Can People Sense the Future?

[PIT2]

Some of them use cold-reading.

However, resolving the whereabouts of a missing person by guessing or using vague discriptions would still have a pretty low chance of succes. After all, vague descriptions are useless to police and cold-reading is not possible in these cases, since no one knows where the missing person is. By pure chance, the odds would be low.




I found an article about a 'sensing the future experiment' where they show different pictures to the subjects:

http://www.scientificexploration.org/jse/abstracts/v14n3a4.php

PDF http://www.scientificexploration.org/jse/articles/pdf/14.3_jahn_etal.pdf

An experiment addressing anomalous human/machine interactions utilizing a feedback display of two competing pictures, the relative dominance of which is controlled by a microelectronic random generator, has yielded a number of equivocal results. On the one hand, an ingoing hypothesis that such a visually engaging mode of feedback might facilitate larger anomalous effects has not been supported by the composite results of 49 operators performing some 390,000 experimental trials. Likewise, a smaller ad hoc study of the relative efficacy of a subset of target pictures having religious or spiritual themes, although yielding effect sizes comparable with earlier random event generator (REG) data, has insufficient statistical power to resolve the question. Also, an attempt to assess the relative importance of the pictorial feedback, vis-à-vis the output of the REG, per se, in facilitating operator performance has not been definitive. Yet, certain secondary anomalies in these databases, such as gender disparities, individual operator performances, and serial position effects, show several characteristics akin to those previously found in other human/machine experiments in this laboratory. Whether these indicators can be used to develop more effective experiments of this class or to achieve a more fundamental understanding of the basic phenomena is the focus of ongoing research.

Seems like there are some mixed results.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Was discovery of body a coincidence or psychic phenomena?

a related story in the news:

Residents wonder whether it was a mere coincidence or an eerie phenomena that a missing man's body bobbed up in a lake just as a psychic drew near.

A self-described "psychic detective" contacted by the man's family found the body in the lake after she says a feeling pulled her there. On March 19, Lynn Ann Maker made her discovery as she waded into the lake. [continued]

http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/ap_newfullstory.asp?ID=58756

 

[PIT2]

Heres another one where a psychic helps find a diamond ring:

12:00 - 05 April 2005
A consultation with a Devon psychic led to a heavily pregnant woman digging up the floorboards of her home to discover a lost ring.

Anita Pancherz, from Tiverton, consulted psychic Carol Everett, from Crediton, in a last-ditch bid to find her gold and diamond ring.

http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=137199&command=displayContent&sourceNode=136986&contentPK=12166093

 

[PIT2]

Heres an excellent flash animation that gives a short indroduction and shows the actual results of experiments done:

http://www.lfr.org/LFR/csl/SlideShows/PrestimulusResponse/index.html

There is definitely evidence that this 'sensing the future' occurs, for whatever reason that may be.

Source: http://www.lfr.org/LFR/csl/

 

[zoobyshoe]

a related story in the news:
http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/ap_newfullstory.asp?ID=58756

This is pretty interesting, but if you read the story it is clear that her success is due to having made a more thorough investigation of the scene of the abandoned car than the police did. She didn't check the lake out of the blue: his car was found abandoned nearby. She's not psychic, just dedicated.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Heres another one where a psychic helps find a diamond ring:http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=137199&command=displayContent&sourceNode=136986&contentPK=12166093

Read this one. I find there is an obvious clue about how the psychic knew where to look. Anyone else see it?

 

[PIT2]

Read this one. I find there is an obvious clue about how the psychic knew where to look. Anyone else see it?

It wouldn't be this bit would it?

Mrs Panchurz said: " I had just got the nursery freshly decorated for the new baby. The carpet had been freshly laid down and all the furniture was in, but we decided to rip the carpet up and lever a floorboard and there it was.

 

[Alkatran]

It wouldn't be this bit would it?

Nope. Her son said it went away with the dustmen.

 

[PIT2]

Nope. Her son said it went away with the dustmen.

Well what does the dustman have to do with it being under the floorboards.
I assume 'dustman' means the person that collects the garbage, or is this some fantasy figure that collects dust from the floor?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Well what does the dustman have to do with it being under the floorboards.
I assume 'dustman' means the person that collects the garbage, or is this some fantasy figure that collects dust from the floor?

Not "dustman" but plural: "dustmen."

The question is not what a dustman is, but what might a three year old refer to as "the dustmen."?

 

[zoobyshoe]

"I went to Carol when my three-year old son, Joe, started winding me up and saying that the ring had gone away with the dustmen."

 

[zoobyshoe]

"I went to Carol when my three-year old son, Joe, started winding me up and saying that the ring had gone away with the dustmen."

No, epiphanies yet, PIT2?

We have a missing ring. A three-year-old boy pesters his mother with the statement that the ring "had gone away with the dustmen."

Three-year-old kids are not very articulate. Sometimes they make up names for things. Sometimes they anthropomorphize things.

There are other important things to remember about three-year-old kids, things the psychic probably had firmly in mind when giving her suggestion.

 

[PIT2]

"I went to Carol when my three-year old son, Joe, started winding me up and saying that the ring had gone away with the dustmen."

No, epiphanies yet, PIT2?

We have a missing ring. A three-year-old boy pesters his mother with the statement that the ring "had gone away with the dustmen."

Three-year-old kids are not very articulate. Sometimes they make up names for things. Sometimes they anthropomorphize things.

There are other important things to remember about three-year-old kids, things the psychic probably had firmly in mind when giving her suggestion.

Well I am not English or American, so i assumed 'dustmen' was just the people that pick up the garbage outside of the house. So perhaps that's why i missed the connection.

Also, i still think this bit is a bigger clue:

Mrs Panchurz said: " I had just got the nursery freshly decorated for the new baby. The carpet had been freshly laid down and all the furniture was in, but we decided to rip the carpet up and lever a floorboard and there it was.

A psychic discovering that the room had recently been renovated, would probably suspect the ring was lost somewhere during the renovation. Hell, even i would suspect this, and I am no psychic. "A new carpet? Ring could be underneath it!"

 

[zoobyshoe]

A psychic discovering that the room had recently been renovated, would probably suspect the ring was lost somewhere during the renovation.

The timetable is pretty clearly laid out in the article. The ring had been missing 7 months. The room had only just ben renovated. It is clear the renovation was not the occasion of the loss of the ring.

Aren't you curious as to how the ring got under the floorboard? And how did it get under there a full 7 months before the renovation? Makes you wonder why the renovation happened in the first place, doesn't it? How could a ring get under a floorboard? What is an obvious good reason to renovate a floor?

 

[PIT2]

Aren't you curious as to how the ring got under the floorboard? And how did it get under there a full 7 months before the renovation? Makes you wonder why the renovation happened in the first place, doesn't it? How could a ring get under a floorboard? What is an obvious good reason to renovate a floor?

Perhaps there was a crack in the floor and this is why they renovated it?

This is a good reason why the psychic would suspect the ring was in the renovated room, moved out of sight completely under the freshly laid carpet, like i said.

Just imagine the thoughts of the psychic:

"Hey... this room is renovated, i wonder why? Why is there a new carpet? Is there something wrong with the floor? Wait, ill just ask her: were there cracks in the floor?"

 

[zoobyshoe]

Perhaps there was a crack in the floor and this is why they renovated it?

Yes! A crack in the floor is the most obvious explanation for how the ring got under the floorboards. The location of the ring, though, is only something everyone is sure about now that it's been found.

This is a good reason why the psychic would suspect the ring was in the renovated room, moved out of sight completely under the freshly laid carpet, like i said.

Er...atually what you said was:

A psychic discovering that the room had recently been renovated, would probably suspect the ring was lost somewhere during the renovation.

and I had to point out the ring was lost months before the renovation.

"Hey... this room is renovated, i wonder why? Why is there a new carpet? Is there something wrong with the floor? Wait, ill just ask her: were there cracks in the floor?"

Yes, but she'd do it much more subtly. She won't look psychic if she comes out and says "Did you look into the cracks?

By the way, do you now realize who had looked into the cracks, and seen the ring? The person whose misunderstood testimony gave her the confidence to suggest tearing up a newly laid carpet?

 

[PIT2]

Er...atually what you said was:

With which i meant, when the carpet went over the floor, (and perhaps the floorboard were even exchanged for ones that didnt have cracks in them), the ring was lost from sight completely. Or that perhaps the ring was even laying on the ground, and only got underneath the floorboards, when they were being renovated or when they were fiddling around with the carpet.

Who knows what happened during this renovation, they might have dropped a TV unto the floor, cracking it completely open and making the ring (laying on the back of the TV) slip into the crack

and I had to point out the ring was lost months before the renovation.

The date of the renovation is not mentioned

By the way, do you now realize who had looked into the cracks, and seen the ring? The person whose misunderstood testimony gave her the confidence to suggest tearing up a newly laid carpet?

I guess ur talking about the kid. However, the kids vague testimoney alone would not be sufficient to determine the room the ring would be in.

Also, if the sole role of the kid was to give confidence to the psychic (which confirmed her suspicions based on the renovation-data she received without the use of the kid), then the renovation-data clearly plays a larger role.

In fact, the kids testimony could well be redundant, the renovation-data could not:

-Dust is all around the house (and even outside). Dustmen could be anywhere.
-The renovation was only in the room where the ring was.