Attempting to change the future costs about $1,000 in Japan write Jake Adelstein, and Nathalie-Kyoko Stucky:

• In Japan palm-reading is a popular means of fortune-telling.
• People who are unhappy with the lines on their palm can have plastic surgery that adds new lines, thus (allegedly) changing the individual’s fortune.
• The surgery takes around 10 minutes and individuals get up to 10 new lines.
• One doctor has had to learn the art of palm-reading to ensure that his patients don’t end up asking him for inauspicious lines.
• Men are more likely to change lines related to business success, while women prefer to change marriage and romance lines.
• Anecdotal evidence suggests that the surgeries are successful – those who have gone through the surgery have seen their fates transformed.
• This is probably a self-fulfilling prophecy. If an individual is committed enough to get the lines on their palm changed, they’re also probably taking other actions to achieve their vision.

Read more about the practice, how it is done, and why learning how to read palms is a useful skill in Japan over here.

Source: The Daily Beast

Via: Marginal Revolution