# Palm reading=Spirituality=Religion?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palm-reading-spirituality-religion/549056>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [August 3, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palm-reading-spirituality-religion/549056 "2010-08-03T20:46:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palm-reading-spirituality-religion/549056/1 "2010-08-03T20:46:36Z")

</div>

[A “spiritual advisor” claims that requests that she submit to licensing violate her rights.](http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2010/jul/30/ches30-ar-355091/)  
I can see the judge’s reasoning that she might be trying to avoid an investigation into her past, but what of the larger issue? Should spiritual practices be regarded the same as religious practices when it comes to rights? Should palm readers and their ilk be protected?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palm-reading-spirituality-religion/549056/2 "2010-08-03T20:58:33Z")

</div>

Palm reading is religious but is not, alone, a religion. Religions include a belief system, and the act of palm reading doesn’t. However the practice of palm reading could easily be part of a larger religion - _any_ practice can be part of a religion.

I don’t know how far this goes first-amendment-wise, though.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palm-reading-spirituality-religion/549056/3 "2010-08-03T21:09:42Z")

</div>

Seems the decisive issue was that Psychic Sophie failed to exhaust her administrative remedies prior to filing suit. Essentially, she does not have a final agency decision that the Court can review, because she never pushed for and/or received a denial of her application. From that point, there is likely some sort of administrative hearing process she could have used. Only after all administrative options have been exhausted will a Court hear the matter.

That said, I’m not seeing a First Amendment claim here. She’s applying for a business license, not opening a church. The state has the authority to regulate businesses in various ways, including requiring licenses. Her beef seems to be it’s too hard to get a woo-woo license, so she’d rather have a counseling license, despite obviously being in the woo-woo business. Also sorta suspect that she probably couldn’t pass a background check, which would explain why she doesn’t want one done.