Excerpts from the Carnegie Mellon Magazine Article

MARK SELTMAN:
A Work in Progress
He approaches hand analysis as science.
By Judith Trojan

"If you feel passionate about something, if you really believe, then go for it! Because your time will pass. You'll look in the mirror one day, find you'll be too old to do the things you wished you'd done." Mark Seltman, industrial designer/alchemist

There is no doubt that Mark Seltman will live as many lives as Shirley MacLaine. Unlike MacLaine, Seltman (A 69) has managed to squeeze all of his lives so far into the last half of the 20th century. He turned 50 in 1997 along with high profile baby boomers Hillary Rodham Clinton, Elton John and Arnold Schwarzenegger, but Seltman seems content to be a work in progress.

His degree in industrial design and graphic arts is but one of many points of light m his burgeoning universe. He s filled many other niches in his half century, including child prodigy, fine artist, entrepreneur, Guru of Garbage, environmentalist, teacher, writer, Mr. Mom, astrologer, Tarot reader, hand analyst and occult scientist. At this writing, he likes "alchemist" best.

"Alchemy is the science of the mystic," he says. "It teaches the regeneration of the spiritual man, the purification of mind, will and thought and the ennobling of all faculties of the human soul. No surprise that change is a constant in Seltman s life--he' s a Gemini with Scorpio rising after all---and that such adjectives as versatile, intuitive and resilient fit him quite well.

By the age of 30, Seltman had won and lost a substantial chunk of theI American Dream. A series of business reversals--a ware-house fire, impending bankruptcy and partners incapacitated by drug and gambling addictions--impelled Seltman repeatedly to reinvent himself and develop new ways to design, manufacture and market household tchotchkes. First there were decorative candles; then plastic, molded products like translucent mushroom lamps.There were fashion window shades, and upscale wood cutting boards, rolling pins and knife racks. "In the year-and-a-half after college graduation, I went from zero money and no business experience to having almost 20 employees, 30,000 square feet of space, a fleet of trucks, forklifts, tons of credit and inventory," he recalls. "At the time, the candle business was votives, columns and tapers. We innovated beautiful candles sculpted like ice cream and sand castles.

Dipping into astrology, Tarot, palmistry, psychology
At first skeptical - he remembers his disbelief when middle-class Jewish kids went to India, got a guru and came home with an Indian name - Seltman seriously began studying astrology, Tarot, palmistry and psychology.

His new consciousness was freeing: "Astrological symbolism showed me that I had fulfilled my natal promise. I was not going to be another Howard Hughes or Donald Trump and make a tot of money. My purpose was to come to some kind of higher knowledge of myself and share it with others. I could see myself spending the rest of my life satisfying my curiosity about people and helping ! them look at themselves in an entirely new way."

Seltman's self-discovery impacted his craft as an industrial designer as well. He took a new look at his mw materials and didn't like what he saw.

He recalls that during his four years at Carnegie Mellon there was very little consciousness of the Earth in the design process. "At the time I graduated, being an industrial designer was really about consumerism and how to save money for a manufacturer. It had nothing to do with saving natural materials or resources." Seltman began designing furniture and decorative accessories out of recycled materials. He taught classes on the subject at Parsons School of Design and Cooper Union in New York City, and joined the Manhattan Citizen's Solid Waste hoard.

"I hoped to influence New Yorkers to be more conscious about consuming less and creating less garbage," he says. "I wanted them to pay attention to what they bought, that they could reuse and recycle." In fact, Seltman's own tiny New York apartment works for his family of three thanks to his genius for turning recyclables into functional, space-saving furniture and storage containers. He tried to sell his environmentally friendly furniture designs and garbage receptacles but hit a brick wall.

"Trash is unsightly. People have to separate it, so I figured why not come up with attractive recycling containers for people who I have space problems. A manufacturer was excited by my designs, which he called 'Yuppie garbage cans,' but he said I had to advertise in high profile magazines. I just didn't want to make my own investment in marketing; so I told him, 'If you want to invest, great; If not, I'm going to give these prototypes to friends who can use them, and I'm retiring.'" The press descended upon Seltman's provocative college lectures and forays into landfills to recycle trash--from plastic to pallets--into usable goods. He was crowned the "Gum of Garbage" by Metropolis, New York' s leading design magazine, and suddenly became a media star in New York and venues as far-flung as in Germany and Japan.' 'The Japanese are more interested in recycling since they have less space to bray the stuff," he says.

Seltman, the eco-maniac, soon began to feel a lot like Don Quixote. "It's easy to convert the converted," he says ruefully. "I was trying to convince the unconverted to do the right thing and not l doing a very good job of it. Everybody was trying to convince me to do something for nothing. I designed a corporate conference room out of recycled material and was asked by another client to ; give them a price on a similar room. They immediately questioned why it was so expensive, since it was 'just trash.' I was getting poorer and poorer, even though I was more and mom devoted to making things happen."

Explaining palmistry to Barbara Walters
Currently, Seltman channels all of his energy into metaphysical pursuits. His career as a hand analyst, astrologer and Tarot reader is booked solid with private readings, corporate and fund-raising parties, museum and university lectures, writing and TV gigs. Last fall, he appeared on Barbara Waiters' daytime talk show. the View," where he explained the principles of palmistry. Seltman is quick to distance himself from tearoom Gypsies. "Gypsies are all scam artists." he says. "Even if they could really help people, they choose to embrace the bottom line to get your money. They know enough to take advantage of your vulnerability." He sees astrology, Tarot and hand analysis as science, noting that, next to tongues, hands have the strongest link to die brain. "The laws of scientific hand reading are just as valid as traditional science," he stresses. "Basically, our minds are creating, but our hands are doing the work. Our character is revealed through the shape and proportion of our hands, nails and individual fingers, how we hold our hands, and the lines on our palms and fingers. Throughout our lifetime, our hands change as our thinking and circumstances change." He uses astrology and Tarot as tools to help him help his clients. "Astrology gives you an understanding of liming and life cycles. while Tarot is a good way of getting at the unconscious." he claims.

Fine-tuning his Intuition
Twenty years of study and hands-on readings of thousands of individuals have enabled Seltman to formulate his theories and fine-tone his intuition. While working at New York's Forensic Psychiatric Hospital designing vocational programs for 150 violent criminals, he managed to study their hands and astrology charts as well. A charming pastel that bears a remarkable resemblance to Seltman, hangs on his apartment wall. It was drawn by an inmate who slit his girlfriend's throat from ear-to-ear.

In an earlier life, Seltman was a successful New York advertising executive who created award-winning Alka-Seltzer commercials. With everyday clients, Seltman tends to see the same scenarios played out repeatedly. "Within five minutes of examining a person's hands, I can tell his or her current major life issues," he asserts. "I find alot of people with propensities in their hands for battling with truth and straggling to give the appearance of what other people need them to be. Procrastination is a common problem that manifests in the hands. Why is it that we're always waiting for the right time and circumstance to deal with what means the most to us? Fear is another critical issue that appears--what individuals fear and what's holding them back from whatever it is that they really want."

Seltman' s life took on added dimension with the birth of his late-in-life daughter Cassia, now six, to whom he became Mr. Mom until she entered kindergarten.

Making sense of lifelines, Mercury retrogrades and the Eight of Cups may seem a frivolous pursuit to some, but Seltman defuses naysayers with his genial, holistic approach. "People ask me if l rule my life by astrology and hand analysis, and I say, 'No way!' Basically, I like to see how die symbolism fits; and if it fits, I wear it. There's always something challenging coming along. Maybe timing would be better at a later date to deal with those challenges, but you' re got to live your life. If there' s something you want to do. just do it.