THE PENNY PROJECT
Intro • Diary #1 • Diary #2 • Diary #3 • Diary #4 • Theories • Conclusions?
-:- diary page 1 -:-
"Penny Lane is in my ears
and in my eyes,
there beneath the blue
suburban skies"
Day One - Wednesday 26th January 2005 - For the past two weeks I have been visualizing and firmly believing that I will find a penny along the street that I have termed the 'hot spot'.
This morning, without particularly believing any hypothesis I simply scanned the pavement constantly for the entire 400 yards of the hot spot and then continued scanning along the part of the street which was represented by the blue line on the diagram.
A penny was found about halfway along the blue area, approximately 100 yards off the red 'hot spot' area. I picked it up, smiled, and went on my way.
Result - Positive - One penny coin found in the blue area.
Day One’s Penny – Year 2001 – Relatively shiny – Good condition.
********
Of course, you must realise that today was merely a coincidence. Any number of pennies are probably even now lying on the roads so it is inevitable that eventually one should find its way onto the area of my search. My gaze was very intense and there were numerous things along the path which I didn’t notice. Perhaps if I had chosen to look for a T-shaped crack in the pavement I would have spotted that and not the penny. As such, today’s stroke of luck can be dismissed as mere coincidence. With this in mind, I, who now believes it is all down to selective attention, again walked the path looking for pennies.
********
Day Two – Thursday 27th January 2005 – Working with the Selective Attention Hypothesis was a bit of a strange experience, and I admit that I was quite sceptical that it would lead to any penny-finding. I found that I had to remain remarkably positive in order to hold the vision that I might conceivably discover one, but my scepticism as to the truth of theory kept coming back. This would obviously affect the results and as one might expect, no penny was uncovered.
Additionally my scepticism was increased by the fact that it was raining and any bronze pennies present would have been difficult to spot. In fact, I mistook several things for pennies on the street, including squashed chewing gum and a bottle top, and it was quite difficult to stay focussed.
However, on walking back home at the end of the day, whilst in the blue zone, I suddenly began thinking of the penny project and started scanning the floor. Almost immediately I found a penny. But given that I did not really have the time to formulate any strong beliefs or hypotheses in my mind (I found the penny about 5 seconds into looking), it is probably best to assume that my mindset conditions for finding this penny were the same as those on Day One – i.e. no particular strong belief or mindset.
The Selective Attention Hypothesis has thus not really been tested. I must therefore try again with this, making sure that no scepticism or positivity either way is present when doing the search.
Result – With Hypothesis – No penny found.
Result – Without Hypothesis - One penny coin found in the blue area.
Day Two’s Penny – Year 2004 – Very shiny – Mint condition.
********
Day Three – Friday 28th January 2005 – I was much more positive with the Selective Attention Hypothesis today, however, I did not find any pennies along any part of the area.
Additionally, as I was walking doing my usual scan, someone dropped a twenty pence coin which landed right in front of me. As I have decided to ignore these, I stepped over it and passed by, and I could go into numerous hypotheses as to why this occurred, from coincidence to some kind of test, but it was, like all other non-1p and -2p coins, irrelevant to this experiment.
Result – No penny found.
********
(Saturday) – Found a penny whilst not looking for any at a railway station. As it was several miles from the area of study, it can’t be included, but just for the record, it was an old penny dated 1971.
********
Day Four – Monday 31st January 2005 – Despite holding the belief firmly, no pennies were found.
********
Day Five – Tuesday 1st February 2005 – Same hypothesis. No pennies.
********
Day Six – Wednesday 2nd February 2005 – Same hypothesis, which was held firmly in my beliefs, along with a positivity that it would lead to pennies. A two pence coin was found fairly quickly in the red zone on the map. What happened next was slightly strange – I became suddenly very convinced that because I found a two pence coin, that I would go on to find a penny later on along the path. About halfway into the blue zone, I indeed did find a penny.
It’s probably best to say that the two pence coin was found using the Selective Attention Hypothesis, but the following penny was not. This was because my belief system had changed. I don’t particularly know why I chose to believe that I would definitely find a penny once I had found the 2p coin, but it is most accurate to say that the following penny was found using a hypothesis which might be called the ‘I Am Definitely Going To Find A Penny Today’ Hypothesis.
It might be worth entering that hypothesis into the ‘Theories’ section of this project.
Also a short welcome to the red area – today’s 2p coin was the first find in that area.
Result – With Selective Attention Hypothesis – One two pence coin found in the red area.
Result – With ‘I Will Find A Penny’ Hypothesis - One penny coin found in the blue area.
Day Six’s 2p Coin – Year 2000 – Fairly shiny – Good condition.
Day Six’s Penny – Year 2001 – Fairly shiny – Good condition.
********
Day Seven – Thursday 3rd February 2005 –After yesterday’s double find, I decided to return to the Selective Attention Hypothesis, and put the ‘I Will Find A Penny’ Hypothesis on a backburner for later. However, I was extremely positive today that the Selective Attention Hypothesis would lead to more pennies, and sure enough it did.
The first penny was found just inside the beginning of the red zone and was a true selective attentively found penny. It was almost the same colour as the paving slab it lay on, and it was very scratched. I can’t even read the year on this coin and it does look as though it’s had a hard life!
Result – One penny coin found in the red area.
Day Seven ’s Penny – Year (illegible) – Very rough and scratched – Poor condition.
********
Also today, for the record, I found another penny at work. As it wasn’t in the designated area, it won’t be included in any results, but it was a one penny coin, dated 1989, not shiny at all but good condition.
********
Day Eight – Friday 4th February 2005 – The final day of the Selective Attention resulted in no penny being found. Strange to say but I had an unerring feeling that I wouldn’t find one today…
Result – No penny found.
********
In total, then, I have found five pennies in the experimental area, using a mixture of no hypothesis, selective attention, and the ‘I will find a penny’ hypothesis. While I am starting to believe that the zone I have chosen (‘coincidentally!!’) might actually be taking shape as some kind of Pennies Hot Spot, I am nevertheless going to try to ignore that hypothesis for now.
You see, I am sure that it is all just nothing but mere coincidence…
| Previous |
Copyright (c) 2002-2008 Bruce Rimell : All images, artwork, writings, texts and other information on this site
are copyrighted to Bruce Rimell and may not be reproduced in any form unless stated otherwise.