Would anyone listen to a psychic? Or is it total rubbish?

[MartyMcFlown]

I'm feeling potty even asking this, but my very old Grandma has been reading the tea leaves for a long time and I was visiting her and as I was walking out she told me that I was going to marry the man in the blue and white striped shirt, and that he was quiet and didn't give much away but that I was going to love him more than I have ever loved anyone; and to be kind to him and gave me a bit more advice.

I was then quite weirded out when the man I am dating walked into a date last night in a blue and white stiped shirt.

I hadn't told Gran I was seeing anyone, but the whole thing had me wondering if I should take the advice she gave me.

Are things like this just total random rubbish or would anyone listen to it?

toffee my mind is opened by facts XP

Facts in this are often subjective.

A good friend of mine was in a cafe years ago - she was a teenager at the time - where a supposed psychic was doing readings, and went over for a giggle.
The stupid bloody bitch told her that her future was so sad and horrific that she couldn't tell her what it was.
She has never quite relaxed since. Nothing very terrible has happened, and I wouldn't say it has ruined her life - she'd be healthily sceptical - but if it occasionally floats into MY mind, I imagine she thinks of it often.
Vicious mad woman.

I do believe that some people have the gift of mediumship and some people are psychic. However the vast majority of Tarot readers are not, they have simply taught themselves the "art" of reading Tarot. I think there are a lot of charlatans who are in it for the money. And I think the ethics around this are quite interesting.

I have read cards for friends for years. I read playing cards, in a 21 card spread. I have forewarned friends about all sorts of things and much of it has come to pass, good and bad. I find it exhausting. The real art is not reading the meanings of the cards, but the subtext if you like, every card must be placed in context with the others. If you read from left to right it is confusing and often gives a totally false reading. A reading should not give specific advice or be used as a pretext for taking action on anything. It is often only retrospectively that the person can look back and make sense of what they were told.

I have also found that if you shuffle and lay the cards again often the same cards appear and many in the same place. I have given a friend a reading on three consecutive days when the cards have all come out the same.

You cannot read your own cards, why people try I don't know. I have tried and every time I have ended up with a reading for someone else in front of me.

But...I'm agnostic! its interesting but I wouldn't stake my life on any of it ;)

I could never get playing cards to work. I also have some beautiful decks of tarots cards that are absolutely useless, they fall utterly randomly and don't repeat the same positions regularly. I have two decks that work. Generally I would use one but other times I will get a strong feeling towards the other.

I don't use them often. I hate being cassandra

Doublebubblebubble but facts do not exist outside the mind perceiving them. We create facts. Science creates theories, many of which are eventually turned over and refuted. Netwon-Einstein...different paradigms, neither of which refutes the other, so it is simply a case of deciding which paradigm we prefer. There is little in life that is objective, although relying upon "subjectivity" to make fact what we believe is careless.

themarxistminx that kind of thinking is exactly what the creationists want to hear lol XP

What you are doing there ^ is using information that has already been proved (gravity/relativity)to make it seem as though there is always or has to be two choices or reasons behind why life is the way it is...like the life of Pi (I am atheist can you tell and I always "go with god" in that book because "surprise surprise" i am human. It is always easier to go for the easiest option.

with psychics there is irrefutably no EVIDENCE (namely because noone is willing to be tested (what with the chance of being caught out) that what is going on is real, isn't staged, isn't being fed, isn't purely coincidental and isn't going to damage vulnerable people at the end of the day...

Also just For your example - What Newton did (and excuse the pun) was take a bite of the apple and decide that it was bad. Einstien was sure that this was right but wanted to test for himself so took a bite from a different side of the apple and agreed that it was bad but in a different way.

They were both right and both proved right with their theories many many times over Because this is all written down, agreed, FACT. The end.

It is extremely easy to disprove or prove someone to be psychic...

I've seen in my industry only evidence for the former.

with psychics there is irrefutably no EVIDENCE (namely because noone is willing to be tested (what with the chance of being caught out)

And someone will tell you it doesn't work like that or anyone with any tendencies would be a millionaire. You will think "that's convenient".

You won't wonder whether your expectation or understanding is wrong, you will fit it into your skepticism.

Your experience the the "facts" will be treated as subjectively as mine

I don't think I am a gift to the creationists, and I have no time for atheism either. There is no scientific test to determine the existence or non existence of god, it can not be falsified and we simply can never know. We can think, we can believe but we can't know. And besides even the things we know, we don't know them with 100% certainty. Language is interesting and maths. There are certain logical statements that are perfect and can't be argued against, but then we create language...we made it that way! I think logic is the nearest thing to truth, but again even this is created by us, it isn't external to the workings of the mind.

I agree, why don't psychics submit themselves to testing. But first we must devise a fair test which excludes subjectivity, of those being read for, those doing the reading and those collecting the data. Bias to be found everywhere!

Fortune telling precedes science, not just because the "old ways" were shown to be faulty but because of lots of other factors. Changes to technology, changes in economics, changes in politics, philosophy and the birth of humanism. Its fascinating though that the old ways seep through because we haven't been able to fully disprove their validity.