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Topic: randomness controlled by mind? (Read 6666 times) |
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pharaohs_supper
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randomness controlled by mind?
« on: Feb 23rd, 2010, 7:50pm » |
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Can one's mental concentration *ever* affect the randomness of any event? For example, coin toss should be 50-50 -- but what if one concentrates with all their might "tails tails tails." There are people that insist that it can be done. Any thoughts on this?
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Benny
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Re: randomness controlled by mind?
« Reply #1 on: Feb 23rd, 2010, 10:50pm » |
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J.B. Rhine, in 1942, published a study in which he stated that gamblers and other people might mentally affect the outcome of dice falls. He labelled this the "psychokinetic effect'
I saw this at
http://www.williamjames.com/Science/PK.htm
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towr
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Re: randomness controlled by mind?
« Reply #2 on: Feb 24th, 2010, 12:51am » |
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I don't think that's ever been replicated.
I would have to go with, no, it's not possible.
For one, there is no known mechanism by which it could work. Not unless you are throwing the dice/tossing the coin yourself and are physically influencing the result by the way you throw/toss them. After all, they are not actually random events, but subject to the physical deterministic laws of nature.
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Wikipedia, Google, Mathworld, Integer sequence DB
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Grimbal
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Re: randomness controlled by mind?
« Reply #3 on: Feb 24th, 2010, 5:37am » |
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I tried. I can make tail-tail-tail come out. It works every time.
But I need to reach an extreme level of concentration, not easy to achieve. I manage that 1 out of 8 times only, because of various external disturbances. But when I reach that level it works every time.
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rmsgrey
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Re: randomness controlled by mind?
« Reply #4 on: Feb 24th, 2010, 5:48am » |
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You would expect the craps table at a casino to show strong evidence of any biasing by wishing - so either casinos have some way of blocking the effect, or it doesn't work (or craps tables pay out more than the expected amount)
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Grimbal
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Re: randomness controlled by mind?
« Reply #5 on: Feb 24th, 2010, 8:03am » |
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What happens is that the casinos also wish to earn money. You can be sure they hire professional wishers for the task. A professional wisher beats an amateur any time. The amount of money the casinos earn is a good measure how well wishing works.
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sherperr
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Re: randomness controlled by mind?
« Reply #6 on: Sep 5th, 2011, 3:48am » |
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I don't think this would be possible. People have been saying stuff like this for years. My Dad was staring at a matchbox sitting on the table one day and claimed with enough concentration he could move it...we visit him on weekends now 
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Grimbal
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Re: randomness controlled by mind?
« Reply #7 on: Sep 5th, 2011, 8:07am » |
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In all my posts above, there is an implied  at the end.
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wade32
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Re: randomness controlled by mind?
« Reply #8 on: Apr 16th, 2012, 8:01am » |
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on Feb 24th, 2010, 12:51am, towr wrote:I don't think that's ever been replicated.
I would have to go with, no, it's not possible.
For one, there is no known mechanism by which it could work. Not unless you are throwing the dice/tossing the coin yourself and are physically influencing the result by the way you throw/toss them. After all, they are not actually random events, but subject to the physical deterministic laws of nature. |
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I would agree
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Grimbal
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Re: randomness controlled by mind?
« Reply #9 on: Apr 18th, 2012, 9:41am » |
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It is more likely this concentration doesn't bend the randomness of the outcome as much as your belief that it does. You overestimate the significance of the cases where it works and dismiss the cases where it doesn't, giving you an overall impression that there is a small effect.
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