Fifth International Handreading Association Conference

Fifth International Hand Reading Association Conference 2026

The fifth International Handreading Association Conference will be taking place on the weekend of 11th-12th April 2026. This time, it will be happening in the NZ evening and the UK/EU morning - please note the times carefully! The sessions will be recorded and will be available for viewing online if you are unable to make the 'live' times.

Saturday 11th April 2026 (7-11pm NZ, 7-11am UK)

(1) Christopher Jones (MA): "The Hands of Drug Addicts"

Christopher will present his research study into the hands of residents of a drug rehabilitation community, collected in Oxford in around 1990. What hand features do we see in those who get addicted to drugs like heroin and cocaine? With a large selection of handprints to look at, we will find out!

(2) Assessing the right hand of Pablo Picasso

Picasso left a very good cast impression of his right hand, so lets see what we can find out about him from this! Several very experienced handreaders will give their view on his hands - if you are interested in contributing to the discussion as well, please contact Christopher Jones in advance.

(3) Prof Alison Bashford: “The Hand that Speaks: Charlotte Wolff and interwar psychology”. 

We are very honoured to have with us Professor Alison Bashford of the UNSW, Australia, author of the marvellous new book 'Decoding the Hand'. Alison will give us a talk on the hands of apes and gorillas, the psychology of the hand and the science of semiotics as expressed in the work of the most significant handreader of the C20th, Charlotte Wolff.

(4) Time for Questions
Time for you to ask your questions!

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Sunday 12th April 2026 (7-11pm NZ, 7-11am UK)

(1) Felicity Booth (MA) “Doubled Lines – the significance of dualities in the palmar lines”

Felicity brings her 30yrs of handreading to explore the characteristics of doubled lines. People are complex - but their lives are made even more complicated if they have complex or doubled line formations. Doubled Earth lines are rare, doubled Air lines are in two minds and doubled Water lines can be very difficult to read. This exploration of these line formations will halp clarify what is going on in these cases.

(2) Quick-Fire Presentations:

Russian Criminological Studies:
We are very pleased to have a presentation from Prof Nikolai Ganin from St Petersburg University who will give a talk on: "The Hands of Russian Criminals: A statistical analysis of the hand prints of convicted murderers, based on the materials of the Police’s operational investigative unit” [In English]

Professional Development:
Counseling Corner with Carolyne Taylor (Dip. Couns):  “Considerations on the client’s and our own cultural and social context and how this affects reading hands” Looking at significant biases that will affect our ability to read hands in an impartial, caring and sympathetic way.

(3) Johnny Fincham (BA): “The chakras, their meaning and potential in spiritual hand analysis”

The much loved and wonderfully entertaining Johnny Fincham will share his insights on the spiritual aspect of reading hands. What are chakras? Are they spiritual? What does it all mean???? Johnny will enlighten us with the discoveries he has made in this oft-neglected aspect of handreading.

(4) Panel Q&A
Time for you to ask your questions!

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Format: Zoom Conference

For NZ it will be 7pm – 11pm Saturday and Sunday evening
For UK it will be 7am-11am Saturday and Sunday morning
For EU it will be 8am-12 noon Saturday and Sunday morning
For Moscow, it will be 9am-1pm Saturday and Sunday
For the rest of the world, please check the correct times for your timezone!

Once you have purchased your tickets, please confirm your attendance by emailing: masterhandreader@gmail.com

The Zoom access code will be emailed to you the day before the event, along with final details for the conference.

The conference will be recorded and will be available for you to view afterwards.