Contemporary fortune tellers have adapted to modern times. They now conduct sessions online with clients, if not face-to-face.
In Seoul, South Korea, a cultural store has a shaman in a glass booth giving customers advice on love, wealth, career, health, and luck. Customers who want to consult the shaman type their name, gender, and date of birth on a computer.
A suspended mask with the image of a human face projected onto it represents the shaman. It then asks the client to explain their concerns through a headset, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The robot shaman is powered by artificial intelligence and voice recognition technology to interact with the customer, according to AFP.
Meanwhile, a traditional fortune teller in Chicago, USA, has an unorthodox way of interpreting the destiny of individuals.
Jen Billock uses conventional tarot cards, tea leaves, and palms to tell fortunes, but she also “reads” cheese.
Billock practices tyromancy, which was used in England during the Middle Ages to determine if a criminal was guilty or innocent and to predict the viability of a given harvest season, the New York Post (NYP) reported.
“Each person gets four pieces of cheese per reading, and the first three represent the past, the present, and the future. I read those like a three-card tarot spread,” she explained to NYP, adding that the fourth cheese is used to answer a question or resolve a problem.
NYP interviewer Reda Wigle sent Billock photos of Cambozola and Manchego cheeses, which the latter interpreted.
Billock noted an enduring soul-mate connection, a potential health hiccup, a career switch, and travel to the mountains. After the reading, Billock advised Wigle to eat the cheese.