I am currently engaged in testing ESP (extra sensory perception), again! In the Zener card diaries previously, I would do my testing in private and publish my findings here on PathandTarot dot com. This time the process and videos are all out on social media for the public to see. When the tests are performed and delivered in this way it gives people a chance to engage with the results. They can see the data evolve as it comes out. You can find these videos on various platforms like TikTok, Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter.
With these tests, I have chosen the Orphalese Tarot program as an aid. Orphalese Tarot helps streamline the card testing process and allows me to record it easily through OBS Studio. This helps avoid the challenge of the human sensory leak. In my previous writing, I elude to the problem of human shuffling and the potential inconsistency of it. In previous tests, I would attempt to be meticulous in shuffling a certain way. I would shuffle the same amount of times to ensure that the decks being used would be in a random state, in the same way, every time. Now, the Orphalese Tarot program will digitally shuffle the decks for me. I can now rely on the fact that the decks will be in a complete random state.
Card Guessing History
Card guessing has historic statistical precedence for its deck structure. Zener cards were the most common tool to measure ESP through the process of card-guessing. The deck was made up of five sets of five symbols. The subject would guess one out of five possible symbols and the experimenter records the results. The average results from this deck were about one correct guess for every five. This is about a 20% rate in which someone can get the right answer in card-guessing with the Zener card deck.
In the case of the Path and Psychic suite, we are using my Path and Elemental deck, a deck I have designed myself. This deck contains ten sets of five symbols that are based on the western elements spirit, fire, air, earth, and water. There are twenty-five sub elemental cards that have two elements on them, and five of those contain the same element. This means there are then twenty cards out of the seventy-five-card deck that offer an increased chance of a correct guess. If we look back to my Zener Card Diary Conclusion article you will see that:
“With the deck made up of 75 cards, one draw would have a 73% chance of getting a regular element or a sub-element within itself. There is a 26% chance of getting a sub-element with two elements on it from any given draw.
Drawing a sub-element with two elements gives you a 40% chance of being right (2 out of 5). Getting a regular element or a sub-element within itself gives you a 20% chance of being right (1 out of 5).
73% of the time you have a 20% chance of getting the right answer, and 26% of the time you have a 40% chance of getting the right answer. 73; 20 & 26; 40. ”
The odds that my Path and Elemental deck offer are a departure from the historic results that Zener cards can allow. At this time it is still unknown what can truly be said about the dual set of odds in the context of card-guessing. It could be said that my Path and Elemental deck creates a relaxed version of card-guessing in that the subject has the opportunity to score more hits.
The increased hit possibility may create a catalyst to help the subject deliver more right answers over time. When you know you are doing good, you tend to continue to do good. At the same time, it could back fire and create a false sense of performance from deck inherently allowing for more right answers. At the same time, we do not know the long-term statistical results of using my Path and Elemental deck. Either way I think it is worth testing to see what we end up with.
When looking at the card-guessing historic statistic we observe a parallel to the other half of the Path and Psychic suite of testing. The 20% chance to get a hit in card-guessing is the same probability of winning the solitaire card game beat the devil with a 56 card deck and 10 piles.
The original rules of beat the devil are to play the game with a fifty-two card deck and use eight piles. That will allow you to beat the devil about 10% of the time, or 1 in 10 attempts.
Long Awaited Answer To A Statistical Question
Sometimes you have to wait a little bit to let technology catch up. The new year of 2023 marks the time when OpenAI ChatGPT became available to use for free. I took the opportunity to ask it many things about the tarot, but more specifically I presented the AI with the card guessing statistics found in elemental deck. It easily provided an answer based on the two sets of odds that are present in the elemental deck. It gave me this:
The probability of a correct guess can be calculated by weighting the probabilities of getting a correct answer in each scenario and adding them together. The formula would look like this:
P(correct guess) = P(drawing regular element or sub-element within itself) * P(getting the right answer given that scenario) + P(drawing sub-element with two elements) * P(getting the right answer given that scenario)
P(correct guess) = 0.73 * 0.20 + 0.26 * 0.40
P(correct guess) = 0.146 + 0.104
P(correct guess) = 0.250
So, the probability of a correct guess is 25%.
This is profoundly interesting. The Zener card decks original configuration of 25 cards has 5 sets of 5 symbols allowing a correct guess 20% of the time. The 20% statistic is thought to be the historical standard for which card guessing is based on. My deck with its slight increase of odds for card guessing history is only 5% more than what the historical standard is. It is a weird thing because I didn’t set out to create a deck that contained that exact statistic for card guessing, it just worked out that way. What we can say is that the western elements contained within it that statistic, it was there waiting for us to discover. It was likley the case that someone before me discovered it. If the teachings of Golden Dawn allowed for a magickal student to know about the western five elements, then this card guessing statistic would have the potential to be know then.
I think this new statistic feels right. A slight increase, but not too much. At this time it is now a matter of doing more data collection and work to see what it all means.
I guess one thing we can say is why not? Why not change the odds and see what happens? I can tell you that with my elemental deck I was able to demonstrate a high hit perctange. Given that my deck allows for a correct answer 25% I can get a correct hit about 70% to 80% of the time. Not bad I would say.
Beat the Devil
Beat the devil is a solo card game that has the player making matches with a limited amount of piles. The player must use up the whole deck creating matches on piles. When there are no possible matches to be made the player can draw another card from the top of the deck into another pile. If there are no more piles left and there are no match possibilities then the game is over. The trick is to find the best way to make matches and use up the whole deck. To learn about how to play the game go to this article on my site.
Beat the devil has elements of skill, intuition, and luck. To win more consistently you will be required to keep track of what cards have appeared on the tableau (the table as a playing space).
In card-guessing, the act of card tracking is discouraged because it means you are not truly demonstrating ESP. Card tracking is considered a form of sensory leak in that the subject can increase their odds of getting correct answers without using ESP. This is because the subject is demonstrating complex memorization tactics, which is by no means easy to perform, but it is not ESP.
In card-guessing, the best results come from being tested in an open position. This means that after every guess the cards are reshuffled. This preserves the statistics and removes the possibility of a sensory leak from the subject tracking the guesses and counting the cards. However, in the solitaire game beat the devil, some of that is encouraged. This allows the subject (myself at this time) to toggle between the skills of true intuition and the mental skill involved in keeping track of cards.
Primed for ESP
My feeling is that human consciousness needs to be primed to function at peak levels. Once at peak levels, I feel true ESP can be demonstrated. That means the subject does have to activate their mental acuity in some way. That some way could be a method of mental tracking. It could be said that beat the devil allows the subject to activate that mental acuity separately while preserving the conditions to demonstrate ESP in card-guessing. Beat the devil can be treated as a way to prime one’s mental ability for card-guessing.
I believe ESP is possible, but only when in a fully optimized state, and when you hit the right wave of potential. I have been in that state for a brief moment while card-guessing. It feels calm like everything is going the way it should go. This is a state of pure flow where someone can tap into their intuition and just know things.
My feeling is that having a subject do both card-guessing and play beat the devil will reveal worthwhile results. When the tarot is added to the mix then we may become privy to even more unusual synchronicity.
In my testing, all the materials artistically harmonize. The design scheme for the playing cards, tarot cards, and elemental cards are all the same. It is all rooted in the occult with the express intention of interaction with the subconscious mind. The colours and symbols all can be found in the teachings of the golden dawn.
The playing card symbols as we know them also have their associations with the magick of the golden dawn and the tarot. Thus we have three different decks that all connect through a design scheme creating a visual experience that is harmonized. It is no mistake that these cards are all meant to be used together.
At this point, we enter the uncharted territory of card-guessing in its attempt to detect ESP. Come along with me.
Path and Psychic Suite Play List
Path and Psychic Suite Session 2 Tarot Conclusion
Path and Psychic Suite Session 2 Beat the Devil Conclusion
Path and Psychic Suite Session 2 Card Guessing Conclusion
You can buy the cards here on Make Playing Cards. You also order private tarot readings from me if you feel inclined to do that.
On occasion I have used the free cartomancy set in testing. I have created this for my community. So, in a way you are already entitled to have this. If you sign up for my mailing list you will get the free cartomancy set. The link for it is here. But you can also find the signup form on the side or bottom of the website.
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Links, sources, and other Resources:
Orphalese Tarot
A near perfect program that every serious tarot enthusiast should own.
Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zener_cards
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_leakage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity
Golden Dawn Bibliography
Cicero, Chic, and Sandra Tabatha Cicero. Golden Dawn Magic: A Complete Guide to the High Magical Arts.Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 2019.
Cicero, Chic, and Sandra Tabatha Cicero. Golden Dawn Ritual Tarot: Keys to the Rituals. Symbolism, Magic & Divination.Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 1991.
Cicero, Chic, and Sandra Tabatha Cicero. Self-Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition.Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 1995.
Neven Paar. The Magus: Kundalini and The Golden Dawn .Toronto, Ontario: Winged Shoes Publishing, 2019.
Regardie, Israel, and Michael Greer. The Golden Dawn: The Original Account of the Teachings, Rites and Ceremonies of the Hermetic Order.Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 2015.