I’m just going to say it outright: some of you are not well. Some of the things I’ve seen and some of the messages I’ve received are so alarming that I can’t help but wonder whether they border on spiritual delusion.
I'm not saying this to blame, shame, or attack anyone. I've been in obsessive mindsets before myself. Obsession can be incredibly convincing. It can feel like intuition, or certainty, or even revelation. With enough emotional investment, almost any belief can start to feel unquestionably true.
But certainty is not evidence, and feeling something deeply does not make it true, healthy, or grounded in reality.
What I need some of you to realize is that there is a difference between being invested and being consumed. Again, I truly get it; celebrity culture has always involved speculation, analysis, and theory-building. People have been dissecting public figures for decades. That's nothing new.
The problem arises when that obsession becomes intertwined with tarot, divination, and spiritual practices, and the resulting interpretations start being treated as objective reality rather than personal interpretations.
A tarot reading is not proof.
A perceived sign is not proof.
It is not normal to react with this much desperation or hostility when someone challenges a narrative you've built around complete strangers. At some point, you have to step back and ask whether your reactions are proportional to what is actually happening.
If someone simply existing, or a stranger on the internet disagreeing with you, can ruin your day, consume your thoughts for hours, or trigger that level of anger, anxiety, or fixation, it may be worth asking yourself what is actually being threatened.
Chances are it isn't the celebrity or the theory itself. More often than not, it's the certainty you've attached to it, and when questioning a belief feels like a personal attack, that's usually a sign that you've become emotionally invested in it in a way that is no longer healthy.
There is nothing wrong with having beliefs, theories, or interpretations. The problem starts when they become so important to you that any challenge to them feels intolerable. At that point, you're protecting your beliefs from scrutiny. And when a belief cannot withstand scrutiny, it may not be a belief you're defending at all, but a delusion.
Spiritual psychosis is not a condition that only happens to "mentally ill people." It can develop over time, and no one is automatically immune to it. Believing you're incapable of falling into delusion because you consider yourself mentally healthy is a dangerous assumption.
Just like I made a post about tarot readers who might be exploiting their audiences, here's a list of ways you might be engaging with them in ways that aren't healthy for either of you:
Top of the list: Believing you are immune to delusion — "I'm too self-aware for that." "I know the difference." Most people who fall into unhealthy belief systems do not think it is happening to them. Being capable of self-reflection is helpful, but it does not make anyone immune to confirmation bias, obsession, or distorted thinking.
Treating tarot as proof — "I know it's true because I pulled the same cards multiple times." "Five readers got the same message." Tarot can offer interpretations, possibilities, and symbolic insights, but it cannot verify facts. Pulling the same cards repeatedly does not transform an interpretation into evidence, and multiple readers arriving at a similar conclusion does not make that conclusion objectively true. The moment tarot stops being a tool for exploration and starts being treated as confirmation of reality, you've likely moved beyond what the practice is actually capable of providing.
So: Confusing repetition with verification — Repetition can make a belief feel more convincing, but it does not make it more factual. A tarot reading repeated a hundred times is still a tarot reading. No amount of repeated symbolism can independently verify claims about a stranger's private thoughts, feelings, relationships, or intentions. Feeling more certain after repeated readings is normal; mistaking that certainty for evidence is where problems can begin.
Parasocial certainty — "I know what they're really thinking." "The cards confirmed they're secretly miserable." "I know who they're really in love with—just look at their body language." Tarot readings, interviews, social media posts, and public appearances can all be interpreted in countless ways, but none of them provide direct access to a stranger's private thoughts, feelings, or relationships. The more certain you become about the inner life of someone you've never met, the more important it is to ask where that certainty is actually coming from. Confidence in an interpretation is not the same thing as knowledge.
Inability to tolerate uncertainty — Part of staying grounded is accepting that there are things we simply do not know. When uncertainty becomes unbearable, people often start treating speculation, intuition, and tarot interpretations as facts to relieve that discomfort. The need for an answer can become so strong that possibilities start feeling like certainties and assumptions start feeling like knowledge. Instead of accepting "I don't know," every coincidence becomes a sign, every reading becomes confirmation, and every unanswered question demands a conclusion. The problem is that certainty can feel comforting regardless of whether it's true. Being uncomfortable with uncertainty is human; trying to eliminate it by turning interpretations into facts is where people can begin losing touch with reality. Healthy engagement with tarot leaves room for ambiguity, nuance, and the possibility of being wrong.
Viewing disagreement as a threat — Thinking things like, "Anyone who disagrees is blind," or "They just don't want to see the truth." Tarot is inherently interpretive. Different readers can look at the same cards and reach different conclusions, and that's normal. If disagreement immediately triggers anger, defensiveness, anxiety, or hostility, it may be worth asking why the belief feels so important to protect. When people become emotionally attached to a particular narrative, criticism of that narrative can start to feel personal. Over time, this can lead to dismissing criticism, ignoring contradictory information, and only accepting evidence that supports an existing belief. Healthy beliefs can tolerate scrutiny and uncertainty. If every disagreement is automatically attributed to ignorance, jealousy, bad intentions, or a lack of spiritual awareness, it may be a sign that protecting certainty has become more important than seeking the truth.
Compulsive confirmation-seeking — Thinking things like, "I just need one more reading," "Maybe this reader will finally confirm it," or "Any reader who disagrees doesn't know what they're doing." When someone becomes attached to a particular belief, they may start seeking out readings that validate it while dismissing readings that don't. Readers who confirm the narrative are seen as gifted, accurate, or spiritually connected; readers who challenge it are written off as biased, incompetent, or "not tapped in." This creates a cycle where the belief can never truly be tested because only supporting evidence is allowed to count. If every reading is judged by whether it agrees with you rather than whether it offers a thoughtful interpretation, you are not seeking insight at all—you are seeking validation for your so-called certainty.
Treating absence of evidence as evidence — Thinking things like, "They're hiding it," or "The lack of proof proves it's true." A belief becomes very difficult to challenge when both evidence and the absence of evidence are treated as confirmation. If there is proof, it's seen as validation. If there is no proof, that's interpreted as proof of a cover-up, secrecy, or hidden agenda. At that point, the belief becomes effectively unfalsifiable because no amount of contradictory information can meaningfully challenge it. Healthy beliefs leave room for the possibility of being wrong. If every possible outcome is interpreted as supporting the same conclusion, it may be worth asking whether you're following the evidence or protecting a narrative you've become attached to.
Building an identity around a theory — When a celebrity narrative, ship, or interpretation becomes a major source of community, purpose, or emotional investment, questioning the theory can start to feel like questioning you. The belief stops being something you hold and starts becoming part of how you see yourself. As a result, challenges to the narrative may feel disproportionately upsetting, not because the evidence is strong, but because so much of your identity, social connection, or emotional energy has become tied to it. The more personally attached you become to a belief, the harder it becomes to evaluate it objectively. If being wrong would feel devastating, humiliating, or like losing a part of yourself, it may be worth asking whether you've become invested in the theory itself or in what the theory provides for you.
Seeing signs everywhere — Thinking things like, "This can't be a coincidence," or "The universe keeps confirming it." Human beings are naturally wired to notice patterns and connections, especially when we're emotionally invested in a particular outcome. The more focused you become on a specific narrative, the easier it becomes to interpret unrelated events as evidence supporting it. A song lyric, social media post, interview quote, outfit choice, timing coincidence, or vague message can start to feel deeply meaningful because it aligns with what you already believe. While signs and synchronicities can be personally meaningful, not every coincidence is confirmation. If every piece of information seems to point to the same conclusion, it may be worth asking whether you're discovering patterns or creating them. Sometimes things are simply what they appear to be.
Neglecting reality for the narrative — If you spend more time thinking about a celebrity's alleged relationship, private life, or future than your own goals, relationships, responsibilities, and well-being, it may be worth asking whether the content is enriching your life or replacing parts of it. I get it, it's easy to become emotionally invested in a story that feels exciting, meaningful, or unresolved, but there comes a point where following someone else's life can start taking priority over living your own. If a celebrity's relationship status affects your mood, consumes significant amounts of your time, or feels more important than what's happening in your actual life, the issue may no longer be simple curiosity or entertainment. Healthy interests add to your life; they shouldn't become a substitute for it.
I want to end this by saying that I genuinely love tarot. I love celebrity culture, too. I enjoy speculation, symbolism, theories, and discussing public figures. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with mixing tarot and celebrity content, and I don't think everyone who watches celebrity readings is engaging with them in an unhealthy way.
The problem is that some people stop treating tarot as a tool for reflection and start treating it as a source of certainty. Some people stop engaging with celebrity content as entertainment and begin using it to build narratives that feel more real than reality itself.
Some of what I've seen worries me. Not because I think people are stupid, irrational, or "crazy," but because I've seen how easy it is for obsession, loneliness, anxiety, grief, or emotional investment to distort our thinking. None of us are immune to it. The human mind is incredibly good at convincing itself that a belief is true when enough emotion is attached to it.
If you recognized yourself in some of the examples above, this isn't an invitation to feel ashamed in any way. It's an invitation to pause and ask yourself whether your relationship with this content is still healthy, grounded, and serving you.
If you're concerned that you may be struggling with spiritual delusions, spiritual psychosis, obsessive thinking, or a loss of grounding, these resources may be helpful:
Speak with a licensed mental health professional, particularly one familiar with religious and spiritual experiences.
Prioritize sleep, nutrition, and routine. Sleep deprivation alone can significantly affect perception, mood, and thinking.
Take breaks from tarot, divination, and celebrity content if you notice yourself becoming overwhelmed or emotionally dependent on them.
Reconnect with offline life by spending time with friends, family, work, hobbies, and activities that have nothing to do with the narrative consuming your attention.
Practice reality-testing. Ask yourself: What evidence would convince me I'm wrong? If the answer is essentially nothing, it may be time to examine the belief more closely.
Seek multiple perspectives, including perspectives you disagree with.
Reach out for professional support if you're experiencing paranoia, severe anxiety, sleep disruption, or beliefs that are causing significant distress.
Spiritual Psychosis: What Is It? Examining Signs and Therapies (SaadMD)
Spiritual Emergency Network (SEN)
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) resources on psychosis and early intervention
Early Psychosis Intervention programs available in many countries and regions
At the end of the day, no celebrity theory, tarot reading, ship, or spiritual belief should have more power over your emotional well-being than your actual life.
jacobvanloon
