I’m currently reading the book The 11th Element by Robert Allen. 15 pages into the book and I hit a paragraph where the author lists some far-fetched claims of occasions that I may have had experience with the “11th element”:

You’ve tapped in “the invisible network” yourself. Haven’t there been times when you knew something was going to happen before it happened? There have been times when you knew who was calling before you picked up the phone, haven’t there? Perhaps you had the experience of knowing what someone else was thinking or what they were going to say before they said it. You’ve had hunches that proved to be accurate, haven’t you? Where do you think the knowledge in those situations came from?

To be honest, I think that they came from the coincidental meeting of thought and reality. There have been times when I knew something was going to happen before it happened, definitely. But there’s been plenty of other times when I knew something was going to happen and it didn’t. Same goes for knowing the identity of a caller before I even pick up the phone and other so-called premonitions. Sometimes they were accurate, most times they were not.

The only reason they seem so much more common than they really are is because I only remember the times they have been accurate because they are so rare. Novel and rare experiences are generally better remembered than the mundane and common ones.

Categories: Misc

Donn Lee

I love to read and write. Professionally, data science, technology, and sales ops are my thing. In my non-professional life, I aspire quite simply to be a good person, and encourage others to do the same. For those who care, I test as INFJ in the MBTI.