Introduction I'm writing this for zengizmo who asked me how i worked this out in another thread. I used to consider myself a psychic. I'd know little things like who was on the end of the phone or who was at the door, but there were 2 main things which i was practising and could do really well. 1. seeing into the future in my dreams 2. guessing cards face down I found myself in a situation where i had to accept that No. 1 was false, and straight after I found a logical explanation for No. 2. I did not use logic to work out No. 1, I was forced to. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The psychic experience No.1- i'd be in a very ordinary situation, which would suddenly look identical to a recent dream. I would know what people were going to say next. you can find a detailed description of my first experience here: http://hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=241433&page=2&pp=10 when this happened i was only remembering the dream, but when i was having the dream before the event then it follows i was seeing into the future. The common name for this is Deja Vu. 70% of people experience it. No.2- I would have a shuffled pack of 7 decks of cards in front of me face down. I would clear my head and pick one off the top. I would get an emotion in my head and the emotion would be different depending on the card. with practise, I could use this to work out the number (i used a different technique when i was guessing red or black). queens were strong and dark. jacks felt yellow. 6s were depressing, 7s were bright. 2s were empty... etc. The hardest cards to guess were Aces. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How i worked it out These experiences started when i was 15/16. at age 19 i took some ecstasy (I had first tried this drug aged 18 1/2). It is worth noting here that i had only tried alcohol and perhaps cannabis when i first started thinking i was psychic. As you might know, almost all ecstasy pills have other drugs in them. I took 4 of these pills and for some reason had 4 hours of deja vu experiences one after another. at this point in time i still thought these were dreams coming true. This belief was made worse by the previous night I actually had a dream that I did this activity with these people in this particular mates house. me being totally mashed and unable to think. The drugs started to wear off. I started to experience a 'comedown'. this is when you get particularly down and uncertain of yourself as a result of taking E. It was in this state of hating myself and not being so certain of my beliefs that i started to question them. i began to consider the possibility that i couldn't see into the future. Here's my train of thought: i've seen tonight that deja vu can be brought on by drugs. deja vu is a common occurrence. My mate gets it a lot as well and he doesn't think he can see into the future in his dreams. funny how i attribute it to dreams. I can't remember most of my dreams so i wouldn't know if this was not happening the way i think it is. speaking of remembering dreams, don't i only seem to remember that i'd 'seen the situation before' AFTER the situation happened? No its more during. I see the situation and at the same time i'm telling myself i've seen it before. Hmm i'm telling myself i've seen it before, when i get deja vu which is the sensation that i've seen it before, but none of this means i've actually seen it before *I look back at every single situation which i think i'd also seen in a dream* if i was so sure i knew what was going to happen next, why didn't i tell everybody and amaze them? why didn't i prove it? maybe i couldn't. Maybe i was just seeing what was happening next and saying "i knew that was going to happen". I only remember the dream when the event is happening, not before so what's more likely... that i can see into the future in my dreams or i'm deluded? oh. oh no. oh no please don't be this way. no! no! no! *sigh* well at least I've worked it out now...
bare in mind this is only a representation of my actual train of thought. This is not an attempt to prove that anyone else's experience of seeing the future in their dreams is not genuine. i lost interest writing this post halfway through and so it probably doesn't make sense. it has just occurred to me that i am wasting my life on the internet and i should really go off and do other things. i'm not saying anyone here isn't psychic except me. The card guessing delusion was much simpler to work out and theres probably plenty of explanations elsewhere on the internet. I won't spend any time explaining it in my particular case. anyway, i must leave this forum in peace. my eyes hurt. i won't return unless i can't restrain myself. peace.
Please return. This is an awesome forum... I don't consider myself psychic either. I have intuition. Intuition that's accurate a lot of the time. It's not stronger or more special than anybody elses, but I've learned to listen to it. deja vu is actually a form of seizure. Not harmful, I dont' think...but it's the vessels in your brain contracting and freaking out for a split second, so that you feel as though you're reliving the next second. Because you're a split second behind. It takes another few seconds for your mind to catch up...deja vu. The card thing you can do is COOL. I don't know if it makes you a psychic...I don't like the word psychic. In itself the word psychic sounds fake to me. (no offense to anybody here...but I think that your abilities are all chemical and spiritual, and can't be smooshed into one catagory.) I won't delve into the dream stuff because I don't understand it myself. I don't know. But I don't think you should be so negative...you seem to have AMAZING intuition or whatever it is. That you can feel those cards...come on, that's pretty fantastic. Don't give up on your mind. It's sure as hell not about to give up on you. Better to embrace and improve yourself.
ok- i couldn't restrain myself, i came back on. this is for you, knotdirty... How to think you can guess cards face down when you can't- My personal story. Clearly no one can guess cards that are face down. If they could they would have won the million dollar Randi prize, or if they were more entrepeneural- become a poker player. you could quite easily make a billion dollars in a year if you were psychic opposed to delusional/fraudulant. Clearly some people believe that they can guess cards face down. they are certain of it. I was. Certainty is a feature of all delusions. Here's how i became delusional... Firstly i started with an open mind. All delusional people start with an open mind- its not a good thing unless great care is taken. A mind which is open considers all things a possibility until they can be proven false. Because of this I decided that it was possible to guess cards face down... i decided to test my theory. This is the point were i made all sorts of assumptions. I'd never realised it was so far back. This is how easy it is to walk into delusion. I decided that in order to use psychic power i would need to concentrate, listen, take my time etc. I couldn't just flip the cards up and guess. Notice here how i have assumed that psychic powers already exist. I haven't done the test or got any results, but by the way i'm going about it you can see i already think psychic energy exists. But i'm not yet delusional... I start with guessing either red and black. I won't go into my technique. It seemed clever to me at the time, but it just doesn't work because no one can guess cards face down (thats a reasonable assumption but people will say i don't 'know' that. that's right, i don't. i'm just being rational) Here's the thing- if i guessed 5 cards in a row using my technique then i would consider that strong evidence that the technique worked. If i only got one wrong then i would consider that a success also. 3/5 was not strong evidence either way and neither was 2/5. 1/5 and i decided i mustn't have been 'listening' or 'concentrating' hard enough. If i got 0/5 then i would still consider that a possibility that i'm psychic... what are the chances of getting them all wrong?? there must be something going on. I must have mixed up red and black in my mind or something. notice how my belief could not be proven false (as with all delusions). I'd reject the results of the test if it did not support my belief, and accept it if it did. With so much evidence supporting my belief- remembering guesses that were correct and finding excuses for those that weren't i start to become certain of my belief. It is a fixed false belief. I am delusional. If someone says that i'm not psychic i become offended and angry. This is another feature of all delusions. When something happens which supports my belief it makes me happy. i start using these techniques to play poker online i make $2000 very quickly i lose all the money i've ever worked for. My life savings. $8000 aged 19. i fail my exams because i thought i didn't need to work at them, being psychic and all. i am now unemployed, $1000 in debt, living at home, most of my friends are at uni. this is not a sad story, but its true. Why its not sad is because i have learnt from my mistakes. Crisis breeds opportunity. Failure can spur people on more. I'm happier than I was and i'm working harder. Its highly unlikely that i will ever become deluded again because i screen every thought that comes into my head.
quick explanation when i was guessing numbers- the thing i was doing with emotions... Clearly emotions aren't affected by playing cards. This meant that the emotions were quite hard to distinguish. So lets say i guess 2 because i feel 'empty' it comes out queen. i decide 'oh, looking back i suppose it was a bit strong and dark' so i think i can do it even though i can't. i am thinking about the emotion AFTER i know what the card is.
Hala, I think you're a highly intelligent, perceptive person. These stories of confronting your own delusions are insightful and articulate--and also interesting and enlightening. You made some major, major mistakes--and you learned from them, and came back stronger and happier. This is a classic story of spiritual growth, and similar to some things I've gone through. And after reading your response to Heywood Floyd, I believe your experience has given you some profound wisdom to share. In that sense, your experience has been valuable, not only to you but to everyone who comes in contact with you. I have some thoughts you might consider. You understandably never again want to fall into delusional thinking that could devastate your life like it did before. Consider: Could this fear be biasing your view to some extent? I only suggest you consider this. Honestly, for where you are in your life right now, I think it might be that the healthiest thing for you to believe is that you are not psychic. Someday, however...you might want to consider some other possibilities... For example: Why is it more "rational" to say you're not psychic than to say you are? Isn't that statement based on an assumption for which you have no proof? That's all for me for now...thank you for sharing. I'm glad you dropped in here to talk to us.
I'm pyschic and not deluded. Infact the world is going to be destroyed by a giant asteroid at 3pm this afternoon. And if u dont believe me , Im going to the betting shop to put 100pounds on it ...
