Friday, March 03, 2006

Does anyone really believe...

in horoscopes and hand reading and all that old jazz?
I ask because after reading Gorilla Bananas post yesterday I was reminded of when a dear friend of mine rang me recently and went on a ten minute burst of joyous chatter telling me all about this woman she had gone to see who was able ' to tell me everything!'
'Everything about what honey?'I asked gamely, reaching for the wine.
'Just about...you know, how this year was so tough for me and that I would get through it and that I would be...oh you know, she just knew everything, so weird.' she paused for a second and my heart lurched a little.
'She knew about my brother.'
'Really?' I was surprised and beginning to grow angry.' Why, what did she say?'
'That I had suffered a great loss. That I was searching for answers and I am!'
I poured my wine. Of course she would say that, why else would my friend be there in the first place if not for answers and most people our age have suffered a loss of some kind.
'Did she say your brother?'
'NO, well, not at first, but she held my hands really close and said oh it's a man, and then she said someone close to you....your father...no your brother?"
The my friend said she started to cry, so game over.

My friend has had a very tough year, she lost her brother and was wracked with guilt over their final conversation. She has a fiery relationship with her boyfriend and really wanted to know was everything going to get better. Hence the fortune teller.
Now, as any good card player can tell you, humans give off lots of subtle signs and tells. Pupils and nostrils dilate, hand fidget, eyes roll and search. In short a person can give an awful lot away without ever opening their mouth. And my friend has the most expressive open face, which makes her a ripe picking.
I listened as she told me more and more grasping feeble evidence that this woman was a true seer and for once in my life I actually managed not to open my cynical trap.I did not rubbish this woman. Even though I was furious that someone could be such a charlatan and prey on the vulnerable, I could hear it in my friend's voice that she desperately wanted to believe her brother was happy and at peace and was 'with his grandfather' (what a leap, the woman worked out that my 30 something year old friend might have a dead grandfather and after guessing a few letters and giving a description of a grey haired man in a cardigan!! finally stumbled onto him)
Maybe sometimes people need to believe in the other worldiness of others. Certainly in my friends's life something had cracked and she-normally a paragon of common sense- needed someone to tell her everything would be all right, the spirits had forseen it. And maybe, just maybe, that is not such a bad thing to hear.

17 Comments:

Blogger Kim Ayres said...

I was with a group of people who went to see a fortune teller once. When it came to me he got just about everything wrong, to the point where even random guessing should have yielded better results.

Other members of the group, who were far more convinced of this guy's powers, came to the conclusion that I must have quite powerful psychic powers myself that were able to block this guy. Seriously!

They just couldn't accept the more obvious explanation that the guy had no powers and I had a better poker face. Some people are so determined to believe that nothing you say or do will make the slightest bit of difference.

11:51 a.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

Exactly Kim, smeone who reads faces for a living can pick up even the most minute flicker and tell if they have guessed right or wrong. But other people just don't believe that. Anyway, as I said in this case, though normally I would be quick to say 'no it was because of this blah blah,' I didn't, because I could genuinely hear the hopeful tone in her voice and what kind of friend would I be if I shot that down?

12:23 p.m.  
Blogger Andraste said...

Before my mother died, she said "Just don't go to any 'psychics' and try to bring me back for a chat. Because I won't come."

True. She was a card.

3:27 p.m.  
Blogger Gorilla Bananas said...

Pupils and nostrils dilate
Yes, we primates have a lot in common don't we? But you're dead right that many humans need such beliefs, FMC. Actually, what really makes humans happy is worshipping someone or something. Usually it's God, but Elvis Presley works just as well.

3:32 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

Andraaste, your mom was a clever lady and astute. You were blessed to have had her. MY mother has recently brought her dog to a faith healer. I have no words to describe this as the dog is not even Catholic, he is a spaniel.
GB, sigh, I worship nothing, nothing at all. I am bereft of something that I might find worthy of idol.

9:24 p.m.  
Blogger Binty McShae said...

An ex of mine once went and came back saying what an amazing experience it was and how the psychic had just known so much. Then she produced the tape she'd made of the session to prove it to me. Every single step was led, every question vague enough to get her to provide her own answers. I pointed all this out but she still went back....

Incidentally, one of the predictions was that she would get married to me and I would father her three kids. I know there is still technically time for that but it's not bloody likely!

2:41 a.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

Erm, not if she is your ex it isn't, unless of course you are harbouring secret desires to get back together...are ya Binty? YOU could go to a seer and ask her about it.

10:24 a.m.  
Blogger Twenty Major said...

Fortune tellers are cool. I spent a number of years in the 1970s working in a carnival telling people's fortunes. I was right every single time.

Me - "You will suffer a great loss"

Them - "Oh dearie me. When?"

Me - "Very soon. Now hand over all your money and jewellery or I'll beat the shit out of you!"

Some of them lost hundreds.

10:47 a.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

You never worked in a carnival in your life you lying hair piece. Your irrational fear of dwarf clowns would have prevented it.

11:26 a.m.  
Blogger Twenty Major said...

I had my own trailer you wretched harridan.

11:27 a.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

It's called a HI-Ace you beardy tadpole!

11:29 a.m.  
Blogger Twenty Major said...

A hi-ace indeed. Why I oughtta...

10:07 a.m.  
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