AIBU to ask whether any of you are particularly good at English?

[Flyinga]

Can someone interpret this sentence into plain old English for me pretty please?

It's in the context of a psychic reading. Not interested in getting into the ins and outs of that, just want to know what the sentence means as I don't understand it.

There is a deeply spiritual tone to your reading, almost esoteric, certainly powerfully archetypal

What does that mean?

It looks like the kind of meaningless bollocks Private Eye quotes in Pseuds’ Corner.

Sometimes I use complicated words I don't understand to make me sound more photosynthesis.

Oh good old photosynthesis. He was a very intelligent fellow wasn't he?

What is 'Private Eye quotes in Pseuds’ Corner'

Is my esoteric nature missing out on something I could be archetypically indulging in?

She didn't say you were esoteric but that the spiritual tone of the teaching was esoteric. Your reading wasn't everyday or banal, it was typified by a higher meaning, one which could be understood only by an elite of sensitive souls. Nonetheless, there was something in it that relates to all of us in our deepest being.

Any clearer?

@catburglar

Ok, thanks. That's what I was looking for. Just a translation so to speak.
It actually makes sense now in the context of the rest of the reading.

I think she meant it to mean that your reading was very powerful and deep and full of ancient meaning.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_esotericism
I think she means "Your reading is deeply spiritual, almost mystical, certainly it contains a lot of powerful symbols."

Private Eye has a column called Pseuds’ Corner with a round up of topical pretentious quotes. It’s very funny.

It's funny, because I've often felt like I have a higher purpose than just living. Hard to describe, as I have a pretty shit life, but I feel I was put here to do something. I'm like the cat of nine lives and nothing seems to kill me. So I do feel that there is some reason for my existence that I haven't quite figured out yet. I'm aware how wooo that sounds, but I have questioned my existence more than once. Not sure what the point of me is, but time after time I seem to survive horrific things in my life.

The rest of her reading made absolute sense to me. And now that sentence makes sense, I can see where she's coming from. I sort of do believe in woo shit. My Dad frequently has dreams, tells someone about them and the exact thing happens that day. I'm not like that, but maybe I'm a bit woo.

I'm a cynic, but I found the reading comforting. It was free after all, so a bit of fun. A bit of spiritual guidance can't go astray sometimes I think.

This looks like a sentence written by a year 6 child who has used a thesaurus to find more interesting vocabulary without really understanding the meaning of the words, or the correct context in which to use them.

The trouble is that any person who was told that could apply it to themselves and rather like the implications, unless you know someone who'd be glad to be called shallow and irrelevant?

Well I am shallow and irrelevant really!

I'm very glad that didn't cost you actual money...

but maybe I'm a bit woo.

indeed.

I get paid to write. This is crap English which looks to me like someone's trying to appear cleverer than they are.

Isn't it just the Barnum Effect though, all this psychic/horoscope stuff.

What's the Barnum Effect?

I kind of believe the reading because of this one sentence

"Was someone or something taken from you, or vanished?"

The answer to that is yes.

The entire reading is uncannily accurate.

It's total bollocks speak, designed to make the "psychic" appear smart and you feel all special.

People who prey on the vulnerable by saying they are psychic are the lowest of the low.

Was someone or something taken from you, or vanished?

That applies to me too. And probably 50% of the other people posting in here.

How can something/someone be esoteric and archetypal at the same time? Powerfully so, even?

But that would apply to approximately 99% of the population, OP . Most people have "lost" someone, or something, or been ghosted at some time, or been a victim of theft or robbery, or had something metaphorical taken from them in some way...

Cross post Donkey- we must be psychic

I kind of believe the reading because of this one sentence

"Was someone or something taken from you, or vanished?"

The answer to that is yes.

But the answer to that would be 'yes' for most people.

XXX post!

Every human has had some one taken from them, or vanished.

You clearly desperately want the reading to be right, hence the way you've latched onto the few translations of that crap sentence as something deep and meaningful as opposed to the multiple interpretations of it as meaningless bollocks. It doesn't show you have a higher purpose in life at all.

So of course it's uncannily correct, because you want it to be, so are retrofitting experiences to fit what you've been told.