Seers, was Re: [HPforGrownups] Re: Does Ron the Seer need glasses?

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 37359

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Susanne <siskiou at e...> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Tuesday, April 02, 2002, 5:11:04 PM, marinafrants wrote:
> 
> > The thing is, though, *everyone* makes correct predictions from 
time 
> > to time, simply through common sense or pure luck.
> 
> Right.
> 
> So, what would an "acceptably" skilled seer be like?

Seems to me there are two possibilities.  One: a real seer could be 
somebody whose rate of successful non-obvious predictions was too 
high to be explained away by coincidence.  Of course, what 
constitutes "non-obvious" or "too high" is a very subjective 
matter.  

Two: a real seer could be someone whose predictions come during some 
sort of trance or spirit-channeling state.  This is what seems to 
happen with Trelawney, even if it doesn't happen often. 

> Someone (was it Dumbledore?) talked about divination in a way
> that made me believe a lot of the wizard folk consider it
> all a bunch of baloney, no matter what.

I don't know about that.  The students who aren't HRH seem to 
believe in it at least a little, and it is an accredited subject at 
Hogwarts, so it can't be totally discredited.  But it doesn't seem 
fully respectable either.  Which is not surprising, given how hard 
it is to recognize or define.

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com