scaupus
Hero Member
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2011
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- 889
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- Location
- Not too far from a beach
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
This story is an example of how chance, or probability, can appear to be uncanny, or even magical, but is really just odds played out over billions of rolls of the dice. Or, at least, that's what the guys with the slide rules would have us believe.
The short version: Monday, before going out metal detecting, I put my finger at a random spot on a full monitor satellite view of a large park. I then drove to the park, went directly to that spot, found a good signal there, dug a hole, and found a gold ring in the hole.
For those of you who want the details:
Monday, I was thinking about where I could find a gold ring quickly, I didn't have much time. I pulled up Google Earth and was checking on all the parks within 20 minutes driving distance where I'd already found a gold or platinum ring. I was trying to figure out which one would be certain to give me gold today. There simply was no decisive factor that could tell me that any of these parks could do that, no matter how much I scrutinized and pondered the satellite views. Pondering made me feel dull and stupid.
So, I gave up trying to think, and decided to give intuition a bigger play. I selected one park, and filled the screen with my favorite field in that park -the one from which I'd already removed 4 gold rings - and closed my eyes. I detached my mind from my hand, which I was trying to let move at random with a finger on the screen. I went into a sort of meditative state, disassociating my attention from the moving hand, and after awhile I realized my hand had stopped moving seemingly without my overt conscious intention to stop it. I opened my eyes and noted the spot my finger was on. It was an area on the opposite side of the field directly across from the area where I had found 3 of the previous 4 rings. I'd hunted this chosen section thoroughly in the past, and there hadn't been any rings there. Nonetheless, I felt enthusiastic about that spot now.
I waved to the park guy at the front of the field on the way in and he waved back. I walked in a straight line towards the spot. I checked a good signal on the way in and dug up a brass grommet. That was the only decent signal I encountered between the street and Ground Zero; not surprising, as I had cleaned out this section of the field previously.
As I arrived at Ground Zero, I got another good tone. I dug, saw a flash of gold, and fished out with my fingers a golden band with 3 clear stones. It was heavy for its size. I clean off the inside of the band, pulled out my loupe, and saw: "14k USA".
I was in the exact spot where my finger had stopped on the satellite view.
It was uncanny.
After dancing a little jig, and shooting a little video on my phone, I walked back past the park guy, who inquired, "Leaving so soon?" I'd only been there a few minutes.
"I came, I found, I leave," I quipped, paraphrasing Ceasar.
Did I sell my soul? Is it Monkey Paw time?
If anyone out there has ever done any divination, please let me know what the deal is? thanks.
There is a natural explanation. You could say that I'd searched that area before, that I was subconsciously aware of a good signal there that I had not dug, and that when I gave my subconscious a clear shot at choosing a spot to hunt, it did its job unimpeded by the noise of my ordinary consciousness.
But even assuming that were true, finding the ring in that hole is still sort of incredible to me.
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The short version: Monday, before going out metal detecting, I put my finger at a random spot on a full monitor satellite view of a large park. I then drove to the park, went directly to that spot, found a good signal there, dug a hole, and found a gold ring in the hole.
For those of you who want the details:
Monday, I was thinking about where I could find a gold ring quickly, I didn't have much time. I pulled up Google Earth and was checking on all the parks within 20 minutes driving distance where I'd already found a gold or platinum ring. I was trying to figure out which one would be certain to give me gold today. There simply was no decisive factor that could tell me that any of these parks could do that, no matter how much I scrutinized and pondered the satellite views. Pondering made me feel dull and stupid.
So, I gave up trying to think, and decided to give intuition a bigger play. I selected one park, and filled the screen with my favorite field in that park -the one from which I'd already removed 4 gold rings - and closed my eyes. I detached my mind from my hand, which I was trying to let move at random with a finger on the screen. I went into a sort of meditative state, disassociating my attention from the moving hand, and after awhile I realized my hand had stopped moving seemingly without my overt conscious intention to stop it. I opened my eyes and noted the spot my finger was on. It was an area on the opposite side of the field directly across from the area where I had found 3 of the previous 4 rings. I'd hunted this chosen section thoroughly in the past, and there hadn't been any rings there. Nonetheless, I felt enthusiastic about that spot now.
I waved to the park guy at the front of the field on the way in and he waved back. I walked in a straight line towards the spot. I checked a good signal on the way in and dug up a brass grommet. That was the only decent signal I encountered between the street and Ground Zero; not surprising, as I had cleaned out this section of the field previously.
As I arrived at Ground Zero, I got another good tone. I dug, saw a flash of gold, and fished out with my fingers a golden band with 3 clear stones. It was heavy for its size. I clean off the inside of the band, pulled out my loupe, and saw: "14k USA".
I was in the exact spot where my finger had stopped on the satellite view.
It was uncanny.
After dancing a little jig, and shooting a little video on my phone, I walked back past the park guy, who inquired, "Leaving so soon?" I'd only been there a few minutes.
"I came, I found, I leave," I quipped, paraphrasing Ceasar.
Did I sell my soul? Is it Monkey Paw time?
There is a natural explanation. You could say that I'd searched that area before, that I was subconsciously aware of a good signal there that I had not dug, and that when I gave my subconscious a clear shot at choosing a spot to hunt, it did its job unimpeded by the noise of my ordinary consciousness.
But even assuming that were true, finding the ring in that hole is still sort of incredible to me.
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Upvote
6
Tony
Love the ring! Love the video! 
The mellow fellow gets the yellow -- 14k heavy ring with stones! 
If the rocks are real, and the gold looks chunky, you could probably flip the Au and get a few new toys. 
Keep on diggin' n dowsin', brother.
