Mundane telepathy.

At various times in my life I've made a living by waiting tables.

Easy job, very simple to do, really.

But very many times, during the course of this job, I have had what I can classify in a few different ways. Repeat instances of the same phenomenon.

I'm standing at someone's table, asking them to decide either what to drink, or what to order. Usually, when this happens, the person is somewhat indecisive, but not asking questions, so I'm silently waiting while they peruse the menu. Sometimes I'm impatient, sometimes not.

However, a few seconds (at most) before the person speaks to tell me what they want, in my head I either hear them say it, or say to myself, something like "root beer" or "cheeseburger"..

Complete strangers, always, people I've never waited on before. And what do they order? Whatever it is I've imagined them ordering, in the exact same words.

Now, either I'm (a) precogging (b)receiving telepathically or (c) sending telepathically and influencing their choice.

Sounds silly, I know, it's not exactly life-changing, but it's happened more times than I can dismiss as mere coincidence. (when you have a menu that's potentially a few hundred options, and varied ways you can order those things, to hear the exact words as I do before the person speaks is odd to say the least.

My personal theory is d), none of the above. I think you are profiling, a completely nonparanormal explanation. They more I experience, the more I realize how predictable people are. I think you've just become an excellent predictor of restaurant psychology from all of your experience.

I considered that, but there's a distinctness and a lack of logic or connecting thoughts around the thought..

Like, my brain is happily churning along, thinking "ok, hurry up and order so I can go get refills for that table, check on that table over there's food, my feet hurt, hurry up and order" and then there's silence in my brain. "I'd like a Cheeseburger, well done, and fries", silence, and then the exact same phrase repeated by the person a fraction of a second after the thought ends.

I *am* a good profiler, but that part of doing the job is more being able to judge how you should talk to people, and what items to verbally suggest that may appeal to them, based on how they respond to you. This is something that's distinctly different in feel than simply reading people's body language and any other cues.

To uberarcanist-

I would have to disagree. I believe that sure, once you've worked the restaurant scene long enough, you can begin to recognize people in a manner such as diets and eating habits, but I don't think you can break down something like that to exactly what they're going to order.

In a big enough restaurant, waitresses(ers) see a hundred people in a day, sometimes more. There's no way in the hustle and bustle of that routine to look at someone and through your experience, say "He wants a cheeseburger and his wife wants the salad with parmesan, shredded, not powdered."

To Inannamute-

I believe that you have something worth discussing. I think that for some reason or another it has been supressed through the years, only able to break through your barriers when you are least thinking about it. When your gaurd is down for those few moments as you catch your breath and let your mind rest.

I can't say which of the above it is, because I'm no expert. But I do think its there. I think that through enough practice, you could make it a gift that is easily accessible, but that would assume that you even want something like that. I don't know you on a personal level and have no way of knowing your regard towards this talent, but I believe its something that should be honed. I believe it should be cherished, because we have very few things in this world that seperate us from our neighbor. We have very few things that define and shape our character.

I believe you've been blessed enough to have been given this ability.

Though, as I said, I'm no expert. I can't offer a diagnosis, only an opinion and maybe some conversation.

who was he blessed by?
i belive its a great skill if honed

Originally posted by ward8
who was he blessed by?

Don't ask me guy, it's a figure of speech. I'm not one to have a religious argument pertaining to any sort of over-seer or god(s). I do believe we didn't simply evolve as organisms; that there is some form of higher power that guides as best as possible.

I can also back my post saying that I do believe that if mute isn't just exaggerating common occurences, then he/she has been given a gift. Can you do it? Can your mail man do it? Can your doctor do it? Obviously, something special runs through mute's mind. Therefor, he/she is blessed. Blessed by whatever may have created us. Whether it be an all powerful being that watches us from the sky, Gods that dance around the fires and fill their bellies with us, or just plain ol' Evolution. Somewhere along the line, something took that extra second on mute.

She.

Maybe it's simply that I am more perceptive than most people with regards to this specific industry and random neurons firing in my brain are making educated guesses. It just doesn't *seem* that way. There are other instances of me getting the same silent, distinct and clear feeling which are harder to describe and prove to others, it's simply that this is easily the most common.

Maybe the reason I "hear" is the singularity of thought, ie, I'm asking the question and the answer is already in that person's mind before they speak it.

Not sure how on earth to hone that skill, though, if it *is* what's happening.

I can relate to hearing people thoughts before they speak them, this was one of the biggest things that led me to just be quiet and listen when people talk.

Do you practice meditation at all? I've found that I am able to "hear" things more clearly if my mind is not cluttered up with things and it is not normally something I would hear repeated over and over, it just comes and it's gone as quickly as it came. Tough to catch things or put your finger on what enabled it when it's such a passing thing.

Just some of my thoughts on it.

It is a great gift, the biggest question is, how will you use it?

To paraphrase, a little, in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.

That's a good thing to shoot for.. Try to see if you can introduce it into your personal life. That's one that's hard for me.. It takes a whole different person to take criticizing at that level. =)

Do you hear voices at all if you quiet your mind if you take a nap in the middle of the day? Or does proximity play a role in what you hear?

I think it's a combination between proximity and the clarity/singularity of thought.

It *especially* occurs, as I mentioned, when it seems like the person makes a decision all of a sudden, and mentally 'shouts' it.

Originally posted by Inannamute
It *especially* occurs, as I mentioned, when it seems like the person makes a decision all of a sudden, and mentally 'shouts' it.

I think thats your answer there. Its a situation when someone is unsure but must make a decision within a few moments.

"C'mon c'mon, think! What do I want to eat?"
"----"
Ummm...*stares at menu for inspiration*

At that point the person is asking another part of them self to make the decision. Which it then does and shouts it out. I think its the combination of the 'shout' and you being still and waiting, therefore receptive.

Its not precog because I think you are hearing it in real time, both you and the customer hears the decision at the same time.

(c) sending telepathically and influencing their choice.

I dont think its this either. I believe you would know if you were doing this. I only say that because I can do that but it takes effort, as in thats what Im doing on purpose. Think Jedi mind tricks, the Jedi is doing it willfully not accidentally "There is no alcohol in this bag" I did that one to a bouncer at a festival hehe

So im going for B, a form of telepathy.

Its difficult to show to other people the skill of telepathy, especially because few have it honed to the level most people associate telepathy with, ie being able to pick out any thought from a persons mind.

However, i am in no doubt what so ever that telepathy is possible, and that i have done it myself. Proving this to anyone is impossible, which is a shame, because once you realise its real it makes you think twice about things.

Im sure everyone has had the "before my mobile starts ringing, i know whos calling me" experience.

I have had this on several occasions, where the name of the person literally flashes in my mind, only for them to call seconds later. This has occured more times with my own mother calling me than anyone else. I have also been talking to my mum, and out of the blue she will ask me something so random and unexpected that by chance i should never have guessed it, but yet it popped up in my mind seconds before she said it.

The first response you got was probably correct. You're 'profiling'. You do it intuitively and unconsciously.

I would guess that you're pretty good at figuring people out anyway. You can probably understand others' feelings, needs and motives better than most. Sometimes you reason your way to your conclusions but more often you just make the jump intuitively and rationalize the process to yourself afterwards.

No telepathy, precognition or any other kind of hocus-pocus need be involved. You're just clever with people and your data-processing with respect to them takes place beneath the level of consciousness.

That's 'all'. But actually, it's no mean feat. You're blessed with an unusual and -- if you find a better way to use it than guessing whether people are going to order soup or salad -- potentially very useful and lucrative talent. That's what I mean when I say you're lucky.

One thing you may be very good at is planning or discussion facilitation for companies, international charities and cooperation agencies (aid and development-planning facilitation is an area where it is possible to make a worthwhile contribution to the world and make lots of good money doing it).

If that doesn't appeal, what about management or guest relations in the hospitality industry, personnel management, the softer side of law enforcement, political consultancy or demographic research?

................................
Sounds silly, I know...
................................

Doesn't sound silly to me at all.

My wife and I have done this for years. It's only about food with us.

If either one of us has a strong taste for a certain food, the other one almost always picks up on it. Even when we are not together.

I work in a different city than my wife. If I have a strong taste for something during the day I'll ask her "didja get my physic message?" Almost every time this happens, she has had the same taste at almost the exact same time.

I've been in a store and tasted a certain snack food, bought it, went home to find out my wife was tasting what I had bought.

We've been married for 25 years. This has happened for about half of those years.

This doesn't work with us if we just make an intellectual decision on something to eat. It only works when we get a sudden "Taste" for something.

There are ways you can test to see if you can really hear or influence people thoughts, try your abilities when you are not working in the restaurant.

For example, try to read or influence other peoples thoughts while they are shopping, like hearing or knowing what the shopper would say, do or buy before they actually do it.

Try this, in many different situations or in controlled experiments without profilling the subject, example try not to look at the person to see what he/she is wearing or looks like, but knowing that the target exist because you can hear them there. (rules out profilling by sight.)

When you can still do it with a high chance of success in situations that would help to rule out any or most logical reasoning/explainations, then you may really have something there.

In other words, try your abilities in situations that would help rule it out as profilling, work or customer experience, luck, proability or any other logical reason.

[edit on 29-3-2007 by ixiy]

Probability: 100 orders a day. 20 main meals with 3 variations each.

This means the probability that a customer will ask for one possible meal is 1/60. So if you take a guess you got a 1/60 chance of guessing the correct meal. If you take 100 orders a day then you are going to guess correctly once a day roughly at least.

If you are doing some profiling to reduce the options available too you (ie fat guy wont have any of the salad meals etc) then you can guess what someone is having fairly often.

Perhaps you guess each time subconsciously but only notice it at a conscious level when you are correct.

Gareth.

Originally posted by Astyanax
The first response you got was probably correct. You're 'profiling'. You do it intuitively and unconsciously.

Im not so sure profiling can go that far. Can one really determine, intuitively or not, if a person is going to have a BLT & diet coke or a cheeseburger & root beer? Profiling a person and their spending habits is one thing but food? Too many factors, taste buds, can you tell from profiling if you have a lover of anchovies or not? Dietary requirements, can one profile if a person has an allergy? You get my drift.

Ive posted here because I get this a lot myself, with strangers or people I know. Mostly yeah, it’s me profiling or my pattern recognition (which is pretty good) but other times, those processes fall short in their explanation. Because as Inannamute said,

And what do they order? Whatever it is I've imagined them ordering, in the exact same words.

The exact same words... there is always something which niggles at the 'mundane' explanations.

More like 100 menu options +

And around 300 customers per week.

I *can* profile and guess, but I do that consciously, not subconsciously.

Inannamute, I can certainly relate to your experience.......I used to sit in the back of the class and think I could make people scratch their ears, or backsides....with mixed results, lol. Did I cause them to scratch, or did I just know they were itching?

I finally decided that I was probably picking up on their thoughts, rather than influencing them. ( I could pull a much better answer out of thin air, if the smart kids were present......and no, I don't mean that I copied their papers! Ha!...) In school, when anyone offered the option of, "Pick a number between...." it became a 'joke' to just let me tell them the number......It worked much better with some people, not so much with others. ( For instance, you don't hear all of your customers before they speak.)

Does this happen to you in other situations, away from the restaurant? Do you know who's on the phone before you answer, maybe before it rings? Do you finish a friend's sentences, or chime in with the same thing they're about to say?

See if you can train it for some useful purpose.....For me, it's always worked at odd moments, with totally useless (or seemingly so ) "information" ......... or, it might have saved my neck a time or two. Maybe it is there for a reason.