Why so many Tarot readers or psychics are wrong?

Grizabella

Sorry about that Grizabella :heart:

I also think that you sensed something. Big hug at distance!

Thank you. He's been gone a long time now, but every once in awhile I'll think "I'll have to ask Roy about that" about something or other. It never completely goes away.

Your question was why so many readers are wrong, and I think it's just that maybe they aren't meant to tell you the particular answer the sitter is looking for. It might be that the sitter is supposed to figure it out for themselvesy

There are really so many reasons why. Some might not have studied the cards in earnest. Some might not even have the gift to translate them, although I believe anyone who wants to can develop a working relationship with the cards to some degree or other. Some may have learned card meanings but not developed their skill enough to fully understand the spreads they use rather than just reading "this card means this" and "that card means that", without being able to see what the cards are saying in groups and clusters.

However, many times the reader isn't wrong. Over a longer period of time, what's been seen in the cards might actually come about. I can't count the number of times where the events in a reading materialize even a few years down the road. I'll see the person again and they tell me or there will be a friend or relative who will tell me that something I saw was right on.
 

Barleywine

However, many times the reader isn't wrong. Over a longer period of time, what's been seen in the cards might actually come about. I can't count the number of times where the events in a reading materialize even a few years down the road. I'll see the person again and they tell me or there will be a friend or relative who will tell me that something I saw was right on.

We haven't really touched on the subjects of timing and effective range of a reading here. Certainly what seems "wrong" today can be "right" tomorrow (or next week or next month and, of course, vice-versa) simply because, as the situation envolves, random factors emerge that change the picture. Even at its best, a tarot reading is only a "snapshot" of a set of relatively near-term probabilities; the distant future is typically too slippery to get an accurate fix on, so we look for telling hints using the cards to the best of our "reflective and discerning" abilities, in Waite's insightful terminology. Ideally, doing a series of readings over time as the matter develops would pick up on any diverging trends, but that approach has its own pitfalls.

If an answer is sought within a specific time-frame ("Will I get the job offer within a month?" or "Will X come back to me by September?"), the farther away the target date gets from the reading, the more likely these uncertainties are to intervene. This inevitable flux puts bounds on the reliability of any prediction. If a sitter is "testing" the reader by asking questions on the order of "What did I have for lunch today?" (I'm being ironic here, but you get the idea), that strikes me as merely operating in bad faith.
 

Laurelle

Interesting thread.

I actually stopped giving readings because I didn't find that it was helpful for many, various reasons.

1. If you were meant to know the future, you would already know yourself.

2. I actually don't believe in free-will (it's a religious things that I don't want to get into)

3. Back to free will......You do have a tiny amount of free will, but time is merely an illusion and we choose what lessons we are to learn before we come to earth, which is why I don't necessarily believe in free will. This is just MY opinion. It's not meant to be a discussion on free will vs. predestination.

4. Now if we choose to have a little adventure on earth and learn lessons, how does knowing the future prepare us? It kind of doesn't. And that is why you can skip to Number 8.....

5. I decided to stop giving readings...back to that...I had one girl obsess...and i mean obsess.....I described a man she would meet. She thought she met him and then tried to force herself on him. She kept writing back to me over and over and over again. And my only response was, "Why don't you just let it unfold naturally." Now I have to think either that wasn't the guy or she used the small amount of free will she had to mess up the situation or I was just horrible wrong and good at describing people. Sure, I could describe the man.....but maybe I was wrong. Maybe what I saw was just her crushing and falling in love with a man whose love would always be unrequited. And I also never, ever said that she would MARRY the guy, which she kept confusing in her head because that was what she so desperately wanted. I actually described something quite different for her and a marriage much later. Did I see some kind of romance between her and the guy I described, yes, I did. Was I wrong. I think so. I am never 100% right. Psychics are not omni-present. They are not God.

6. I had a horrible reading by "real" tarot reading. You know, the one with the website that usually comes up to the top of google. The dumbest part about it was that I had a negative feeling before I asked for the reading. but then I thought maybe I was being judgmental because she was so pretty. and I have been judged a lot by the way I look, so I thought maybe I was projecting.

6a. She didn't answer the questions I wanted and then admonished me about karma and my "choice" to fall in love with a married man who I NEVER had an affair with. So .......LOVE is a bad karmic mistake? no...I don't think so. Like I said, I think she assumed I had an affair with him, which I wouldn't do. So...no need to admonish anyone or lecture anyone over a karmic event that NEVER happened.

6b. She predicted a man....fairly accurate. So I meet a man like the man she describes. I had actually met him prior to her reading, but got a shadying feeling from him. So flash forward 6 months and there my girlfriend and I are at starbucks when said guy walks in.....and I think.....maybe that's him. And my girlfriend was like, "He's so cute. go for it...." Well.....ends up he hired me to build a website for him, which I did....but because I was so so sure that it was totally possible that we could be soul mates I let the fact I wasn't getting paid slide.....and the fact he had anger management issues, impulse control, possible Narssistic Personality Disorder and was a weirdo control freak just slide out of my view of judgement...... And guess what? He owes me 2 grand for a website that I made for him. I had to threaten litigation (don't even have the money for that!), but he took down the website (that I built) and replaced it with some template built site a month later. ANYWAY! that just SUCKED.
6c. I was hustled by said "soul mate" and the woman who gave me the reading. And the whole time I ignore my own intuition. I will not call this woman out publically, but if you want to know who she was you can PM me. And who knows, maybe I'll met ANOTHER guy who fits his description next year, but the whole point was that my decision to do business with him was SWAYED by a reading that wasn't entirely accurate and had many, many false points.


7. I have had a very, very good experience with Patricia Mclaine.(google her) She has described accurate things. Sometimes she describes things that I think, "That's not true....I would never"...like when she said I would fall in love with a cat. I told her, "I would never get a cat. I hate cat hair and the litter box." Flash forward two years later I am so, so, so in love with my cat Loki. So sometimes, psychics will say things that doesn't resonate at the moment....but we are in denial because we really don't know ourselves as good as we do. Like we have this certain projection in our own head about where we think and want our live to go, but it doesn't always go that way.

I have also come across this with readings I give for people. There is a lot of "That's not true." and then the call 2 years later...."What you said happened." Or there is the point where you are slighly off and the client doesn't make the connection. For example, you say, "You have a big family." and the client says, "No, I don't." and you repeat, "I see a lot of family around you." the client says, "No, I don't have a family. I'm not married. No children." Now...I could have stopped there....but I was so so sure I could see a lot of family....so I said, "Do you have a lot of brothers or sisters..?" and the reply was, "Yes, I'm one of 12." I would say that's a BIG family, but the client was in denial because she didn't have her own immediate family. There can be disconnects.

Professions are also hard to predict. Like when you tell someone they are in one field, but it's just closely related to a similar field, so there in denial about that too. Or this one "I see you moving a lot. did you just move?" the reply is , "no"....Psychic says"I see boxes around you, a lot of moving boxes..." and then....."Oh! well my parents own a moving company."

8. I stopped giving readings because it's not my place to tell anyone who you will marry, what school you will go to, or what will unfold...and most of the time when you WARN people of bad things....they do NOTHING to change it. So what's the point in that..... Like for instance I have a client who I've read for many times....."Beware of the woman in red....She's foreign...She's not who she says she is..." Nope, he signs a business deal with her, get scammed and comes back for another reading...."Don't let your girlfriend's daughter drive your 80 thousand dollar car, she'll wreck it." Can you guess what happened?

If you've read all this....thank you for taking the time.
 

Barleywine

If you were meant to know the future, you would already know yourself.

This lies at the heart of how I've always suspected tarot (or any method of divination) actually works: it explains you to yourself in ways that conscious awareness often overlooks. At one point there was (and as far as I know, still is) a fascination with the idea that the subjective reality we live in is one our subconscious mind creates for us, and that we then "inhabit." It presupposes that the True Will executes its "blueprint" irrespective of our superficial desires; not so much a question of "good" or "bad" as one of "necessity." So, in essence, we "know" everything about that reality in advance, we are just unable to connect with it reliably on an experiential level until "something happens," except perhaps in foreshadowing flashes like dreams and premonitions. Enter tarot, the "psychic can-opener" that tries to tease out traces of this elusive self-knowledge in a more orderly and proactive way. Anyway, it's probably as sound a working hypothesis as any for those of us who don't cotton to the "divine revelation" argument.
 

tarot_quest

I read your reply and you brought interesting points! Also, I also like your honesty about giving some inaccurate readings, we are all here to learn after all.

3. Back to free will......You do have a tiny amount of free will, but time is merely an illusion and we choose what lessons we are to learn before we come to earth, which is why I don't necessarily believe in free will. This is just MY opinion. It's not meant to be a discussion on free will vs. predestination.

I also think that we choose most of the lessons we will experience on Earth before incarnating. And yes, I don't think that we have 100% free will; inside this ''planed sequence of events'', we have enough latitude to take decisions, but external factors can be so important that they ''drive'' us in a certain direction.


4. Now if we choose to have a little adventure on earth and learn lessons, how does knowing the future prepare us? It kind of doesn't. And that is why you can skip to Number 8.....

Very good point! My hypothesis at the beginning of this thread was that every question asked to a tarot reader/psychic will not necessarily be answered. As you said, what is the point of knowing something if you came on Earth to experience something in particular by yourself? On the other hand, I am sure that in some circumstances, getting some perspective and insights from a reading are truly helpful, but not always...
 

tarot_quest

It presupposes that the True Will executes its "blueprint" irrespective of our superficial desires; not so much a question of "good" or "bad" as one of "necessity."

What you said truly resonate for me :)

Could we call it a ''divine order''? Like if everything was interconnected and every reaction/decision impact this bigger plan?

I find it so difficult, with a human mind (and not from a divine point of view) to explain the difference between free will and destiny. If some events are predicted YEARS in advance, isn't because some events were ''planed''?

I like to see it this way: Let's imagine (even for non-religions people) that there is a god that can see the past, present and future simultaneously (he has every answers). Then we us humans live our lives with free will everyday. But since this ''God'' can fast forward the ''film of life'', he can see down the road what every free action will ultimately lead to.

Hence, when we accurately predict an event with a tarot reading (or from a precognitive dream), we can access this ''future''.


So, in essence, we "know" everything about that reality in advance, we are just unable to connect with it reliably on an experiential level until "something happens," except perhaps in foreshadowing flashes like dreams and premonitions.

Yes, when you say ''until something happen'', it is because an event triggers a response in us and we can tap into this ''sequence of events'' and we feel that we are part of this flow of life.

Just my opinion here
 

Smiling

A lot of what's been said here has resonated for me, too, and enjoyed reading the article that you posted - thanks!

http://www.afterlifetv.com/2013/05/...pitfalls-of-future-predictions-in-readings-2/[/QUOTE]

A lot of key points in Mr. Olson's post, and this one stuck out for me -

'I actually personally don’t give a lot of weight to a prediction when I get it in a reading. So when I’m getting a reading and predictions are given, I don’t give them a lot of weight. I don’t think of them as being very significant, but I do put them into account and I’ll place them in the back of my mind, just in case there are other messages that I get along the way that are the same or similar. And then I start to pay attention to them.'

I would add that this would, for me, relate to not just predictions but advice, as well, that may be offered in readings. From the readings I've received from psychics and tarot readers over the years, I've learned (sometimes the hard way! :D) how important it is to slow it down and reflect on any advice as well as predictions offered in readings, to be sure to give priority to my inner voice, and what it's telling me. And ask, what parts are resonating for me, and how can I best apply the advice or predictive insight? And then, like Olson says, put it in the back of my mind and see what other patterns may emerge around it to support it...
 

DownUnderNZer

Some interesting perspectives here.

True some things are not meant to be known and any reading whether Tarot or not is just a "snapshot".

I was told years ago that some will be stronger than others with abilities and that some will remain at a kindergarten level whereas others will go on to primary, high school, and beyond. Some are just naturally born with it and therefore are at a higher level from day one. And this is obviously not about Tarot or Oracle readings.

As to why....who knows?

But some are more accurate than this 70% or 80%.

One of the best readers I have ever come across in my entire life was a 6 year old girl from the USA. Likely I would have brought her up before on here somewhere. She would be about 13 or 14 years old now and lived in the UK one part there and even here in Australia. I was in Japan when I got to chatting with her via Skype I think. She told her granny (my friend) that she wanted to talk to me. I had never interacted with her and as far as I knew - she didn't know me. I had heard about her of course.

When we conversed I was in Japan, her gran in the USA, and she was in the UK. It was the only time we ever interacted before her gran got sick etc, etc, etc.


Mind blowing experience I can tell you.

Some things she told me - wow oh wow! The only thing against her was her "limitation" with vocabulary. And I'm not talking about "predictions" or "future" things....this kid had a real "knowing" beyond her years and would have most peoples jaws dropping. You think John Edward is amazing - this kid ran circles around him. And she was no medium!

Never forget how she described one ancestor standing behind me with a feather cloak, tattoos, and what have you - not to mention my tribal mountain and the two lakes.

In her words more or less: "You come from a place where people poke out their tongues". :bugeyed:

How many 6 year olds would know something like that? She couldn't say Maori. And her gran told her nothing about me because she is the same way inclined only not as strong. She wanted to see what her grand daughter would get from me on her own without knowing me and they even bought her a voice recognition program to use, so no typing.

Her family keep her away from everybody and protect her in every way possible because she sees more than just people that have passed over or what agenda a real person has like a strong bad vibe - things that a child should not see or know really. But she does.

Anyways, some are more in tune than others, and some readers are phenomenal.

For her though - the family had no plans for her to be a "reader", so I have no idea what has become of her.

But...she for me was one of the best without cards or anything nor about it being the future. :thumbsup:

DND :)
 

Barleywine

Could we call it a ''divine order''? Like if everything was interconnected and every reaction/decision impact this bigger plan?

That's not too big a stretch for me. If I were compelled to take on a "religion," it would most likely be Pantheism (I'm already most of the way there anyway): the idea that a "god-consciousness" or "god-force" permeates everything in existence isn't so far-fetched. (Where I differ materially from Spinoza is that I believe he kept the capital "G.") So, for example, the undifferentiated vibratory energy or "binding force" that has been detected at the "nano" level in all matter, and that physicists see as a mechanical (or maybe electro-magnetic) phenomenon, could be construed as a measurable expression of the "divine spark." In that view, even a stone has a type of rudimentary sensibility, even if our faculties can't quite apprehend it as sentient. I've always had a sense that the universe has an underlying metaphysical order to it, and isn't merely random or chaotic, even before I had the conceptual wherewithal to describe my impressions. When this order is "imprinted" on an individual organism, I see no reason why it can be "read" once we have sufficiently sensitive interpretive tools at our disposal. It seems to me that what we have today - as perceptive as it can sometimes be - is the equivalent of a caveman's stone axe.
 

gregory

Radical thought.

Maybe they AREN'T wrong. Maybe we just aren't hearing them right.