What do you think of tarot readings and psychic mediums?

[T1mom]

What do you think of Tarot card readings and similar?

I went to a 'psychic medium' yesterday who was highly recommended by close people I know.

I'm not sure if they were tarot cards or another type of cards. I picked 8 cards, she talked through them. They had relevance to my life but I am skeptical and think that any card could have been twisted to fit my life. She asked a lot of leading questions and I feel like I filled a lot of gaps for her.

My DH saw her separately and thought she was brilliant and bought every word she said. Thought she knew a lot about his life and past and believes every word she said about his future.

What do you think? I'm intrigued because so many friends have totally bought into it.

That has not been my experience. I've had readings where the reader knew absolutely nothing about me—even down to being given a false name—and yet they delivered incredibly specific, accurate details regarding dates, names, and personal situations that they couldn't possibly have known beforehand. Granted, I've had terrible readings too, but it's unfair to paint an entire practice with a broad brush. Just because fraud exists in that field, doesn't mean every single practitioner is a charlatan.

I can't edit my previous post, but that was for curlew, Alan and Margo 😊

Obviously I can’t talk about your individual experience. But experiences like yours are often easy to explain by the techniques shared online by people like James Randi and Derren Brown. Brown in particular has made programmes explaining very clearly how both stage magicians like him and “psychics” do it.

@Dahlia1234 I don't want to dismiss your own belief, so I won't. Our beliefs differ and that is fine.

I completely agree, and I've seen those kinds of demonstrations myself. Of course, there will always be people who rely on cold reading and pretend to have abilities they don't actually possess.
However, I can only go by my own personal experiences. I’ve been given specific, actual names rather than vague guesses like, 'I have an "A" name here.' I've also been told directly that my mother was present, rather than being asked a generic question like, 'Do you know an older lady in spirit?'
While I like to keep an open mind, I certainly don't believe everything—in fact, I can be quite cynical. But I genuinely believe there are many things in this world and beyond that we simply can't explain, and for me, this is one of them.

I’ve been to a tarot card reader who was a total con. My friend has been to a medium who gave her a CD recording but my friend didn’t think much of it. Then there’s my mum’s close friend who’s been to a medium, at first she said it was great and she’d recommend him, now she says no way avoid. Personally I think if you’re Romany or something with a gift and no social media presence then you might have a gift. Otherwise no.

Of course there are things we can’t yet explain. But there are many things we can. And every paranormal incident that has been properly investigated has been explainable.

I think we will have to agree to disagree on this one Curlew! I do however, respect your point of view and hope you can appreciate mine as well 😊

What is the proportion of accurate to no good?

And how accurate was the accurate ?

Know what I mean ?

If you went through all the readings you have had, and added up all the statements you felt to be accurate, and otherwise, what % were correct ?

Funny enough, the book I am reading at the moment is about this. A fairly old one. James Herbert, "The Dark".

Good old horror fiction.

I think when people say " there have been experiments in Russia.....", it mainly comes from fiction like that.

As you say, there have been no experiments that show any of it to be true.

I'm a Spiritualist/ Clairvoyant/ Medium..I've actually in the past helped the local police ( yes they do use us). Was an escaped prisoner l found.. this was 30 years ago.

Well!!!

My username has absolutely never been so fantastic on a thread!

I am interested in this sort of thing

But my only experience is from pre-Internet days

No one could have checked up on me before doing reading

I don't think I would go and see one now - too easy for them to find out things about you

@SuitcaseAndSecrets that's very interesting work

My understanding that the police do not reach out to clairvoyants, but have to take them seriously if they come forward, because they may have important information from other sources.

Do you cold read people? Do you think you have a gift?

Interesting. How did you get into it?

Has anyone had parts of their future predicted that came true?

I don’t believe in tarot. I do believe in mediums BUT I think there are a lot of frauds around. I was brought up around mediums as my mum was really into it and I have seen a couple that were amazing.

While around half the mediums I’ve seen were obvious frauds using vague cold-reading, a good 25% were undeniably accurate. One lady I saw was excellent, stating the exact names of three close relatives
before confirming my recent house move, job change, and a highly specific trick my late grandfather used to entertain us. Because I booked anonymously with no digital footprint, guessing was impossible. While much of the industry is rubbish, that spot-on 25% convinces me there is genuine truth to some of i

Yes. One psychic I saw told me when my two daughters would meet their future partners, what they both looked like, the fact that one had a trade (he's a plumber), their names, and which of my girls would leave home first. She also told me I would retire to the sea - I'm really hoping that comes true! 😊

Logically, no. The devil is the father of lies. Demons might be real. If so, they might supply just enough 'truth' (knowledge of hidden or strange things) to reel people in. Then manipulate people, do bait and switch, instil fear, and so on. Real is not the same as true.

FWIW, I think that humans who say they do divination are most likely greedy con artists or mentally unwell.

ETA I am a Christian but often agree with @CurlewKate!

Yes

I believe in mediums hence I'd never see one as I'm scared to dabble in that kind of thing.

A friend told me of a medium who was utterly spot on about their situation.

A good friend and her partner are professional mediums - there's a whole development thing to it, it's very real to them - lifestyle/ religion.

I wasn't sure how accurate they are, one threw a few things at me once without me asking and nothing was right, although the other knew what the sex of my baby was going to be.

I prefer to develop my own intuition and listen to my own inner voice.

Everyone will have bc of confirmation bias

not at all

I can tell you the lady who told me things that came true

I can tell you I saw a couple of other people who told me complete crap and now I don't go any more because I wouldn't waste the money

One of my friends went to one last year - also got told total rubbish, the person she saw put a timeframe on the predictions so we know what was said was nonsense because that timeframe has passed

I'm sure 99% of them are rubbish

when you say "confirmation bias" you're thinking of the people who just really want some of it to be true are you? I think people are rational enough to say "that was crap"

I mean that if someone tells you things, and some of those things happen to correspond a bit to what occurs in your life later, you are likely to exaggerate how many things 'came true' and how true they were, and to forget how many things didn't. By 'you' I mean human people.

Even random guesses will sometimes 'come true'.

A good cold reader can predict the way a good financier can read the stock market.