Anyone into the tarot ? I think it's great.

[Foreigner]

Probability happens whether or not the numbers are big or small. Rare events with low probability have to happen sometimes, or they would be impossible and not just rare. The universe is a big place, after all. There's also built in pressure from your dopamine circuitry to ascribe meaning and reward to unexpected events.

...

If you told me your friend draws the same seven cards every time she uses a Tarot deck, I'd be impressed.

In a deck that has 62 cards, drawing the same 7 cards in a 7 card spread in 4 consecutive readings does not seem significant to you?

I understand probabilities but c'mon man.

 

[Eveleivibe]

In a deck that has 62 cards, drawing the same 7 cards in a 7 card spread in 4 consecutive readings does not seem significant to you?

I understand probabilities but c'mon man.

That's very interesting. Yes you could argue about probabilities but it's rare to get the same cards out like that

Evey xxxx

 

[alasdairm]

In a deck that has 62 cards, drawing the same 7 cards in a 7 card spread in 4 consecutive readings does not seem significant to you?

I understand probabilities but c'mon man.

it's significant to you. it's relatively mundane to others. sekio's post #19 sums up my own thoughts pretty well. clumping like you describe is to be expected in any random distribution. to me, given the numbers involved, i'm surprised it doesn't happen more often

alasdair

 

[Shrooms00087]

it's significant to you. it's relatively mundane to others.

The real question is, was the personal significance of any benefit even if based upon superstition?

I'm more mortified to get bad readings if I were to believe such a thing. But then maybe I'd go enough times and realize nothing bad has happened. :D

 

[Foreigner]

it's significant to you. it's relatively mundane to others. sekio's post #19 sums up my own thoughts pretty well. clumping like you describe is to be expected in any random distribution. to me, given the numbers involved, i'm surprised it doesn't happen more often

alasdair

I'm trying to suggest that, personal significance aside, there is also a numerical significance to such a probability.

I don't actually know what it "means" (if anything), just that it's noteworthy. As mentioned before I'm content with it being a mystery.

 

[alasdairm]

...there is also a numerical significance to such a probability.

how so?

alasdair

 

[sekio]

There are 491,796,152 ways to choose 7 cards from a 62 card deck. (62 nCr 7), which means that picking the same 7, four times, would make it a 1 in 10^35 chance event.

I think it indicates that the deck wasn't shuffled very well.

 

[Eveleivibe]

All that maths stuff goes way over my head so I'm not going to begin to try and question that.
Sekio, you may have a point about the shuffling though. Is it possible that not consciously being aware of it, the cards were shuffled similarly each time hence the same cards chosen?

Evey xxxx

 

[alasdairm]

There are 491,796,152 ways to choose 7 cards from a 62 card deck. (62 nCr 7), which means that picking the same 7, four times, would make it a 1 in 10^35 chance event.

indeed. when you consider some of the numbers potentially at play in the bigger picture, 10^35 is basically a certainty

I think it indicates that the deck wasn't shuffled very well.

indeed.

alasdair

 

[sekio]

There has actually been a lot of work done on shuffling cards. Certain algorithms (cut and mash, riffle shuffle) are far from as random as we'd like, especially if you only shuffle once. For a deck of 52 cards, you need to riffle-shuffle them 7 to 12 times (preferably 11 or 12) before it's actually "random". For bigger decks this number will go up.

I would like my tarot deck Fisher-Yates shuffled with a good source of randomness, like a lava lamp, fair die, or radioactive source.

More reading:
http://www.ams.org/samplings/feature-column/fcarc-shuffle

 

[What 23]

I think some people are desperate to rationalize everything like this, away.

 

[alasdairm]

^ is that any less valid an opinion than assuming that these events have to be somehow significant?

you seem just as desperate to explain it, just in a different way...

alasdair

 

[What 23]

I wanted to tell you... 10:27, and 13:27. I'm sorry that I didn't pay attention that day.

...

Can you give me your explanation, for this?

__________

I was moving, and I found this deck of cards... Sacred Geometry cards. I was given these by a girl back in 2007- a Hopi/Navajo girl- Robyn. She first introduced herself to me, on MySpace, commenting on a blog of mine that I had just posted about a dream I had. In that dream, I saw a pyramid, like the one in the following image, on the card on the right. In the blog post, I drew the pyramid I saw, top down, and detailed my memory of the dream. Her comment, was first introducing herself, as a Hopi, and said that they have been waiting for their "lost white brother", and that it was obvious to her who that man is supposed to be.

I had been thinking I was something, before I met her... Something resonant with what she told me.

As a child, I shot a Robin. It was the first and only animal I killed with such intent (besides insects, if they become pests, though not to draw distinction that they aren't animals), with a weapon. I cried, trying to save it's life. I felt it's emotion- it's fear/panic. And I was sad. I built it a brick enclosure, feeling like it would come back to life. Like it would heal.

Later in life, the next spike of "Robyn", to me, was her- The girl. She came after a dream of a temple- a Pyramid, and she came to me through it, commenting on the blog.

Anyways, I hadn't touched those cards much since she left. I didn't know how to use them, anyways. She insisted I keep them. When I found them recently, I decided to see which one was number 23, because you know, me. I decided to see what it was around, as well. It took a second to click- to notice it, when I did this, but the image on the right has the pyramid. This (21) came before or after 23 in the stack. As well, it is called Mayan Dream.

The significance of the other? The Lesson? 37? I'm not sure.

I also met another Robin/Robyn, that day, and she showed me special attention, and had an energy about her, that was welcome.

http://acausal.net/blog/2014/02/27/just-the-order-i-found-them-in-reversed-maybe/ - This is my blog entry for it, on my site.[/NSFW]

 

[Foreigner]

There are 491,796,152 ways to choose 7 cards from a 62 card deck. (62 nCr 7), which means that picking the same 7, four times, would make it a 1 in 10^35 chance event.

I think it indicates that the deck wasn't shuffled very well.

What! Are you kidding me?

How can you even know this is true, outside of an assumption?

I'm not one of these people who sees numbers in the time of day and thinks they are significant. I don't go looking for significant events. 1 in 10^35 chances (cool that you calculated that, btw) is pretty astounding.

Suffice it to say I took the reading seriously.

 

[In Dubio]

I think it indicates that the deck wasn't shuffled very well.

That's the whole point! If they were shuffled well they would be perfectly random, but the method to the madness is that the shuffler is using the force without knowing it and consequently drawing specific cards.

 

[nuttynutskin]

I had my first reading last December and it was a good reading and positive experience. I'm still kind of skeptical but it is something I would do again.

 

[rickolasnice]

Nothing more than ambiguity and the forer affect leading people to relate meaningless statements into personal messages.

If someone is giving you a reading then they will use other techniques (as well as those already mentioned) in order to fool you into believing the that they are, or the cards are, specific messages relating to you.