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MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD: Pens, tools of the graphology trade

DO you know this woman?

She’s a successful intelligent professional black woman, with a wide circle of friends, travels regularly, and is active in her church?

But as attractive as she is, she doesn’t have a husband or partner despite wanting one. There’s a good chance that you do know her because the above description is a fairly accurate one for growing numbers of black British women. Some are very happy being single.

But many others ask a variation on the same question that has been asked for many years now: ‘Where have all the good black men gone?’

And the answer is very likely to be a variation on the theme of ‘There aren’t any. They’re all players’

Or that, for whatever reason, black men are not interested in black women anymore.

Given these views, it’s not surprising to find black women who say they’re giving up on their search for a black life partner.

As The Voice reported on it’s front page recently, the number of black women prepared to date outside their community is rising fast.

But one woman believes that there is a surefire way for black women to find their ideal life partner - and believe it or not, it’s all to do with a man’s handwriting.

According to leading graphologist Beverley East, handwriting can reveal an individual’s ability to communicate, honesty, sex drive, and self motivation.

If you can analyse a man’s handwriting, she says, you can find out in a matter of a few days whether the man you are dating is likely to be a compatible life partner.

“Your handwriting reveals everything about you” she says. “Scientifically, it’s been proven to do so. You are really naked every time you put pen to paper. We look at the pressure of the handwriting, the spacing in between each letter, everything has a meaning, it’s almost like another language.

“I always say that handwriting is frozen body language. Just as the way you walk and talk gives off an impression of who you are, handwriting can also give a very clear picture of who you are.”

Graphology, the study of handwriting which was developed in the nineteenth century, came to public prominence back in 2005 when graphologists were asked by the national press to analyse a sheet of paper containing scribbles made by then Prime Minster Tony Blair.

Around 3000 UK companies use graphology as part of their recruitment process to weed out unsuitable candidates.

Graphologists examine loops, dotted "i's" and crossed "t's," letter spacing and slants in an individual‘s handwriting.

They believe that these minute details are physical manifestations of unconscious mental functions and can reveal key aspects of someone’s personality.

But despite the seeming popularity of graphology, none it’s practitioners thought about applying it’s principles to another area where sussing out someone’s character is crucial - finding a life partner.

That is until East decided to do just that. Originally from New Cross, south east London, she moved to the United States in the late 1980s after studying for a Masters degree in graphology.

Her skills were highly sought after by law enforcement agencies in their efforts to tackle forgeries and companies who wanted to assess the suitability of potential employees.

But when some of her single female friends complained about the lack of good reliable black men, East, who had always been a good matchmaker, saw it as an opportunity to not only help them but increase awareness of graphology.

She decided to write a book about how women everywhere could use the principles of graphology to accurately assess a man’s potential as a partner. The result, Finding Mr Write, was a bestseller in the US, leading East to become a talk show regular.

And she says that of the women who bought the book, there are many satisfied customers, including women who already had partners.

“When the book came out I got a lot of responses from married women who told me how the book had been helpful to them in their personal lives and improving their relationships. And as for single women who are dating I think graphology cuts to the chase very quickly.

“You can go on a date with someone several times and still not know them. They could have another household somewhere, they could have a wife and five children. But with handwrititng analysis, you can’t cover up. You can tell if this person is shy or if they are lying.

She adds “I didn’t want to write an intellectual academic book about handwriting because I thought only other handwriting experts would read it. I wanted to write a fun book. The book is divided into twelve sections. I didn’t given my book chapters because that’s not what’s relationships are about.

“Relationships are about timing so I gave each section in the book the stroke of the hour from one to twelve. And in each section, I covered the basic things we women want to know. I’m going to be fickle and go straight there, but we want to know if he’s a good lover.

A lot of women say they want a man who’s got a nice personality. No they don’t! They want to know about his sexual skills. I mean, when a man says ‘She’s got a nice personality, they often mean she’s not sexy, she’s not good looking. It’s no different for a lot of women.

“Then we want to know about the ambition. Personally, what drives me to a man is his level of intelligence and so I want to know how that brain works. And handwriting analysis is brain work.

“So through it, you can see if he’s an analytical thinker or if he’s an investigative thinker. Then I did a whole section on communication. We want to know if he’s liar very early on. The big question is ‘Can I trust him?’ And I look at all the aspects of the man you can’t trust.

“I wrote another section on signatures and what the signatures can tell you because sometimes that’s all you’ve got if you’re lucky enough to have a man who writes you a cheque.

But not everyone is convinced. The British Psychological Society ranks graphology alongside astrology and said recently that both had ‘zero validity’ as ways of assessing someone’s personality.

And leading psychologist Dr Rowan Bayne described the practice as ‘absolutely hopeless’. “It’s very seductive because at a very crude level someone who is neat and well behaved tends to have neat handwriting.”

But these are claims that East strongly refutes. “It’s based on a science. A lot of people want to tell me it’s a gift but it’s a science. And as such it’s about 85 per cent accurate. But as a woman of colour I consider myself to be 95 per cent accurate because people will talk about you if you don’t know what you’re doing.

In graphology, we look at the way you cross your ts - the higher you cross your ts the higher the goals you set for yourself, the lower you cross your ts the lower the goals your set for yourself. When we do seminars, the longer the gs and the ys in someone’s handwriting, that gives you a fairly good indication of someone’s energy and sex drive…..so the longer that tail, whether it has a loop or no loop ,you can get a fairly good idea of their stamina and their sex drive.

So, if someone has a short g or a short y, you may just want to have coffee and call it quits! And for people who are in the closet, the handwriting shows that up as well.

I know that gets a little scary but people who are bisexual, or homosexual who haven’t come out yet, the handwriting can identify that as well.”

Published: 07 April 2008
Issue: 1315

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