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Fri 19 Aug, 2005 06:32 pm
...and found it very entertaining. My woman and I were in Michigan visiting her family this past week, and her mother arranged for us to visit a card reader who had impressed her. Let's face it, there's just not a week's worth of things to do and see in the Flint area so I was game.
I have a working knowledge of how a "cold read" works, but went with a more or less open mind; hell, if the card reader could tell me things about my life that were specific and known only to me, then I was prepared to accept the existence of something previously undiscovered by science.
The card reader, a Thailander in her mid-50s, used ordinary playing cards (the 3s, and 7s through aces) and dissociated herself from tarot cards and "psychics" saying that she was "a good Christian" and that she was working with God by reading cards. She didn't press me for much information nor did she frequently use the "cold read" tactic of general statements coupled with questions such as "does that mean anything to you?" (which has the effect of getting the rube to supply all the information that the fortune teller will restate as seemingly psychically derived information). I was very, very surprised by this fact; she just dealt the cards and told me what she saw with confidence. The way she dealt the cards in different configurations and poured over them like a biologist trying to classify a newly discovered organism was quite impressive.
Of course, almost everything she said was wrong. The only things she got right were that I have a significant other, I live with that significant other, and I will succeed no matter where I go and become very wealthy. :wink:
It was, however, an hour of live entertainment for only $20.
I'd like to see this thread become a forum for discussing amusing encounters with the faux supernatural. But if you've ever gone to a fortune teller/psychic and been impressed by his or her accuracy, let's discuss that, too.
Having never volunteered, do they give a "happy ending"?
There's a little town in Florida, somewhere near Orlando where I went with my then boyfriend, his sister and his mother. The name of the town sounds like two names merged, but I can never remember it.
The town's main hall is a near-museum of psychics' pictures. It's a town of psychics. It feels a bit like where carnies might live between big top tours.
So, you go there and wander the streets looking at signs and deciding who you want to read your life. We ended up on a little dead end at the very edge of town. A bench at the bottom of the drive provided a waiting area and the old woman (grandma taking care of her daughter's kids) told fortunes on a shady porch.
I was dubious, but it was a fun outing. I went up and sat down. The only thing that she said that blew my mind was that she kept seeing (1...2...3......4?) stanless sinks all brightly lit up. She said she couldn't figure out what that might mean. I don't remember if I told her I washed glasses at 4 stainless sinks over and over again at work as a bartender.
you probly had your hooters shirt on.
Living throught the sixties, i was often approached at parties by people enthusiastic about astrology. Many of them tried to guess my "sign." I'd say about twelve hundred made the effort. You know what's really creepy about that ? Almost one hundred of them got it right ! ! !
farmerman wrote:Having never volunteered, do they give a "happy ending"?
That would have been an extra $20.
On a related note, I picked up some palmistry when I was in college and, as an icebreaker/pick-up gimmick, it helped me get a "happy ending" a number of times.
Set: Pisces?
Twelve hundred one, and still not one hundred correct guesses . . .
I've heard some really spooky stories about tarot readings, sometimes from usually reliable sources.
I went to a fortune teller one time who was right on the money. I didn't know it at the time, but everything she said came true.
She said my dad had heath problems and he needed to take better care of himself. She seemed very concerned. My father died a few years later.
She also told me that I'd become involved with a man I already knew and that I'd have a child with him. I laughed and told her I was never going to have children because I didn't want kids. She said "that's what you think".
So I went home thinking this was all entertaining and thought nothing more of it.
After my father died, I started seeing a guy that worked for him and I went to school with and guess what? Yeah, I got pregnant.
Pretty freaky, eh!
Setanta wrote:Twelve hundred one, and still not one hundred correct guesses . . .
I'm sensing something with claws...or maybe horns...do either of those mean anything to you?
roger: one of my freshman year roommates had a tarot deck and gave readings (he didn't claim to be psychic; the deck came with directions on how to deal the cards and interpret them). It was pretty interesting, though we never experienced anything that qualified as supernatural.
Montana: What's fun about discussions like this is that most of us have either experienced seemingly psychic phenomena or know someone who has. You're experience is pretty cool, but are you sure she didn't do a cold read on you?
She may have, but I was very young and it was a long time ago, so I can't really remember all the details.
It's the meeting someone I already knew and having a child with him that really threw me. I was dead set against ever having kids.
I always had what I call "a sixth sense" myself, so I don't find it all that hard to believe.
Cor blimey.
Some of these people work in education.
Mills75 wrote:
I'm sensing something with claws...or maybe horns...do either of those mean anything to you?
A horny cat ? ! ? ! ?
Must be some astrological avatars with which i am not familiar.
Setanta wrote:Mills75 wrote:
I'm sensing something with claws...or maybe horns...do either of those mean anything to you?
A horny cat ? ! ? ! ?
Must be some astrological avatars with which i am not familiar.
Ah hah! Your sign is Leo (after all, he's right by that hot virgin in the zodiac).
In my late teens, I was friends with a woman in her late 50's (still am, long distance, now she's in her late 80's)
She always said she "saw things" in the future.
So of course, being young, all I wanted to know was "who am I going to marry"
She told me I would first be with one man for for about 10 years. This man would have double TT's and double NN's in his name.
I would then marry an older man named Frank, but it would not last long.
Then I would marry someone else for love and we would be happy "for a while"
I was with a man whose last name was stennett from age 21-29
My first husband name was Frank, he was 16 years older than me.
I was only married a few years to Kirk when he had severe health problems. It was touch and go for awhile.
Even now, I sometimes wait for the other shoe to drop.
I've got a 6th sense about me too. Scoff all you want, you scoffers. <scoff scoff> sounds odd to me too.
The day my husband collapsed, I happened to be home. I am NEVER home at that time, EVER.
"something" as they say, told me I should be there.
He would have been dead if I hadn't.
I've been to several phychics, there are bad ones just trying to make a buck......
And good ones that without doing all the showmanship stuff and asking leading questions and so on can tune in.
It's like chiropractors - A few quacks give the really good ones a bad name.
{quote]It's like chiropractors - A few quacks give the really good ones a bad name. [/quote].
Same with writers.
your point being........?
Mills75 wrote:Setanta wrote:Mills75 wrote:
I'm sensing something with claws...or maybe horns...do either of those mean anything to you?
A horny cat ? ! ? ! ?
Must be some astrological avatars with which i am not familiar.
Ah hah! Your sign is Leo (after all, he's right by that hot virgin in the zodiac).
Not close, no cee-gar . . .
That it is the same with writers as you said it was for chiropractors.
The same will probably apply to most professional groups I should think.
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