It's Not Cast In Stone

A number of people and friends emailed me about what my fortune teller said. One friend asked "what is your feeling about this revelation?" Many tried to console me as if this is the end. Hello, this is only a prediction.

I am just giving my own opinion and interpretation about fortune telling. So far, I have went for two types of fortune telling. One that required the date and time of my birth and the other is choosing a few cards from a deck of normal playing cards for the prediction.

12 years ago I went for the first type of prediction. Now I have almost forgotten what was told to me. So I went back recently to the same place to have another reading two months ago. Basically, the information was the same as what was told to me 12 years ago. She did not mentioned I would have a major health problem 12 years ago and neither was she able to reveal I had a major health problem now. That type of reading is based on fate, sort of the destiny of a person has been determined at the time of birth. That's why despite a 12 year gap, the prediction did not change. Another example is the famous true story of Liao Fan who lived during the Ming Dynasty in 1550. A wise man predicted his entire life and as time went on, everything the wise man predicted came true, as if destiny cannot be changed. He did not do anything different and went on with his life as more and more of the predictions came true. Then one day, he met a monk who told him about karma, that it is possible to change one's destiny. Changed he did and then he noticed the predictions now no longer come true. Not only he did not die at an early age (as predicted), he even had a son. So he wrote down what he learned which he use to teach his son. The book he wrote became known as Liao Fan Four Lessons: Changing Destiny.

My recent encounter with the fortune teller uses a different technique. His prediction are for short term between 1-5 years depending on what you want to know. In this case, I specifically asked for a health reading. When I selected the cards, at that moment, it was based on my present condition. So what the fortune teller did was to interpret the formation of the cards and read me the prediction. He was able to read my recent past and then project it into the future. Don't asked me how he did it for if I knew, I would also open a branch office here. Since he noted that my present health condition was very bad and if I continued to live the way I do, then it is likely I would come to the end of my term in 2014. So why did I go along with my friend for the prediction? I use fortune telling as a guide. Actually, the future is not cast in stone, it does not mean 2014 is the end of my life. It maybe, if I continue to lead my life the way I do now due to the natural progression of the cancer. So now, I have another warning. Just like the doctors told me I had six month to live. I wanted a different outcome, so I did things differently and took alternative treatment and I lived longer than six month. This revelation by the fortune teller suggests that what I am now doing may not be enough. He may be wrong but it's food for thought. It does however, correlate to my current body condition. It's just like the story of Liao Fan. If he did not do things differently, he would not have changed his destiny. If I made changes and if I go back for another reading six months later (which he asked me to do), I believe I would have a different prediction. By the way, each reading costs RM5 (US$1.60).

I did not feel sad neither did I lose sleep over the prediction. Instead I reflected on what he said and then start to think about my present therapy and what else I could do. A serious critic of me has always suggested that I must look beyond the physical therapy, more importantly the way I live. I may have changed my lifestyle but she always felt my change was superficial. I am still drawn to and behave just like in my pre-cancer days as she would lambast me.