Can a Computer Be Psychic?

Many computer oracles exist, both as standalone programs and on the Internet. How can a machine be psychic? Is there any value to these programs?

Any divination tool - runes, Tarot, coins - depends on two parts: a random factor and interpretation. Some tools lend themselves to computer generation because they are mathematical calculations. Biorhythms, numerology and astrology are excellent examples. The random factor is the calculation for the person's birth, name, or the positions of the stars and planets as compared to another point in time. This type of math is precise and ancient. Many Native American peoples, such as the Maya and the Cherokee had complex calendars based on not only moon cycles and the solar year, but also the appearance of Venus and various constellations over long periods.

In other systems, the random factor is choosing or tossing the items. Simple oracles, like the Magic 8-Ball have a very limited number of answers--20 to be exact, where the random factor is the fluid in which the floater turns. Bibliomancy uses the randomness of the person holding the book and pointing to a line of text. A computer provides this randomness by using a programmed calculation to choose a fraction between 0 and 1. The computer multiplies the fraction by the largest possible number of choices to generate a number.

Then the program goes to a database, a list of statements associated with numbers, and prints the statement for that number. This is no different from all the books that list the meanings of the various cards, runes or coin tosses. You, the random factor, pick a card and look up what it means.

Since the random number generator program can be set to give the same list of "random" numbers for testing purposes, it has a second factor called a seed, which is another number used to start the process. Generally, the computer uses something that the user does to get this seed. It could be the number of milliseconds between cranking up the program and hitting the enter button, or it could simply rely on the user choosing a card from a graphic map. When the computer "shuffles" the Tarot, it generates all the numbers from 0 to 78 in random order. When the user picks a particular image of a card, the computer looks up the number in its list.

The second part of the oracle is the interpretation. Any random event--birds flying, bones tossed, patterns of tea leaves or coffee grounds--could be used for interpretation by a person who is experienced with that system. Consider the predictions of meteorologists based on random weather data. Over centuries, general meanings have been assigned to particular cards, runes and hexagrams and their positions in a reading.

In this aspect, a computer is not psychic. It always looks up the same meaning for the same number. But a gifted practitioner can write general meanings for a wide range of numbers, based on the type of reading, where and which way up the item appears, and such readers often write books of these meanings, such as the I Ching.

For example, each hexagram in the I Ching has six lines, each either solid or broken and either stable or changing. The hexagram is broken into two trigrams, which lead to two other trigrams when the changing lines are changed. The program must both calculate which of 64 hexagrams has been chosen, and which lines are changing, a total of 384 combinations. But it must only look up the two trigrams and the two changed trigrams. The computer looks up the meaning of these trigrams in its digital book of changes. The reader, or user, must then interpret how to apply those meanings.

Just for comparison, choosing 3 runes of a total of 24 gives 12,144 possible combinations, if all are read upright, but 24,288 possibilities if they can be read reversed.

The possible combinations of tarot cards read dignified in a Celtic cross reading is 4,566,176,969,818,464,000 (thousands of trillions) but certainly not infinite. It does take quite a database to include a different meaning for each card depending on where it falls in a reading, but there are ways that a computer can use choose parts of a description from different lists to make a sensible sentence. Most computer oracles are not this advanced, but most tarot books only list one or two interpretations for each card.

Computer oracles do not interpret the relationship of the items in a given reading, although a program could track which cards, symbols or number appear most often and report what a reader has written about those results.

A gifted reader has real time access to the energy of the client. He or she makes connections with the psychic knowing through the tools. While a computer program is certainly not the same as a gifted and experienced psychic reader, it does use the same sorts of tools to present a reading. It is in the interpretation, however, and the application of the interpretation that makes a reading meaningful, regardless of the source. A gifted reader can help the client make more sense of the reading. But the most accurate and precise reading is only as helpful as the use the client makes of it.

Computers are energetic beings just as all other things are in the physical plane, from the cells in our bodies to the rocks at our feet. The psychic energy of the programmer is also part of the algorithm, as is that of the reader who designs the text. But the most important part of the equation is the person who asks the question and then makes use of the answers given.