Using Your Brain 24/7

It's cool. I'm not a believer either. But the topics are related. Mentalism.

I've studied hypnosis, NLP, body language, microgestures, etc. To me, it's about studying and understanding how our minds work, both for us and also seemingly against us.

In the case of Tarot Cards, they aren't anything magical or mystical - I don't believe in any of that nonsense. I see them more as being a Rorschach test for your present beliefs. We all know about the power of positive thinking. With a skilled reader, tarot cards really aren't much other than a way to facilitate new positive thoughts. They don't create the positive thoughts. Those are created within the person seeking the reading. They are merely a catalyst for the new ideas. For example...

When using the cards, you might turn over a card and say, "This card represents a present situation in your life". The subject (known as a Querent) who is receiving the reading will readily find some meaning to the reader's interpretation of the card. To do this, the skilled reader picks up on cues and gestures to help figure out where the "hits" and "misses" are, and thus steers the reading into directions that the subject finds meaningful. It's just a sort of a mind game at that point... but then it becomes interesting...

The reader might say, "This next card indicates how you presently perceive the situation". They turn over a card and use the same cold reading techniques to tell the querent what they already know about how they feel about "that" situation. And then the reader will turn over another card and say, "And this is what the future looks like..." And with that card, suddenly the querent starts going on a little directed fantasy-trip, being warned of dangers, or perhaps being reassured about the outcome.

In some ways, tarot cards are like any other form of directed fantasy, except that the reader, through his or her skills as a reader (basically reading people as much as the cards themselves) ensures that the direction involves actual situations in the querent's life. This means that the querent starts thinking about their situations or problems in new or different ways quite, as you stated, by the random chance of the cards.

I don't believe in Tarot Cards, but I do use them as an entertaining way to achieve some personal growth through creative thinking. And rarely do I give a reading, or do one for myself, where the querent doesn't walk away with some new insight into their situation or problem. This is just a very natural result from thinking carefully about a situation, and being open to the alternative randomly created viewpoints within the cards and spending a little bit of time imagining the possible future outcomes.

Tarot cards induce an open mind to those who are willing to try it because it bypasses a TON of logical filters in people by their mysterious nature, the skills of the reader in finding the relevant meaning, and perhaps some suspension of disbelief... no different from being entertained at a movie theatre. And it does create actual, valuable insight... in the same way as hypnosis, dreams, or psychotherapy can. It opens you and presents ideas to try out. Just don't take it to be any more than it is. There is nothing mystical or magical in it. At least, that's my viewpoint on it.


One last point I wanted to make: About 95% of the people interested in tarot readings are women. And I've been known to take a deck of tarot cards to the bar with me, and to other social gatherings. It's definitely more socially-rewarding for me than standing around talking about sports. And I always start out by saying, "My readings are for entertainment purposes only..." I don't, however, specify who is the one being entertained. And I get free drinks out of it.