My "ESP" experiences

[bjornart]

Good observations.

After I logged off last night, I was thinking of how a conversation on this board might have gone if I'd have seen a Stealth Bomber flying around in the '80's, before it was declassified.

"Hey, I just saw the strangest thing flying around in the sky. It didn't look like any plane I have ever seen. It was flat, and triangular, and had this zig-zag pattern in the back, and went really fast but didn't make any noise."

"So, you're saying you're sure it wasn't a kite? And you're sure you didn't just dream it, or you're not just remembering it incorrectly? And you weren't on drugs? Well then, you're just a 'believer', and you think intergalactic space pirates are here to harvest the intestines of our livestock. Bob believes that, too."

As for "Place" vs. "Fictional Place"...I am going to try and check on that. I agree that that would be an important detail.

The thing is, you've stated from the start that these two times you KNEW the answer/future, and so it couldn't be coincidence. That you've had coincidental hits (and corresponding misses) at other times, but that these were KNOWLEDGE. When others point out that conventional psychological research show that humans have a tendency to KNOW things all the time, and forget the misses and accept the hits, you appear to ignore this or think it can't apply to you.
But even if you _have_ experienced some extraordinary form of KNOWING, it could still be coincidence that it's only happened twice and that you've been right both times.
You put ESP in quotes, but you insist on capitalising KNOW, which means you are either extraordinary or unwilling to accept that humans can't separate 'knowing' from 'KNOWING'.

 

[Lothian]

Stereolab,

I too consider myself sceptical, but have had a few experiences like yourself on the wheel of fortune.

I have known the answer to the next question before it is even asked.

I should say I watch many quizzes.

Some like university challenge in the UK have linked questions. Eg.

Question Who wrote macbeth ? Team confer I say shakespere think a bit about him. While team give the answer, he is from Stratford, Globe theatre etc,

Next question: Where was he from !

It may be that there was some link in the earlier part of the show that got you thinking of oz.

I am sure that I have at other times random thoughts and they have turned out to be answers to questions about to be asked.

But….How many quiz show’s are there? How many questions ? and how many viewers?. and how many viewers minds wander ?.

Lets say the chance of someone having a random thought that turns out to the answer to the next quiz question they hear is a billion to one.

Say there are (huge under estimate) each week 100 quiz shows in the world and 50 questions each episode and 5,000,000 people watching each show. It follows that (if my sums are right that there will be 5,000,000 x 50 x 100 which is 5 billion opportunities to guess an answer. Each week there will be 5 people who for no apparent reason know the answer to a question before it is asked.

You are one of those people it happened to.

Think about the lottery what are the chances that you will win a lottery draw. Millions to one.

What are the chances that someone wins the lottery. 100%.

Don’t make the mistake of mixing the odds up. That you hold the winning lottery ticket doesn’t change the certain odds that someone will win it.

Each week it is fairly certain that (assuming rough calculations above) 5 people will know the answer. This is not surprising. The chances of it being you are remote but the chances someone knew an answer is certain.

It does not make it ESP dispite what innumerates like luci say.

 

[Stereolab]

You put ESP in quotes, but you insist on capitalising KNOW, which means you are either extraordinary or unwilling to accept that humans can't separate 'knowing' from 'KNOWING'.

I capitalize KNOW only to emphasize that this was not just a lucky guess, as the posters above me and others have speculated. I KNEW it as surely as I know I am wearing a grey shirt right now.

 

[Stereolab]

Think about the lottery what are the chances that you will win a lottery draw. Millions to one.

I have aced three undergraduate statistics courses, and am finishing up a graduate level one now. I hear what you're saying, believe me. But please understand that what I am talking about is equivalent to winning the lottery on at least five separate occasions, those being the only times I have ever played the lottery in my life.

 

[Starrman]

The fact that I do not believe any of the explanations put forth so far does not indicate any insistence on my part that the experiences were "paranormal."

Stereolab - why do you reject the coincidence, or luck hypothesis? Millions of long shots come to pass every day.

 

[Mercutio]

I capitalize KNOW only to emphasize that this was not just a lucky guess, as the posters above me and others have speculated. I KNEW it as surely as I know I am wearing a grey shirt right now.

I had an argument once with someone who KNEW he had seen me playing a practical joke on a mutual friend. The more I denied it, the more he thought I was kidding; it simply was not possible that he was mistaken. We argued for probably half an hour, with him ready to swear on a stack of bibles that it was me who had played the joke. I would argue that he KNEW it as surely as you know you are wearing a grey shirt. He also just happened to be wrong. When the person who had actually done the deed showed up, it was like dawn breaking; suddenly the first man "knew" that he had been mistaken.

I myself was ready to swear in court that a man had mugged me...only to find that this man was not even a suspect, but only bore a resemblance to the man who was eventually brought in (who had, in fact, mugged me). I would say that I KNEW the first man had done it...and I was wrong.

It is, of course, impossible to say that this is what has happened to you. I would argue, though, that it is also impossible to dismiss it as a possibility.

 

[Ipecac]

My wife and I dated through high school and have been married for a long time since then. We met for the first time in Junior High School when we both attended a city-wide math contest between the Jr. Highs. We were attending different schools.

I remember clearly that when I went head to head against her in the long division competition, I won. We discussed this recently and, to my great surprise, she remembers that she won. Both of us are adamant, both remember winning. We can't both be right. Being a skeptic, I have to acknowledge that I could be mistaken. But then again, so could she.

This happens ALL THE TIME TO HUMAN BEINGS. Human memory generally sucks. Given this, it is extremely likely that the answer to this "puzzle" is that Stereolab just doesn't remember the incidents as they actually happened. Time has changed events, human ego has rendered the new versions as fact.

Sterolab, considering the extraordinary nature of your claim, unless you somehow come up with more compelling evidence than "that's how I remember it", if you truly are a skeptic, the only conclusions you can reach are that you may be mistaken about the facts of the events, indeed, are likely mistaken, or that the events were mere coincidence.

 

[CFLarsen]

I do not know the date that the Wheel of Fortune episode ran, but I believe that the shows were not re-run during prime time. If someone were to present me evidence that prime-time WOF episodes during that time period were sometimes reruns, I would immediately think that the most logical explanation for that occurence.

renata showed you that there is no way reruns couldn't have happened.

Why haven't you addressed her post?

 

[Lothian]

I have aced three undergraduate statistics courses, and am finishing up a graduate level one now. I hear what you're saying, believe me. But please understand that what I am talking about is equivalent to winning the lottery on at least five separate occasions, those being the only times I have ever played the lottery in my life.

I am surprised you have sailed through three stats exams and still claim you only entered 5 lotteries.

You have entered millions and millions of lotteries. From the day you were born and put in a room the previous occupant who shared your forename, and the person in the bed next to your mum was her best friend at school who she hadn’t seen for 15 years, Then later you cut your first tooth when you were 4 months 3 days old the exact same day as your sister, took your first step on your first birthday the exact same day as your sister, then when you were older and you went down town but forgot to call on your neighbour as promised and therefore you didn’t get the bus you would have got with her, you know the one that crashed. Then at college your assigned room mate turned out to have been born on the same day as you.

Of course none of the above actually happened but each is a lottery you entered and ended up with a losing ticket. You just remember 5 winners of the millions you entered, that is all. We have all had five winning tickets. The odds of each individually were huge but we have bought so many that to not have any winner would be unusual.

I have amended my signature to a quote from John Allen Paulos from his book Innumeracy. It is a book you should read.

 

[Lucianarchy]

Stereolab - why do you reject the coincidence, or luck hypothesis?

Just like I am 'lucky' to predict the Ladybrook terrorist attack?

Just like the New York lottery drawing (in order) '911' on the first anniversary of 9/11?

 

[Darwin'sGoat]

Bet you can't tell me what number I'm thinking of.

 

[Suezoled]

Oh fer gawd's sake the freakin' Ladybrooke affair again! Just shoot it like a sick dog!

....wow.... I feel better already.

 

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Stereo said:
"Hey, I just saw the strangest thing flying around in the sky. It didn't look like any plane I have ever seen. It was flat, and triangular, and had this zig-zag pattern in the back, and went really fast but didn't make any noise."

You must carry around a strong pair of binoculars, because you ain't gonna see that thing far enough away to be quiet, yet close enough to perceive that it's flat and triangular.

I might not have considered you deluded if you'd told me this, because you cleverly avoided saying that it was hovering just 50 feet above the trees.

~~ Paul

 

[hgc]

...
Just like the New York lottery drawing (in order) '911' on the first anniversary of 9/11?

You are impervious to all statistical explanations for this, eh? A true believer has to believe, facts be damned.

 

[Starrman]

Just like I am 'lucky' to predict the Ladybrook terrorist attack?

Just like the New York lottery drawing (in order) '911' on the first anniversary of 9/11?

Exactly! Good examples.

 

[Thanz]

I think that Stereolab is getting a bit of unwarranted rough treatment here. I don't think that he is claiming any useful extra-ordinary powers here, and actually seems quite reasonable.

In the interests of full disclosure, I have had 2 experiences that are similar in nature to Stereolab's. Both involved me KNOWING what bad news had just arrived by telephone the instant it rang. Both were unexpected. I understand the difference between knowing and KNOWING, and do not recall having an instance of KNOWING that turned out to be incorrrect. However, I can accept that this may be due to selective memory.

On the first incident, going by what Renata posted, it would seem entirely possible that Stereolab had simply seen the episode before and forgotten that he had seen it, but something triggered the memory and he KNEW the place. If the show started syndication in 1984, and the incident occurred in 1986, it is quite possible that he had seen the episode years before.

I would be interested in knowing the details of some of the other 15 incidents that have occurred.

 

[Darwin'sGoat]

Just like the New York lottery drawing (in order) '911' on the first anniversary of 9/11?

I wish that the ghosts of 9/11 decided to contact us in a more believable way than just fixing the lottery. Like a crop circle or something.

 

[hgc]

I wish that the ghosts of 9/11 decided to contact us in a more believable way than just fixing the lottery. Like a crop circle or something.

They sent Luci to tell us the truth. Everyone believes him.

 

[thaiboxerken]

I capitalize KNOW only to emphasize that this was not just a lucky guess, as the posters above me and others have speculated. I KNEW it as surely as I know I am wearing a grey shirt right now.

I doubt it. I think you only remember it as such. Many people "know" things are going to happen, and when they don't happen, they immediately forget about that "knowledge" because it wasn't significant. It's just how the human mind works. You didn't "know" anything, you just think you did and the coincidence happened that made that event significant to you. But, if you insist on claiming that it's a fact that you "knew" the future event was going to happen, there is really no point in even discussing it with you. Your statement of "i knew" shows that you are a true believer. You may not call it ESP, but clairvoyance by any other name is still clairvoyance.

 

[Lothian]

Just like the New York lottery drawing (in order) '911' on the first anniversary of 9/11?

Lunacy,

Can you tell me the odds of this occuring again. What was it you claimed

365 days in a year times 50 states in America times 1000 possible numbers in the draw times 2 different ways of expressing the date times two towers collapsing = 73 million to one.

Please correct me if I got your calculation wrong.