The Truth About Tarot

If you delved even a little bit into spirituality, it’s more than probable that you’ve heard about tarot card readings. Astrology is even more popular, and you can find daily horoscopes on the back of almost any newspaper. But what’s the truth behind these and other divination methods, and why are we so attracted to knowing the future?

Well, getting a glimpse into our future is only one part of the story. The other part is getting to know ourselves, our personality traits, our characters. Astrologers, oracles, palm readers and other professionals claim that they can provide profound insights about ourselves that may be hidden from us, and that can help a great deal with leading a better life.

Most people given a horoscope, a tarot or palm reading rate the accuracy between 80-90% on average, and almost nobody below 50%. There were numerous experiments concluded, where a group of subjects were given the exact same description, and still rated it as very accurate. There’s also a confession from a palm reader, who deliberately stated the very opposite of what the palm said, and the subject was blown away by how precise the reading was.

The trick lies in how the statements are formulated. These readings are always vague generalizations that can be true to almost anybody, or they contain opposite statements in the very same sentence. For example, this is a sentence that one scientist in this area gave to people: You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. But who doesn’t want to be liked, and who isn’t critical occasionally?

Here’s another example for an all-encompassing statement: At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Again, this is true to everybody, because nobody is introverted or extroverted all the time. But if these sentences are so generic, why do we sense them to be so precise?

This is because of the so-called Barnum effect, which relies on the natural tendency of people to assign detail and specific meaning to generalized statements or events. Instead of seeing them as generic, they apply it to their own situation, and find examples of how and why it’s true. Barnum statements are widely applied in horoscopes and all kinds of readings, as they don’t require any feedback from the subject.

The other cold reading techniques which do require feedback are used in live settings and are referred to as shotgunning and fishing. The first one gets its name from rapidly firing out different names, characteristics and guesses one after the other. The reader looks for signs in the body language, and hones in on the hits, and quickly moves away from the misses.

He works from there, and tries to make the reading more accurate by moving from general statements to more specific things. As the misses are quickly eliminated, the subject forgets about them, and remembers more about the hits, overemphasizing the successful guesses. This phenomenon is called selective reporting, and is very common in such settings.

Fishing, the second technique I mentioned, relies more on educated guesses, based on statistical data, and on the gender, age and physical attributes of the subject. The reader then throws out a vague statement – this is the bait – and waits for feedback. If the response is positive, the subject is hooked, and convinced of the reader’s psychic abilities.

The authority of the reader is also an important factor, because we tend to trust in people who we see as more experienced than us in a specific area. Subtle flattery also goes a long way, as most people like to hear positive things about themselves and tend to agree with them. For more information about how psychics use cold reading, watch my other video titled “The truth about channeling, psychics and mediums”.

The main problem with spiritual personality readings, and even with scientific personality tests, is that they’re only about your personality after all. But as you may already know, you are not your personality, it’s just a collection of ideas about yourself. If you truly want to face your issues regarding your personality, I suggest shadow work instead. See my video titled “How to do shadow work”.

Besides trying to get to know themselves better, many people turn to psychics because they don’t trust their intuition enough, and want to get reassurance from a third person, or a better understanding of a situation they don’t really understand. There’s a similar reason why speaking with a friend or a professional psychologist is often so helpful. By verbalizing an issue, you are making it more clear for yourself, and it makes you more decisive.

Deep down in your heart you already know what you should do, but you don’t trust it enough. Whatever the tarot cards or other divination tools tell you, you make it fit with your pre-existing belief about what’s the right thing to do. However, if the cards tell you exactly the opposite thing as your intuition, this kind of guidance can be truly misleading.

If you listen to the advice of a randomly thrown dice or some randomly picked cards instead of the true voice of your higher self, you could be making a big mistake. That’s why I suggest not to use these esoteric tools at all, but strenghten your intuition instead. To help you with that, I created a video titled “How to trust your intuition”.

I haven’t yet spoken of the third reason why people search out clairvoyants, palmists and astrologers: to get a glimpse of the future. There’s no time to elaborate on that here, but I put up a separate episode about this topic titled “The truth about oracles, prophets, and fortune-tellers”. If you enjoyed this episode, you’ll love that even more!

In this free report, I’ll reveal my number one secret to spiritual enlightenment that almost nobody else speaks about. Download it now below, to find out what it is! I can guarantee you, you’ll be surprised!

Memento Mori!