Hard fact or cold reading?

Howard Warner - 1 May 1987

Enlightenment or deception? Illusion or delusion? HOWARD WARNER paid $25 for 30 minutes to find out.

Gael Snow runs a shop in Wellington’s Grand Arcade where she sells books on astrology, vegetarianism, fringe medicines and the occult. Above the counter is a shining brass zodiac. And to the side hangs a lace curtain, through which the small office where she performs tarot readings can just be seen.

No, she couldn’t give a comprehensive picture of the long-term future, she had told me. But the next 12 months, certainly. And yes, I could bring a tape recorder.

I went as a member of the public, with a genuine curiosity about myself. She did not ask about my occupation in advance.

We sat on either side of a modern table. She placed the card pack on a red velvet cloth.

Gael Snow is dark-haired and immaculately groomed. She speaks Ina well-nurtured voice, with a hint of Australian and an offhandedness I initially found disconcerting.

I shuffled and cut as instructed. She dealt the cards carefully in haphazard piles.

“Okay, there’s a lot of indecision showing up here,” she began.

Then, she talked loosely about “pressure,” “unsettled feelings,” “emotional content.”

I could sense her nudging me towards telling something about myself — just what, I wasn’t sure. She pressed her fingers to her temples and gazed into the middle distance, searching, I presumed, for signals.

I get this feeling that there’s… I don’t know why I get this feeling, but there are things you could give, opportunities that come along which you could grasp, but for some reason it’s like you can’t break out and do that…”

She spoke with her hands, kneading the air to describe my inner ferment.

“…or not being able to make up your mind, but I feel as if there’s something there at the moment which suggests some change coming for you… (pause)… hopefully positive.”

I said nothing, waited for more. She rearranged the cards. The figures and symbols meant nothing to me.

We started again. She mentioned walls. I couldn’t see where walls fitted in, I told her.

She shook her head. “It just doesn’t seem to be right. Most people come to a tarot reading when there’s a specific problem, there’s something there, and the cards just fall out with the answers… I feel at the moment as if things are holding you back. Usually, everyone who comes through here is absolutely bang on.”

I racked may brains for some humdinger to feed her, some deep-rooted mania or quirk or suicidal tendency. Nothing.

A man came to the counter. She served him while I shuffled again. The cards were worn and stiff.

Now question time: I could ask “anything virtually, just as long as you phrase it so you get a yes or no answer.” I trotted out vague, unpointed questions about family, health, job, prospective love affairs.

Her replies revolved around words like positive, negative, change.

”— looks unfavourable, but on the other hand…”

”— can be worked through…”

”— keep plugging away…”

The only time she showed excitement was when I asked about finances and she turned up the “money card.” Well, I don’t know maybe it’s like the chances of getting, say, a pair in a hand of poker.

Lastly, the calendar reading. I discovered that September would be “quite good,” late October I’d be in for a struggle, November a decision, January a change, February a lot of pressure which would ease in March.

In April I’d be disappointed — a negative sort of situation.” May was something to do with living, a home. “The cards are really quite good through the next 12 months.”

“When’s the big romance?” I asked.

“Possibly November. Or March maybe. Yes, November or March, I think.”

“I feel things,” she had said, tapping her temples, when I asked about methods. The cards were only a tool, a focal point. Then something about her higher plane meeting with my higher plane.

I played the tape recording of my tarot reading to Dr Dennis Dutton, the Christchurch philosopher who made a name for his challenging of Radio 2ZB “clairvoyant” Mary Fry.

We checked the reading against the 13 rules of cold reading — a rudimentary test for establishing the existence or otherwise of psychic powers.

Most of the rules were, or could have been, in evidence: Setting the stage, gaining my cooperation in advance, using a gimmick (the cards), stock phrases, observation, fishing, listening, flattery, giving the impression of knowing more, and telling me what she thought I might want to hear.

There was a noticeable lack of confidence and dramatising, however, which made the performance a yawn rather than fun and diverting. But then my uncooperativeness may not have been confidence-inspiring.

And as to use of statistics and surveys, who knows? Or about any of the methods, for that matter. One can only guess.

After the New Zealand Skeptics Conference last weekend, I returned to Mrs Snow. Was she a psychic? I asked:

“Well, I use certain intuitive or, if you like, psychic abilities.”

Did she use cold reading?

Never heard of it.

She said she promised to help people with problems. It was unfair for anyone to come to her out of curiosity, although she felt a certain amount of scepticism was healthy.

She agreed I had been right not to disclose my job and motivations beforehand, as “it would have distorted the reading.”

How did she feel about charging $25 for a reading which failed to give any specific or accurate information?

Not happy, she said. The reading had been hard; it had upset her. Maybe if I had come at a different time or had my astrological chart done instead, it would have been different.

But she was running a business. That was why she worked from an office, not from her home. “I’m trying to make it a little more professional for people.”

She would not agree to undergo scientific tests because she did not trust them. “I don’t feel you need to prove it; the proof’s in the need for people to receive help.”

But she did offer to find some satisfied customers willing to talk to me. Most were more than happy with their readings, she said, and many had returned.

A nurse when younger, Mrs Snow began studying astrology 12 years ago and the tarot cards five years ago. She has been in business three years.

She always knew she had special powers, she said. People would always come to her with problems. ‘Maybe I’m a good listener or I have some natural talent for trying to help people.”

A few minutes after this conversation, she rang me back and offered a free astrological reading to “get the full picture.” I accepted.

The chart was interesting, even entertaining, but did not alter my doubts about the tarot reading.

As Wellington astrologer and columnist Garth Carpenter says, “You can’t validate a tarot card reading by astrology, because they involve different aptitudes.”

Astrology, he says, is a collection of informed guesses based on symbolism, but it can be reduced to mathematics. It does not involve psychic powers, as tarot readers claim to use.

Jean Waugh, an MA student in psychology at the University of Otago, is investigating belief systems — what makes people have faith in things unknown. She also helped organise the Skeptics conference.

For part of her BA, she conducted tarot reading tests on other students and members of the public, rating each according to accuracy, suggestibility and how credible they found her.

The results showed that “you can say anything and people will believe it.”

“Basically, the people who were more vulnerable to suggestion would always find the readings more accurate.”

Jean Waugh received a tarot pack for Christmas when she was working at a pub during her holidays. While still “reading a book” she would try it on patrons. All were amazed at the results, although she knew she was doing little more than elementary cold reading.

She now says: “After experimentation and a lot more reading on the topic, I do not believe there’s anything supernatural or paranormal about the ability to read the cards. It’s all cold reading.”

Not that tarot cards are intrinsically bad. “When I do a reading, I use it for a tool as, say, running, meditation, relaxation. lf I have a problem, it forces me to focus on it and maybe get new ideas from the images that come up on the cards.”