Fortune-telling: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 04:40, 16 December 2006

Fortune-telling is the practice of predicting the future, usually of an individual, through mystical or supernatural means and often for commercial gain. It often conflates with the religious practice known as divination.

Common methods used of fortune telling include astromancy, cartomancy (fortune telling with cards), tarot card reading, crystallomancy (reading of a crystal sphere), and cheiromancy (palmistry, reading of the palms). The latter three have traditional associations in the popular mind with the Roma and Sinti people (often called "gypsies"). Various forms of fortune-telling appear throughout the world. Typical topics that fortune-tellers make predictions on include future romantic, financial, and childbearing prospects.

In contemporary Western culture, it appears that women consult fortune-tellers more than men: some indication of this comes from the profusion of advertisements for commercial fortune-telling services in magazines aimed at women, while such advertisements appear virtually unknown in magazines aimed specifically at men. Telephone consultations with psychics (charged to the caller's telephone account at very high rates) grew in popularity through the 1990s.

Fortune-telling in Chinese society History

In Chinese society, fortune telling is a respected and important part of social and business culture. Thus, fortune tellers often take on a role which is equivalent to management consultants and psychotherapists in Western society. As management consultants, they advise business people on business and investment decisions. Many major business decisions involve the input of fortune tellers. Their social role involves allow decision risk to be placed outside of the organization and for providing a mechanism of quickly randomly deciding between several equally useful options, and resolve the paradox of Buridan's ass. As psychotherapists, they help people discuss and resolve personal issues without the stigma of illness.

Scientific evaluation

Scientists believe that several factors explain its popularity and anecdotal accuracy:

Predictions almost always use vague terms and do not lend themselves to falsification. Therefore, the prediction is never wrong, but a person's interpretation of it can always be wrong.
Confirmation bias predisposes people to look for cases where predictions can be interpreted as accurate more than they look to find inaccurate ones.
Consumers of fortune-telling services may also fail to realise that statements made about them might reflect reality, but would equally apply to most other people (for instance, the statement "you fought with your parents sometimes as a teenager" applies to a large majority of people). This is the Forer effect.
Fortune-tellers usually exhibit skills at reading people and telling them what they wish to hear (the technique of "cold reading").
A person who performs a divination for himself or herself may be using his or her reactions to the arbitrary stimuli (such as tarot cards) as a way of mentally organizing his or her own thoughts.
Predictions can be a source of amusement and diversion.
Predictions can reduce anxiety about the uncertain future.
When making a decision based on incomplete information, the fortune teller or oracle can reduce the anxiety associated with guessing.
It can be an external source of authority to invoke in support of a decision to be made, or in defense of a decision that was made.
The predictions themselves can cause the subject to alter his or her behaviour in a way that makes the predictions become true, see self-fulfilling prophecy.
Fortune-telling in the context of an individual's belief system has a good chance of being believed.

While fortune telling has not been fully accepted by mainstream scientists it can be extremely useful and helpful for a seeker to find objective insight and information that can help them lead better and fuller lives. At the same time, it's best to use licensed professionals first or in combination with the use of a fortune teller, psychic, or reader.

Legality

Fortune telling is a class B misdemeanor in the state of New York. Under New York State law, S 165.35:

A person is guilty of fortune telling when, for a fee or compensation which he directly or indirectly solicits or receives, he claims or pretends to tell fortunes, or holds himself out as being able, by claimed or pretended use of occult powers, to answer questions or give advice on personal matters or to exorcise, influence or affect evil spirits or curses; except that this section does not apply to a person who engages in the aforedescribed conduct as part of a show or exhibition solely for the purpose of entertainment or amusement. [1]

@@ Line 36: / Line 36: @@
 :A person is guilty of fortune telling when, for a fee or compensation which he directly or indirectly solicits or receives, he claims or pretends to tell fortunes, or holds himself out as being able, by claimed or pretended use of occult powers, to answer questions or give advice on personal matters or to exorcise, influence or affect evil spirits or curses; except that this section does not apply to a person who engages in the aforedescribed conduct as part of a show or exhibition solely for the purpose of entertainment or amusement. [http://www.randi.org/jr/2006-07/070706could.html#i5]
-==Famous Fortune Tellers In History==
-Throughout history there have been many famous fortune tellers. Some may think of Miss Cleo, The Dead-zone guy, but the most accurate in history has been Sir Duane McMinn of Cumberland. He is currently the lead fortune teller at Allegany and has predicted many great events using his magic herbs, big stick, and magic ball made of paper. Such events include when the students will go to lunch and when they will get out of school. He went further and is now able to predict when the class periods will end, over the weeks he has developed a schedule of when the bells will ring to end the periods. This is shocking as it is fairly accurate (+/- 10 minutes). Some say he predicted 9/11. His current trick he is working on is time travel. Allegedly after repeated head trauma, i.e. rolling a bowling ball into his head repeatedly, he will be able to manipulate time and travel to the future.
-URGENT UPDATE: Sir Duane attempted his experiment on Monday, December, 4, 2006. We are not yet sure if it was a sucess or failure as he is still in critical condition at Memorial Hospital in Cumberland, Maryland. Martin David Harsh IV, his assistant, reportedly rolled a 12lbs green bowling ball into his head 106 times before student assistants determined he had lost conciousness and control of his bowels. His friends and loved ones care less about the sucess or failure of the project, but more about his survival at this point.
-NEW UPDATE: Sir Duane's Hospital Visit was short and sweet. On December 05, 2006, after being released, Sir Duane reported severe migraines and nausea to his physician. He was released from the hospital, but reported having triple vision at times and being unable to comprehend written text. Some believe that these are the after effects of the head trauma and that he is a fast healer. Still others say he managed to travel through time where he undid the tragic brain damage caused by the bowling ball. And that the severe migraine and triple vision are a result of the fusing of several quantum planes of existance into one.
-NEW STRATEGIES: After viewing the film "A Knight's Tale" Sir Duane has engineered a new plan. He thinks that if a bowling ball can make him go back in time, a man mounted on a horse with a large stick could possibly push him forward through time. Wearing a papier mache helmet crafted by art teacher Mrs. Schade, he will stand in place while a student assistant charges at his head mounted on a horse with a lance. He plans to execute the experiment within the next two weeks.
 [[Category:Divination]]