Lord_Xerxes wrote:
Why goal would I have to lie? It's not like it's considered a valid point here anyway, since people are going to readily dismiss it as nonsense. I was stating my observations and opinions, but it surely doesn't mean that everyone else would get the same results, or whatever. I don't have to prove myself to you. You can either believe me or not, but it happened regardless.
Well, often people lie just for attention, or to "get one over" on people...or, as Creationists often do, they lie for a "greater good," i.e. they lie about something to convince others that something is true that they think others should believe. It's a way of validating one's own beliefs.
Regardless, I suggest you take this remarkable claim to one of many organizations or researchers seeking to verify the existence of the supernatural. Should you and your tarot cards perform this ably in front of such researchers, it could net you $$$ galore (some of these groups have offered reward money for proof of supernaturalness, and I don't see why your consistently drawing the same card wouldn't qualify). You could then establish a very lucrative career as a host of one of those "Beyond" type shows where people seek out physics to contact their dead loved ones.
I've known tons of people who have claimed to have had supernatural experiences, and have sworn up and down what they experienced couldn't have been anything else. I have then done some subtle probing of the details of these experiences. I have found either one of two things:
1) Their stories don't mesh when the details get fleshed out, and it's patently obvious they are bullshitting. Example: In college, an acquaintance, whom we all knew as a little nutty, claimed her family had lived in a haunted house. After getting the details of the occurances, I waited a bit and then ask her a while later to recount it. In doing so, the details changed so ridiculously--with some flat out contradictions--that I realized she was just making stuff up as the went on. It didn't help that much of what she described seems to have been ripped from every old haunted house film in the book.
or
2) they've exaggerated the details in their own minds, unconsciously, to make the events more staggering than they were. When reminded of the true details, their stories come across as much more explicable. This applies to my roommate, who claimed to have seen the specter of a man in his gf's apartment one night. However, the circumstances of the sighting made it apparent it was a figment of his imagination. He had worked for 16 hours straight that day, he hadn't slept well in several days, he had had a couple of drinks that night, and he had recently watched a couple of ghost movies. It all added up to a trick of the mind.
Now maybe you're lying, maybe you're unconsciously exaggerating, or maybe you really experienced it. But even if the later, it could have been a coincidence. Saying your experiences reflected the tarot card readings is a dubious claim, since tarot card readings are pretty vague, and they can also be self-fulfilling to the suggestive. If a tarot card reading says you'll have some sort of relationship trouble and a little while later you break up with your S.O., that doesn't mean a thing, since the overwhelming majority of relationships end that way!
I believe in the Holy Trinity: Bach the Father, Beethoven the Son and Brahms the Holy Ghost.
