Monday, January 31, 2011

Blind Color Sensing with Feng Shui

My daughter was trying to decide what color we should paint her room. We embarked on a strange method based on our limited or faulty understanding of Feng Shui.

Somehow we determined that her element is Fire and that Red would give her energy. She also remarked that my element is Water and that Blue would give me energy. We also figured that Fire and Water are antagonists -- that which is good for Fire is bad for Water, and vice-versa. This isn't entirely correct, but it's what led to the experiment that I shall describe next.

We happened to have paint chips in a variety of blue and pink. So I reasoned that if Blue was good for me and Red was bad for me, I should be able to tell them apart with my eyes closed just by feeling them. I already had a pink chip, so I handed it back to my daughter and asked her to pick a blue chip, and then hand them both to me.

I closed my eyes and took the two chips. I could tell the pink chip from the blue right away. But I cheated. First, the pink chip featured four sections in different shades of pink, and the blue chip had six. I could feel the transitions between those sections, so I could tell which was the pink. As well, we had been handling the pink chip, so it developed a gentle bend, whereas the blue chip was perfectly flat. That was another way I could tell them apart. But I also noticed something very subtle -- something that occurs when I eat foods that are borderline "avoids" on my diet. I sensed a foggy-achiness in a part of my head when I handled the pink chip. And I felt some clarity when I handled the blue chip.

My daughter was impressed that I identified the chips correctly. I didn't tell her about my cheating right way. But after she tried the test herself and identified incorrectly, she had a laughing-crying spell, so I told her then. And besides, I had a 1 in 2 chance of guessing correctly.

Actually, she refused to try to guess, initially. I pressured her to try, and she eventually gave in. I think she might've released some pent up emotion by tapping into some inner part of her unexplored self.

She wanted me to guess again. This time she selected two new chips that I hadn't seen or handled before, both with the same number of color sections. I got rid of the pink place mat that was in front of me and I took off my burgundy sweatshirt. (But then I was left with blue T-shirt and pants.) Then I closed my eyes and took them from her. I handled one. I didn't sense anything from it. I put it down and took the other. I didn't sense anything from that one either. I put it back down and picked up the first. I shifted it to my left hand, and then I got that foggy-achiness sensation again. I held it up and said, "This is the pink chip." And I was right. Cool. Still, picking 1 of 2 choices correctly twice in a row can be done 25% of the time just by guessing randomly.

I wanted to check the Feng Shui table of elements and favorable directions, so we went online. I verified mine. But when checking my daughter's element, we got Earth from a table on one site, and Wood from another site! And then we realized that Metal supports Water while Wood destroys it. So we figured that Black (for Water) and Gray (for Metal) are favorable colors for me. And the Black cat is my favorite and likes me best. We also figured that my daughter is Earth based on her cat choices. She is attracted to the orange cat (Red/Fire creates ash that feeds Earth), and the gray tabby is attracted to her (the Gray Metal comes from Earth).

It turns out that Pink is the color for Earth anyway, so that's what we decided to paint her room. It just so happens that her room is already pink, but it wasn't painted well. The painter put two coats on the wall, but he didn't let it dry between coats, so the yellow that was there before seems to bleed through a little. So it needs to be repainted, and I can probably do just one coat this time.

Anyway, I wonder, did I really sense the difference between a favorable color and an antagonistic color? Let me know if you try this for yourself and what result you get.

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