I have been forcing myself to do more Divination lately. I have neglected the skill too much. So to inspire or debunk it’s value, I have been force testing my Divinations.
The trouble with Divination is how mushy the results can be. It gives the skeptics all kinds of legitimate reasons to poke holes in the theory that Divination data means anything at all useful. An old fashioned, “be careful, but don’t be paranoid”, Divination result can mean exactly jack squat…unless it’s really the advice you happened to need at that time.
So how do you test the bits of Advice from Elsewhere? You force test it.
Force testing is engineering slang for purposely breaking a production piece you are manufacturing, be it a car door or engine crank. You can do all the CAD simulations you want, but nothing will ever teach you as much about a working system’s capabilities and limits as actually forcefully breaking a part in the process. So sometimes you do it on purpose.
What is the result? What if I get an old fashioned, “be careful, but don’t be paranoid”, Divination response and decide to spend my day not paying any particular attention to being careful?
I did. Twice. It was not to my benefit to ignore that moderate warning dealing with those situations.
Some of you will say that my subconscious was influenced by my knowledge of the previous Divination and therefore manifested my ‘ignored’ warning.
I won’t go into great detail, but the consequences of ignoring those gentle watchwords led to gigantic pains in my ass that I might have easily avoided if I had paid just a little more attention. Thats not me being hard on myself or deceiving myself. Its just what I know of the situation, its fallout and how easily all of that could have been avoided on both occasions.
The circumstances are long and boring, but if my subconscious manifested these two kerfuffles…my subconscious is more powerful than you can imagine. Just the sheer amount of people involved, the timing, mechanical and organizational failures, the odd actions of multiple independent individuals usually reliable…if my subconscious did all that I deserve my own cult, for I am Magnificent!!!
But probably I should have just have taken the advice. Occam’s Razor says the simplest solution is that I received good advice, not that I have Phenomenal Cosmic Powers. (And no one wants them more than me.)
But that’s not really force testing it. You need an obvious and extreme Divination to rebel against. So therefore I present a recent experience with the I Ching (my most favorite system). Its slightly embarrassing, but I think it helps demonstrate my point.
One of the best parts of the I Ching is that the interpretations of the cast trigrams have specific names that are often immediately apropos to your situation. As is demonstrated with the following.
I was recently contemplating whether or not to go out on a date with a new and interesting acquaintance. I don’t run my love life by Divination, but I was on the fence about this decision. Perfect time for a Divination.
I have a really great Android app for asking the question you want Divined, casting the Trigrams and presenting you with the result name and a good, short explanation of what the trigram means. I have a book or two with massive chapters devoted to discussing the meaning of each trigram in detail, honestly my little smartphone app does a great summation without getting ridiculously wordy.
So I asked: Is ‘XXXX’ a good match for me?”
Response: RETREAT
Challenge accepted. I mean…how much more obvious a demonstration than to rebel against the advice to retreat in pursuit of this woman? It was blatant and direct advice.
Time to force test.
The first date was a lot of fun. I was charming of course and she was intelligent, attractive and made great conversation. I was starting to think the Divination was a total miss.
Second date…something seriously went wrong. The date was great, but I felt an energy shift at the very end of the date. Five or six hours of pleasant company and then something almost audibly ‘popped’ when I walked her to her car.
It never got ugly. We are still friends. But something freaked her out. In the subsequent week it became obvious upon discussion that somewhere in the second date she came to some personal realizations about herself and kind of mentally flipped out behind a smile (the popping) She explained it hadn’t been anything I did and I believe her. But she had a few dark realizations during the date that put her into mental shock. Things about her past relationships that she hadn’t confronted before and had refused to remember.
Classic Flameout.
Stuff like this happens with alarming frequency when I force test Divinations.
I am beginning to understand how some people can start Divining too much and deciding everything based on the throw of runes, trigrams or tarot.
I doubt I will ever be one of those people. But I do feel more comfortable in my Divining these days.