I don't own one, myself, but they should be available for ordering
through any major bookstore. As for information on who has used them, &c.,
all I remember is that I came across an artice on them in New Age Journal
or some such magazine about a year and a half ago, when I was working at a
New Age bookstore.
[This was a job which, BTW, gave me a great view on the N. A. scene.
It's why I never leave my hand off of my wallet around Tarot readers
anymore....]
As for the testing (pleeeeze don't slam me too hard for this post --
the rock I'm about to hide under might hurt...), I haven't found the Tarot
effective, but I have found the I Ching to be so (I tried to do a series of
double-blind tests when I was in college) if used correctly. [BTW, using it
to find relationship compatability is WRONG, whoever brought that up. It's
a misuse of the mechanism of the tool -- kind of like standing naked on a
car at 3 o'clock in the morning, dancing the Macarena, spinning around five
times and then spitting on the hood to make it start....]
If you're interested, the method I used was for the individual to give
me the name of a person they knew, but I did not. I then went home, did the
readings alone (which entailed finding out the current relationship between
the two, including any recent events that had affected that relationship),
wrote down the results, and presented them to the individual the next day.
They read them, alone, and marked down (1) how many points were accurate,
(2) how many of these "accuracies" would also be accurate for other people
they knew, including the number of people for each point, (3) how many
points were inaccurate, (4) if the accurate points reflected _only_ the
current situation, (5) how many significant points were missed, and (6) how
significant these were in comparison to the ones that were both accurate
and inapplicable to other people the individual knew. After this was done,
the paper was collected and what was marked down was discussed only if the
phrasing of the responses was unclear.
Do anyone have any suggestions on how to make these constraints more
stringent? Is anyone willing to participate in such a test? Past results
were in favor of the practice, but quite frankly I need more data, and I
need it from people I don't know at ALL, personally. [And if this stuff
doesn't work, I'd like to stop wasting my time testing it... ;)
Anyone who wants to collaborate on this should send applicable posts
to my nym account at envy@alias.cyberpass.net. A PGP key will be provided
if requested.
Toward the accumulation of useful information,
Noctem