> Sometimes I'll also do "acute divination" -- my favorite method is fortune cookies, not even kidding.
Don't really put much credence into this thought but I can't help but think it when opening them. Not sure why.
Try this next time you get one:
Take a few seconds and hold the fortune cookie in your hand. Deeply consider for a moment the comedic possibility that this fortune cookie contains a message from a higher power. Suspend your disbelief, just like you do when engrossed in a work of fiction.
Now, the key: ask a question.
Questions in the form of "Tell me about...", or "How should I approach..." etc are most suitable for the form of divination at hand.
Close your eyes and ask the question to the higher power in the cookie.
Now, have a predetermined method for opening and reading the fortune. I crack in half, eat one half, read, and then eat the other half (or don't, if I am being a brat / don't like the fortune). This part is about making a clean ritual of it.
My hit rate for meaningful messages skyrocketed since applying the above approach.
As a skeptic and non-believer of all things spiritual, whenever I have one of those "meaningful messages" moments (we get them too), my reaction is to debunk that feeling by thinking about how others might have interpreted the same event, or how the fortune cookie supply chain actually works.
It's funny that some people lean into that feeling and assign it great cosmic meaning while others rationalize it away.
Yep. There's a point in that spectrum named "trans-rational" where you have a conversation with yourself that goes something like
0) pre-rational: this is significant
1) rational: it's probably not significant, due to <reasons>
2) trans-rational: well, it may or may not be significant, but what do I stand to gain or lose from assigning some significance or other to it?