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The Magic 8 Ball is a plastic sphere, made to look like an oversized eight ball, that is used for fortune-telling or seeking advice. It was invented in 1946 by Albert C. Carter and Abe Bookman and is manufactured by Mattel. [1] The user asks a yes–no question to the ball, then turns it over to reveal an answer that floats up into a window.
A crystal ball is a crystal or glass ball commonly used in fortune-telling. It is generally associated with the performance of clairvoyance and scrying . Used since Antiquity , crystal balls have had a broad reputation with witchcraft , including modern times with charlatan acts and amusements at circus venues, festivals , etc.
Fortune telling is easily dismissed by critics as magical thinking and superstition. [24] [25] [26] Skeptic Bergen Evans suggested that fortune telling is the result of a "naïve selection of something that have happened from a mass of things that haven't, the clever interpretation of ambiguities, or a brazen announcement of the inevitable."
A paper fortune teller may be constructed by the steps shown in the illustration below: [1] [2] The corners of a sheet of paper are folded up to meet the opposite sides and (if the paper is not already square) the top is cut off, making a square sheet with diagonal creases.
crystal ball gazing → see scrying; crystal gazing → see scrying; crystallomancy / ˈ k r ɪ s t ə l oʊ m æ n s i / → see scrying (Greek krustallos, ' crystal ' + manteía, ' prophecy ') cubomancy / ˈ k juː b oʊ m æ n s i / → see cleromancy (Greek kubos, ' cube ' + manteía, ' prophecy ') cyathomancy / ˈ s aɪ ə θ oʊ m æ n s ...
"Fortune Kookie Dept.: The Old Ball Game" (#161, September 1973, p. 42) A man visits a fortune teller, whose crystal ball sees him behind bars; but he is a police officer who puts her in jail for fraud. Later, she sees him on the other side of the bars in the same way it was shown in the crystal ball. "Broom Shtick Dept.:
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If a distinction is made between divination and fortune-telling, divination has a more formal or ritualistic element and often contains a more social character, [citation needed] usually in a religious context, as seen in traditional African medicine. Fortune-telling, on the other hand, is a more everyday practice for personal purposes.