Mind Reading, An Art?

Mind reading isn't an art, but it is a talent that some people seem to have. They likely developed their abilities over time spent in watching, listening and putting the old two-and-two together to come up with  the useful ability to predict what is about to happen or not. The latter may not always be  correct, but at least, there is effort shown. In the event, the augury doesn't work, the teller can  plead that it may perhaps happen in the future. That's a safe bet.  The best "mind readers" aren't the ones who go about advertising it socially or professionally (if you can call it that), they simply luck into doing it right once or twice, and build on that reputation. When my mother took us, my sister and I, along on her weekly frequent tea visits (she didn't believe in babysitters), we learned early on,  that there was a special welcome for those like her, who could tell the future and guess at the past. With fascination, we saw, after the tea and cakes had been consumed, ladies turning their china tea cups upside down on their saucers to make wishes before setting them up again and waiting their turns for their tea leaves to be read. Incidentally, these women enjoyed at tea times, tea, the raw kind, no bags, thank you very much. They also made homemaking their careers, ones they took very seriously and did remarkably well at, all considered. The tea leaves revealed remarkable things including a few secrets best left unsaid. But the tiny tidbits that were exposed guaranteed the tea leaf reader's popularity from then on. Tiny items of gossip were more sought after than facts. It seemed to me, even as a child who was forced to sit quietly and juggle a tea cup full of mostly milk, that to learn the art of housewifery and divination was richly involved in the matter of tea parlour invitations. The expressions and body language as tea leaf seerage was imparted, told more than the mouth of the reader who peered above the cup closely regarding the effect of each of her words. The predictions or readings were suggested with subtle adjustments made along the way effectively, as any good mind reader knows. "I see here, a car, or is it a train or perhaps a plane?" "No? Oh, but I do see that a journey or visit is happening or has happened?" "Ah yes, you are going somewhere? Or you've been? Let me see now...". The listener actually feeds the predictor, her material. It's all in the close consideration and reception of responses and observations of body language. What lesson I learned, is that to pay  attention to the effect of our words while checking the expressions and movements of a listener's physical gestures, can glean the most remarkable and rewarding impressions. Truth truly, is found, not merely in what we say, but how we say it!