Confessions of a Tarot Card Skeptic
A skeptical private investigator gets a tarot reading.
Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of Answers About The Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and founder of BestPsychicDirectory.com. You’re reading his articles on Bob Olson Connect.
I believe I’ve said this before, but I consider it a gift to have articles I wrote twenty-five years ago. They are snapshots of what I thought and believed then and help me measure my growth today. It’s easy to forget where you came from and, thus, just as easy to miss how far you’ve come.
Below is an article I wrote after my first legitimate tarot reading. I don’t have the exact date, but I believe it was written in the summer of 2000 when I was thirty-seven. Now that you know that what you’re about to read is not new, I’ll share it with you and chime in again at the end.
The Article I Wrote Back in the Day
I must confess that as I sit here and write, I can’t help but ask myself, “What has become of my life?” Life used to be so simple and predictable. I knew what was real and what was fantasy. I knew what to believe and what not to believe. And I was smart enough not to be fooled by charlatans and schemers claiming to have abilities of supernatural design. Of course, they were all phonies in my mind, so it was easy to protect myself from the frauds.
Oh, how I miss those days when I had all the answers. My ignorance was indeed bliss. Today, I am confronted with a knowing that is not fit for a man who grew up on large doses of Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, and Sly Stallone. Revenge was the code back then, not love and forgiveness. An eye for an eye and every man for himself was the macho mentality, not oneness and peace and helping your neighbor. Life was so much easier to categorize when everything was black or white. But things aren’t quite so simple today. There are gray areas of which I wasn’t aware.
Where I was once a brave young deer hunter, I catch insects in my house and gently place them outside today. Rather than shoot bullets at pheasants and ducks in the name of sport, I now shoot my camera to capture their beauty. Yes, “the times, they are a-changing,” and I changed a great deal along with them.
Having once been a proud skeptic of all things paranormal, I’ve now spent years researching spirit communication. Those have been incredibly enlightening years, yet I continue to remain skeptical about certain practices. Until recently, a tarot card reading was one of those practices I refused to swallow. So, wouldn’t you know, as I recently verbalized this skepticism to a friend, a tarot card reader showed up in my life to confront my disbelief.
“Hey, I’m open to new possibilities,” I said to my wife, Melissa, although deep within me, I knew I had made up my mind on this subject. “Why not? I’m going to give it a try,” I told her. If for no other reason, I felt I owed it to myself to at least rule tarot out as a legitimate source of spiritual guidance.