A couple of decades ago, a young man perusing a bookstore found an old volume on the ancient art of palmistry. His intrigue compelled him to try it out on himself and his friends. He made notes and compared hands. He went on to read all the relevant books written in English. He studied and he grew philosophically, evolving theories and testing them as he talked to people about themselves. He spent long hours in medical libraries; he gathered law enforcement forensics data. After analyzing 12,000 sets of hands, he began a move toward professionalism, and eventually he left his career for a new one.

Not only had he created a consistent, teachable system - one that is accurate and realistic by today's standards - he added a completely new aspect when he discovered that our fingerprints contain codes for our life purpose.

The corrugations in the skin that make up the patterns of the fingerprints are formed in the 16^th week of fetal development, presumably the result of the same kind of wave pattern vibrations that form sand dune ridges and similar configurations elsewhere in nature. Zebras' stripes, for instance, have the same characteristics; the pattern on their hindquarters may aid the species' recognition of individuals, much as fingerprints are thought to be unique identifying marks among humans.

There are four basic fingerprint marks and there are ten fingers. Each mark and each finger has a particular meaning; the arrangement is what's significant in determining life purpose information for each person. Briefly, here's what can be deduced from your fingerprints:

At the time your soul entered your developing fetal body, it had a desire to fill out more of its skills. You had at that time a set of most advanced capabilities - something you were already good at long before you were born. And you had a set of relatively poorly evolved abilities (relative to yourself, that is).

So you made an agreement with yourself that if you would progress in your area of least development (life lesson), then you could bask in the rewards of furthering your best skills 9life purpose).

Moreover, you gave yourself a particular emphasis school) in how you would best receive your lessons in order to make optimal use of opportunities toward your chosen direction. The four schools, each associated with a fingerprint pattern, involve coming to terms with (1) struggle or ease, (2) inaction or action, (3) blocked or free-flowing feelings, and (4) obligatory or satisfying service. The school, the lesson, and the life purpose are all coded into your fingerprints.

After training and working with this system of Richard Unger's, I have come to a deeper-than-ever understanding that we are all working at our own paces. That each of us is finally accountable only to our own expectations. You're better at one thing; I'm better at another and we all have our special needs for remedial work. Nobody's perfect; everybody's perfect.

This makes me feel clean and grounded. It makes me far more accepting of who I am and what I have. It enables me to work on my life lesson - personal certainty - without some of the confusion I had presumed were dictates from outside authorities but instead have proven to be my own avoidance of personal power. As I release the grip of resistance to my own authority, I find an automatic shift toward what my fingerprints say is my life purpose, my best capability; ironically, this is public impact. The implications unfold piece by piece. But I grow with a sense of increased speed and accuracy as I consult my own hands.

Richard Unger holds that those of us who resist our personal power can move past this resistance by following our passions. For me, it is a passion to talk to people about themselves and their hands and some of the most meaningful elements in their lives; in my hope that I will be able to share with them the beauty I feel in their spirits, I forget to evade my own power. I let it be what it will. In that sense, reading hands fulfills my life purpose.

Thank you, Richard Unger. You're a prince of a fellow.