MSN reports that a government minister has admitted to having a sixth sense.

Experts don't fully understand it mainly because it is so vague and subjective that it is more an art than a science. Stranger things have happened - a psychic reading I got done in the summer told me I would receive "a considerable amount of money" from someone. Being broke and unemployed (I am on benefits of £85 a week atm) a £21 rail ticket to Gatwick is "a considerable amount of money" (see earlier). So, great, I need a holiday, haven't had one in two years. I tried raising the money through eBay, but with that the cash comes in in dribs and drabs and to be honest, I spent it largely on luxuries I wouldn't otherwise be able to afford (e.g. Dominoes pizza - it was a black day for NatWest when I discovered they delivered all the way out to Swallowfield, because the last time me and my sister used them back in 2001 they didn't and we had to drive to Earley and drive back as fast as we could to get the pizza home before it got cold). Last night my mother handed me over a £700 cheque for spending money on holiday, after trying to get my grandmother to remember to transfer it and failing, I finally asked mum, not always the best person to mention money to. How's that for - literally - a "considerable amount of money"?

The literal nature of online psychics therefore needs to be understood in that sort of context. I was told in the spring I would write about spiritual topics, which is odd, because my passion is and remains politics, and I'm not a big fan of spiritualist literature. Months later I started this blog, something I was sceptical about as to how it would go down with people I was trying to impress elsewhere, particularly people who I had worked with on the election campaign. I was getting so many counter-intuitive tarot readings for politics, however, that I started to believe that although I was prejudiced about the outcome - I want a Tory government but not under Cameron - the tarot was overriding these prejudices, because I felt about June or July that if not even Davis' resignation could undermine Vulpes Vulpes, then nothing would. 

Things also work because we believe in them - one slogan for a film out last Christmas was "You have to believe it to see it", and therein lies the crux of any kind of faith. I'm not wanting to provoke an atheism v Christianity debate, everyone has the right to their views. As a practising Christian I took ten years between one aborted confirmation (the vicar said I was the ideal communicant, since I was the only person who had really thought about) and the next fulfilled one (and even then I had to wait a year for a suitable date which could accomodate various family members - I also made a lot of friends on the election campaign in Newbury who were invited as well between 2004 and 2005, so perhaps it was always meant to be that way). The main reason I didn't sign up in the first place was the Jesus aspect, rather than the God aspect. I know when I prayed as a kid, I felt something warm and fuzzy inside. So in that kind of way I knew He existed. But I didn't like to, in choosing Christianity, consign my Muslim, Sikh, Jewish and Hindu friends to Hell. I had the great fortune to study under Dr Leslie Griffiths, now Lord Griffiths, who was much more moderate than I had allowed for. And I also have Nicholas Howard (whom I met at a party at the ASI, where his illustrious father was speaking...I was a Labour Student at the time, but as a Fabian was expected to be politically promiscuous to a certain extent: there were Fabian Society members who make Cameron and Osborne look plebeian - one came up with the line "we want a dictatorship of the proletariat run by the bourgeoisie", an attitude which led me to leave the Fabians just after he said it) to thank for helping me realise - when I was on the verge of converting to Judaism to square the God/Jesus circle - that although he was raised as a Jew he saw Christianity not as mutually exclusive but as a fulfillment of the Jewish scripture and therefore in converting himself and others he felt he was right to nail his colours to the mast rather than hide his light under a bushel.

So for me, God and psi work hand in hand. I've had a lot of dreams about politics - one in 1998, written down the morning after it happened, where I dreamt John Redwood's wife left him because she was depressed; then of course I met him in 2004 and that had actually (only recently, 2002-03 or thereabouts) happened; and a number of minor precognitions - which led me to accept that things like this are possible, although they continue to baffle scientists because they are seemingly random and not reproduceable under conditions in a laboratory.

Why not? Stress is one factor - since I have been living on £85/week for the last two years (the only way I can save money is sit at home and not do anything for a whole month - I tried it and although I was £300 richer I was also several stone lighter, so no thank you, I'm still only a size 12 and as I said, Dominoes deliver...personally I'd rather be fat and happy than thin and miserable, because I don't comfort eat) and not being able to find another job, I've found it difficult to replicate my original dreams and rely on contact with Owlperson as a guide instead. I also believe we get what we are given - no more, no less. Lord Drayson may find himself able to predict events before they happen, but I also think he may anticipate the outcome of an event better than others rather than use a crystal ball as and when he chooses to see future events before the seeds of them are sown. A lot of disappointment comes from people who think that being psychic or using tarot is like watching TV of the future. Its psychological nature and reliance on knowing what you are seeing mean that science will probably still continue to be sceptical until someone demonstrates such uncanny behaviour that people are shocked into being convinced. Also, personally, I believe that knowing the exact future would make things grind to a halt (as would the absence of evil, envisaged by many "psychics", which exists to push us towards striving towards the good).

I also think things like Atlantis, UFOs and other dubious manifestations of pop-parapsychology such as neo-eugenics (where the world ends up divided into enlightened, spiritual masters and a "grunter" proletariat, with the inference that the people who buy the prophet's book can end up as one of the enlightened...yuck!) discredit the movement as a whole and make it so airy-fairy that sceptics don't need to weigh in. Sensible, intelligent mediums like John Edward in the US exist, but the junk I've read since I got "into" it all (and the crap people who are psychic tell desperate, frustrated people like myself, e.g. "just go out and meditate, dearie, you'll be OK" - if I could find the answers that way, do you think I'd be paying you £1.50 a minute for advice?! Never again...) seems like they are just playing into sceptics' hands and making it so esoteric and politically loaded that ordinary people are turned off. More reasonable books exist - the best way to explore the tarot is through Julia Sharman-Burke's excellent psychoanalytical pack, The Beginner's Guide To Tarot - but on the whole, the literature out there needs to get out of its niche and into the mass market so people understand what is possible and what is not. As for those who think it is evil - I believe that tarot is like a knife. A knife can be used dangerously - to kill or wound. It can also be used to cut bread for a hungry child.

In short - don't knock it until you've tried it. And always use it responsibly and with good intentions.