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Alas I am not a fan of mediumship and in fact have serious doubts about it's validity. I am not 100% against it but the ethics of it make me a little uncomfortable although I do know of one case where it did the client a tremendous amount of good.

It really goes against the grain for me to agree with Lord Freddie but alas, he is right on this one occasion. The definition the Rawlings chappie quotes I do not consider the source to be a respectable one. It is a mere internet dictionary which I consider to be against the laws of nature. My definition is the one that should be used since I am MARK LEWIS and this free dictionary isn't.

The Tarot DOES work and therefore I DO believe in it. And I explained how it works in my seminar. I am not sure I have the energy to explain it all here. I shall, however try. I didn't say the cards were supernatural or they have mystic powers. I merely said THEY WORK! Just because Mr.Rawlings doesn't understand how it works does not mean to say that it is of no value. After all, many people don't understand how electricity works either but that doesn't stop them using it. When you see an aeroplane weighing thousands of tons seemingly flying through the air and defying the law of gravity you don't understand how it works but you accept that it does and that there is a scientific and logical explanation for it. And I maintain that there is a perfectly scientific and logical explanation for the tarot cards. Scientific might be stretching it a bit but I want to sound terribly intellectual.
But logical certainly.

The cards DO come up at random! The cards themselves are just bits of cardboard. They have no intrinsic power by themselves. I didn't say they did. I merely said I believed in them 100%. I didn't say WHY I believed in them. I shall do so now. I believe in them because they WORK! I believe in them because they do what they are reputed to do if the reader is a good one. They are reputed to give insight to a person's life. They are reputed to show the trends for the future without necessarily predicting those trends with 100% success. I would only claim 70% success in telling the future with Tarot but that is pretty good. And the Tarot DOES predict with 70% accuracy. But this is where there is confusion. It isn't solely the tarot that is doing the predicting or giving the insight to the person's life. It is ME doing it with the AID of the Tarot. All the Tarot does is help me do the job properly. The cards are useless bits of cardboard without me giving my interpretation of them.

The cards come up at random. I could have Adolf Hitler in front of me and give him a reading with the VERY SAME CARDS that come up for Mother Theresa. It isn't the cards themselves that matter as how they are interpreted for the individual person. A card that comes up which represents victory, for example, could be interpreted as a battle if I were reading for Hitler and yet the very same card could be interpreted as victory over poverty for Mother Theresa. It isn't just the cards that matter. It is the INTERPRETATION of those cards that is the important thing. In his scepticism Mr.Rawlings is missing the human element of the tarot card reading. It needs a human to interpret them otherwise they are useless bits of cardboard.

Let me try to explain this a bit further. He says he doesn't believe in the Tarot, let us do it one at a time. I interpret the Chariot Card as "Victory after a struggle". Other readers will have other interpretations but let us go with mine for an example. Rawlings says he does not believe in the Tarot but let me ask him. Does he believe in "Victory after a struggle"? Does he believe that this happens sometimes? He does? Well, that is one tarot card he believes in anyway. Let me try a few others though. The lovers card means "Lovers". Does he believe that people fall in love? He does? Then that is two cards he believes in. We are making progress. How about the Tower Card. To me it means disasters and confusion. Does he believe in disaster and confusion? He does? Then that is another card he believes in.

I bet if he tries hard enough and studies all 72 cards he will end up believing in all of them. Now if a client sits down and selects say, ten cards at random from the deck, he has ten cards in front of him which will apply to everyone from Adolf Hitler to Mother Theresa to Mandrake to Lord Freddie to Rawlings himself. Now this is where the intuitive reader comes in. He uses his own gut feeling, intuition, psychic ability -call it what you will- to figure out the person he is reading and apply the random cards to that person. And if he is any good the reading is incredibly accurate. But it isn't the cards alone that does it. It is the reader and the cards combined. Just as a match won't light unless someone strikes it the cards won't do a thing unless someone reads them. In other words the psychic ignites the cards in the same way a person will ignite a match.

There is a little more to it than that. I liken the tarot to a psychic mirror which mirrors the client's subconcious thoughts back to me. No time to explain all that but in the excellent book Tarotmania by Jan Woudhuysen it is all explained. Suffice it to say that I have given the general idea of how the Tarot works. The key thing is that it WORKS! And there is nothing supernatural about it. It is all perfectly logical if you think about it.

So when I say I believe in it 100% I mean that I believe in it the same way that I believe if I switch a TV on I will see things that are happening thousands of miles away even though at first sight it seems impossible for me to do so . Now Mr.Rawlings may at first sight find it impossible to believe in the Tarot perhaps if he analyses what I just said he will see that there is a logic behind it working.

I have done thousands upon thousands of readings and have helped thousands of people with the aid of these bits of cardboard. It isn't the bits of cardboard that matter. It is what they mean and how they are interpreted to fit the client. I believe this works so therefore I believe in the Tarot.

Bravo! Christ, Mark and I are in agreement for the first time ever, do that's a landmark at least.

The funny thing about the subjects of tarot and readings is the fact that those that so vehemently put it down are those with little and in most cases, no, experience of it. Someone like Mr Rawlings (when's your next gig by the way? Oh... It's just a hobby) are the typical overenthusiastic I'll-experienced types who bash anything that they are told without knowing anything about it with the bulk of their information coming from something Derren Brown said once and a thirty second search on Google.

I have given hundreds of reading and never claim to predict the future. The reaction to a good reading is far stronger and more memorable than any 'trick'. As Mark will probably agree, readings are very lucrative, highly commercial, incredibly popular and if you do it right the sitter leaves elated and happy. I don't think making someone happy and providing a service that is in demand is a bad thing.

Most open eye readers I know develop an intuition and can reveal things to a sitter that astonishes them. This heightened sense of perception comes with experience and is not something you can learn from the latest DVD, which is what probably frustrates those like Mr Rawlings.

Why is Mr Rawlings being attacked ? As far as this thread goes he has said nothing wrong. As usual on these types of threads it is not the magicians who start the mud slinging...... The OP should take note of some of the attitudes on here and put that in her papers.

This whole thing of is it, or is it not possible could have been put to bed years ago, had the ''psychics'' not been so bloody stubborn. Their inability to be properly tested does them no favours whatsoever, and simply fuels the fire of their debunkers.

Some of the skeptics are just as bad. Take the recent case of Sally Morgan. She was asked to take a test, she refused. That should have been the end of it, but no. The damn folk from the research place hounded her, which in my opinion was bang out of order.

Until both sides come to a mutual agreement this silly war will rage on. A test must be established which is fair and honest, and the ''testors'' should be skeptical yet open minded. And before anyone mentions the Randi challenge - I dont think it is fair, even Merlin would have a hard time winning the money.

Just for the record, my position on all this is this - I am skeptical of any supernatural claim. When i say skeptical i dont mean i think its all immposible - it is a healthy skeptisism, i remain open minded. There are certainly things which warrent serious investigation.

Id like to end this with a question which may get some of you thinking. It is something ive pondered on :
If someone in need of guidence or comfort, finds peace of mind through a Psychic, Medium, whatever, does it really matter if they are the genuine artice or not ?


jim

Read the posts. It annoys people that have been doing readings professionally when someone with half baked "facts" from the Internet and no experience spouts off as if they know it all.

For the records, if readers have no right to call themselves psychics, as suggested earlier in the thread, then magicians have no right to call themselves so. I never heard of Aleister Crowley to ask anyone to pick a card.

Lord Freddie wrote:Me thinks Mr Rawlings just wants to argue with me for the sake of it.
Coming from someone who has probabl never given a reading in his life, you seem quite keen to spout off on subjects you know little about.
Crikey, give someone a nailwriter and a copy of 13 Steps and they become a pompous know-it all.

Here's a challenge, we go into a venue and you do your "Pick a card...put in the deck...oh! I've found it!" and I'll bring a deck of tarot cards and we'll see who ends up sitting alone in the corner.

For the record, I didn't state that tarot cards "work" so you quoted a post you barely bothered to read, but I suspect your defensiveness is because there were some home truths concealed in it.

I never said you said tarot cards work. Mark Lewis was the one who said that. I then said I find it hard to agree with someone who says tarot cards work in reference to MARK not YOU. So basically you've started insulting me for absolutely no reason at all. Perhaps you have delusions of grandeur and an inflated sense of self worth, immediately assuming everything revolves around you.

Lord Freddie wrote:Bravo! Christ, Mark and I are in agreement for the first time ever, do that's a landmark at least.

The funny thing about the subjects of tarot and readings is the fact that those that so vehemently put it down are those with little and in most cases, no, experience of it. Someone like Mr Rawlings (when's your next gig by the way? Oh... It's just a hobby) are the typical overenthusiastic I'll-experienced types who bash anything that they are told without knowing anything about it with the bulk of their information coming from something Derren Brown said once and a thirty second search on Google.

I have given hundreds of reading and never claim to predict the future. The reaction to a good reading is far stronger and more memorable than any 'trick'. As Mark will probably agree, readings are very lucrative, highly commercial, incredibly popular and if you do it right the sitter leaves elated and happy. I don't think making someone happy and providing a service that is in demand is a bad thing.

Most open eye readers I know develop an intuition and can reveal things to a sitter that astonishes them. This heightened sense of perception comes with experience and is not something you can learn from the latest DVD, which is what probably frustrates those like Mr Rawlings.

I don't want to learn how to do 'readings' or play around tarot cards, or crystals or whatever floats your boat.

I think anyone that says they are 'psychic' is then essentially lying to anyone that pays them money. If 'psychics' (who would need a new word to describe themselves) openly tell people they have no powers whatsoever, and then people are happy to pay for the service, fine, great, crack on.

No I don't have any gigs coming up, because I'd never want to do magic professionally, even part-time. What's wrong with doing it as a hobby ffs?

Whats wrong with that? You're someone with no experience or knowledge in an area you deem fit to chip in on about with second hand, I'll-informed opinions. People like myself and Mark have far more knowledge and experience in this area so our comments come from experience, not something we've read on the Internet or a Derren Brown book.

The reason why I replied the way I did was because you quoted MY post not Mark's thought I doubt you read either of out posts because they don't agree with your narrow viewpoint.

Tarot earns me money while you're sitting at home playing Modern Warfare or something. Simple as.
Just because you know a few mentalism tricks doesn't mean you know everything. Some things are gained by experience which you have none of. Your attitude on this and other threads seems deliberately designed to provoke.

If someone says that they are psychic they are NOT lying. Everyone is psychic to a degree even Mr Rawlings. However, someone who does it professionally is doing all the time and consequently uses and hones that ability that we all have. I would suggest that he reads my post on the Tarot and see the logic in it.

On another note, although I am not going to participate it may do some of you some good to answer the young lady's questionairre. It reminds me of what happened when a similar young lady called me to do a similar project for her studies. This time it was supposed to be about magicians. She called up every magician in Toronto and nobody wanted to help her. On one of my more generous whims I allowed her to watch me at work. She saw me perform all day with the svengali deck and wrote it up in a charming little article. Some years later I included the piece in my memoir and in fact it concludes the book and I put the whole thing on the back cover. I found out later that the piece she wrote about me won her a scholarship at the University. It may be good karma for some of you to help our original poster out with this. Not me though. I haven't the energy.

@LordFreddie: I don't know everything, I didn't say I did. In every post I've said 'in my opinion' etc with regards to how I don't believe AT ALL in anyone having special powers or the ability to predict the future. There is absolutely nothing strange about someone saying they do not believe in powers, or God, or Santa Claus...that's actually quite normal. I notice you have not at all apologised or properly admitted how YOU have completely misread what I wrote. You clearly cannot ever be in the wrong, does this cause problems for you with gaining and retaining friendships? Oh and no I don't play or own Modern Warfare.

When I said I find it hard to agree with someone that says tarot cards work, I was (quite OBVIOUSLY) referencing them 'working' as in predicting the future, because that's what Mark said they do. To clarify he even posted again saying he believes they predict the future with a success rate of 70%. I cannot believe this at all, that's my opinion. Are you suggesting then that you believe tarot cards CAN predict the future? Surprising, but you're entitled to your belief, just as I am entitled to say that I think it's absurd, but I genuinely mean no offense in saying so, so I apologise if it sounded like I was trying to offend. You on the other hand clearly only want to offend, so who's really in the wrong here?

Also, for your information, I do have some experience and can read people quite well, but not in a way I would try and charge them for or pretend I have special powers. Just because someone doesn't perform 'readings' why do you assume they would have no experience in dealing with, understanding and knowing about people? That's quite a narrow viewpoint.

Lastly, I don't think I've ever seen a post or at least thread in which weren't trying to ridicule something or someone...why are you like this? I guess perhaps it could be related to your childhood, maybe you have been overly bullied and now are very negative and argumentative as some kind of defense mechanism to anyone that isn't a customer paying you money for you to pretend you have powers. Again, the fact you have chosen to spend a large amount of your time trying to show off to people and act as though you have powers, heck even calling yourself 'Lord' also shows that yes, you probably did experience bullying as a child, or didn't receive the attention and praise you required, for that I'm sorry, but that was in the past and perhaps you shouldn't treat everyone in such a confronting and mean way?

Christ, I bet you argue with your doctor and tell him you know better too.
You clearly haven't read my or Mark's posts properly or failed to grasp what we are saying (shall we put on DVD for you? Would that be easier?).
I will not apologize for anything. You quoted one of my posts and then placed an irrelevant comment that you claimed was addressing something Mark said. You're obviously confused. You seem to voice the cliched opinion of rattling against anything to do with psychics because it's the thing to do, but you quite clearly have no experience in this world and see things in black and white but there are grey areas.

MisterRawlings wrote:@LordFreddie: I don't know everything, I didn't say I did. In every post I've said 'in my opinion' etc with regards to how I don't believe AT ALL in anyone having special powers or the ability to predict the future. There is absolutely nothing strange about someone saying they do not believe in powers, or God, or Santa Claus...that's actually quite normal. I notice you have not at all apologised or properly admitted how YOU have completely misread what I wrote. You clearly cannot ever be in the wrong, does this cause problems for you with gaining and retaining friendships? Oh and no I don't play or own Modern Warfare.

When I said I find it hard to agree with someone that says tarot cards work, I was (quite OBVIOUSLY) referencing them 'working' as in predicting the future, because that's what Mark said they do. To clarify he even posted again saying he believes they predict the future with a success rate of 70%. I cannot believe this at all, that's my opinion. Are you suggesting then that you believe tarot cards CAN predict the future? Surprising, but you're entitled to your belief, just as I am entitled to say that I think it's absurd, but I genuinely mean no offense in saying so, so I apologise if it sounded like I was trying to offend. You on the other hand clearly only want to offend, so who's really in the wrong here?

Also, for your information, I do have some experience and can read people quite well, but not in a way I would try and charge them for or pretend I have special powers. Just because someone doesn't perform 'readings' why do you assume they would have no experience in dealing with, understanding and knowing about people? That's quite a narrow viewpoint.

Lastly, I don't think I've ever seen a post or at least thread in which weren't trying to ridicule something or someone...why are you like this? I guess perhaps it could be related to your childhood, maybe you have been overly bullied and now are very negative and argumentative as some kind of defense mechanism to anyone that isn't a customer paying you money for you to pretend you have powers. Again, the fact you have chosen to spend a large amount of your time trying to show off to people and act as though you have powers, heck even calling yourself 'Lord' also shows that yes, you probably did experience bullying as a child, or didn't receive the attention and praise you required, for that I'm sorry, but that was in the past and perhaps you shouldn't treat everyone in such a confronting and mean way?

Yes indeed.That is true. Lord Freddie is indeed rather horrible so I suppose Mr Rawlings does have a point.

But it isn't the Tarot that predicts the future. It is the operator PLUS the tarot that predicts the future. For example I am going to predict the future at this moment to prove what I say is valid. And I won't even use the Tarot. This thread will degenerate into a nasty argument and in the end it will be locked.

There. In this case I bet I am more than 70% accurate.

We all predict the future. Some of you can predict with absolute certainty that you will be back at work on Monday. All the Tarot does is sharpen the possibilities on a long term basis. That and the self-fulfilling prophecy principle which I have no time to explain does indeed give a 70% accuracy rate. In fact I think a bit more than that. Probably 80%. I was being conservative when I said 70%. I do get clients all the time telling me that my predictions come true.

All I said is that I believe 100% in the tarot and that it works. And it DOES work. I believe I have explained why. It is not magic. It is not supernatural. It is perfectly logical and plausible and you will see that if my reasoning is studied.

@LordFreddie: Why would I argue with my doctor? He's trained with a recognised education system to become an expert in his field, of which is based on science. Why would you put it on a DVD? Do you assume I watch lots of DVD's for some reason? You really aren't very good at reading people, all your guesswork about my personality has been completely off

I did read your posts. Mark was saying tarot does predict the future. If you read back, you'll see I only quoted you because you were defending Mark/his claims. I then said to you, 'sorry but I can't agree with someone that says tarot cards work', clearly in reference to Mark. Do you not understand how that works? I'm sorry to hear that. I'll try to explain it differently; it comes down to you basically saying Mark was right, then me saying to you (by way of quote), I don't agree. Just for the record, I did start off by agreeing/understanding what Mark was saying in terms of his 'readings' and how it works, I just merely said the bit I couldn't agree with was that tarot cards can somehow predict the future. That's a very reasonable thing to say. I'm not sure why you are so upset about me expressing an opinion which is in disagreement to someone saying something is a fact. If anything, people that state things are facts without concrete evidence are the ones that should be challenged, not the other way around. And I do mean challenged, as opposed to being ridiculed or having silly comments about them being made - I hope you saw the irony of when I did that in my post back to you.

Will you stop faffling around with Lord Freddie and inform us as to whether you have read my post on how the Tarot works? And what are your thoughts on it? Can you see why I say it works and why I believe in it? I do find it my duty after all to educate the youth of today on metaphysical matters.

Mark, you're wasting your time with him. These posts are wasted. He won't ever get it.
Check his post history and you'll see 80% of his posts are gushing praise for Derren Brown and Derren is anti-psychic. So
Mr Rawlings is anti-psychic. He's read Derren's books so he's obviously an expert.

I have read it. I completely understand what you're saying with regards to making a prediction about upcoming behaviour or events, since probability of such things is very easy to see. It's easy to predict that something which happens everyday will happen again the next, etc etc, that's fine. However I don't personally see how that can be related to random cards with different images on them. I don't see how a specific prediction about someone's life can be made through tarot cards. I can see that maybe you would read someone and predict they are about to find new love, because maybe you've seen that person before, or can tell that they are usually in a relationship, but they are at the moment single...but how cards can somehow relate to this is not something I believe in, that's just my opinion.