Fortune Telling

Fortune telling is an ability that some people are said to possess. Fortune tellers believe that everything in the universe has some connection. For this reason, they can recognise things that they cannot actually know. This often involves predicting the future. On the other hand, fortune tellers can also tell what a person is like or what he or she has experienced in the past without knowing the person.

Some people believe in this. However, many scientists reject these ideas because they lack the evidence. Churches also do not approve of fortune telling because they see it as a devilish ability. People who do not believe in fortune-telling sometimes refer to it pejoratively as divination.

There are many types of fortune telling. Some fortune tellers look at the palm of the hand and then make statements about a person's personality. By certain lines in the palm, for example, they can see that a person is shy, likes to help other people or the like. Other fortune tellers use a special pack of cards called Tarot. Each card that is drawn makes a statement about a future life event.

In ancient times, there was visceral viewing. People looked at the bodies of dead animals and could see in them, for example, whether the gods would help them win a battle. A tradition on New Year's Eve is the pouring of lead. Hot, liquid lead is emptied into water. The shape of the lump of lead is then used to draw conclusions about what will happen to you in the coming year.

Something similar to fortune telling is clairvoyance. Clairvoyants speak of a sixth sense with which they can see things happening at the same time in a different place. There have been several accounts of clairvoyants in history. In the 18th century, for example, a Swedish scholar is said to have seen a fire in Stockholm, although he was in Gothenburg at the time. Later it was discovered that this fire had really happened. So psychics can also guess the right thing by chance.