16.4. CARD READING TESTS
************************

In early telepathic tests, playing cards were used, with the receiver calling their names as the sender looked at them. Some very phenomenal scores were recorded with highly “sensitive” receivers. One reputedly hit 202 correct cards out of a total of 382 trials, though by the law of averages (1 out of 52) only 7 or 8 correct calls should have been made.

Such tests generally proved unsatisfactory for two reasons: Even a “good” score, say 6 out of 52, could be somewhat discouraging; and the similarity between certain cards, say the six, seven, and eight of diamonds, made it difficult to visualize a card exactly.

So many of these tests were confined to calling suits — clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades — which gave 1 out of 4 chances. One very remarkable receiver was credited 14 consecutive correct calls of suits; and the chances against this were mathematically computed as 4,782,969 to 1. Suits offered problems, however, particularly with face cards, which could easily be confused.

So eventually, cards with symbols were designed, the most famous of these being the ESP cards introduced at Duke University in the early 1930’s, and with which literally millions of tests have been made. There are five different symbols: Circle, plus, star, square, and wavy lines. A pack consists of twenty-five cards, five of each symbol.

With these, a sender can concentrate solely on a symbol as he looks at it, while another person, acting as a receiver, notes down his impression. A score of 5 out of 25 is average; hence higher scores, if they occur consistently may be classed as evidential.

These cards also have been used in clairvoyance tests, in which five cards — one bearing each symbol — are placed face up and the “Subject” tries to match them with face-down cards from the shuffled pack. These tests have even been carried to the point where the five “key” cards are sealed in envelopes, which are mixed before the matching is tried. This means that the subject undertaking the test must in some way sense which card is in each envelope in order to sense the face-down cards that match them!

To be fully effective, these tests should be made under laboratory conditions, so they can be checked against the mathematical factors involved. In some tests, the entire pack of twenty-five cards is run completely through, recording the cards as they turn up. In others, the test is stopped after a specified number of cards — say five — and the result is recorded and the entire pack thoroughly shuffled before trying another series.

This applies both to clairvoyant tests and telepathic tests. Certain factors favor the telepathic tests, particularly when tried informally, outside of the laboratory. Some people who doubt they clairvoyant ability still feel that they are good telepathic receivers, hence it gives confidence to work with a sender. Two-person tests are often more interesting and therefore encourage needed concentration, whether clairvoyance or telepathy is responsible. Finally, there is the well-supported theory that even if clairvoyance is the basic faculty involved, telepathy may be a “booster” that will increase the positive results, bringing higher and therefore more significant scores.

When two persons try the cards on their own, the surest procedure is to shuffle the pack and pick a random card after each try. In that way, there will always be five chances out of twenty-five, or exactly one out of five, as the pack does not diminish. At most, no more than five cards should be used in these informal trials, for the following reason:

Suppose the pack is well mixed and the first five cards happen to be square, circle, waves, plus, star. The “Sender” looks at these and the “receiver” happens to call off: waves, circle, plus, star, square. The sender and receiver each mark their cards down, but the receiver is not told if his calls are correctly “Tuned” to the sender’s. In this case, the receiver has so far hit the average of one out of five (by calling “circle” when it was dealt) and the pack is in its original status.

There are twenty cards to go, four of each variety. The receiver, moreover, has actually named the five cards already dealt, though not in their correct order, so he can only be credited with one hit, the circle.

Now, in contrast, assume that the pack came out freakishly despite the shuffle, and the sender, to his surprise, found that the first five ran plus, plus, plus, plus, plus. The receiver, calling in the same order as before — waves, circle, plus, star, square — would get his one out of five average. But the status of the pack has changed. There are only four varieties of symbols in the next twenty cards, with five of each variety. But there isn’t a plus in the entire lot!

Mathematically, this may work out over an extended series of tests; but we are not dealing only with mathematics. It is conceded that the faculties of clairvoyance and telepathy are elusive, going “Hot” or “Cold” at intervals. In the instance just given, the receiver obviously wasn’t “hot” or he would have hit more than one plus symbol out of five. But suppose he should go “hot” soon afterward. It would be like a new test, and the absence of plus cards would distort the mathematical probabilities.

Ending at five tries lessens this objection; shuffling the whole pack between each try eliminates it completely. Also, it saves the receiver from having to keep track of calls he has already made, which is disconcerting to some persons. Objections have been raised that the symbols on ESP cards are arbitrary and not suited to everyone. That may be true, but they are as easily recognized as the suits of playing cards. Also, parapsychologists using the regular ESP cards have suggested that people prepare cards with symbols of their own if they prefer.

Some “sensitives” claim that they need to become “emotional” to obtain clairvoyant or telepathic results. They say that they can’t get emotional over symbols. But colors have been recommended as a suitable substitute, and it is easy to make up a set of five colors, with circles of red, orange, yellow, green, and blue, imprinted on blank cards. Colors in themselves stir emotions and have strong psychic interpretations, so they should be ideal.

The ESP cards can be used in visualization tests by having a sender create a “mental image” that can be interpreted as an ESP symbol. He might concentrate on a city square, or a baseball diamond, while studying a square symbol. Or a ship at sea would represent the waves symbol. By having the receiver think in terms of motion or action in order to get to the right symbol, the visualization becomes stronger, but it can’t be repeated too often or the images will become strained. Here, telepathy is the logical test rather than clairvoyance, as the sender must first create the image for the receiver.

Years ago, tests with ESP cards were criticized on the ground that the backs of the cards might be readable, perhaps unwittingly, by some of the persons tested. A British experimenter brought out a pack with similar symbols, but with the unusual feature of a “sunburst” design on the back which produced a razzle-dazzle effect that made it impossible to read.

But tests conducted in parapsychological laboratories were even at that time being held under conditions so stringent that specially planted backs were unnecessary with ESP cards. In most tests, the cards themselves were screened from view of the person trying to name them telepathically, and so many packs were used that none was in circulation long enough betray any slight differences in the cards themselves.