle is determined from the triadic point at the base of the palm to the points at the bases of the forefinger and pinky. The normal count is between 35° and 45°. Anything below suggests mental retardation. And yes, humankind has used the knowledge to their benefit. One of Leng’s favourite examples is revealing how the former USSR and The People’s Republic of China had used dermatoglyphics to recruit talent for the Olympic games in the 1970s. As it turned out, the USSR took home 50 gold medals in 1972 and 125 in 1976. By the 1980s, China had also adopted the Russian method of selecting sporting talents.
“What they did was to check for the learning sensitivity levels of these athletes by measuring their palms. An individual’s learning sensitivity is gauged through measuring the ATD angle (the triangle formed by the points at the base of the palm, forefinger and pinky). A normal reading would fall somewhere between 35° and 45°. “In Genecode’s practice, these readings are used as a means to detect learning difficulties in children so that they can be addressed early,” says Leng.
Not surprisingly, the field of dermatoglyphics is also gaining popularity in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, achieving a market value of several hundred million dollars in Taiwan alone. Most times, it is the parents who send their children’s fingerprints for analysis, in the hope that the results will help them plan for their children’s education.
Vouching for its accuracy, Leng cites the case of a mother who came to him with her daughter’s fingerprints.
“She didn’t tell me much about her 10-year-old daughter but, from the analysis of her fingerprints, we found out that she had very little aptitude for musical talent which requires fine motor skills. When I relayed this to the mother, she confirmed that her daughter had been taking piano lessons for the past five years but had yet to go beyond Grade 2 in the pianoforte exams. The results finally convinced the mother to channel her daughter’s attention to better use elsewhere,” says Leng.
Positive approach: ‘We do not give predictions on what is going to happen. Instead, we adopt a positive stance by looking at the ridge counts which indicate a person’s learning efficiency and inborn talents,’ says Marcus Leng. In addition to free demos in local schools and universities, Leng has also done analyses for various organisations and companies.
“The whole idea is to help the CEOs understand their staff’s talents for HR optimisation purposes,” says Leng.
No doubt, fingerprint study is seen as an invaluable tool for discovering one’s abilities and in determining the right career paths.
Take Andy Yong, 37, a father of two and a motivational trainer, for instance. It has only been a few months since Yong was first introduced to the subject of fingerprint study. While he does not deny that it was curiosity that prompted him attend a talk on the subject, he had not bargained for the deep fascination that ensued.
Expectedly, not only has Yong submitted his own set of fingerprints to GeneCode for analysis, he has also convinced his wife and two daughters to do the same. In addition, Yong has also paid Genecode RM13,970 for a licensing fee which includes a four-module course on fingerprint pattern analysis and consultation. This latest certificate is another addition to Yong’s many other skills he has acquired over his eight years of experience as a trainer; the art of hypnosis is another one of them.
“I see this as a tool I can use in the course of my personal consulting work as it will give me better insight into an individual’s abilities. This way, I will be able focus on developing the individual with greater accuracy rather than resort to guesswork,” says Yong.
So far, Yong has seen 30 cases, and they vouch that the data is 80% accurate.
Of course, there will always be cynics who opine that people like Leng and Yong are just trying to make a fast buck using the fingerprint reading strategy as a gimmick.
“What people are is a result of the environment and their upbringing. In life, nothing is predestined. Telling people what they can and cannot be may discourage them from pursuing their true calling,” says Phylis Chen, 74, a retired banker who quips that hand-reading, through fingerprints or otherwise, is nothing more than 80% guesswork and 20% “bluffology”.
Azmi Ibrahim, 46, a civil engineering lecturer at UiTM does not fully agree though he has never gone for palm-reading or a fingerprint analysis. Still, he believes that the lines on our palms do mean something.
“By their uniqueness, whereby no two people can have the same patterns, it is possible that the lines have something to do with the unique characteristics of the person,” says Azmi.
For more information on dermatoglyphics readings and analysis or licensing opportunities, call Yong (012-383 5383) or Leng (016-661 1642) or visit www.genecode.com.my.
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