Fortune-telling
Fortune-telling is the practice of predicting the future, usually of an individual, through mystical or supernatural means and often for commercial gain. It often conflates with the religious practice known as divination.
European and Euro-American fortune telling
In Europe, fortune-telling was a sin and has not been respected for the past several centuries. There have been religious proscriptions against it, as well as civil laws passed that forbid the practice. For these reasons, many mainstream urban Europeans and Americans are unaware of how popular fortune-telling remains with the public and are surprised when they learn of a celebrity or politician who consults a fortune-teller for the purpose of making decisions.
Methods
Common methods used for fortune telling in Europe and the Americas include astromancy, horary astrology, pendulum reading, spirit board reading, tasseography (reading tea leaves in a cup), cartomancy (fortune telling with cards), tarot reading, crystallomancy (reading of a crystal sphere), and cheiromancy (palmistry, reading of the palms). The latter three have traditional associations in the popular mind with the Roma and Sinti people (often called "gypsie")
Another form of fortune-telling, sometimes called "reading" or "spiritual consultation" does not rely on the use of specific devices or methods, but consists of the practitioner transmitting to the client advice and predictions which are said to have come from spirits or in visions. This form of fortune-telling is particularly popular in the African-American community.
Typical topics that Western fortune-tellers make predictions on include future romantic, financial, and childbearing prospects. They may also be called upon to aid in decision-making regarding job opportunities, the outcome of illnesses, and plans for marriage or divorce.
In addition to divining the future, many fortune-tellers will also give "character readings." These are short analyses of the character of a person and do not necessarily involve specific predictions about future events. Methods used in character analysis readings include numerology, graphology, palmistry (if the subject is present), and astrology. The subject of a character reading may be the client, who seeks self-knowledge, but it is quite common for the fortune-teller to perform a character reading on the client's prospective mate. In the latter case, when a third party is being assessed for marital compatibility with the client, an element of fore-telling does occur, as the practitioner explores the future of the relationship based on the characters of the two parties.
Sociology
In contemporary Western culture, it appears that women consult fortune-tellers more than men: some indication of this comes from the profusion of advertisements for commercial fortune-telling services in magazines aimed at women, while such advertisements appear virtually unknown in magazines aimed specifically at men.
It is quite common for young women to seek out fortune tellers as they embark on adulthood, and many women maintain decades-long relationships with their personal readers or fortune-tellers. Telephone consultations with psychics (charged to the caller's telephone account at very high rates) grew in popularity through the 1990s but they have not replaced - and may never replace - the traditional card readers, tea leaf readers, palmists, and spiritual readers who see their clients in small storefronts or occult shops.
Asian fortune telling
Chinese Fortune Telling, better known as suan ming (Chinese: 算命, literally "fate calculating") has utilized many varying divination techniques throughout the dynastic periods. There are four major methods still in practice in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong today, and they remain in use due to their accuracy and popularity. Over time, some of these concepts have moved into Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese culture under other names. For example "Saju" in Korea is the same as the Chinese four pillar method.
Popular branches
- Face Reading (面相) - This is the interpretation of facial features of the nose, eyes, mouth and other criteria within one's face and the conversion of those criteria into predictions for the future. This usually covers one phase of the client's life, and reveals the type of luck associated with a certain age range. A positions map also refers to different points on the face. This represents the person’s luck at different ages. The upper region of the face represents youth, the middle region of the face represents middle age, and the lower region of the face represents old age.
- Palm reading (手相) - This analyzes the positioning of palm lines for love, personality, and other traits. It somewhat resembles Western palmistry in technique.
- Kau Cim (求籤) - This requires the shaking of a bamboo cylinder, which results in at least one modified incense stick leaving the cylinder. The Chinese characters inscribed on the stick are analyzed by an interpreter. The prediction is short range, as it covers one Chinese calendar year. In the West, this method has been popularized under the trade-name "Chi-Chi sticks."
- Zi wei dou shu (紫微斗數) - This procedure, sometimes loosely called (Chinese: 批命, pik meng) or Purple Star Astrology or Emperor/Purple (Star) Astrology, involves the client seeking an advisor with a mastery of the Chinese calendar. Astrology is used in combination with the Chinese constellation, four pillars of destiny and the five elements methods of divination. The end result is a translation of one's destiny path, an interpretation of a pre-determined fate. The result of the details vary depending on the accuracy of the original four pillars information the client provides to the fortune-teller. This method can also verify unique events that have already happened in one's life.
- Bazi (八字) - This method is undoubtly the most popular of Chinese Fortune Telling methods, and the most accessible one. It has many variants in practice the most simple one called: "Ziping Bazi" 子平八字, invented by Master Ziping. Generally it involves taking four components of time, the hour of birth, day, month and year. Each a pillar from the Sixty Jiazi and arranging them into Four Pillars. The Four Pillars are then analyzed against the Daymaster, the Heavenly Stem for the Day pillar. It is a form of Astrology as opposed to Fortune Telling or Divination, and tells one about his or her destiny in life, current situation and area for most successful occupation. Originally Bazi was read against the Year Earthly Branch, then focus shifted to the Month Pillar, then finally Master Ziping refined and remade the system to use the Heavenly Stem of the Day Pillar as the emphasis and focus in reading. The practice for reading against the Year Branch is the origin of the popular Chinese Horoscopes for your Year of Birth.
Other branches
- Wen Wang Gua or Man Wong Gua (文王卦) - [1][2]
- Liu Yao (六爻)
- Mei Hua Yi Shu or Mui Fa Yik Sou (梅花易數) - literally "Plum flower calculation", sometimes called Mei Hua Xin Yi
- Qi Men Dun Jia (奇門遁甲) also known as Kei Mun Tun Kap, Dun Jia or just Dunjia/DunJia or sometimes Qi Men or Qimen/QiMen - Strange Doors and the Hidden Jia, The Hidden Jia escaping through the Strange Doors, Jia is given priority or importance. It is called Dun Jia because the objective of this Divination is to protect the Jia stem and move it to a safe place, wherever it may be found in the Qi Men Dun Jia chart or paipan.
- Wu Xing Yi (五行易) - based on the Wu Xing, sometimes called Wu Xing Yi Shu
- Yik Lam (易林)
- Yin Kam (演禽)
- Yin and Yang Bowl (陰陽杯) - based on Yin and yang
- Tik Pan San Sou (鐵板神數)
- Wong Kek Yin Sou (皇極易數)
- Seven Major and Four Minor Stars (七政四餘)
- Three Generation Life (三世書)
- Yin Kam Fa (演禽法)
- Chin Ting Sou (前定數)
- Leung Tou Kam (兩頭鉗) - literally "dual headed suppress"
- Da Liu Ren (大六壬) also known as Liu Ren Shen Ke, or just Liu Ren, sometimes called Xiao Liu Ren - The Six Large Rens (Heavenly Stem), Ren in this case is given priority or importance. It is called Da Liu Ren because in the Sexegenary cycle there are Six Rens each with a different branch.
- Tai Yi Shen Shu (太乙神數) also known as Taiyi or TaiYi or Tai Yi - The Great Yi God Calculating, Calculating the God of the Great Yi, Yi is given priority or importance.
- Cheng Gu Ge (称骨歌) - Songs on Weighing Bones, fortune telling method by Yuan Tian Gang (袁天罡), involves adding up the "astrological weight" of the four time components and reading the total weight against a certain poem, thus revealing your life fate.
- Zhou Yi (周易) - also known as Yi Jing or I Ching, divination according to the book of changes. Methods include: Computer casting, Yarrow stalk casting, coin casting, paper casting, manual casting involves the yarrow stalks or coins.
- Huang Ji Jing Shi (皇极经世)- Fortune telling method based on the book by Shao Yong, the "Huang Ji Jing Shi"
- He Luo Li Shu - Fortune telling type numerology in accordance with the He Tu/Hetu/HeTu Diagram or the Yellow River Diagram
- Di Li Feng Shui - A geomancy based art of divination. Similar to Qi Men Dun Jia.
- Yi Jing Numerology
- Date and Time Yi Jing
- Visual Yi Jing
- Jiu Gong Ming Li (九宫命理) - Aka "9 Star Ki" or "Chi"/"Qi", also called "White and Purple Star Astrology"
A famous Chinese fortune-teller's quote
Traditional Chinese: 一命二運三風水四積陰德五讀書 Simplified Chinese:一命二运三风水四积阴德五读书 Pinyin: yi1 ming4 er4 yun4 san1 feng1 shui3 si4 ji1 yin1 de2 wu3 du2 shu1 Jyutping: jat1 meng6 ji6 wan6 saam1 fung1 seoi2 sei3 zik1 jam1 dak1 ng5 duk6 syu1 English translation : one fate, two luck, three fengshui, four karma, five education |
The above quote, relating to the "five components" of the good or ill fortune of any given individual, is culturally believed to have come from Su Shi of the Song dynasty.[3] As a maxim, it continues to remain popular in Chinese culture today. Actual interpretations of this quotation vary, as there is no classical text explaining what Su Shi really meant. Some claim that it signified that a person's destiny is under his or her own control as the "five components" of fortune are mathematically one more than the classical four pillars of destiny, which implies that individuals are in control of their futures on top of their natal "born" fates.[3] Other interpretations may suggest that the order in which the components are stated are important in determining the course of person's life: For example education (the fifth fortune) is not useful if fate (the first fortune) does not put you in the proper place at the beginning of your life. Other interpretations may suggest that there is no inherent order to the sequence, but that they are just a list of the five components of a person's fortune.
Sociology
In Chinese society, fortune telling is a respected and important part of social and business culture. Thus, fortune tellers often take on a role which is equivalent to management consultants and psychotherapists in Western society. As management consultants, they advise business people on business and investment decisions. Many major business decisions involve the input of fortune tellers. Their social role allows decision risks to be placed outside of the organization and provides a mechanism of quickly randomly deciding between several equally useful options. As psychotherapists, they help people discuss and resolve personal issues without the stigma of illness.
African fortune telling
Methods
One of the most traditional methods of telling fortunes in Africa is called casting (or throwing) the bones. Because Africa is a large continent with many tribes and cultures, there is not one single technique. Not all of the "bones" are actually bones, small objects may include cowrie shells, stones, strips of leather, or flat pieces of wood. In general, most casting or throwing methods are performed on the ground (often within a circle) and they fall into one of two categories:
- Casting marked bones, flat pieces of wood, shells, or leather strips and numerically counting up how they fall -- either according to their markings or whether they do or do not touch one another -- with mathematically-based readings delivered as memorized results based on the chosen criteria.
- Casting a special set of symbolic bones or an array of selected symbolic articles -- as, for instance, using a bird's wing bone to symbolize travel, a round stone to symbolize a pregnant womb, and a bird foot to symbolize feeling.
Sociology
In African society, many people seek out diviners on a regular basis. There are no prohibitions against the practice. Those who tell fortunes for a living are also sought out for their wisdom as counselors and for their knowledge of herbal medicine.
Fortune telling as a business in North America
Discussing the role of fortune-telling in society, Ronald H. Isaacs, an American rabbi and author, opined, “Since time immemorial humans have longed to learn that which the future holds for them. Thus, in ancient civilization, and even today with fortune telling as a true profession, humankind continues to be curious about its future, both out of sheer curiosity as well as out of desire to better prepare for it." [4]
Popular media outlets like the New York Times have explained to their American readers that although 5000 years ago, soothsayers were prized advisers to the Assyrians, they lost respect and reverence during the rise of Reason in the 17th and 18th centuries.[5]
With the rise of commercialism, “the sale of occult practices [adapted to survive] in the larger society,” according to sociologists Danny L. and Lin Jorgensen. [6]. Ken Feingold, writer of "Interactive Art as Divination as a Vending Machine," stated that with the invention of money, fortune-telling became “a private service, a commodity within the marketplace”[7] because “as the fundamental economic medium of exchange required by and used by all, money brought with it the possibility that one could purchase knowledge of the future” because with money as “an arbitrary symbolic designation of ‘value,’ ... one can buy anything.”[8]
Today there are countless print, televised and online advertisements for fortune-tellers, just as there are for orange juice and automobiles. As J. Peder Zane wrote in the New York Times in 1994, “Whether it’s 3 P.M. or 3 A.M., there’s Dionne Warwick and her psychic friends selling advice on love, money and success. In a nation where the power of crystals and the likelihood that angels hover nearby prompt more contemplation than ridicule, it may not be surprising that one million people a year call Ms. Warwick’s friends.” [9]
Clientele
In 1994, the psychic counsellor Rosanna Rogers of Cleveland, Ohio explained to J. Peder Zane that a wide variety of people consulted her: “Couch potatoes aren’t the only people seeking the counsel of psychics and astrologers. Clairvoyants have a booming business advising Philadelphia bankers, Hollywood lawyers and CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies... If people knew how many people, especially the very rich and powerful ones, went to psychics, their jaws would drop through the floor.”[10] Ms. Rogers “claims to have 4,000 names in her rolodex.”[11]
In 2000, a writer for the Northern Echo, a Canadian periodical, noted that the Canadian clairvoyant Mrs. Jane Welbourn “says [her clients’] need to see her and hear what the future holds for them is often born out of stress and worry about a problem and the need for direction in their lives.”[12] Mrs. Welbourn stated that, “about 90% of the people I see are experiencing some stress, or something is bothering them. Whether it’s drink, drug, illness, financial, infidelity or marital problems, there is usually something.”[12]
Typical clients
In 1982, Danny Jorgensen, a professor of Religious Studies at the University of South Florida offered a spiritual explanation for the popularity of fortune-telling. He said that that people visit psychics or fortune-tellers to gain self-understanding.[13] and knowledge which will lead to personal power or success in some aspect of life[14]
Thirteen years later, in 1995, Ken Feingold offered a different explanation for why people seek out fortune-tellers: “We desire to know other people’s actions and to resolve our own conflicts regarding decisions to be made and our participation in social groups and economies. The Other of our day-to-day reality is the chance to gain an advantage, to go around the fact that the future is unknown, and to influence the outcome of events—and it is in this interval that divination is active… Divination seems to have emerged from our knowing the inevitability of death. The idea is clear—we know that our time is limited and that we want things in our lives to happen in accord with our wishes. Realizing that our wishes have little power, we have sought technologies for gaining knowledge of the future...gain power over our own [lives].”[15]
Ultimately, the reasons a person consults a diviner are mediated by cultural expectations and by personal desires, and until a statistically rigorous study of the phenomenon have been conducted, the question of why people consult fortune-tellers is wide open for opinion-making.
Services
Traditional fortune-tellers vary in methodology, generally using methods long established in their cultures and thus meeting the cultural expectations of their clientele, as explained above.
In America, where such traditions have been effaced by urbanization, modern fortune-tellers, according to J. Peder Zane, "... act like human radios, tuning in to the clients’ karmic wavelengths to divine their lives. They claim to 'read' almost anything including financial markets, corporations and entire nations."[16]
In Canada, where some of the older European traditions persist, Mrs. Jane Wellbourn employs traditional European palmistry:: “I work with their palm, tell them what’s going on at the time and obviously pick up on the problem and see where that’s leading and what’s going to happen in the next couple of years."[12]
Others take a more spiritual approach to fortune-telling. An American clairvoyant by the name of Catherine Adams has written, “My philosophy is to teach and practice spiritual freedom, which means you have your own spiritual guidance, which I can help you get in touch with. Many people tell me my predictions come true or that my healings work wonders, but that is only because they allowed me to fully see their spirits and then followed through with what was true for them at the time. Any session is better when you feel somewhat balanced and spiritually open. If you are upset, a healing may help, but it is best to wait until you are calm before you ask for a reading.”[17]
In addition to sharing and explaining their visions, fortune-tellers can also act like counselors by discussing and offering advice about their clients’ problems. Mrs. Welbourn explained how she interacts with clients: “I talk through the situation that is the problem at the time and I tell them what’s going to happen and I will be bluntly honest and tell them in that reading what I think they should do, to bring them the most happiness."[12]
Some fortune-tellers encounter difficulty in “getting the client to interpret the information in the appropriate way”[18] because they are attempting to “describe upon the physical plane what [they have] seen upon the astral[19]. When they do get their message across, trustworthy fortune-tellers (and there are crooks and scam-artists out there) let their clients make their own choices and take the consequences for those choices.[20] They want their clients to exercise their own willpower.[21]
Full-time jobs
Some fortune-tellers support themselves entirely on their fortune-telling business; others hold down one or more jobs, and their second jobs may or may not relate to the occupation of divining. In 1982, Danny L., and Lin Jorgensen found that “while there is considerable variation among [these secondary] occupations, [part-time fortune-tellers] are over-represented in human service fields: counseling, social work, teaching, health care.”[22] The same authors, making a limited survey of North American diviners, found that the majority of fortune-tellers are married with children, and a few claim graduate degrees.[23] "They attend movies, watch television, work at regular jobs, shop at K-Mart, sometimes eat at McDonald’s, and go to the hospital when they are seriously ill.”[24]
Some combine their full-time job with predictive or divinatory pursuits:
Arch Crawford, a New York City financial astrologer who predicted the 1987 stock market crash in his newsletter, Crawford Perspectives, began using sunspot activity and astrology to chart the stock and commodities markets while working as an analyst at Merrill Lynch because he found traditional econometric models frustrating. “While markets have become extremely complex in recent years, statistical tools for tracking them have not become equally sophisticated,” Mr. Crawford said. So why not try magic instead? “Astrology, along with a lot of technical analysis, gives me an edge over those people who simply rely on numbers.[25]
Note that Crawford has had a very successful track record. According to Peter Brimelow at Market Watch: Over the past 12 months through Dec. 31, Crawford Perspectives is up a remarkable 50.755% by Hulbert Financial Digest count. That would be striking in any year, but it contrasts particularly dramatically with this year's 37.2% loss for the dividend-reinvested Dow Jones Wilshire 5000.
Over the past three years, the letter has achieved a 6.75% annualized gain, vs. an 8.4% annualized loss for the total return DJ-Wilshire 5000. Over the past five years, the letter has achieved an annualized 0.37% gain, vs. a 1.7% annualized loss for the total return DJ-W 5000. [26]
Others prefer to keep them separate:
Mrs. Welbourn: “It isn’t something spooky or weird, it’s just there. You can’t really say what it is, it is just something that’s with me and works with the client. I am able to keep my life and the clairvoyance separate, and I can shut off, or I would never rest."[12]
Legality
In 1982, the sociologists Danny L., and Lin Jorgensen found that, “when it is reasonable, [fortune -tellers] comply with local laws and purchase a business license.”[27] However, in the United States, a variety of local and state laws restrict fortune-telling, require the licensing or bonding of fortune-tellers, or make necessary the use of terminology that avoids the term "fortune-teller" in favour of terms such as "spiritual advisor" or "psychic consultant." There are also laws that forbid the practice outright in certain districts.
For instance, fortune telling is a class B misdemeanor in the state of New York. Under New York State law, S 165.35:
- A person is guilty of fortune telling when, for a fee or compensation which he directly or indirectly solicits or receives, he claims or pretends to tell fortunes, or holds himself out as being able, by claimed or pretended use of occult powers, to answer questions or give advice on personal matters or to exercise, influence or affect evil spirits or curses; except that this section does not apply to a person who engages in the aforedescribed conduct as part of a show or exhibition solely for the purpose of entertainment or amusement.[28]
Law-makers who wrote this statute acknowledged that fortune-tellers do not restrict themselves to "a show or exhibition solely for the purpose of entertainment or amusement" and that people will continue to seek out fortune-tellers even though fortune-tellers operate in violation of the law.
Certification
Although there are a number of training and certification programs offered to North American fortune-tellers, most practitioners do not seek out teaching programs or display official documentation of training, but rely instead on family teachings, natural ability, and personal experience, and word of mouth as warrants of their fitness and giftedness for the occupation.
Opposing theories
Those who believe that it is possible for a practitioner to tell fortunes or predict the future for clients may have religious objections to the practice. For instance, there are Christians who believe that fortune telling is forbidden in the Bible. [29][30]
Those who do not believe that fortune tellers can actually read the future may believe that several other factors explain the popularity and anecdotal accuracy of fortune-telling:
- Fortune-telling in the context of an individual's belief system has a good chance of being believed.
- A person who performs a divination for himself or herself may be using his or her reactions to the arbitrary stimuli (such as tarot cards or a pendulum) as a way of mentally organizing his or her own thoughts.
- The predictions themselves can cause the subject to alter his or her behaviour in a way that makes the predictions become true, see self-fulfilling prophecy.
- Predictions can be a source of amusement and diversion.
- Predictions can reduce anxiety about the uncertain future.
- When making a decision based on incomplete information, the fortune teller or oracle can reduce the anxiety associated with guessing.
- The fortune-teller can be an external source of authority to invoke in support of a decision to be made, or in defense of a decision that was made.
- Fortune-tellers usually exhibit skills at reading people and telling them what they wish to hear (and they may heighten this effect using the technique of "cold reading").
- Predictions almost always use vague terms and do not lend themselves to falsification. Therefore, the prediction is never wrong, but a person's interpretation of it can always be wrong.
- Confirmation bias predisposes people to look for cases where predictions can be interpreted as accurate more than they look to find inaccurate ones.
- Clients of fortune-telling services may fail to realise that statements made about them might reflect reality, but would equally apply to most other people (for instance, the statement "you fought with your parents sometimes as a teenager" applies to a large majority of people). This is the Forer effect.
What science says
Scientific authors have many explanations and theories concerning clairvoyance. Generally, they split concerning the possibility of emotional or psychic knowledge. In 1994, Dr. Paul Kurtz, a chairman of the Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, in Buffalo, New York told the New York Times it is all a hoax; he refers to predictions as “cheap carnival tricks.”[31] “His committee, which includes several Nobel laureates, has investigated hundreds of clairvoyants and has yet to find a system or individual capable of telling the future. What it has found is that fortune tellers are experts at reading body language, listening closely and making general statements that seem specific. Many people, he added, are so suggestible they make their fortunes come true.”[32] Kurtz further explains, “At heart I think the problem is that Americans are so scientifically illiterate that they do not understand that these things are impossible…and they want to believe in it, so they will.”[33]
Others share a less dismissive view. Danny L. and Lin Jorgensen, in an article in the Sociological Quarterly stated that there are “many possible paths to addressing recurrent problems, seeking solutions, creating identities, and associating on the basis of common beliefs. While some people are inclined to do this on a casual basis or as a matter of entertainment, other people make it a career or a way of life.”[34] The Jorgensens further stated, “The paramount sociological issue is not whether or not beliefs and practices (religious, scientific or occult) are verifiable scientifically but what it is that members hold to be real and what the social consequences of these convictions and resulting actions are.”[35]
See also
References
- ^ Misterfengshui. "Misterfengshui." Chinese metaphysics 網上香港風水學家黃頁. Retrieved on 2008-01-05.
- ^ Fengshui magazine. "Fengshui-magazine." Chinese metaphysics 網上香港風水學家黃頁. Retrieved on 2008-01-05.
- ^ a b Fsrcenter. "Fsrcenter." Su Dong Po's misinterpreted saying. Retrieved on 2008-01-05.
- ^ Isaacs, Ronald H. Divination, Magic, and Healing the Book of Jewish Folklore. Northvale N.J.: Jason Aronson, 1998. pg 55
- ^ (Zane 1994)
- ^ (Jorgensen & Jorgensen 1982, p. 376)
- ^ (Feingold 1995, p. 399)
- ^ (Feingold 1995, p. 399)
- ^ (Zane 1994)
- ^ (Zane 1994)
- ^ (Zane 1994)
- ^ a b c d e “Clairvoyant or counsellor? Meet the woman who walks a fine line.” The Northern Echo. 27 Oct. 2000.
- ^ (Jorgensen & Jorgensen 1982, p. 381)
- ^ (Jorgensen & Jorgensen 1982, p. 375)
- ^ (Feingold 1995, p. 399)
- ^ (Zane 1994)
- ^ Adams, Catherine. “What is Clairvoyance and What Can I Expect in a Session With Catherine?”
- ^ (Jorgensen & Jorgensen 1982, p. 384)
- ^ Leadbeater, C. W. Clairvoyance. [5th ed.]. ed. Adyar India: Theosophical Pub. House, [1935 1899]. pg 106
- ^ Leadbeater, C. W. Clairvoyance. [5th ed.]. ed. Adyar India: Theosophical Pub. House, [1935 1899]. pg 135
- ^ (Jorgensen & Jorgensen 1982, p. 384)
- ^ (Jorgensen & Jorgensen 1982, p. 377)
- ^ (Jorgensen & Jorgensen 1982, p. 337)
- ^ (Jorgensen & Jorgensen 1982, p. 387)
- ^ (Zane 1994)
- ^ Template:Http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fabulous-year-for-crawford-perspectives
- ^ (Jorgensen & Jorgensen 1982, p. 377)
- ^ [1]
- ^ A review of Bible verses prohibiting fortune telling and divination
- ^ The above is misstated where it specifies that "there are Christians who believe that fortune telling is forbidden in the Bible." In fact, divination is irrefutably listed as a forbidden activity in Biblical texts, regardless of anyone's theological belief about it. However, an interesting contradiction exists, in that astrology is cited as a means by which God communicates with Mankind on Earth, and it is recommended that people use astrology to analyse meaningful signs in the Heavens to this end. In Biblical times, astrology was considered a "science" and not "divination" as it is thought of in modern times ("science" as we define it was not practised in those times).
- ^ (Zane 1994)
- ^ (Zane 1994)
- ^ (Zane 1994)
- ^ (Jorgensen & Jorgensen 1982, p. 387)
- ^ (Jorgensen & Jorgensen 1982, p. 382)
- Feingold, Ken (1995), "OU: Interactivity as Divination as Vending Machine", Leonardo, Third Annual New York Digital Salon, 28 (5): 399–402.
- Jorgensen, Danny L.; Jorgensen, Lin (1982), "Social Meanings of the Occult", The Sociological Quarterly, 23 (3): 373–389.
- Zane, J. Peder (1994), "Soothsayers as Business Advisers; You Are Going to Go on a Long Trip…", The New York Times
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