The Meme Machine

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