Confirmation bias is the tendency to pay attention to and interpret information as supporting one's existing biases. We often unconsciously spin things; we'll notice 'that one guy' who confirms that all Seaside Wanderers Football Team supporters are loudmouthed louts, and conveniently ignore the 20 others who are sauntering along minding their own business.
I see this sometimes in card reading. While sometimes I think having the cards confirm a hunch isn't a bad thing, I think it's important to be open to new ideas - very often, they're trying to tell us something we don't want to hear. Often it's something we know in our heart-of-hearts but are trying to ignore, or it's the still voice of reason fighting against our long-held passions.
I notice this in requests for card reading advice: how can this mean xyz? "well, my feeling is that it means abc". And then a reply of 'well thanks but no, but I'm *sure* it really means xyz, because...'.
Or the drawing cards again and again because we didn't like what it said the first time.
I find that often I get querents who don't really want to know the truth. They just want a reading to tell them what they want to hear. I have had people ask difficult questions where I actually had to stop and ASK them if they were SURE they wanted to know the answer to what they asked no matter what came up. Because if I do the reading I can't control what the cards have to say, but it will be the truth. When I ask them that they say they no longer want to know.
The danger as I see it if drawing new cards again and again because we don't like the first answer is that the first answer was right. If we keep asking we risk the cards giving us false answers (or rather they stop answering if we keep asking the same question over and over). The first answer was right, but subsequent answers may not be.
Worse, if the first answer came up then we NEED to know it. To pay attention to it so we can make the appropriate changes to better the situation. If we ignore that and dont tale it seriously, that means we don't make those changes. And the situation shown that we wanted to avoid never changes, or worsens.
We are told things because we need to know them so things can work out for the best. We are not told things just to be hurtful. We are told because we need to know them to create something better. If we refuse to know them, then we can never better the situation. To bury your head in the sand means to seal your fate. When otherwise you could have changed that future to something so much better.
Babs
