A simple telepathy test: which word did I write?

I've seen a few of these tests previously and somehow I prefer to choose an answer before even opening and reading the post. Having only seen the title, I assumed there would be four words to choose from. I pondered very briefly and then said to myself, the correct answer is "moon". After that I opened and read the requirements, how did I move from my word "moon" to one of the given words? I didn't see any connection in terms of meaning, then I turned to the number of letters in the word. This is where I considered either the 4th word in the list or the only word which itself had four letters. Hence I chose 'rice'. But I consider my application of logic to be less valid than the initial act of picking a word from the air. Still. I stay with 'rice' as my answer.

I've seen a few of these tests previously and somehow I prefer to choose an answer before even opening and reading the post. Having only seen the title, I assumed there would be four words to choose from. I pondered very briefly and then said to myself, the correct answer is "moon". After that I opened and read the requirements, how did I move from my word "moon" to one of the given words? I didn't see any connection in terms of meaning, then I turned to the number of letters in the word. This is where I considered either the 4th word in the list or the only word which itself had four letters. Hence I chose 'rice'. But I consider my application of logic to be less valid than the initial act of picking a word from the air. Still. I stay with 'rice' as my answer.

Thank you, Typoz.

You said:

This is where I considered either the 4th word in the list or the only word which itself had four letters. Hence I chose 'rice'.

The possible answers of this test were: "pasta", "rice", "boiled" and "vegetable".

You could have chosen (according to your reasoning) "vegetable" as your answer (because it is the fourth word), but you decided to answer "rice" (the four-letter word).

This was an excellent choice, because it is the correct answer.

I said, in my opening post:

A SHA-3 hash of a complicated sentence giving the target, calculated on this webpage: https://www.browserling.com/tools/sha3-hash  is:
775e2df0f9cef0335e2a5388e11e237af78475f4b2ce9df6b4ccccbb3ad03c4b668478e0370f1bc272ae11bd7d567153c2f2caca42483c5524f653bc71c24cf5 .

I can now reveal the sentence I used, it is:
The word I wrote and highlighted ç§(çà#&é lhbf474 was "rice".

You can easily verify the SHA-3 hash I posted on the website https://www.browserling.com/tools/sha3-hash .

So, in conclusion, this long test (because I waited for more than one month before giving the correct answer) has a 100% hit rate, but with just one answer given.

Interesting outcome.

I did hope that a few other people would offer their own answers. Still, it is what it is.

[Laird]

It's probably better I hadn't. I was thrown off by the odd word out. (Whether I would otherwise have gotten the target anyway is of course unknown).

Interestingly (for me at least), I felt pretty confident in my choice this time, even taking into account the strange route by which I reached my choice. There is an element of what I call "beginners luck" though it may have a better name. If I tried to repeat the task most likely I'd miss and end up with a 25% hit rate. But that doesn't imply there is not a real phenomenon taking place, rather it depends on a combination of being relaxed and yet fully engaged. Over a longer series of tests either boredom or tiredness/stress can make it harder to engage meaningfully in the activity, at least for me.

Thanks @Michel H for making the effort to carry out these tests from time to time.

Interesting outcome. 

I did hope that a few other people would offer their own answers. Still, it is what it is.

I agree it would have been nice if some other forum members had participated in this test too.

A modest suggestion to the administrators of this forum (Laird especially): it might be useful to do some advertising or publicity (not sure which word is better) for this parapsychology forum (which may be the only one devoted to parapsychology) on the social media (Twitter, Facebook and so on) of both the Parapsychological Association (https://x.com/parapsych , https://www.facebook.com/ParapsychologicalAssociation) and the Society for Psychical Research (https://x.com/spr1882 , https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064845936536), in order to try to bring new members.

[Laird]

A modest suggestion to the administrators of this forum (Laird especially): it might be useful to do some advertising or publicity (not sure which word is better) for this parapsychology forum (which may be the only devoted to parapsychology) on the social media (Twitter, Facebook and so on) of both the Parapsychological Association (https://x.com/parapsych , https://www.facebook.com/ParapsychologicalAssociation ) and the Society for Psychical Research (https://x.com/spr1882 , https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064845936536 ), in order to try to bring new members.

Thanks for the suggestion, Michel. It's a sound one.

We are in the middle of establishing a social media presence, having chosen Bluesky as our platform. @Sci has set up an account for us there, and has followed a few people, including the Society for Psychical Research (the Parapsychological Association doesn't seem to have a presence there as it does on Twitter). A few accounts have followed us too.

We haven't posted anything yet. We first need to fix our logos, which are truncated, and (perhaps - I don't know where Sci's at with this) decide on what to post.

I am opposed to us joining Twitter given the behaviour of its current owner.

Facebook is problematic given that it forbids anonymous posting, and Sci - who volunteered to be our social media guy - is unwilling to give up his anonymity.

The SPR is, in any case, already aware of us. It has listed us on its Links page, and @Tom Ruffles, its Communications Officer, is a member of our forum.

I'm not sure whether or not the PA is aware of us, but given their lack of presence on Bluesky, it's tricky to reach out to them via social media.

If you have further advice and suggestions in the light of all of this, please be forthcoming.

Thanks for the suggestion, Michel. It's a sound one.

We are in the middle of establishing a social media presence, having chosen Bluesky as our platform. @Sci has set up an account for us there, and has followed a few people, including the Society for Psychical Research (the Parapsychological Association doesn't seem to have a presence there as it does on Twitter). A few accounts have followed us too.

We haven't posted anything yet. We first need to fix our logos, which are truncated, and (perhaps - I don't know where Sci's at with this) decide on what to post.

I am opposed to us joining Twitter given the behaviour of its current owner.

Facebook is problematic given that it forbids anonymous posting, and Sci - who volunteered to be our social media guy - is unwilling to give up his anonymity.

The SPR is, in any case, already aware of us. It has listed us on its Links page, and @Tom Ruffles, its Communications Officer, is a member of our forum.

I'm not sure whether or not the PA is aware of us, but given their lack of presence on Bluesky, it's tricky to reach out to them via social media.

If you have further advice and suggestions in the light of all of this, please be forthcoming.

Thank you for this substantial post, Laird.

It is nice to know that this forum is in the link list of the Society for Psychical Research. However, it is possible not many people read their links page, and it might perhaps be useful if Tom Ruffles could post a little message for promoting this forum on the SPR's social media, as you say he is their Communications Officer.

I also saw, from your links, that Dean Radin is a member of this forum, though he is no longer active here.

The e-mail address of the Parapsychological Association is office@parapsych.org (phone: 202.318.2364)
Its mailing address is:
Parapsychological Association
P.O. Box 14884
Columbus, OH 43214

I have become a Supporting Member of the Parapsychological Association in June, for one year. This has cost me 100 U.S. dollars.
They now send me e-mails from time to time, about their latest activities.

I became member for only one year (I quickly cancelled my subscription on Paypal) because I want to put pressure on them to be serious and active.

You could send them an e-mail without problem (you don't need to use social media to contact them).

As an administrator of perhaps the only parapsychology forum in the world, they would probably be interested in what you have to say.

If you are requesting a service from them (explaining you have created a parapsychology forum, whose traffic is rather low, for such an important and interesting subject), it might be better to become a member first, but I think you could use donations to this forum to finance this (I am ready to make a new donation of 100 dollars if this is needed - I am ready to help fund scientific research, paying another 100 $ is within my means, let me know if you have any financial need related to parapsychology).

Since I have lived in the U.S. for four years, and in the UK for three months only, I am little bit more familiar with the U.S., and it may be useful to have American power on the side of parapsychology (discussions).

If the PA or the SPR could post messages like:
"PsienceQuest is an active forum devoted to Parapsychology. Don't hesitate to join, and participate in discussions!"
on all their social media, this could make a great overnight difference for this forum (it doesn't need to be mentioned by Elon Musk!).

It's not necessary for this forum to be on X (formerly Twitter), I think. The Bluesky account may be useful to post about outages (when the forum is down, like a few weeks ago). As an admin, you could post there to mention some new threads (useful to get some attention).

Also, I can understand you may have reservations about Musk, but it seems to me, if you want to promote this forum, it is better to leave politics aside, and just try to do what's best for the forum.

I could try to e-mail the PA myself (even if this fails, it's not very important), but it might be better a request for social media mention is sent by an administrator, than a new PA member.

It was quite some time since I posted in this forum, but I am mainly interested in parapsychology and there are just not that many threads here that interests me. People here appear to find other subjects more interesting. I seem to recall that people on the Skeptiko forum also gradually drifted away from parapsychology and started to find other subjects more interesting.

I agree it would have been nice if some other forum members had participated in this test too.

A modest suggestion to the administrators of this forum (Laird especially): it might be useful to do some advertising or publicity (not sure which word is better) for this parapsychology forum (which may be the only one devoted to parapsychology) on the social media (Twitter, Facebook and so on) of both the Parapsychological Association (https://x.com/parapsych , https://www.facebook.com/ParapsychologicalAssociation) and the Society for Psychical Research (https://x.com/spr1882 , https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064845936536), in order to try to bring new members.

Might be persuaded to have a go, if the tests had much greater unique detailed visual contextual information provided surrounding the target (during the period of the test)... something like this perhaps... the more normal to everyday surroundings (like the first step on the stairs, or next to a light switch that is regularly seen), and hi-def details (like the visibility of little scratches and marks on the floor and paintwork etc...)



Obviously you have to be the one to hand tear the paper, and scrumple it up. The more detailed unique context the better, visual or otherwise.