Secrets of Mind and Reality

The Gypsy fortune Teller

Gypsy fortune telling is the stuff of myths and legends for many people, but there really is an element of truth to it. Gypsy fortune tellers have wandered the globe for generations if not centuries, working in carnivals, fairs, and other public events, living on the outskirts of cities and plying their trade. A lot of fortune-telling is bogus, but some of it seems suspiciously true to life, and hard to dismiss lightly. There are plenty of tales of gypsy which fortune tellers giving sinister or optimistic predictions to incredulous visitors who later found that these predictions came true. Whether or not these stories are true is something that each person has to make up their own mind about. In my personal experience, there is too much evidence to ignore.

My very first experience with gypsy fortune telling was a faire I went to with my parents when I was about eight. I was a pretty hyperactive kid at that point, and I ran off immediately. While my parents were looking for me, I went to a gypsy palm reading tent. for two dollars, she read my palm and told me what my future would be. I was fascinated by her at the time, and I remember every word. She described nearly every detail of what my house would look like, what my wife would look like, and how many kids I would have. A few of the details were wrong, but basically she got it right. I wrote it all down at the time to keep track of it, and I was surprised when it all came true.

Of course, some of my friends have had experiences with gypsy fortunetellers that were not quite as positive. I have a friend who’s a big skeptic and doesn’t buy anything that has to do with astrology, palmistry, or any of the other divinatory arts. He says that it all has to do with cold reading and selective confirmation. According to this view, gypsy fortune tellers and other supposed mind readers give you information that is vague enough that you can fill in the details yourself. When parts of it seem accurate, you play up those parts in your mind. If something doesn’t come true, you forgot about it. Still, when I tell him about my experience I can see it makes him shiver. There are some things that are hard for even skeptics to explain away.