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From: richard@sequent.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: ESP
Message-ID: <384@sequent.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 17-Feb-84 00:15:26 EST
Article-I.D.: sequent.384
Posted: Fri Feb 17 00:15:26 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 15-Feb-84 04:02:33 EST
References: <200@mi-cec.UUCP>
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Portland
Lines: 39

There is a simple psychological explanation for this phenomena:

>>  But:  It also is not coincidence.  Example:  I have not talked to Andrea
>>  in 2 months, nor have I really thought about her.  Suddenly I get the
>>  inspiration to call.  As I am walking to the phone, it rings.  Andrea is
>>  calling me...

I honestly can't recall the term used (something like Random Reinforcement)
but it's the same thing that lies behind all of Murphy's laws.  For instance,
when in the bank, the other line always moves faster.  Or on a crowded
highway, the other lane does.

What's happening is you remember the more intense episodes much more
effectively.  By intense, I refer to the fact that when at the bank, if
everything goes well, so what?  But if you're standing there for quite
awhile, fidgeting and impatient, the experience is hammered into your
brain.  Same goes for driving, or dropping screwdriver underneath the
frig, or tossing frisbees under a car or on a roof.

You undoubtedly talked to your sister literally thousands of times when
the other wasn't expecting it.  But there are contributing factors here
as well.  Growing up in the same home, you've been conditioned alike.
Perhaps in your family, *the* time to call distant friends (Grandma)
was Sundays evenings, around 8 or so.  So every Sunday, around that
time, your subconcious might dredge it up.  Another factor is that
only family or friends tend to call at these times, so when the
phone rings, you might get a "prescient" feeling that it's Andrea, but
only in the corner of your mind - so if it's someone else, it doesn't
occur to you "I thought that would be her."  If it is her, you think
"I knew it!"

I suppose it would be odd if at one am and one is, ahem, "involved"
with one's wife, and suddenly one thinks of one's sister, and lo! the
phone rings!  It's her, and she was in, uh, similar circumstances.
If this sort of thing occurs, let's just call it paranormal.  I don't
want to think of any other explanations.

			from the confused and bleeding fingertips of
				...!sequent!richard