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Conference hydra::dejavu

Title:Psychic Phenomena
Notice:Please read note 1.0-1.* before writing
Moderator:JARETH::PAINTER
Created:Wed Jan 22 1986
Last Modified:Tue May 27 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2143
Total number of notes:41773

19.0. "PRECOGNITION VS PSIONICS" by SNICKR::FIELD () Mon Oct 07 1985 16:12

	Precognition as far as I know is cognizance of something before it
happens.  I would like to pose a question about this which I touched apon
in a past note.  Is there any such thing as precognition?  Could it be that
instead of prediction it is the forcing of something to happen by your thoughts
about it?  I prefer the psionic explanation.  Please feel free to expand on 
this or to dispell it completely.  I'll just cross my eyes and wait!

							Jorge'
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19.1HUMAN::BURROWSTue Oct 08 1985 02:3540
        There's some good discussion of this in the base note under the
        "Tarot" topic, but it deserves to be in a note of its own. In
        3.0 Steve identifies 3 possible mechanisms to explain apparent
        prediction. 
        
        1)  Ambiguity. 

        2)  Luck/coincidence. 

        3)  Some trend-spotting mechanism. 

        I can testify to the the workings of third type. When I was in
        high school I used to amuse and annoy my friends by making
        predictions that came true. I never claimed to be, nor believed
        myself to be psychic. Rather I just used what I've heard called
        "plot logic". "Plot logic" is what allows you to predict what
        will happen next in a TV show or a novel. I just applied the
        same type of thinking to the lives of the people I knew. I then
        predicted in moderate detail what would be appropriate to their
        "life's story", and waited for it to happen.

        I told my college friends about this and they didn't believe me
        so we did an experiment where in late October where I wrote down
        the predictions (to keep them from acting them out) about what
        would happen to 3 or 4 of them over Christmas break, then had
        them mark the papers and taped them to the ceiling of my dorm
        room. The tape was also marked. Come January, I had between an
        80% and 90% hit rate on fairly explicit predictions. I couldn't
        get the names of people I didn't know right by plot logic, but I
        could do pretty well on the relationships that they held to my
        friends and the interrelationships.

        All of this is related, I think, to the positive thinking topic.
        People's lives make sense in part because of the expectations
        that they have for them. I stopped all of this in college and
        didn't let myself get talked into do it again 10 years ago
        because I noticed a certain tragic vein in a couple of my
        friends lives.

        JimB.