The Meme Machine
TheMemeMachine1999
TheMemeMachine1999
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MEMES OF THE NEW AGE 183<br />
back but the orientation of this card shows that it will improve soon. I can see<br />
you playing as a child – now you may not know this yourself, but if you look<br />
carefully you will find you have a scar in your left knee.<br />
Evidence suggests that Tarot readers succeed by (mostly unconsciously)<br />
using the perfectly normal skills of responding to feedback,, reading subtle body<br />
language, and using the ‘Barnum Effect’ – that is, using statements that almost<br />
everyone will judge as true of themselves but not of others. I took the first three<br />
sentences frond the classic Barnum Personality Reading (Forer 1949). Other<br />
Barnum statements include positive ones (few people should admit to not being<br />
kind-hearted), double-headed statements (one half is bound to be true of you)<br />
and ambiguous ones (read in what you like). Correct names and dates can be<br />
homed in on by trial and error in the certainty that clients will forget all the<br />
strong tries, and will remember questions as though they were statements of fact.<br />
<strong>The</strong> little details I gave there ones I had heard so often that I included them in a<br />
survey of over 6000 readers of a British newspaper (Blackmore 1997). Among<br />
the results were that 29 per cent opened a cat, 27 per cent had been to France in<br />
the past year, 30 per cent were suffering pain in their back (and that’s not<br />
including all the ones who might have had back pain in the past) and 34 per cent<br />
had a scar on their left knee (note the importance of scars in abductions too).<br />
You do not need to get every statement right to snake a good impression.<br />
So clients go away impressed and the Tarot reader betonies even more<br />
convinced of her powers, but that is not all. In the process, the clients pick up<br />
lots of Tarot card memes. <strong>The</strong> reader has special powers that you do not have.<br />
Tarot cards hold ancient mysteries that cannot be tapped by unbelievers. When<br />
you shuffle them they rnagically tune in with the rhythms of the universe and<br />
unfold your secret destiny. <strong>The</strong>y will reveal the good in you and put you in<br />
touch with your higher nature – and so on.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se memes are successful because they seem to explain the client’s<br />
experience and include all the right tricks. <strong>The</strong> fear they prey on is the fear of<br />
uncertainty and of making the wrong decisions in a horribly complex world.<br />
People typically go to psychics when they are at their lowest and want guidance.<br />
This means they are all the more likely to fall for claims of higher powers or of<br />
special insight. <strong>The</strong> ‘illusion of control’ also works in favour of these memes.<br />
Stress is reduced when control over a situation is increased – and if real control<br />
is not possible, an illusion of control will do (Langer 1975). Many experiments<br />
have shown the power of this illusion, and believers in the paranormal are more