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How Did The Witch Do It?

Tumbleweed

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Dec 22, 2006
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I must be a glutton for ridicule but here goes. (Actually I like being ridiculed because it usually means my debator has run out of logic ammo) I have had two encounters with witches that have utterly mystified me
Okay the first was not so mystical. I'll make a long story short
A long time ago I met these two women at a night club . After talking for a while, they claimed they were witches. I sneered and said if you are a witch do me this favor - it involved not having to go out to sea on an aircraft carrier. She looked at me and said with utter certainty, "Consider it done"
I didn't go out to sea on that carrier due to a series of unlikely events
Pure chance possible? You betcha!
But how about this: I was at a party many years later and met yet another women who claimed she was a witch. I was, shall we say, a bit of a skeptic in spite of the first incident. She had a couple of drinks too many, came over to me and said out of the blue, "I can tell you your birthday, December xx, 19xx. Just like that. And then she told someone else THEIR exact birthday as well. Her friend came over and whisked her away, my jaw still dropped
Not making any explanations at all. Just reporting what happened. She was a complete stranger and the few people I knew there had no knowledge of my birthday
And the funny thing was, I could FEEL something going on inside my head as she apparently was thumbing through it for my birthday. And no I wasn't even close to drunk. I never have more than two beers at a time
Of course I expect nothing but derision from the logic -bots here, and that's cool. Its to be expected from people with little imagination
It seems utterly impossible to me too. But I just can't explain it and it bugs the hell out of me
So, if by remote chance there are any self proclaimed witches on board, how about an explanation, humorous, sarcastic or otherwise! I can filter them out
And what a great chance for some witch (good, hopefully, and not evil) to win the million bucks! Guess ten people's birthdays correctly.
Can I have half for the idea?
 
Many possible explanations, the least likely of which involves actual witchery.

1. You're lying (I'm not suggesting this is true, but it must be considered).

2. You're misremembering.

3. She got lucky.

4. You fell victim to the prank of someone you know.

5. You feel victim to the prank of someone you don't know.


As a subset of 4 and 5, the second person whose birthdate was named could well have been in on it.


I had a friend who, in college, got laid a lot because he would go up to girls in bars and say "I can tell by looking at you you're a Libra." 1 in 12 times he was right. 12 girls a night is easy.

Have you ever read Richard Feynman's Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman?

If you want to know how someone does something impossible (breaking into locked safes, which it was apparently impossible for him to know the combinations to) using purely mundane means, I suggest you pick this up.
 
"How Did The Witch Do It?"

Same way porcupines make love
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Verrry carefully!
 
You weren't wearing a t-shirt that said "32 today", were you?
 
Tumbleweed said:
She had a couple of drinks too many, came over to me and said out of the blue, "I can tell you your birthday, December xx, 19xx. Just like that. And then she told someone else THEIR exact birthday as well. Her friend came over and whisked her away, my jaw still dropped
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Let me guess... you were so amazed, you didn't notice your wallet had gone missing.
 
Garrette said:
I had a friend who, in college, got laid a lot because he would go up to girls in bars and say "I can tell by looking at you you're a Libra." 1 in 12 times he was right.
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And they f***ed him on that basis? And here's me thinking the women round here were easy...
 
Do you think this witch could use a million dollars? That could fund a lot of bar hopping.

I can't think of an ability more well suited for the Randi challenge than that. Present her with five strangers and have them guess their birthdays. Fame and fortune to ensue.
 
You know, there are some people out there who just like to mess with people's heads. There are people who wouldn't think twice about looking up someone's birthday in the student directory on their telephone internet, or peeking in someone's wallet, or what have you.

But remember this: when you close the clever loopholes these people fail. ALWAYS. Every time. No exceptions, not one, ever.

I 'd bet you a dollar that if you had caught her doing whatever she did, she'd say something like "but I am a witch, it's just that people don't know how witchcraft really works so I have to do this sort of thing to convince them."
 
Did you get carded? Did you pay by credit card or check requiring ID? On other nights?
 
did anyone else at the party know your birthday?

isn't it just possible that she'd found out your birthday previous to her "mind reading" trick?

you'd have been blown away by the "mind reading" routine me and my twin sister used to perform when we were kids......:)


"So you're twins!"

"Yep. She's my twin sister"

"Identical?"

"Er, no she's my sister."

"Are you telepathic?"

"Yeah we do have a certain connection...."

*cue really lame mind reading trick we worked out when we were seven*

"wow....that's amazing!"

lol

it's amazing what people'll believe when you're fufiling their preconceptions :D

You know, there are some people out there who just like to mess with people's heads.
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I hope there weren't kids that grew up believing in telepathy because of me and my sis......:D
 
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One of my favorite movie lines is in the first ghost busters when the friends of Bill Murray's character have brought him over to look at some books stacked on the floor in the library as evidence of ghost activity. At that point Bill Murray's character says, "You're right, no human being would stack books like this.".

I think that comment pretty much sums up my reaction to the OP. "You're right, no human being could have known your birthday." :)
 
tell you what, give me a group of 35 people, and i'll be able to guess with 80% accuracy that two people in the group share a birthday.....

i jus need some eye of newt*and skin of rat*to make it work :D

*actually this is just an optional extra

*so is this
 
How about this one. I am living with a woman and she is having a party in a few hours and asks me to go to the liquor store to purchase supplies for the party. She hands me a list of the stuff and I go to the store but as I get there I am overwhelmed by the thought that I should probably buy some ice so I pick up all the stuff and a couple small bags of ice. I am not really sure why I am thinking that but I figure it's cheap enough so I might as well. I get back and she looks at what I had and said "Good. The liquor store clerk said you had left already. I guess you were still there to get the message." I say "Huh? What message?" She says "I phoned to tell you to buy some ice." I guess she phoned but I had left already.
 
Actually I like being ridiculed because it usually means my debator has run out of logic ammo
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Of course I expect nothing but derision from the logic -bots here, and that's cool. Its to be expected from people with little imagination
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lawl, hypocrite much?

Or is this your admission of running out of "logic ammo"?

In respect to your actual post, do you realize how uncredible they become when parties and alcohol are thrown into the equation? How do you know the second person (who does not even identify herself as a witch) wasn't conversating with some other person, who happened to mention both of your birthdays, at which point she thought it'd be a good idea to mess with your mind?

Overall, you've hardly provided enough evidence to draw any conclusion about what actually happened, but I seriously doubt telepathy and sorcery are the most logical conclusions.

When I was little, my mother took my brother and I to see Santa Claus before Christmas. When I sat down, Santa addressed me by name. I was completely amazed, being at the age where belief in Santa was waning. Later that day I realized I was wearing a sweater with my name on it.
 
Next time on, "Tales of the Bland and Uninteresting!",

--"Oh my god, he just made that pencil that was precariously placed on the edge of a table move with his mind!!!"
 
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MajorOrgan said:
lawl, hypocrite much?
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this is the second thread i've seen where he attacks skeptics and scientists as having little or no imagination.

it's interesting to me, since coming up with something new that conforms with reality is actually quite challenging and takes a fair amount of imagination. coming up with complete nonsense that has no such limits isn't terribly clever or imaginitive.

---
Purple napkin hates crowning fizzled mash. Up not the stand fort, left a gravy hopcap.
 
Imagination is nice - but it can't substitute for testing, (Or, imagination says all things are possible, testing shows which actually are and which actually aren't at this point in space-time.)
 
baron said:
And they f***ed him on that basis? And here's me thinking the women round here were easy...
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Well, as I met him long after we had both graduated, I have to take him at his word. According to him, this didn't result in them immediately jumping into bed but provided the lead-in he needed and caused them to eye him as one of those sexy mystical types.
 
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