[VisionFromFeeling]

Today, Sunday November 16 2008 I had the second cereal test. Several variations of the test procedure were tried before one was found that I was comfortable with. C = Correct trial, F = Failed trial

Test procedure 1
The first test procedure tried had a total of five samples. Each sample was placed in identical paper cups. Paper cups were two in one to make a thicker wall and reduce any visibility through the cup. All cups had the same height of contents and were less than half-full. Four of the samples were plain cereal flakes, one of the samples was the same type of plain cereal flakes but with Lactobacillus supplement and was the one to be detected. The bacterial supplement was placed in the center and surrounded and covered with cereal to better conceal it just in case. Identical white paper post-its were placed on top of each cup as a cover. (Crude, but the best I could find without going shopping.) The assistant would shuffle the paper covers as well at each shuffle of the cups just in case they'd be slightly different from each other (which they were). I sat at a distance of seven feet (213 centimeters) from my toes to the row of cups. Personal randomization by the assistant determined the placement of the cups. Feedback was provided after each individual trial rather than at the end of the entire test. (These last two conditions will be eliminated in later tests.)

Results: Very bad. I felt nothing. I made two forced attempts although I hate to guess when I don't feel the answer and both were incorrect.
1) F
2) F
Comments: Were five cups too many? Or did the paper cover stop what ever radiative information is emitted from the bacteria? Or both? (Paper blocks some types of low-energy radiation.)

Test procedure 2
Procedure as earlier but no paper covers.

Results:
1) F
Comments: Am I overwhelmed by the five cups?

Test procedure 3
Procedure as earlier but no paper covers and with a total of 4 samples, one of which has the bacterial supplement.

Results:
1) F
2) F
Comments: Were four cups also too many and overwhelming? Since I have to try to feel all of them. My strategy has so far actually been to "find the heavy vibrations of plain cereal-cups and eliminate those, and then figure out which one is the supplement one". (I don't know why but that is how I had come to do these tests.)

Test procedure 4
Procedure as earlier, no covers and with a total of 4 cups. I gently wet the bacterial supplement with one drop of warm tap water thinking that it might activate the bacteria. I have not done this before and wanted to try to see if it might have any effect, and yes it did! We carefully made sure that no moisture was detectable on the cup. The drop was absorbed in the center of the contents without contact with walls or bottom of the cup.

Results: It was VERY easy to detect the bacteria! I felt it stronger than ever before. (ETA: And this is a claim I would make regardless of if the results would have confirmed a correct prediction or an incorrect prediction.) I had to giggle a bit because in my perception I saw movement that is similar to how an inchworm crawls and expands to move about, it was absolutely adorable. Initially they were absolutely easy to detect and I was totally certain.
1) C
2) C
3) F
4) F
Comments: In the first two trials I was absolutely certain. In trial 2 I said to my assistant that I am so certain that the bacteria is in that cup that I would bet all I have on it and that if it is not in that cup then I will declare myself crazy. In trial 3 I didn't know. (See comments below.)

Test procedure 5
Procedure as earlier, no covers, but a total of three cups, one with the bacterial supplement which has been wetted with a drop of warm water.

Results:
1) C
2) C
3) C
4) F
5) C
6) C
7) C
8) C
9) C
10) C
11) F
12) F
Comments: Starting with trial 1 in this procedure I begun a brand new strategy that proved very effective: rather than searching for the darker vibrations of plain cereal and eliminating them one by one I had the brilliant idea to search for the one that has the bright white vibration of the bacteria. (I don't know why I didn't do this before, it should have been the obvious method in the first place.) The test became easier since in this way rather than having three cups to look into there was only one. With this new method I became extremely confident in where it was, but that also made me worried. I worried that being so incredibly confident, what if I'd be wrong? That would have been the end of it. But each time I was confident, it turned out to be correct. On trial 11 I wasn't sure and guessed, and sure enough, with a 1/3 chance of guessing it was incorrect. Trial 11 and 12 I was tired with headache and nausea and had to stop.

Conclusions:
Today's tests involved trying different variations of the test procedure to explore the spans that a test could have. How many cups could I be comfortable with? Could the cups be covered? I learned that a total of five or four cups was more work than a total of three cups. I noticed that my method had been to search for the dark vibrations to identify and eliminate the cereal cups first, and then look into what I thought to be the supplement cup to verify if I felt the supplement in it. This is a lot of work and involves feeling into all cups, which is why five cups is more exhausting than four, and four is more exhausting than three.

I learned a new method which I was very happy and comfortable with, and which should have been the obvious method at the very beginning. To only search for the one cup with the supplement and bright white vibration, and forget about sensing into the others in as great detail. This way I was making answers much (much!) faster and much (much!) more confidently. This test procedure 5 worked very well with this new method as well as having a total of only three cups and I continued with it.

A total of ten trials in a row seems to be the most I can do before becoming too uncomfortable to continue.

The elevation of the row of cups on the stove (the test was done in the kitchen) in combination with me being seated rather than standing did not allow even partial vision into the cups and there was no way to lean or reach forward to try to see inside the cups to detect any variations in darkness, fullness, or any other detail of the contents. All cups appeared identical from the outside.

Since the cups were two-in-one, the assistant was able to switch the outer cups as well as shuffle the cups, so that any external differences in the cups could not be learned. In my perception the cups all looked identical with normal vision anyway, not that this eliminates the potential concern of subconscious cues. The assistant was told to ensure a good randomization procedure and to keep in mind that the target cup might also stay in the same place but just turned around to not make it easy to guess that "it won't be in the same place twice".

Sometimes my thoughts interfered with my ability. If a thought such as "I don't think it is to the left" appeared for any reason it placed prejudice in my feeling. These thoughts are not from the same source as the feelings of vibration. At these times I would tell the assistant that an involuntary thought was interfering with my ability and I would get a re-shuffle. A re-shuffle would not necessarily change the position of a particular cup since placement is done entirely at random, but would take away interfering thoughts about where it should or should not be.

My comments on the confidence levels of specific individual trials have been absolutely honest even though they are strongly in my favor. In the future these tests will be done with witnesses who can verify what confidence level I claim in association with each answer but until then all we have is my honest word, which is not proof of anything.

The extreme confidence I developed in test procedure 5 worried me at first since I was nervous to find out the results. I was confident to the extent that I decided that if I would be incorrect in even one such answer I would have reason to very seriously start to doubt my chemical identification ability. I find it very encouraging that each time I was confident it was correct, and each time I was not confident it was incorrect. When I know I am guessing it is incorrect. I can not prove that this was the case, but it explains why I will continue with these tests.

In tests later on I will use the new method of detecting the supplement rather than searching through all cups and will try a larger total number of cups. Cups of a different material will be tried. A die will be used to determine the randomized placement of shuffled cups to eliminate any possible unintended pattern of randomization. And even though it takes the fun out of the test (and puts all the fun to the end of the test instead), feedback of answers will only be given at the end of a test and not after each trial. A second assistant will eventually take part in the test. The use of covers might not be possible but will be tried again before concluding on it. The distance between me and the row of cups will be increased further.

I was very pleased to find an easier method for identification (to search for the supplement cup rather than first eliminate the wrong ones one by one). I was happy to increase the sensitivity by adding the drop of water to the bacterial supplement (and it was fun to see the individual bacteria moving about like they do). I was surprised by the tremendous confidence level. And am of course pleased with the high frequency of correct results once I found a procedure, and a method, that worked for me.

For a test at home whose purpose was to try different test procedures and to assess the ability on Lactobacillus detection I believe the test was done under acceptable standards for this humble and unofficial purpose. I can not think of any flaw in the testing procedure, although I can think of several ways of improving the testing procedure for later tries. No conclusion can be made on whether I have any ability or not since a total of 10 or 12 trials in a row is too few and since additional improvements must be done to the test procedure before it is fully acceptable to draw conclusions on. I do conclude that at this point I can still not dismiss the possibility of having an ability to detect the presence of Lactobacillus through extrasensory perception.