Wheel of Fortune esp moment

Discussion in 'Parapsychology' started by Magical Realist, Feb 20, 2015.

  1. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    What are the odds of this happening? Simply amazing!

     
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  3. Kittamaru Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Adieu, Sciforums. Valued Senior Member

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    Apparently higher than you'd think, since it happened here too

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    Actually, looking at it- knowing there are no R's, and only one L, it kind of limits that first word. I currently have it paused at the 35 second mark, and I'm guessing it is "I've got a good feeling about this"

    EDIT - Yep!
     
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  5. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    Not that remote. Knowing:
    -the length of all the words
    -the topic
    -the location of a single letter
    -the fact that another letter does not appear anywhere else
    -the punctuation

    would allow someone with a good memory and an ability to think fast to narrow it down to a small number of choices - a dozen or so depending on the phrases. In that case the odds would be 1 in 12. (You could also cheat and use a computer to do such matching very rapidly.)
     
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  7. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    Yep..she calculated all that in the like 5 seconds after the L was put up there. That splains it all. lol!
     
  8. Ophiolite Valued Senior Member

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    Humans are good at pattern recognition. It's what we do. It's impressive, because we are very good at it and often we get it wrong.
     
  9. cluelusshusbund + Public Dilemma + Valued Senior Member

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    Anuther way of lookin at it... id say the odds that it woud not have occured is zero... which is based on my notion that the universe is deterministic.!!!

    Whats you'r gut-feelin on how they got the corect answr.???
     
  10. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    Humans are exceptional at problems like that. It comes from the days where it was VERY advantageous to see a tiger's ear and realize that there was an entire tiger attached to it.
     
  11. Kittamaru Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Adieu, Sciforums. Valued Senior Member

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    Not to mention that humans are exceptional at parallel processing - our minds can go in several different directions at once and then pull the most likely result out of that mess.
     
  12. Russ_Watters Not a Trump supporter... Valued Senior Member

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    Yes, it's impressive. Yes, the odds are low (1 in a thousand?). But what does any of that have to do with ESP?
     
  13. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    She said she had a hunch. Like the whole phrase came to her at once. That's either esp, or some kind of subconscious computational ability we all may have. Savants display this in amazing cases.
     
  14. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    The latter. Many people have pretty remarkable abilities to pattern match. "Name that tune" is another example - people can identify songs from two or three notes.
     
  15. Ophiolite Valued Senior Member

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    And you are seriously telling me you have never had a similar experience? That would explain some things.
     
  16. Daecon Kiwi fruit Valued Senior Member

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    One time I was watching and I guessed correctly before the first person even spun the wheel.

    No letters whatsoever.

    Admittedly, the Historical Event was "The Industrial Revolution", so there weren't many potential events to choose from with words that long.
     
  17. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    What would it explain praytell? And where did I "seriously tell you" I have never had a similar experience?
     
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2015
  18. Russ_Watters Not a Trump supporter... Valued Senior Member

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    What Sense? I've never heard of anyone claiming a "good at word games" sense.
     
  19. Ophiolite Valued Senior Member

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    If you had had a similar experience then you would - surely - have contemplated that experience and noted its character and perceived in a broad sense the mechanism at work and found it elegant, but readily explicable without appealing to ESP. Nor would you have suggested that the ability was limited to "savants.....in amazing cases".

    As to the mechanism:
    1. Get in the zone - a distinct mental state as verified by MRI scans.
    2. Think on the structure of the problem - number of words, number of letters in each word. Accomplish this in the form of an overview.
    3. Note the location of any letters, but again, not with intense focus, but a brushing appreciation.
    4. Engage. (If you have actually done this you will know what I mean by engage.)
    5. Allow the neurons activated by all of the foregoing to trigger those where the memory of the phrase is located.
    6. Catch it as it appears in your consciousness.
    7. Repeat as necessary until you have won the jackpot.
     
  20. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    Actually, having the experience would not have necessarily unveiled it's mechanism to me, as indeed it doesn't ever to anyone. All that occurs to us on the conscious level is the lucky guess, the fortuitous hunch, the serendipitous divination. So whether it is esp or a subconscious computation remains unknown. And since I said it is an ability we all may have, I obviously wasn't limiting it to savants.

    As for your spurious explanation of the mechanism, I find it hard to believe she did all that figuring out consciously. It's unlikely that she deliberately assessed the correct phrase based on missing letters, word lengths, or possible phrases in the 5 seconds after the L was put up there. Hence my theory that it is either esp or an unconscious computational ability.
     
  21. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    What sense indeed? Where did I say it was a "sense"?
     
  22. Ophiolite Valued Senior Member

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    OK, I get it. You are slow.
     
  23. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    Reported for insult..
     

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