FORETELLING THE FUTURE?

Fortune telling is very likely nearly as old as the human race itself... a deployment of the most primitive forms of magical thinking in order to discover some supposed fore-knowledge of human events or destructive natural phenomena. The number of methods to accomplish this in use in the past and today can be considered almost uncountable... anything could signify anything else. It does help if the fortune teller uses props that are visually impressive, such as crystal balls. And it was natural for certain individuals to set themselves up as prophets, people evidently favored by the gods and other supernatural beings, who could thus by some impressive mumbo-jumbo obtain supposedly very accurate knowledge of forthcoming events, which they then proclaimed to all their followers.   Fortune tellers predicted the fates of their specific customers, while prophets aspired to predict the fates of nations and their policies.  The very best fortune tellers are masters at the difficult art of cold reading.





Ben Seidman is a magician and comedian who has developed a very impressive routine that uses a few Tarot cards and some standard techniques used by fortune tellers everywhere. Click on his photo to see a complete performance of the routine. There is a very good card trick involved in the performance, but what spectators will remember is that Seidman seems to know intimate details about a spectator he has never met before in his entire life... using the standard methods developed by the best fortune tellers, a method usually called "cold reading." Most magic dealers offer this great routine, called the Oracle System, for sale. Fortune tellers who do not yet have the experience to do a good cold reading usually present what's known as a formula reading or "stock spiel." This is a memorized general description which would apply to every human being alive, but which is accepted by the client as a personal reading when an appropriate "ritual of personalization" is carried out before the reading is delivered. An intermediate stage is seen, where the fortune teller has memorized several stock spiels, directed more specifically at young women, middle-aged women, elderly women, etc. Because each sex and age group has fairly predictable problems and challenges, these categorized spiels are sometimes even more effective than a cold reading. Experienced "readers" will usually use a combination of cold reading and appropriate parts of stock spiels.   [Beware that some on-line sources written by self-appointed experts confuse formula reading with cold reading.  The best cold readers can successfully imitate the fictional master detective Sherlock Holmes, learning personal details and habits and concerns of an individual merely by close observation of his or her appearance.]



Readers!