Palm reading. Hands of Destiny. Author RANALD Josef. Published by Greenberg, USA, 1931. Antique, Vintage book.

JOSEF RANALD

Hand reader Dr Josef Ranald studied at the Sigmund Freud School of Applied Psychoanalysis. His book 'How to Know People by their Hands' was published in 1938. He had knowledge of mind reader Erik Jan Hanussen (also known as Herman Steinschneider) in the Austrian Army in 1918.

At 2:00a.m. one morning in 1932 at Berlin's Kaiserhof Hotel, Josef met with Adolf Hitler. He recounted, "When I finally found myself face-to-face with Hitler, I knew that here was a rare combination of evil mediocrity and lunacy. Hanussen, Hitler’s astrologer, introduced me to the fuehrer.....I happened to know Hitler himself judges everyone by his hands, and had had his own read by experts many times. Everything they had told him up to that time – he had not as yet come to power as Reich Chancellor – had come true, he told me enthusiastically.

"'Here', he said, sticking his hands under my nose, 'tell me, what you see in them?' I glanced at them quickly, and I must say that a more violent and destructive pair of hands I have never seen....'But can't you tell me anything now?'...'Herr Hitler, I am afraid that you will come into power. How long this power will last, I cannot tell you at this moment, but woe to Germany and Europe when this event will occur'. Hitler, staring at me wildly, shook his fist at me and screamed, 'I will tell you how long this power will last – it will last a thousand years!' If I had had any doubt up to that moment that the man was insane, that doubt was dispelled."