My very good friend Mariam wrote a very compelling post detailing her trip to Baqaa, a Palestinian refugee camp, to have her fortune read by the infamous fortune teller Ibtisam. Mariam’s account of the trip is dead on. She fully describes her encounter with Baqaa residents who automatically direct her to Ibtisam’s house without questions, as Mariam’s appearance along with that of her friends didn’t fit such a destitute area. Why else would westernized, Ammanite girls come to Baqaa unless it was to have their coffee cups read?
Unlike Mariam, who went home disappointed after Ibtisam refused to read her cup (for lacking intention), I had the intent and my cup was fully read by Ibtisam nearly five years ago. I don’t recall all of what she told me that day but I remember two major things she saw coming in the near future: Without even looking me in the eyes, Ibtisam predicted that 1) I would marry someone out of my culture and 2) I would spend most of my life outside of Jordan.
Well, I’m not sure I believe in all of this fortune telling stuff, but what she foresaw in my coffee cup was very similar to what happened in my life. Freaky!
Jeff, Jon Edward is a total fraud. Someone intercepted and recorded the radio signal he was using to contact with his backstage assistants. They even made a whole episode of the South Park poking fun at him (now that’s final authority to me!). If you have to fill an application and go into a studio for these things, I’d say someone is staging a show. I think it has got more with the whole setting and having the ‘intention’ than anything.
Wendy,
I’m intrigued so please go on. I don’t usually roll my eyes that often since by time I became shock -proof:-)
I’m not at all into that “dark side of life”, but I heard so much about Ibtisam that I thought I should give her a visit and see what the fuss is all about. Well, I guess that’s the journalist side of me that I can’t control.
Natasha, can I be the lone wacko Christian voice and urge caution with the supernatural?
Before I became a Christian (and the reason WHY I became one) was that I was apprenticed student of Wicca, or witchcraft. Horoscopes, tea leaves (I guess the Western equivalent to coffee grounds) palm reading, cards, seances, were all used as avenues that open a link to the unseen but very evil and dark side. I think Muslims have more awareness on this side of life than Christians do.
The demonic world isn’t all-knowing, as in predicting the future, but knows our propensities. The more interesting it is, the more we can make choices based on those influences instead using intellect and intuition.
I could go on and on, but I think I can see you rolling your eyes. Let me know if you want to know more!
Psychics: BS or not? I’m on the fence. I do agree some with Arash that readings as such sort of fill in the gaps of what you want to hear. Much like horoscopes — sort of the modern, disconnected version of coffee ground reading — psychics speak to things in your own heart. They seem more true to those they speak to, as would tea leaves because deep down you want this knowledge; you want to believe — most do.
But that said, it’s impossible to discount it completely. Even being the cynic and not wanting to see or agree with what you are reading or hearing, sometimes things are said (or read as the case may be) that just can’t be argued with. And in the wife’s defense Arash, it was five years ago so a little latitude on things seems appropriate. I’ve never been read by a “professional” like that but I think the whole atmosphere adds to it too. In Mariam’s and Natasha’s case imagine going in with this room full of excited, scared women and how that would contribute to the experience.
But I still think it is “possible” that the experience has some validity. There are things we don’t understand and there are those that are more open to feeling it and addressing it. There’s this guy in the States, Jon Edward, had this show called “Crossing Over.” This show was spooky at times. What he was doing, I don’t think it was staged, and it was amazing. He spoke with dead family members and communicated details back to the family that he just could not have known resulting in cries of disbelief and sometimes in closure for the family. I’m still in awe of that and find it hard to argue, despite my cynicism, with his ability. But again I’ve found this site and it brings up some things about the show that are worthy of investigation, although it is difficult to corroborate and definitively call him a fraud.
Oh and I have to add this: the Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge
I think that is the refugee camp with the huge satellite dishes. It is so sad indeed and what a horrible life it’s residents endure.
I have always wanted to experience the old “ritual” of having my cup read, but was always in the wrong place at the wrong time or discouraged for doing it b/c it is considered “haram”. I have heard of many readers saying factual things while others were just full of BS. Still I think I would want to experience it and decide on my own.
That would probably be the only way they could get me to drink Arabic Coffee….and no offense intended to those who call it Turkish Coffee. Well maybe just a little jab, I am going to start a campaign to get Starbucks to change it’s official name on its menus, similar to what was done with the Persian Gulf and National Geographic. 🙂
Well Arash, she said that in Arabic so probably out of your culture is not the exact translation. I’m trying to remember clearly now, it was something like out of your culture and very far from here. Something like that! Come on, you have to admit it was freaky;-)
LOL Iyas, you always crack me up;-)
Come on! ‘Out of you culture’ could mean anything! Heck, if had married Hussein from Irbid that would constitute ‘out of your culture’. And of course you don’t remember the rest, because they were absurd speculations that were just so off! If the women could really tell fortunes she wouldn’t live in a bloody refugee camp! Superstition: BAD.
Here is a story I heard from a credible source. Some lady went to a fortune teller (not Ibtisam) to find a way out of her unmarried life. She was given a pendant which allegedly contained a tiny scroll of paper with some scribbling to solve her “problem”. After some futile wait, that p[erson decided to do the unthinkable and crack the pendant open and read the scroll. It read in Arabic “tjawazti willa ma tjawazti, la ti*i ma tjawazti” 😀
In a related incidence, I was given a tin pendant to crack open. The pendant in that case was against the “evil eye”. I was given that task for fear if the owener does it herself will be jinxed for eternity! I opened it and it had a small pebble to give it weight…that’s it. I can’t say that either I or that person are jinxed by any means until this moment.
Nat, do you what is funny, before we both left jordan i would only do projectds like this with you… :)as you are as curious and as adventurous as anyone would hope for…. so cheers to you!