Metaphysical Fridays.

I recently visited a psychic with a great reputation – she is apparently both accurate and successful in her readings. In the stereotypically musty and drape-laden front room of her old bungalow, she lit a candle and poured me a cup of tea before consulting the tarot cards.

She studied the cards and then twitched violently, like she was coming out of a dream, and said to me, "I wish there was an easy way to deliver this news, but there's not. So I'll just be blunt. Prepare yourself to lose a very close friend. He'll die suddenly in excruciating pain later this month."

I was obviously shaken. Even knowing her reputation I was immediately sceptical. How could she know this? Was she playing on my insecurities and fears? I stared at her silently for some time; the candle flickered shadows over her lined face. I took a few deep breaths to compose myself before asking, "Will I get away with it?"

Therapy

Words to console the afflicted.

Choose the aspects of reality you wish to include and those you wish to omit.

Lines.

She told me everything I ever said was misinformation, a lie, a line. 

I said Yes, but they were great lines. Lines like: "No compromises. Not for me not for you. Compromise only occurs because people aren't prepared to not compromise. It doesn't have to exist, and for us it won't. And I'm not compromising on that."

She told me that insecure people italicise their speech in the most interesting places.

Selected colour plates.

The attached colour plates are taken from my yet to be published unauthorised autobiography, 'The Ghostwriter in the Machine'.

Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of cohesive data on how the human brain functioned. Parmenides claimed truth cannot be known through sensory perception because perception can deceive. Only pure reason will result in the understanding of the truth of the world. From that position I invite you to consider the following images and accompanying text. Make of these examples what you will and decide whether perception or reason informs your understanding of them.

Random Category Mistake: Most bananas are atheists.