Someone asked Adano Ley (Swami Nitty-Gritty), “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”

He replied, “The chicken. ‘Idea’ comes first. The blueprint is in the egg.”

The most ubiquitous gesture in New Zealand is the “thumbs-up” salute.

“Thumbs up” is the universal indicator of healthy lungs.

Which came first, the thumbs-up gesture or the healthful air?

Is the air in New Zealand so clear and unpolluted because so many people make the thumbs-up gesture?

Some folks would call that an example of the “Maharishi Effect.”

Or do so many people make the gesture because the air is so clear and unpolluted that they have healthy lungs?

“Pumping” the thumb increases airflow through the lungs.

Ditto “thumb-wrestling.” (Thumb Tantra?)

“What’s wrong with your right lung?” I asked a client who was “pumping” her right thumb up and down.

“One of its lobes was surgically removed,” she replied.

Lung traumas are usually grief traumas: she had been separated from her baby girl as a teenager.

Walter Sorell (The Story of the Human Hand, 1967) wrote …

“Civilized man also realizes that, as his greatest achievement and highest distinction, the thumb is the very image of his being. If he keeps the thumb sheltered by the other four fingers, it denotes a retrogression to babyhood. He imitates the baby’s position. With it, he shows a desire for protection and a dependence on other people. It is a favorite gesture of the escapist, the resigned person who has ‘given up’ and wants to return to the safety of the womb. There is more to this gesture than mere shyness, cautiousness and anxiety, though all of that is in it, too. Should there be other indications in the hand pointing toward a melancholy, depressed disposition, this thumb position would weigh heavily in the analysis. The nail joint of the hidden thumb may sometimes peep through the index and middle finger when the hand makes a fist. As a habitual gesture, it adds to the qualities of the hidden thumb position a high degree of anxiety and suggests a suspicious nature.”

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