I'm Psychic... with Benjamin Anastas

Benjamin Anastas is the author of two novels, An Underachiever's Diary and The Faithful Narrative of a Pastor's Disappearance. I read An Underachiever’s Diary when I was in my fifth year of college, and having some weird issue with physics lab, where I would enroll in it every semester, become incapacitated by it, and drop it. Ultimately, this issue caused me not to graduate from college. But this wasn’t really on my mind when I picked up the book, with its white cover. More I was just going through some crushing loneliness, and reading it–it’s so funny, and something about the voice just feels like a person is talking to you–sort of saved my life. I showed it to my best friend at the time, this girl who wore a trench coat that dragged the ground around her heels, and who was dating an 80-year-old man who sold cheese, and she was moved too. I mean, VICE readers, you simply have to go and buy that book, if you haven’t. I never say that kind of thing, but you’ll like it. But also I guess Anastas is completing a memoir as you read this, so that’ll be out some time I would guess about a year from now? The cards say it’s going to be excellent.

VICE: I wanted to ask you, what are the weird things that happened with the tarot cards?
Oh, the weird things with tarot cards. Well the first one was the first-ever tarot card reading I had. I was 21, and, to be honest I don’t remember who did the reading. But I do remember that—isn’t there a death card?

Yeah.
The death card came up at a very crucial point, and it really freaked me out. Whoever was doing the reading—it’s funny I can’t remember who it was—tried to assure me that it wasn’t necessarily death as in death, but it was more rebirth and all this kind of stuff. But I was still really spooked by the whole thing.

That was during my last semester of school, and then I went home. I was graduating halfway through the year, it was my fifth year of college, actually, because I had taken a semester off. I went back to my mother’s house, and then I found out very soon afterwards that I had a brain tumor. And I kept on thinking back to the reading: “Oh my god, the death card!  It was like the cards knew.” Yeah, so that was the first one. I mean, obviously, I ended up surviving. You know, they did surgery and…

How?
They took the tumor out, but it was a very—it was a brush with death. I mean, I saw death. It was very Augustinian: the absence of life.  I spent ten days on the neuro ward with all kinds of casualties. And the cards knew.

The second time was, let’s see.  I had just gotten married and I was teaching for a year down in Maryland, and I thought I’d do something fun and a little bit stupid for the last class of the semester. I was teaching all these freshmen, and it was really kind of a drag because they all treated me like I was their dad and rebelled. You know?

Yeah.  I always do that with teachers.
I know. It’s funny! I had never taught—I had taught before at that point, but I had never taught freshmen—and it was hard, because I had to deal with their emotional lives, which I’m completely not used to dealing with as a teacher. So anyway, this one student wanted to bring in her tarot cards. We were going to figure out a way to kind of write a poem based on the tarot cards, which never really worked out. She just ended up sort of setting up on one side of the classroom and doing readings. So she did one for me too. I told her, “Look, the last time this happened something really spooky went on, and I’m really not interested in repeating it.” And she said, “Oh c’mon, just do it, Professor Anastas.” So I went over. She did the reading. And once again, at another key point this combination of cards came up, which she read as, “Oh, there’s infidelity in your life.” And I thought, “There’s infidelity in my life? That’s news to me.” Of course, it turned out my wife had been cheating on me. I didn’t find out until a month later. So once again, the cards were right.

I’ve never heard of anything like that. I have a tarot card reader, and she’s good, but she’s never predicted anything like that.
[Laughs] Well, you know, the people who have done the readings were kind of novices. That’s one of things that’s so striking. Maybe you can…

I’m a novice so…
Well, maybe something will come up again, something equally spooky.

I don’t think so. I’ll start… Do you want to do any particular type of reading? I can do work, love, or general.
How about—I’m not so interested in love—how about just general? Do you have any kind of guidebook with you?

I have the little guidebook that came with the tarot cards. And then there’s this good website…
Do you remember running into each other at Lincoln Center about a hundred years ago?

No.
I remember that.

What happened? I remember running into you a lot, but not at Lincoln Center.
We used to see each other in Williamsburg when I lived there, but then I ran into you at Lincoln Center once, right by the fountain.

What happened?
Oh, nothing. We just had a nice little chat.

I don’t remember.
It’s funny. I don’t think I’ve ever run into somebody at Lincoln Center before.

I do remember – there was—I think you know him—Daniel Pinchbeck…
Oh my god, Daniel Pinchbeck. Oh, well, you don’t have to worry about running into Daniel Pinchbeck anymore, now he’s on Sting’s private jet.

I liked Breaking Open the Head.
I liked Breaking Open the Head too, but once he got involved in the Mayan calendar 2012 stuff he really lost his freakin’ mind.

I don’t know anything about that. What’s that…now I’m torn between you and…
The Mayan calendar and its alleged end-date in 2012. He’s gotten deeply involved in the transformation that’s supposed to take place on December 21st of this year.

Oh, OK. But I read him on that and it didn’t sound that irrational. It sounds stupid when you say that, but he was just saying like…
No, he can be very smart about it, but he can also be completely, completely off his rocker. If you look at some of the posts on Reality Sandwich he literally seems to believe, at least at times, anyway, that Barack Obama is a lizard. There’s a school of thought that says an alien race of lizards has come to colonize us, and he really thinks that Barack Obama, as far as I can tell from the posts I read, exhibits all these lizard-like qualities.

I didn’t know.
I mean, that dude has done way too much ayahuasca.

OK, wait. That’s funny. [laughs]
The funny thing is, I did a piece on 2012 for the Times magazine, and at first Daniel Pinchbeck wasn’t going to talk to me unless I took ayahuasca with him. [laughs]

I’m laying the cards out.
He knows how to operate, though. With 2012 about to run out he’s been holding these big Occupy happenings at the Bowery Hotel… So are the cards happening?

Yeah, I’m laying them out.  It’s really good by the way. I’ll read it… It’s about your work. And it’s really good.
Well, I hope it’s good, because I have to turn a book in on February 13th, so I hope it’s good.

I mean, according to this…I’m just looking at the final cards… Yeah, there’s the Star, which is kind of the perfect card of artistic inspiration, and then overlaying that is the Two of Swords, which is like balance, and it says it’s coming out of the World.
Balanced in the world? What’s that? I couldn’t hear.

The World, it’s a card of—it’s sort of embarrassing—it’s making a masterpiece. It’s the card of making a masterpiece.
Oh, I’m making a masterpiece?

And the Star is the card of inspiration, and if it has any negative side, it’s like it can get a little out of control, but then overlaying it is the card of being in control, so that’s good.
Well, I hope I’m in control!

I think that sort of goes without saying, from what I know about you.
Well, I don’t know. I’m finishing a memoir, so I’m writing about real people. And many of them, or some of them, anyway, are very unhappy that I’m writing about them. I feel a great weight of responsibility, and I’m not really sure that I’ve done everyone justice. So, it’s good to know that there’s the possibility out there that I actually am in control, and that something inspired will come out of it, but I still feel like…

It’s really good…
Well, then I clearly need to spend more time writing. [laughs]

It said to be rational; don’t do anything romantic right now.
Don’t do anything too romantic right now?

Well, it’s kind of like just saying you’re in the editing phase.
Well, that’s absolutely true. So what else? Should I ask you questions?

No, no, no. Um, I have to look something up. Yeah, I guess what it’s saying is that you want to isolate a little bit right now.
Well, I certainly need to. I don’t know if I want to.

Your goal is to isolate a little right now, you don’t want to think about other people that much…
Oh, that’s good, that’s nice to know. This could be just the boost of confidence I need.

Well, the cards are scolding you a little too. They say you kind of conform to the values of others.
Yeah, I think that’s absolutely true. I think that’s one of my great weaknesses.

And, um, its advice to you is to do what you want, to take care of yourself right now–even if you have to shirk responsibility to do what you have to do. Just take care of yourself, completely, and they say your memoir is going to be really good.
Wow. That’s fantastic.

Yeah, I think so.
Amie, you know what? That’s exactly what I needed to hear.

Good. I’m really happy.
Where did you come from?

Previously - I'm Psychic…with Clancy Martin