Newsletter #4, for October 26th, 2004

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PsiPog.net : Psychic Students In Pursuit Of Guidance
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Newsletter #4, for October 26th, 2004

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."
- Earl Weaver


Dear PsiPog Users,

How's it going?

PsiPog is having a huge ass Lecture/Practice on Saturday,
November 6th, at 7:00pm EST. I wanted to try something new, so
the basic idea is that we talk about telepathy for a while, out-
line some methods, then have everyone practice and share their
results and experiences. For more information, check out:
http://www.psipog.net/calendar.php?view=1&day=1099785600

I've received a new article from SunTzu, and that should be

online this week some time. Myself, annie, and Brandon are also
planning on more articles, but nothing in the final phases yet.

Let's jump into some exercises.

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Hmmmmm what to talk about... How about micro-PK?

What is micro-PK? PK stands for psychokinesis, and the micro
part means that it's small. So... small psychokinesis. What it
basically means is that you affect things on a much more smaller
level, and affect the outcome of "random" things in your favor.

So, macro-PK you slide objects across the table, micro-PK you
make a coin land on heads 10 times in a row.

The only way to know if you're successful with micro-PK is to
know some math. So, first I'll discuss how I perform micro-PK,
and then I'll discuss some math behind it.

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A very long time ago, when I was first starting out, I decided to
mess around with micro-PK before trying something bigger to build
up some confidence. I was a little unsure whether all this
psychic mumbo jumbo was real or not, so I wanted some measurable
results that were somewhat easy to accomplish. What I would do
was take a deck of average cards, and shuffle the deck over and
over again. I did all sorts of different shuffles, and my goal
was to get the Ace of Spades on the top by the end of it.

I can still remember turning over the top card after shuffling
for five minutes straight, and seeing that Ace of Spades... and
freaking out :-P.

For me, the best state of mind was just... not thinking of any-
thing. Before I would start, I would think to myself "I want the
Ace of Spades to be on top when I finish shuffling. There has to
be a card on top, and it is possible for the Ace of Spades to be
on top, so that's what I want to happen."

It's weird... it's almost like I had to convince myself that it
was indeed possible. I had to figure out a way for my head to
understand that it's "ok" to have the Ace of Spades on the top.
That it was an acceptable outcome. Now of course, the math side
of my brain would say "sure, it's possible, but it's not very
likely", but if you think about it... it's not likely that ANY
card will be on top. It's the same odds for the Three of
Diamonds as it is the Ace of Spades, or the Jack of Hearts. So
why not?

After convincing myself it was ok to have the ace on top, I began
shuffling. While shuffling, I just completely zoned out. I
didn't think about the ace, or any other card for that matter. I
didn't think about the outcome, or the odds, or what was
"suppose" to happen, or anything like that. I just thought of
nothing, and kind of zoned out while shuffling. When the time
felt right, and I sort of snapped out of my state of mind, I
flipped the card on top over and looked to see if it was my
target card.

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Now, though your goal might to be to get the card on top, some
times it just isn't going to work. It's good to keep track of
how well you did, and compare different techniques to see which
ones produced the best results for you. The best way to chart
your progress, and see how well you are with micro-PK, is to do
the math behind it.

First we'll start with the common sense, then we'll look at the
math behind it. There are 52 cards in the deck... so what are
the chances that your card will be in the top half? Well... if
it's just random, then you have a 50% chance of your card being
in the top half, and a 50% chance of your card being in the
bottom half. Pretty simple.

Our common sense tells us 50%, but where does that number
actually come from?

If you have 52 cards in the deck, then you can divide the deck
into two halves... the bottom 26 cards, and the top 26 cards.
What are the odds of you card being in the top 26 cards? Well,
yes, it's 50%, but really it's 26 out of 52. That translates
to a fraction:

26
------ = 0.50 = 50%
52

So, using that same idea... what are the odds your card will be
in the very top position? It's the same idea, except instead of
being in the top 26 cards, you're wondering what the odds are for
the top 1 card:

1
------ = 0.0192 = 1.92%
52

Cool, huh?

So if you succeed in getting your target card on top, there is a
1.92% chance of that happening.

Now for the fun part.

What are the odds of you getting your card in the top half TWO
times in a row? That means you try the exercise twice, and both
times it ends up in the top half. To figure that out, we use
multiplication:

26 26
------ X ------ = 0.50 x 0.50 = 0.25 = 25%
52 52

I know, I know... math is boring and it sucks. But goddammit,
we're scientists! We gotta figure it out and do it right to see
if we're actually legit or not.

One more example, then we'll call it quits. Let's say you get
the ace in the 3rd position your first try, and the 8th position
your second try. Now that's pretty amazing, but what are the
odds?

3 8
------ X ------ = 0.0577 x 0.1538 = 0.0089 = 0.89%
52 52

There we go! 0.89% is awesome. If you can get something below
5% then you're doing great.

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Ok, I'm sorry that I had to teach some math... it sucks I know.
Try to pay attention in class, ok? :-P

But we learned a cool thing. Now when some douchebag tries to
throw shit in your face about how fake you are, you can sound
smart and step him through the math, and mathematically prove to
him you're doing something legit.

Keep checking back at PsiPog; Sun's article should be up soon,
and others are coming as well. And don't forget about the huge
telepathy lecture/practice!

- Sean Connelly aka Peebrain
Webmaster of PsiPog.net

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