AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is a companion piece to my post of June 19, 2026 that examines remote reading as distinct from its local (i.e. in-person) alternative.

In his book Real Magic, Dean Radin discusses the subject of immersion or absorption in the conduct of “psi” (or psionic) activities, specifically the performance of magical operations like “remote viewing.” This is a close cousin to the kind of focused concentration I coach my tarot clients to maintain as they silently ponder the question or topic of interest while shuffling the deck.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I’m convinced that the querent’s active involvement in the process of selecting the cards for the reading is crucial to a meaningful result. This is usually accomplished via a face-to-face encounter during which they manipulate the cards in a way that aligns them in the proper order to create a topic-specific narrative.

The same effect can be attained in a remote reading by having querents concentrate and shuffle their own deck, then pull the cards and email me the list for interpretation or, if they don’t have a personal deck, by asking them to intuitively choose a group of random numbers from 1 to 78 without repeating any, in a quantity sufficient to populate the intended spread, and I will shuffle the deck and pull the cards in that order at my location. (I haven’t done the latter often enough to propose that it’s statistically significant in any way.)

As a last resort, I will shuffle and pull on their behalf with no engagement beyond having them tell me their purpose in requesting the reading, but there is a risk of subjective bias that must be overcome. Fortunately, I’ve been doing this long enough that I can effectively keep my own stray thoughts separate from the interaction between the cards and the question. It wouldn’t do to have my private opinions accidentally take over the reading, which is always a danger with intuitive speculation. I much prefer in-person divination but I’ve been successful on the rare occasions when I’ve worked remotely.

I usually tell my sitters to focus exclusively on the question or subject during the shuffle while I keep my own mind blank. In this way, development of the necessary rapport doesn’t succumb to “psychic cross-contamination” that can hijack the flow of the implicit signals I expect to enter the cards through the client’s subconscious induction. For the same reason, I don’t ask to know the specific question in advance except in those cases where I perform the shuffle for a remote reading, and then the general topic of interest is normally enough. This level of immersion is the closest I’ve been able to come to a logical explanation for tarot’s effectiveness that doesn’t rely on irrational conjecture.

I’ve had online acquaintances tell me “Yeah, but that is only one way in which tarot works” (I think they were members of the “mind-reading” or “spirit-guide” faction), but in my lengthy experience it is the one in which I have the most confidence. My approach is intended to make it clear that the querent “owns” the reading and all I do is interpret. When they accept this responsibility and acknowledge my limited role, the session typically goes very well and I’m able to offer meaningful insights.