The Coin Exercise

This little game came from the book Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson.

Instead of worrying about whether the contrails are gonna get you, try this:

1. Visualise a quarter vividly, and imagine vividly that you are going to find the quarter on the street. then, look for the quarter every time you take a walk, meanwhile continuing to visualise it. See how long it takes you to find the quarter.
2. Explain the above experiment by the hypothesis of “selective attention” – that is, believe there are lots of lost quarters everywhere and you were bound to find one by continually looking. Go looking for a second quarter.
3. Explain the experiment by the alternative “mystical” hypothesis that “mind controls everything.” Believe that you made the quarter manifest in this universe. Go looking for a second quarter.
4. Compare the time it takes to find the second quarter using the first hypothesis (attention) with the time it takes using the second hypothesis (mind-over-matter).
5. With your own ingenuity, invent similar experiments and each time compare the two theories – “selective attention” (coincidence) vs. “mind controls everything” (psychokinesis).
6. Avoid coming to any strong conclusions prematurely. At the end of a month, re-read this chapter, think it over again, and still postpone coming to any dogmatic conclusion. Believe it possible that you do not know everything yet, and that you might have something still to learn.