Card Guessing

[psi20]

I asked my friend if he believed that psychic abilities exist. His reply was, "It'd be cool if it did. I wish it exists. But I don't know. I can't say for sure."

Then I suggested to him that we practice on our psychic abilities. I pulled out a deck of 40 cards (I took out the kings, queens, and jacks), shuffled it, and layed it on the ground.

 

We took turns guessing exactly what it was, like 7 of hearts. For me, what I did was ask myself what color it was, then what suit, then what number.

I don't remember the results of the first time we tried, but it wasn't too shocking. Sure, we had a couple exact hits, but that could be luck.

 

Then my friend suggested that the person trying to guess the card holds it up for the other person to see the card. He and I both noticed that our success rate increased by quite a bit-- I noticed that we got several more suits and a couple more numbers than the last time.

 

Then at lunch, it just became freaky.

 

I don't remember the exact numbers. I got 4 exactly correct, and a lot more numbers than last time. He got 2 exactly correct, some more numbers, and some more suits.

But we observed something strange. Sometimes I would guess the next card exactly. Like if I said 7 of hearts, it might've been 4 of spades, then the next card would be a 7 of hearts. This happened like 6 times altogether.

 

I'll try to record the data tomorrow. That way, I can see whether or not these were just lucky guesses. My friend said he could feel sometimes that he was definitely correct for the suits, and just guesses on the numbers. I had that kind of feeling for like 3 of my exact hits.

[LucidDreamer]

My prediction is that if you and your friend did this every day for a year then by the end of the year your success rate would be very high. Then if you brought in another friend to replace your regular partner then suddenly the rate of success would drop. The reason for this is that both you and your friend give off subtle body signals. Even if you don't consciously detect these signals you are still picking them up and your subconscious mind is evaluating them. After you guys do this for a while you will get better at picking up your friends signals and start to unconsciously project more clear signals for him to pick up. Eventually, you would probably consciously recognize his signals.

 

When they do tests like these to evaluate psychic abilities they use trained workers and a more random selection of subjects. They also try to minimize the amount of signals that they give off. It’s also possible that you guys just had a good run. On average you would have to go through 240 cards to get 6 correct answers. It wouldn’t be that statistically improbable if you went through like 100 cards and got 6 right. Another factor that you could pick up is the order of the cards. If you guys didn’t do a great job at shuffling then you could have been picking up clues from that as well.

[psi20]

I close my eyes when guessing, so I don't think I could pick them up visually.

 

But I think you're right about the body signals. I noticed when I guessed something and the next card was the card I just called out, he gave off body signals, such as shifting his body or giving off a subtle sound.

[Stevo]

I have heard of studies like this. My theory is that it could be due to the nature of our brains function. Brain functions are nothing more than a series of electrical impulses right. What if some of that electricity escaped the cranium out into the environment. Other brains in the area could detect the electricity and translate that, with practice and luck. It is kind of a long shot. But it might be possible (emphasis on might) to teach the brain to interpret the tangent impulses.

I remember reading something about how if the two subjects are related, like brothers, then the odds increase. And i'm pretty sure that ditance from the other subject was influential too.

 

For statistical accuracy you would need a very large sample size to prove this, though. You would have a very strong correlation of data so you would need a lot of it to see any kind of trend. I doubt it would stand up to a standard z test. But it would be cool.

[LucidDreamer]

My theory is that it could be due to the nature of our brains function. Brain functions are nothing more than a series of electrical impulses right. What if some of that electricity escaped the cranium out into the environment. Other brains in the area could detect the electricity and translate that' date=' with practice and luck. It is kind of a long shot. But it might be possible (emphasis on might) to teach the brain to interpret the tangent impulses.

[/quote']

I don't think the electrical signals are strong enough to be detected by other people. I don't think we have the physical machinery to pick up and interpret these messages either. If this was a viable form of communication then it is likely that some other animal on the planet would already use it.

[Stevo]

I don't think the electrical signals are strong enough to be detected by other people. I don't think we have the physical machinery to pick up and interpret these messages either. If this was a viable form of communication then it is likely that some other animal on the planet would already use it.

 

 

Firstly, i'm not saying we can do it very well yet. Our machinery to detect impulses is all there, that's how the brain works, i just dont think that we can make very good sense of the signals we detect yet. Hence the difference in these experiments is very minute.

 

Second, our brains are most advanced so it is logical that we would be able to send and recieve impulses the best. A mouses brain is smaller. Less imulses, less ability to detect them, less ability to interperet them.

 

assuming its even possible at all.

[LucidDreamer]

Firstly' date=' i'm not saying we can do it very well yet. Our machinery to detect impulses is all there, that's how the brain works, i just dont think that we can make very good sense of the signals we detect yet. Hence the difference in these experiments is very minute.

 

Second, our brains are most advanced so it is logical that we would be able to send and recieve impulses the best. A mouses brain is smaller. Less imulses, less ability to detect them, less ability to interperet them.

 

assuming its even possible at all.[/quote']

The neurons of the brain are extremely well insulated to prevent just that kind of signal leakage. For the same reason the brain is not able to receive outside signals. Almost all the information that you receive during an exchange with another person is received through your 5 senses.

 

I don't think that it is correct to assume that because we have increased ability to reason, think abstractly, etc. that we also have an increased ability to send and receive electrical messages through the air.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Also people, when they read, "sub-vocalize," or basically their vocal chords vibrate without them speaking. They don't make any recognizable sounds, but you might just hear it if you REALLY tried. Your subconscious probably picks it up.