Who knew that Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, was crazy for Tarot? I didn’t.
I just got Mary K. Greer’s latest blog update (if you’re not subscribing to her blog yet – do it now) and she’s written about a BBC broadcast of Burgess’ short story Chance Would Be A Fine Thing. The story is about a not-so-wise woman who looks to the cards for some gambling advice. And it’s fabulous!!
Burgess himself designed a Tarot deck and was apparently fascinated by prediction. His biographer, Andrew Biswell describes him as having, “had a strong interest in horoscopes, tarot cards and predictive dreams.” In volume two of his autobiography, he claimed to have predicted Kennedy’s assassination a year before it happened.
This cautionary Tarot tale is brilliantly read by John Sessions. It’s only 20 minutes long, but don’t wait to listen. It’s only going to be available till this Friday, October 29th. After that it’ll disappear till 2013 when we can see it again in the Collected Short Stories Biswell is editing.
As both a Cephalopod, and a Seer, he touched the hearts, and opened the minds of millions. Not only did he make the world see that divining the future might be possible, he did so as an Octopus.
Psychics and Sea Life aren’t given much respect in our world these days. Paul swam up for both and we thank him for that.
Today is election day here in Toronto, so I’m interested, and maybe even heartened, by the appearance of the Hermit as the Card of the Day.
I’m hoping it reflects how our City’s population will consider the vote for School Trustees, City Councillors and Mayor.
Wisdom, knowledge through experience, considered thinking, and respect for the welfare of others are all gifts of the Hermit. His approach is serious and reflective. Glitz and showy manoeuvres are not his style, though bringing light to the dark is a primary aspiration.
I’m hoping too that those elected will take the energy of the Hermit to heart. They will be charged with a serious obligation, one that influences the lives of millions of people within and beyond our city limits. Whoever wins, may wisdom and humility rule their time in office.
Good luck and fair play to all.
And to any Torontonians that haven’t yet voted …. get out and do it now! Everyone’s voice matters. Let’s hear yours.
Social psychologist Dr. Daryl Bem of Cornell University has been conducting experiments on the human potential to anticipate future experiences. In other words, he’s trying to figure out if we can really see into the future or not.
Over the course of 9 experiments, soon to be published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Dr. Bem took commonly accepted effects like ‘studying improves memory’ and ‘priming decreases response time’ and turned them upside down. The results are intriguing.
In one of the experiments, a group of college students were given a list of words to read over. When they finished reading the list they were given a surprise recall test to determine how many words on the list they could remember. When the test was done, a computer randomly generated a selection of words from the list of tested words. These words were given to each student as ‘practice’. The students were asked to retype the practice words several times.
Now here’s the fun part …. in the original surprise recall test, the students did better on the practice words randomly selected by the computer after they took the test than they did on the words the computer didn’t pick and they didn’t retype.
It kind of spins your head, but as Psychology Today reports, “According to Bem, practicing the words after the test somehow allowed the participants to ‘reach back in time to facilitate recall.'” That’s pretty wild stuff.
I’ll be interested to see how the scientific community responds to Bem’s study. The comments posted after the Psychology Today article might give us a taste.
Hey! Take a look at this video! It’s our good friend Chanah Liora Weizenberg doing a reading about the upcoming gubernatorial election in Massachusetts.
Another case has been filed in US Federal Court against prohibitions on fortune telling. This case involves Candice Wohlfeil, a tarot reader from East Ridge, Tennessee.
She’s been reading cards from a booth at a flea market since 2007. In 2008 a Codes Enforcer came by and told her she was in violation of a local ordinance banning fortune-telling. She questioned the constitutionality of the law and was told the City would look into it and get back to her. They didn’t, until this past September when she was told that if she didn’t stop reading cards, she’d be fined $500 per violation. She closed down her booth.
After attempting to contact the City Attorney with no success, Wohlfeil approached the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee. They’ve taken up her case and brought it to Federal Court.
As reported by WDEF.com, ACL-TN Cooperating Attorney Donna Roberts of Stites & Harbison PLLC said, “The First Amendment precludes the government from declaring which ideas are acceptable or not. Our client has the right to make predictions, whether for fun or profit, without the government discriminating against the content of her speech.”
I haven’t had the chance to read Jimmy Carter’s newest book, White House Diary yet, but apparently, he has some good things to say about the CIA using parapsychology for intelligence gathering.
According to Politico.com, an entry from his diary on April 11, 1979 says “Both we and the Soviets use these parapsychologists on occasion to help us with sensitive intelligence matters, and the results are unbelievable.”
Later in the book while reflecting on this point, Carter comments, “The proven results of these exchanges between our intelligence services and parapsychologists raise some of the most intriguing and unanswerable questions of my presidency. They defy logic, but the facts are undeniable.”
Of course the CIA is adamant that they no longer engage in any sort of parapsychology research. But I wonder … did they tell us they were using it last time they did?
Anyway, good stuff Jimmy! I can’t wait to read the book.
The State Duma in Russia has taken the first steps to forbid the promotion of ‘mystical’ services through the mass media. According to The Moscow News, at present, such advertising is all over the printed press and TV.
Promising the return of lost love, money spells and cures for illness, shady fortune-tellers are duping the public. At least that’s how the government sees it and they want it to stop.
All healers who claim to use any unconventional or occult methods in their work would be affected by the new law. An exception will be made, however, for those who obtain a valid state license.
The Russian Orthodox Church supports the move. According to RT.com, the Moscow Patriarchate said in a public statement, ‘No civilized country can allow such a rampancy of self-advertising ‘magicians’ and ‘miracle-workers.'”
They too however accepted the possibility that some people may possess certain healing powers, but that their qualifications and methods of work would have to be scientifically confirmed to be accepted as real.
Romanian witches and fortune tellers are not to be messed with.
The senate there recently rejected a move by Alin Popoviciu, of the ruling Democrat Liberal Party to tax witches and fortune tellers and to make them liable for flawed predictions. According to Popovicu, the senate rejected the proposition because they were afraid angry seers might retaliate and curse the whole lot of them.
