HW4: Cover Letter

November 21, 2012


Dear Respondents,

Hi! I am Alpha T. Pedralvez, a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy student at Asia Pacific College. I am conducting a research study entitled 'Fortune Telling: Methods, Themes and Psychological Effects'. The purpose of my study is to collect different opinions or perceptions from different respondents based on their perspective on fortune telling and its psychological effects to an individual.

Your participation will involve answering some general demographic questions and some questions relative to my research study. The questionnaire will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. Your involvement in the study is voluntary, and your responses will be completely anonymous. You do not have to answer any question you would rather not answer. There are no consequences if you decide not to complete the survey and you can stop at any time. 

The findings from this project will provide information with no cost to you other than the time it takes for the survey. If you have any questions about this research project, please feel free to contact me at (0917) 559-0130 or send an e-mail to pedralvezalpha@gmail.com. 

By returning this questionnaire in the envelope provided or by sending me your answers via electronic mail, whichever is more convenient for you, you will be agreeing to participate in the above described project.

Thanks for your consideration! 

Sincerely, 

Alpha T. Pedralvez

Bachelor of Science in Accountancy, Asia Pacific College

HW3: Fortune telling as counseling

Life is beautiful, for some it is a bed of roses but for some it is not. There are those who view life as a challenge, a network of discovery and innovation, a chance for success and a door to wealth. For them life is gratifying, colorful and rewarding. In whatever situations, these kind of people find themselves keep on believing and fighting. For them, “Where there is life, there is hope.” But there are some who view life as hard, punishing and merciless. For them, they can do nothing to be good and in most times, they lost every sense of direction.

No matter who we are and how we view life, it will always be tough; it was in fact an ocean of endless problems. And whenever we take problems seriously, it gives us stress which affects each of us in different ways and it can seriously affect your physical and mental well-being. 

Whenever I have problems, I strongly face it and will easily think and execute possible solutions to that problem. And when I am becoming stressful, I am talking or opening things with someone I trust which I know can help me clear my mind and can give me good pieces of advice. I as well take time to rest or have a very short vacation to be more relaxed and comfortable.

There are other people who choose to seek fortune tellers for a quick answer or fix to the problem they are having. They may be mentally lazy or depressed and they may simply be searching and a fortuneteller or psychic is an easy way to find answers.

This article is entitled “Putting the ‘fortune’ back in fortune telling” by Philip Brasor & Masako Tsubuku. This article is from a tabloid press in Japan about a comedian who apparently has wasted her career and whatever money it made her on the services of a self-styled fortune teller who effectively commandeered her life. I believe this kind of scenario is also present in the Filipino society.

Based on the article, the comedian named Tomoko Nakajima first turned to a fortune teller when she needed an advice about becoming a freelance writer. The fortune teller told her to get married and she did it but the marriage didn’t work and she divorced. Despite what turned out to be bad advice she continued seeking counsel from fortune tellers, obsessed with what would happen to her in the future until she became indebted. But in the end, she kicked her habit.

In my own point of view, asking for pieces of advice to people whoever you may wish to is not a question but the dilemma arises if you will become addicted or habituated to ask for help at all times. This makes a person losing his confidence or trust in his self and have the fear of committing mistakes based on the decisions he will make.

Money is an essential component of addiction. Traditionally, one finds fortune tellers on the street, sitting in front of little stands, handing out advice in ten-minute of time, and ten minutes is never enough especially if the fortune teller speaks so accurate or factual. This then can make the client to feel relaxed or untroubled and cheered up because the fortune teller appeared to listen on the worries of the client and gives guidance or advice to him.

However the act of “repeated” emotions to a fortune teller is what makes the process so habit-forming. It’s like a tranquilizer to reduce the fear of the unknown, but since the fear is never directly dealt with it never goes away, and so the client has to continue seeking advice. As what I as well observed, clients who complain about the fortune teller are mostly because the advice didn’t work or the falsity of their talent or gift and they weren’t able to get their money’s worth and not so much with the expensive fee.

The fee a person pays to a fortune teller is about the same as the consultation fee you can pay to a psychiatrist or counselor. A fortune teller uses his instinct or feelings to prophesize or answer questions while a counselor or psychiatrist uses his knowledge or wisdom from his years of education. The similarity between them is they both give or specialize in giving advice with no guarantee results but in different ways.

I believe that mind is the center of everything. It controls one’s thoughts and beliefs. No one can directly know what the answer to your problem except you alone because it is yours. A positive mind helps one to discover the beauty of life. A great person is one who has faith or belief in his identity and potentials.

HW2: Fortune Telling as Fraud

Can you imagine life without basic needs such as food, water, air, money, shelter, clothing, family, education, transportation and many others? Humans need a number of necessities to be able to survive. These needs include either physical or non-physical elements needed for human growth and development. According to Abraham Maslow, needs are hierarchical in nature. That is, each need has a specific ranking or order of attainment.

The most common reason for fraudulent actions is the scarcity of needs. A critical financial need is usually the cause of fraud. Some people also commit fraud to pay for a prominent life style which then they could not afford to sustain. Needs may arise from a number of situations such as: marriage break-ups and/or extravagant love affairs, drug or alcohol addiction, debts, gambling, business deficits and unexpected family emergencies.

According to the dictionary, fraud is a false representation of a matter of fact—whether by words or by conduct, by false or misleading allegations, or by concealment of what should have been disclosed—that deceives and is intended to deceive another so that the individual will act upon it to her or his legal injury. If there are white lies which means lying for a good reason, fraud is as well like a white offense which means it is a crime without anyone being hurt.

I found an article entitled “Fortune Telling Fraud” from Wikipedia supported by another article entitled “Secret testimony, use of ‘Gypsy’ term to be given to defense in “psychic” fraud case” by Paula McMahon.

According to the first article from Wikipedia, “The basic feature of the scam involves diagnosing the victim (the "mark") with some sort of secret problem that only that fortune teller can detect or diagnose, and then charging the mark for ineffectual treatments. The fortune teller announces that the mark is suffering from a curse that her magic can relieve, while threatening dire consequences if the curse is not lifted.”

It also states that “In this scam, a fortune teller uses her cold reading skill to detect that a client is genuinely troubled rather than merely seeking entertainment; or is a gambler complaining of bad luck. The fortune teller informs the mark that they are the victim of a curse, but that for a fee a spell can be cast to remove the curse.”

In my point of view, because of scarcity of needs (especially financial) some fortune tellers grabbed the chance to defraud their customers. A crime designed to financially control a victim can be made under the mask of delivering advice or aid. It requires attaining the victim's complete trust and, then through cautiously manipulation, convincing the victim to give money and valuables to the suspect(s). Victims of these cases are of any age and gender with a common purpose of seeking answers to their questions or asking for help in solving their problem in their life.

I believe that the crime commences with the usual ‘reading’ process for a minimal fee. The fortune teller uses methods and props such as Tarot cards, crystal ball, palm reading, horoscopes, numerology, etc. During the session, the reader/fortune teller can apply his/her cold reading ability, it is the ability to gain information about the customer without that person realizing that the reader is actually giving up the information him/herself. This alone is an instance of fraud for it deceives or takes unfair advantage of his/her customer.

On the second article, a family of fortune tellers defrauded several clients of $40 million by taking money and valuables they promised to give back but failed to return. They now wanted to use the word ‘gypsy’ as a defense in their psychic fraud case. There are stories in the second article and in the Wikipedia which are similar to other articles where a psychic reader was accused of inducing a 12 year old girl to steal $10,000 worth of jewelry from her parents by threats of a curse. All the stories have a common point, that the fortune teller convinced her client to send her money and property in payment for a year of prayer to be cleansed of "evil" or “curse”.

As soon as the customer now believed that there is really an evil or curse, the reader now convinces the victim that through physic powers she/he alone is able to remove this curse. And because the victim believed that the fortune teller has God-given talent/powers then he/she is now willing to pay or giving everything to be able to remove or destruct the curse or evil with pray over.

I strongly consider that no matter what they call it, ‘gypsy’, ‘psychic’ or ‘fortune teller’, they are considered as one for they have the same purpose, to defraud or manipulate their customers/victims. A long-term fraud/crime results in the total psychological manipulation of the victim, which separates them from any support from family or friends and keeps them very open or vulnerable to any suggestions given by the reader.

HW1: Survey Questions

One of the most productive things a student can do would be to invest their precious time and effort in writing a research paper. I believe that the essence of research paper writing is to enhance students’ knowledge and critical thinking capabilities acquired during their academic race. And this would be very important for their professional career in the future.

Almost two months ago, I have started my research paper which was entitled “Fortune telling: Methods, Themes and Psychological Effects”. Currently, I am in the process of completing my research paper. So far, I have finished Chapter 1. The introductory chapter composes of the background of the study, statement of the problem, significance of the study, scope and delimitation, materials and methods and definition of terms. 

There are many things I am knowledgeable of especially about my topic which is fortune telling. But still, I want to acquire something about my topic such as: the percentage of people who believe in fortune telling, how often and their reason/s for seeking a fortune teller and many other.

My study gathers relevant information from various reference materials such as articles, books, publications in press, blogs and other online resources. To continue my study, I decided to include interviews/surveys as one of my methods/materials. The purpose of my interview/survey is to collect different opinions or perceptions from different respondents.

I will conduct interview/survey for it gives insight on what the person being interviewed is thinking, or appears to be thinking and for more accurate information coming from person’s personal experiences and views. And the results/responses can help me in my conclusions and will be relevant for the completion of my paper. 

These interview/survey questions are intended for different respondents. Basically, this interview/survey necessitates the respondent to answer questions about his/her age and gender. These are necessary because I wanted to determine the difference of psychological effects of fortune telling between men and women as well as people of different ages.

I formulated a hypothesis or wild guess about what might be the result of this interview/survey. First, I supposed women take fortune telling or predictions seriously or meaningfully while men take it skeptically. Second, I supposed that huge percentage of older people are believers of fortune telling or predictions because it appears that it is somewhat related to superstitious beliefs and only small percentage of believers comes from younger people because young generations are more open or vulnerable to more realistic things and might just try fortune telling just for curiosity.

The psychological effects of fortune telling depend on how a person views predictions. There is no assurance that each respondent will react to the object in the same way. It is just a matter of benefits or detriment.

INTRODUCTION (Final)

FORTUNE TELLING:

METHODS, THEMES ANDTHE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS

A Research Paper Presented to 

Sir Dustin Celestino 

Asia Pacific College 

Magallanes, Makati City 

In Partial Fulfillment 

of the Requirements for the Course 

RESWRIT – Research Writing 

Alpha Mae T. Pedralvez

October 2012

 

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

A.   Background of the Study

There are people who desire to reveal everything that are hidden. Some are discontented for chasing and knowing the secrets of life. One of things a person enjoys to reveal is fortune or destiny which will never be shown until the right time. What make life interesting and exciting are the mysteries of fortune or destiny. People look for tendencies to reveal the secrets of life and this is the start of the art of practicing to predict one’s future. The answer to the curiosity of some people is fortune telling.

One of the most difficult areas within psychology to study is paranormal belief. A huge part of this difficulty lies in its lack of standard definition. “A paranormal belief is defined on a working basis as a proposition that has not been empirically attested to the satisfaction of the scientific establishment but is generated within the nonscientific community and extensively endorsed by people who might normally be expected by their society to be capable of rational thought and reality testing.” (Irwin,2009).  The understanding of paranormal belief is still unclear as a single definition of paranormal belief has yet to be widely accepted by the psychological community.

According to existing literature, fortune telling is considered to include a number of different paranormal items that can, supposedly, allow a fortune teller special knowledge about the future; such items include psychic ability, extra sensory perception (ESP) and many different divinatory arts (e.g. cartomancy, astrology, palmistry, crystallomancy etc.) (Irwin, 2009). This has led to a simple understanding of fortune telling where, according to parapsychological research, belief in fortune telling is constituted as belief that abilities to read or foretell the future are real or genuine.

According to Ed Beckham Ph.D. on anxiety, “fortune telling is a type of worrying in which person’s project negative outcomes into the future. They worry about what might happen as if it were a foregone conclusion or as if it had already happened. As a result, these types of thought causes people to feel anxious and upset about something that has not happened and may never happen.”

Many people affirm their fortune tellers while others regard it as a pseudoscience. However, it is extremely popular across all cultures and religions. History is complete with unreliable cases proving the truth of such readings. There are various reasons attributed to their accuracy are: Ambiguity is a key characteristic of predictions. If one goes wrong, the blame lies with the interpretation and not with the prediction. The need for confirmation forces people to look for instances when the predictions have borne fruit. Predictions result in lowering of fear and anxiety of the unknown. Predictions are an amusing diversion from the daily hustle activities of life. Guesswork on the part of the teller, based on incomplete shards of information helps in soothing one’s deepest fears so that a heavy burden is lifted. A person returns from a reading in a relaxed state of mind.

The known reasons for their accuracy are:  The Forer effect refers to the tendency of people to rate sets of statements as highly accurate for them personally even though the statements could apply to many people. (The Skeptic’s Dictionary) Cold reading is the ability to gain information about someone without that person realizing that they are actually giving up the information themselves. This is achieved using a series of tricks and psychological manipulations to coax information out of the interviewee, and then to pass it off as being generated by psychic powers or other means. (RationalWiki) And a self-fulfilling prophecy in which a person may modify his future course of action keeping his prediction in mind. It may come true as a result of his altered actions. When an individual divines for himself, it is a way of organizing his own chain of thought.

According to Alexander Caillet’s the Thinking Path, it holds that thoughts (including assumptions and beliefs) produce feelings, which produce behaviors, which produce results. Emotions are connected with behavior but not all people behave similarly with the same emotion. Handling emotions and how one can behave towards it has a crucial effect on success and better decision making.

Overall mind state and behavior has a certain nature founded mainly on the types of ideas or thoughts a person thinks. Looking into the thoughts of depressed person, there would be one saddening thought following another. When a person looks at the past, there is regret, at the present, something is most often disappointing and in the future there is anxiety or pessimism.

It has its benefits which include lessening of anxiety levels. A major flip side to this coin is that it may stimulate acute depression if the predictions are unexpected and untruthful. A person with a strong belief and who works with principles can avoid being absorbed into the nasty circle of fortune telling.

This study does not deal with the issue on accuracy of fortune telling, this paper focuses on its effect on human mind and behavior.

B.   Statement of the Problem

This study aims to answer this question:

1.    What are the psychological effects of fortune telling to people?

C.   Significance of the Study

Fortune telling enthusiasts. This research paper would be able to help fortune telling enthusiasts in learning more about the unconscious effects to human mind and behavior of fortune telling as a primary  distortion that sparks anxiety or the reverse which include reduction of anxiety levels and on how deal with the happiness or anxiety brought by predictions.

College Students taking up the course BS in Psychology. This research paper would be beneficial to college students taking up the course BS in Psychology because it is in line with their specialization. Through this research, they will acquire practical knowledge and can serve as a reference or guide in understanding rational situations.

Future researchers. The research would be able to provide future researchers essential information and ideas which can serve as their guide for development of the paper. This would allow them to furnish additional data that would be valuable for the study.

D.   Scope and Delimitation

This study focuses on the psychological effects of fortune telling to people. Psychological effects and psychology are being ruminated because it primarily analyzes who and what we are, why we are like that, why we act and think like that and how we can improve ourselves.

This study briefly discusses some of the methods of fortune telling such as cartomancy, astrology, palmistry and crystallomancy to consider people’s view on fortune telling. This gives emphasis on three themes to classify fortune telling namely: fortune telling as business, fortune telling as fraud and fortune telling as counseling.

The study does not include the mystical effects of fortune telling. It does not count the concept of whether or not the paranormal phenomenon currently attributed to it is actually real or fake.

E.    Materials and Methods

This paper utilizes a descriptive method since the researcher aims to provide the psychological effects of fortune telling. This method is defined as a process involving the collection of data in order to test hypothesis or to answer questions concerning the current status of the subject of the study (Gay 1976).

Discourse analysis method will also be employed and it is defined as a qualitative method that has been adopted and developed by social constructionists. According to Dr. Eamon Fulcher it is based on some basic assumptions: Psychologists cannot be objective when studying human behavior. In the scientific approach there is the belief that knowledge can be gained by objectivity, reality is socially constructed and people are the products of social interaction. The concept is discussed in early discursive psychology by Potter and Wetherill (1987), “compare different people’s attitudes to the same object” (p. 50). However, Potter and Wetherill point out that “sameness of wording does not necessarily mean that respondents will understand the terms or formulate the object of thought in an identical way” (p.52).

Different respondents may have different perceptions and understandings of the object being discussed. There is no assurance that each respondent will react to the object in the same way. To combat this problem, the researcher needs a better understanding of how people constitute, or construct and behave and think about, the objects that they profess belief in.

This paper gathered relevant information from various reference materials such as refereed articles, books, publications in press, blogs and other online resources, surveys and interviews.

F.    Definition of Terms

Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure.

Fortune telling is the practice of predicting the future, usually of an individual, through seemingly mystical or supernatural means.

Psychology is the scientific study of human and animal behavior with the object of understanding why living beings behave as they do.

Psychic ability is term as the “sixth sense”, It is a sense outside of our five physical senses - sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. Others may refer to this sense as a “metaphysical” ability.

Extrasensory perception (ESP) involves reception of information not gained through the recognized physical sense but sensed with the mind.

Cartomancy is fortune-telling or divination using a deck of cards.

Astrology is fortune telling by using the movement of celestial bodies.

Palmistry or chiromancy is the art of characterization and foretelling the future through the study of the palm, also known as palm reading, or chirology.

Crystallomancy is a form of divination or scrying achieved through trance induction by means of gazing at a crystal globe, a pool of water, a mirror, or any transparent object.

Political Fortune Telling

One of company’s strategies to increase their sales and have an advantage over their competitors to win over their consumers is to have an advertisement. Advertisement promotes the product of the company so that many people will come and try it. Advertisement is everywhere, from televisions, radios, billboards and internet. An advertisement contains the power if it easily catches your attention.

The famous philosopher Aristotle stated the simple truth when he said centu­ries ago that man is "a political animal". Politics has encompasses every sphere of life, and the number of politicians has grown beyond measure. There is politics everywhere, in government generally, in the administration, in schools, colleges, universities, and even in sports and games. People in politics possess power and the higher the rank the superior and getter power you have.

Nowadays, political dynasty has becoming very rampant in our government. It does not mean that because the father is a good leader so is his son, daughter, wife or any other family members. There would be no issue here if they can prove themselves as a good leader but what if it’s the other way around? And what if the father is not a good leader, there can be a big possibility that the descendants vying will also be like him if they have the position. 

In a larger scale, Obama is the President of United States, many fortune tellers claimed that before the start of the year they already predicted that Obama will win and still become the President of US. Let’s see what will happen as the Election Day is approaching.

I have read an article entitled “Fortune teller, driver, engineer also vie for Manila mayorship” by Erika Sauler. The article is about a psychic running for the post of Manila mayor and filed certificate of candidacy, or COC.

In my own point of view, it’s good that there are people who have the courage to file for candidacy but the problem here is you will compete with people who have already build a name in politics. There is a very small chance for new candidates to win thus they cannot prove themselves. And we Filipinos just go always go back to our history thus sometimes there were no improvements. Because he is a psychic and he run for candidacy, had he predicted what can he do for the betterment or he is just there to mock the election process and be known even just for a few time. Had he predicted to win the position?

If other politicians consult fortune tellers to ask about their standing, whether they will win or lose. I have articles about Pnoy consulting a fortune teller about his love life, but the latest was entitled “Pnoy shares thoughts on marriage” by Genalyn Kabiling. One of the articles stated that Pnoy will consult a fortune teller regarding his love life and he wanted to have the answer as soon as possible. And in the latest article Pnoy stated that “After this, I will look for a fortune teller to know when this (honeymoon) will happen”.

In my own view, people even rich or poor, famous or not, powerful or not in some way believe and wanted to seek consultation of fortune tellers because they already became a part of the society. In addition, people against it supports its unlawfulness by saying that it may be merely a way of reducing anxiety among people or a source of entertainment and because predictions usually use vague words, they never lend themselves to falsification. But the problem is having a fortuneteller for fraud especially if they may also be used by some biased political forces to appeal to the decision to be made.

We cannot erase the fact there are people who really take seriously the predictions of their fortune tellers especially if they have believe and faith on them. But in my own opinion, the problem only arises if the predictions can terribly affect one’s feeling which reflect to his unpleasant behavior or actions and poor decision making for his progress.

End of the World

Education should empower us humans. Education provides us more choices and chances to make a difference for our community. Education pays us back for it offers a happier and easy life. Our pursuit for knowledge is something we should never end; it is a desire that we should never avoid.

For other people, fortune telling or predictions are beneficial, for some it is just all right while some treat it as evil especially those who are God fearing. Just like education there are people who would be willing to pay for information especially if it is about their future. But would still be willing to pay for knowledge about the end of the world?

People are either wondering or fearful about death. The death of a person is very terrifying but the end of the universe and human race is even beyond imagination. Humankind has been searching for information on how the world started and now some are wondering on how and when it will end.

"Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness" (2 Corinthians 11:14-15) I read about this article entitled “Prophecies” by Nestor Mata. This article is about the famous Nostradamus and some of his predictions.

Nostradamus is probably the most famous fortune teller for he is highly regarded by historians, astrologers and psychics who found many revelations in his book entitled “The Prophecies”. Many would be willing to buy his book no matter how expensive it would be.

According to the article, many of his predictions regarding the Second World War, Hitler and global catastrophes, were proven true. And, more important for all of us today, he also made predictions of what’s going to happen in the world this year of 2012! 

"Beasts ferocious with hunger will cross the rivers.

The greater part of the battlefield will be against Hister.

Into a cage of iron will the great one be drawn

When the child of Germany observes nothing."

Believers of Nostradamus usually translate the second line of this stanza to read: "The greater part of the battlefield will be against Hitler." They argue that "Hister" was just a code name for Hitler!

Nostradamus’ quatrain (rhyming verses with four lines each) works are creative but unclear. According to my study, the original book containing his quatrains was written in French. On my own point of view, there might already be a difference between the old French in the 16^th century compared to the new one. Language is also vulnerable for changes. These small changes might cause a big impact on the translation of the works of Nostradamus. There are also many internet translations of the quatrains of Nostradamus but it is false because some of the lines are already made up by the translator just to connect certain happenings.  

On the other side, if they will show you one of his quatrains and explain you about its relation in the event of the past (like the one on top) you might easily believe because there are also some words (Hisler-Hitler) that somehow connects and is related with the past especially if you do not have enough knowledge of some words (Hisler).

According to the article, in one of his quatrains, Nostradamus wrote: “In the sky will be seen a great fire dragging a trail of sparks,” a line that that many modern-day interpreters say is a comet the size of a little less than the planet Jupiter, and that if it passes the earth it might cause an asteroid to shift course and impact the earth and cause massive destruction. 
The article also stated that Nostradamus painted a bleak picture of massive destruction and havoc brought about by a comet that will strike the earth or pass very close to our planet and cause massive earthquakes and other cataclysmic occurrences somewhere in December 2012.

I remembered many other predictions about the end of the world, but the said date had just passed. But the date of the prediction of the famous Nostradamus is yet to come. No one knows if it will really happen. Some do believe and some do not.

For my part, I do not believe with the prediction because what I believe on is what the bible states, that there is a rainbow because the world will never be ruined by God again. But I do believe that there will really be earthquakes, war, flood and other catastrophes because these are because of the nature of the earth and there are people who do not know how to take care and respect mother earth and other people.

In my own point of view, everything is on the saying, “mind over matter”. If you believe and think that the world will end, then it might just cause you fear and panic but other behave differently by doing all the things they want to do, preparing spiritually or religiously or to spend all the money that a person has or enjoy the life more. What is important is to always give your best, enjoy life to the fullest and take good care of God’s creation.