How Much Do You Know About The Weirdest Ways People Have Tried To Tell The Future?
By DEBRA KELLY
History - Science
Almost every person in history has had to face daily decisions that seem insurmountable, and the questions that go along with them. Are we doing the right thing? Will this all work out in the end? Is it all going to be ok? We won’t ask you these questions, but we will ask some trivia questions about weird ways people have tried to tell the future.
The chickens would go unfed for a period of time, then be presented with grain. If they ate it, it was an indication that the outcome of whatever endeavor was in question would be ultimately favorable to Rome. If they ignored the grain, it was a sign that the gods had abandoned Rome.
Applicants would fast for several days, attend a series of masses, spend a ton of time praying, then, it was time for business. Christians are technically opposed to divination, but they would throw their dice on the altar and use the numbering sequence to find a passage in a chosen Christian text.
Gastromancy was based in the belief that the sounds made by the stomach were actually the voices of the dead, and anyone skilled enough could listen to them and hear prophetic whispers. In another version, interpreters might look at the lines on a full stomach and read the future.
Oscar lived at the Steere House, a Rhode Island nursing home, and when he made his rounds and selected a patient to curl up next to, their death was inevitable. Over the course of just a few years, he signaled the deaths of more than 50 people.
The fortune teller, or scatomancer, basically takes a look at a person's poop and attempts to find clues about their future there. In the documentary "Journey to Planet Sanity," the filmmakers head to a consultation with a man named S.S. Singh, who does one-on-one scatomancy sessions with clients.