Anonymous Caller Fortune telling Just one of those sheer out of curiosity GRO polls: I've been using Tarot cards for about a month now, mostly because it's a great icebreaker and it creates massive amounts of entertainment, even if it's way off. I've found that most of the time the readings turn out to be oddly accurate (Tarot isn't really vague enough for anything you get to be oddly accurate). So, what's the Faito opinion, Is palm reading and tarot and other thinga of the like just a way to seek assurance in the future, or is there something to it? Or will it just flat out eat your soul -.-;; Akagi Ritsuko As a scientist, I tend to fall into the camp that sees Tarot, or any similar symbolic fortune telling device as something akin to a Rorschach test. Tarot symbology is inherently vivid, yet open to widely differing opinion and interpretation. Therefore, it is really the "reader" that does all the work. The more intuitive, knowledgible, empathetic, or cunning the reader, the more "accurate" an reading is going to be. Luckily for readers, clients tend to suffer from superstition (predisposing them to believing in the "power" of such readings. Also, they are assisted by the very common psychological effects where people tends to only remember the surprising "hits" and fails to remember the expected "misses." Say, ten things are mentioned, each with a 10% chance of being correct. When one of the predictions comes true, the client will remember with some suprise or confidence that the occurance was as the reader had predicted. They will not be similarly surprised or dishartened when the other nine predictions fail to come true. Akagi Ritsuko An experienced reader can, by intuition or design, make predictions or insights that may seem impressive, but are actually vague enough, or common enough such that the probability that they are, or will be, true, is nearly assured. "You will meet an interesting stranger." "Your family has money problems." "I see your relationship is not going as well as you would like." Some, like the first, can in fact, be self-fulfilling. We all meet strangers every day. If you are told you will meet an interesting one, you will be on the lookout for one that is interesting, and when you find them, you will remark at the uncanny accuracy of your soothsayer. Others, if they are not immediately true, can either be quickly twisted into something, based on careful observation of the client. Reader: I see that you are having money problems. Client: Well...actually, I'm doing okay. Reader: Are you sure? Client: Yes, actually, things are going great. Reader: Strange...well, then you may be soon, so you should best prepare. (Defers to an indeterminate future, because it will happen some day, some time, and where the person will have prepared and will thank their lucky stars they listened to the Reader.) --OR-- Reader: Are you sure? Client: Well...my mom is the one having the trouble. Reader: Ah...yes, see, I overlooked [insert some symbologic tie-in that could be interpreted to give a reference to the mother]. Akagi Ritsuko I'm no theologian, so I cannot speak as to whether such things could destine you for an unpleasant afterlife. Personally, I think the biggest danger lies in people putting too much "faith" in what is either, at best, an interesting method for ammusement and self-analysis, or at worst, a means for a charlatan to influence and scam money from the unsuspecting. To quote a wise man from another time, "The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves."