To be fair. Cold reading has been the core of most such mysticism for a long long time.
So there’s one approach to fortune-telling where you convince them that you have some magical ability to figure out their secrets, and then you use cold-reading techniques to trick them into thinking you have mystic powers.
But there’s a better approach where you give someone an open-ended set of symbols, and you use those to help the person think through the issues in their life. You’re giving them the opportunity to reflect on things from a new perspective.
- a Tarot card might have symbols for “loss in worldly matters” and be in a position that represents their past
- another card might have symbols for “an older person, very patient” and be in a position that represents their current circumstances
- another card might have symbols for “the end of a time of plenty” and be in a position that represents the conflict of their current circumstances
- another card might have symbols for “gain through cooperation” and be in a position that represents their future
So you talk to the person and describe what each card means, and they think about how it applies to their life. They might ask questions like: “does ‘loss in worldly matters’ mean money?” and you say “sure, it can, or it can mean something else like being reprimanded at work.” and they might say “oh, I think in my case it means (whatever).” And then you can think together how that applies to the rest of the reading. People have a lot of things going on in their lives, things can just slip by, and this gives them a chance to step back and think it all over.
I actually find this wholesome because while dude was initially mocking tarots, what he was really doing was being an active listener and being available for people.
So I’m all for this type of “prank”.
He’s just being honest about being good at cold reading, something that most fortune tellers use anyway. At least he’s not charging people for it.
Most? 🙂
Some are simply wrong
The ones that have any kind of accuracy, at least
Most of the ones on TV actually do warm reading where the audience gets question cards beforehand so the psychic already has a mark picked out when the performance starts.
Hard to know how much he was listening. It’s def a mostly harmless prank so I’m also cool with it, but I wouldn’t say he’s been actively helping people.
Its always been cold-reading with props. I respect him just going for it though.
to be fair, when youre sitting there and the person is just WAY off, you kinda feel bad and act surprised, yk.
No I don’t know even one little bit
me neither
He figured out tarot readings in one evening.
Isn’t this the guy who married an old woman in part because she hated her family and wanted them to get nothing?
I mean, they apparently had a very wholesome and good relationship, but it was definitely a relationship founded in part of spite on her end.
The relationship saved his life though. She took him off the streets, gave him a loving home, helped him enjoy life again, and then passed on after giving him everything in her will.
why he doing the trade offer pose
What I want to know is if our friend there would be up for a game of Tarot. He has the cards, just gotta learn how to play!
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