Fortune-telling, forecasting of future events, or character delineation using methods not normally considered to have a rational basis. Evidence suggests that fortune-telling was practised as early as 4000 BCE in ancient China, Egypt, Chaldea, and Babylonia. Prophetic dreams and oracular utterances were crucial in ancient religion and medicine. Astrology (the interpretation of the movements of heavenly bodies as influences on earthly events), numerology, and the use of objects such as playing cards, tea leaves, crystal balls, dice, fire, water, and scattered salt are all predictive methods of fortune telling. As a process of character analysis, fortune-telling can take the form of graphology (study of handwriting), physiognomy (study of facial characteristics), phrenology (study of contours on the skull), and palmistry (study of lines on the palm of the hand). See also divination. Fortune telling is a cognitive distortion in which you predict a negative outcome without taking the actual odds into account. It is associated with anxiety and depression, and it is one of the most common cognitive distortions that emerge during cognitive restructuring. Predicting the future becomes the cognitive distortion fortune telling when we assume, rather than making an educated guess, that some event or events will end badly for us, that we will fail at something, or that we will be in danger. Of course, some events are dangerous, and we must be able to assess the risk in those situations. However, fortune telling is not a scientific assessment; it is a broad assumption we make without considering the actual odds.