Ecru Adzes
Dean
Here's a chestnut that floats around a lot in email. It's a classic case of misdirection. I'll hide it since it's long:
(show)
Now, how does this work? First off, it uses classic misdirection by asking you to quickly add a few numbers. It's actually irrelevant, but it gets you distracted. Then you're also told to answer as quickly as possible, which is also merely an effort to distract you.
So what's the real trick? For some reason, most people will say "red" if you ask them to name a random color, and most people will say "hammer" if you ask them to name a tool. Try it yourself. Without any explanation, just walk up to a random friend or coworker and say "hey, quick, name a color."
Once you explain what's going on you've ruined the experiment, because then people will intentionally try to avoid saying red. Or, even if they don't know what color you're looking for, but they think you're tricking them, they'll think harder about it and name their second or third choice.
Same goes for tools: most will say hammer. The more quickly you ask them to respond and the less clue you give them that you're fishing, the more likely they will be to say "hammer."
By the way, if you ask most people to quickly name a number between 1 and 10, most will specify 7 or 8.
These all sorts of tricks like this used by phony psychics, by the way. (As if there's any other kind?)
A: 37
37, of course, is anything but random.
I love how this is really just a small version of Family Feud.
.
.
.
.
.
Why did you pick 3?
(Everyone reasons the same way, which is what makes the second step ironic... kind of like a Prisoner's Dilemma actually.)
Oh, and I did pick #2. I guess I'm just a freak (or at least a semi-freak)
I think that's the tool I use the most.
With tools, people (in our culture) have a conception of the category of tool, with some tools being more basic than others, and a hammer is one of the most basic tools (if not the most basic). Many categories have central members in this way, and if you asked someone to name a member of a category, they're most likely to name a central member.
Now, on the psycic front...do you not believe in the ability to sense things that you have by no rights, the ability to know? ESP, deja vu, etc.? Or do you just not trust those that try to make money by communicating with the dead? Or, does that distrust also extend to those who celebrate Samhain and El Dia De Los Muertos?
Deja-vu I also believe in, but only in a similarly mundane sense. Most people experience this feeling at least once in a while. The best theory I've heard for the phenomenon is that something misfires slightly in your brain and immediate data gets stored straight in your long-term memory, instead of being chewed on by your short term memory for a while before storage. Voila, events transpiring at the moment emotionally feel like something that happened long ago.
These aren't really particularly fun things to believe. Honestly I would very much like to believe in things like mental telepathy, psychokinesis, astral projection, and reincarnation. I'd like to believe in them a whole, whole lot.
I'd also absolutely love to believe in alien visitors by the way.
Wishing won't make it so. I believe none of it. Show me the hard proof, or at least a strong and undeniable personal experience that I cannot explain by rational means, and I'll try to keep an open mind. But I've looked at this stuff for years, and found it all sadly wanting.
Fortunately, I find the real universe is a strange and wondrous enough place that my need to believe in the supernatural is minimized. There's such wonder in the cosmos, and so much we don't yet understand...