Did They See Their Fortune Coming?

One thing you have to wonder about fortune tellers is “did they see it coming”.  Whilst you can find all sorts of supernatural online thoughts and predictions - did any fortune tellers foresee that one day you’d be able to go to a fortune online telling service, be that through using a direct fortune tell website, an online fortune teller in a social media website or even any of the other ways we all take for granted that we now use to communicate with one another everyday?

What is fortune telling?

Fortune telling is one of the oldest and most practiced forms of divination, where divination simply means to gain insight to the answers to a question. As you might expect anything involving divination also has a ritual or specified practice associated with it; in the case of visiting someone for a fortune tell this often involves the fortune teller gazing into a crystal ball, reading cards or perhaps reading you hand; whilst other rituals can include placing hands on you or even just earnestly looking at you. Whatever the ritual involved people usually want to get a fortune tell for one of two purposes. Either they are doing it for fun or they genuinely believe that some people have supernatural powers that allow them to see not just into the future - but into their personal future.

Getting your fortune told - a growth industry

Although there are instances in history of fortune tellers advising great leaders form afar, time was and to get your fortune told you had to visit a fortune tell specialist and have a physical face-to-face meeting. Pretty well any society of people had at least one person who would be known as the person to visit for a fortune telling or, if there wasn’t a resident fortune teller, one would invariably visit during market days and fairs. As soon as regular postal services were established receiving a fortune tell by post, having previously written to the fortune teller with an enquiry, became all the fashion; one which was spurred on by fortune tell articles written in magazines. As the telegraph developed into the telephone, having a fortune tell by phone became all the rage, so it will come as no surprise that today, if you can’t get to a fortune teller - they can come to you over the internet.

Supernatural online services!

They can’t, of course, be faster than the broadband down which they travel but supernatural online services such as telling a fortune online are now very quick and popular. The range of telling fortunes online available really does cover all the ‘net’ technologies and, if fortune tellers really can see in to the future, they’ll surely be the first to make use of any new internet applications. Sending an email message to get a fortune telling is already ‘old hat’. Apps are available and being further developed for smart-phones to tell your fortune, social websites like Facebook also have dedicated apps and groups for fortune tells - whilst websites dedicated to both supernatural online offerings and fortune telling in particular have been available for well over 15 years now. One other aspect of using the internet for fortune telling is the use of VoIP services, like Skype but also including web video chat-rooms and even full video conferencing, to connect the fortune teller with the person wanting a fortune tell. Whilst using ‘apps’ might be quite good fun, this one technology of using VoIP type technology is perhaps the way the internet can be used to re-connect the teller and enquirer on a personal basis again - as it was in the old days, face-to-face.

Hocus Pocus - or for real?

Without wanting to get into any sort of ‘Dan Brown’ convoluted and quasi discussion about ancient arts and mysticism - is having your fortune told just ‘hocus pocus’ or for real? Well first of all to set yourself up as a fortune teller there are no specific fortune telling laws banning you from doing so. So, the law clearly sees no harm in it. Secondly you have to decide if the person putting themselves forward can fortune tell or are they just making lucky guesses. Finally, the same as for a religion - do you believe in it, for without the willingness to believe you won’t accept what is told to you. I’ll leave you with this thought. A friend of mine visited a fortune teller and was told by the teller there was a black shadow over his bladder, nothing else - but it got him wondering. He stopped drinking caffeine and alcohol and drank only water for two weeks. After that he went back to his normal drinking patterns. He never developed a medical problem with his bladder - but if he hadn’t drunk just water for those two weeks, what might have happened? Did the fortune tell forewarn him of something to be careful of - or was it just coincidence?