Mudras & Hand Symbolism: Hand Mysteries? Part 2

forced to interact with someone speaking a different language we often make use of signs. The American Indians, for instance, developed their own forms of sign languages to communicate with tribes not of their own native tongue. Things of nature, ideas, emotions, and sensations all have their particular hand-sign. The gestures that the American Indians possessed were elaborate enough to carry-out a detailed non-verbal conversation. Other races or cultures have also developed their own sign languages such as to be found in certain cultural groups in Assam, Eastern India, and of the Aborigines in Australia. In modern times manual gestures have been developed for the deaf.

Aside from lip-reading, the deaf are often taught to communicate through definite forms, signs or poses of the hand. In this communications system, there are basically two types of signs: natural signs and systematic signs. Natural signs stand for objects and ideas whereas systematic signs stand for word-by-word or letter-by-letter renderings of the written language.

Among the disabled, the blind likewise benefit from their hands by reading words in Braille. In contemporary times, the hands are used extensively in the art and science of speed reading by those who seek to augment and optimize the volume of their reading input and comprehension ability.

Sign language has also been successfully used to communicate with animals–with the anthropoids in particular. It has been observed by researchers that apes have a large capacity to memorize and perhaps understand hundreds of signs representing abstract concepts.

The sensitivity of the fingers of the hands may be increased in order to sense colors and energies as

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12