[unspun]

Interesting, thanks.

[Ronin]

I think you should ping the Freeper veterans and ask them to add their two cents to this.

I have also heard that there is something similar to this for fugitives. Those with finely honed instincts "know" when the noose is tightening -- and they split.

People figure they must have been tipped off somehow, but in actuality, all that happens is they listen to their instincts and they book.

[js1138]

I know these tests sound very scientific, but they also sound like the Duke University tests that were done over a couple of decades during the 50s and 60s. These were eventually discredited on several grounds, the most blatent of which was disgarding negative results. If these instructions are followed by hundreds of volunteer groups, there will be a tendency for groups having negative results to simply not report at all.

The description of results matches a trend found in all ESP experiments: the stronger the controls, the weaker the phenomenon. Combined with the first argument -- that negative data tends to be unreported -- this raises red flags.

It is particularly interesting that when these kinds of experiments are supervised by competent stage magicians, people skilled at detecting deception, the effects go away completely.